i just found this thread:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...alsa+headphone
which isn't the one i was reading a couple of days ago - however, it does give the fix, which is an edit in /etc/modprobe.conf
i've just tried it myself, and it works. the 'headphone' module is removed from alsamixer, but the master and pcm modules take care of headphone volume when necessary.
just so you don't need to jump to the other forum to view the fix, it is thus:
add this line to /etc/modprobe.conf
Code:
options snd_intel8x0 ac97_quirk=hp_only
cheers,