I don't know how this happened but my sound card
seems to have been set to card 1 when it was card 0.
I think this might be why I don't have any sound right
now.
aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: M2496 [M Audio Audiophile 24/96], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
The HDMI card 0 is the motherboard sound circit I disabled
in the BIOS. My card 0 should be my PCI M Audio Audiophile
sound card.
How can I set my M Audio Audiophile sound card to card 0 permanently?

There are a couple of ways you could do this:

1. You could install the boated resource hog known as pulseaudio and use pulseaudio to set the default sound card:
http://chris-allen-lane.com/2012/07/...ries-9-laptop/
However, since you are using Lubuntu, I would guess that you would like to avoid bloated apps like pulseaudio.

2. You can also define the default sound card by creating the file ~/.asoundrc. See this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/16739...card-selection

3. You can also define the default sound card in the /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf file:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1980268

Where in the directory tree does the file ~/.asoundrc go ?
You guessed right. I installed Lubuntu to free myself from pulseaudio
and other bloat. It's a great OS but you have to be
careful of which programs you install. For example, when
I installed the Totem video viewer, it installed pulseaudio
without my knowledge or permission. Result: no audio.
I got that fixed, but now the audio is gone again. I've no idea
what set my PCI sound card to 1 and the deactivated motherboard
ciruit to 0. Perhaps its the Upgrade Manager upgrades, or some
program I foolishly installed.
So, where in the directory tree do I put the file ~/.asoundrc ?
Thank you very much for this valuable information !

Yes, you do indeed have to be careful when installing apps on Lubuntu.
Stick with the lightweight audio and video apps and you should be fine. Try Aqualung for music, and Parole for video, for example.
The ~ symbol is shorthand for your home directory. For example, my home directory is /home/tom/. So ~/.asoundrc is simply a shorthand for /home/tom/.asoundrc.
Try these 2 commands in the terminal to verify this:
and
where user is your user name. You will see that the output is the same.

The HDMI output probably isnt your onbaord sound, its more likely to be the sound controller for audio over HDMI found in (most) video cards with HDMI output.

Have you tried playing with the alsa mixer?

This did nothing to change the number of my PCI m audio
audiophile sound card to 0, but it did give me sound.
And that is a Good Thing!
cat /proc/asound/modules displayed the sound modules
my sound card, snd_ice1712 was listed as 1
I then created a file using my text editor nano;
/etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf
In sound.conf I wrote one line;
options snd_ice1712 index=1
This gave me sound. And that is most welcome !
But my sound card is still listed as 1.
I did find an answer in a file I found somewhere on
the Internet. I wish I hadn't been such a hurry so
I could give proper credit to who wrote it, but I
can't find it again. But this works for me on Lubuntu 12.0
If someone can find something wrong with doing this, tell me.
I deleted the file /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf first, that is,
the file I just created, then
I made a copy of /etc/modules.d/alsa-base.conf calling it
old_alsa-base.conf, just in case something went wrong.

I edited the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
At the very end of alsa-base.conf I wrote

options snd_ice1712 index=0
options snd_hda_intel index=1

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: M2496 [M Audio Audiophile 24/96], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
This is how it should be. My sound card is now 0 and I'm happy.
And thank you for telling me where the file asoundrc belongs and
how to write it.
I have tried to play audio using all the apps I have. I just assumed
that this HDMI is my onboard sound circuit. Maybe it is the sound controller
for the video card ! I never thought of that. Now that I have everything
working, I'm reluctant to do any experimenting. Maybe over Christmass,
if I get time off.
Thanks for all your help. I think I can list this thread as solved.

If playing with the mixer got sound working, why does it matter if the card is 0 or 1?

I too am stuck with the problem of no audio over HDMI.
Have posted the details of what I tried here
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...6#post12684426

Would appreciate it if anyone has any suggestions.

Thanks
Fillmore