When modifying the master volume in alsamixer the volume drops directly from 16% to 0%. It is not possible to select a volume between this values. that means it is not possible to listen on low volume to sounds. this drop was first noticed when using pulseaudio, but even when disabling pulseaudio, the same problem persists with direct alsa. The audio Device is: 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02) alsamixer tells me: Card: HDA Intel Chip: SigmaTel STAC9205 Using stable alsa Reproducible: Always # emerge --info Portage 2.2.0_alpha123 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop/kde, gcc-4.5.4, glibc-2.15-r2, 3.5.3-gentoo x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-3.5.3-gentoo-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_T8300_@_2.40GHz-with-gentoo-2.1 Timestamp of tree: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:30:01 +0000 ccache version 3.1.7 [disabled] app-shells/bash: 4.2_p37 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.11-r3 dev-lang/python: 2.7.3-r2, 3.2.3 dev-util/ccache: 3.1.7 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.8-r3 dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.27 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.1-r1 sys-apps/openrc: 0.10.5 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.5 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.68 sys-devel/automake: 1.11.6 sys-devel/binutils: 2.22-r1 sys-devel/gcc: 3.3.6-r1, 4.1.2, 4.4.7, 4.5.4 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.7.3 sys-devel/libtool: 2.4-r1 sys-devel/make: 3.82-r3 sys-kernel/linux-headers: 3.4-r2 (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.15-r2 Repositories: gentoo local_overlay Installed sets: @kdeartwork-4.8, @kdebase-4.8, @system ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="*" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe -ggdb" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt /var/lib/hsqldb" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -pipe -ggdb" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--with-bdeps=y --autounmask-write --jobs --load-average=5.0" FCFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles news parallel-fetch parallel-install parse-eapi-ebuild-head preserve-libs protect-owned sandbox sfperms splitdebug strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch" FFLAGS="-O2 -pipe" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org" LANG="en_US.utf8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" LINGUAS="de" MAKEOPTS="-j3" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="64bit X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 bash-completion berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdaudio cdda cddb cdio cdr cli consolekit cracklib crypt css cups cxx dbus declarative dell dri dts dvd dvdr emboss encode exif fam ffmpeg firefox flac fortran gdbm gif glib glibc gpm gtk haskell iconv icu id3tag ieee1394 imagemagick inotify ipv4 ipv6 irc java jpeg jpeg2k kde kipi lame latex lcms ldap libnotify libsamplerate lzma mad mmx mmxext mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mplayer mudflap multilib musicbrainz ncurses nls nptl ntp ogg okteta opengl openmp otr pam pango pcre pdf phonon plasma pm-utils png policykit ppds pppd pulseaudio qt3support qt4 quicktime rar readline rss sdl semantic-desktop session spell sse sse2 sse3 sse4 sse4_1 ssl ssse3 startup-notification svg syslog taglib tcpd threads tiff truetype udev udisks unicode upower usb v41 v412 v4l vaapi vcd vim-syntax visualization vorbis wavpack wifi wma wmf wxwidgets x264 xcb xcomposite xine xinerama xml xscreensaver xv xvid xvmc zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan sheets stage tables krita karbon braindump" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse synaptics evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LIBREOFFICE_EXTENSIONS="presenter-console presenter-minimizer" LINGUAS="de" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_2 python2_7" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18 ruby19" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, USE_PYTHON
fixed with current stable