For some reason, the Intel Azalia audio (Realtek ALC888B) sound card is not properly detected and configured by default when you install openSUSE 11.4 (Bug 706280), so you have to take additional steps to fix it…
I’ve tried this in 2 computers with the same chip, and it worked on both of them. These are instructions for gnome, but I think it should be pretty much the same in KDE.
So you don’t have to read so much, I’m including a short version for advanced users, and a more detailed one for newbies (like me 
)
Short version For Advanced users:
1.- Download the realtek driver source code here: Realtek
2.- compile and install it, reboot
3.- go to YaST and** disable** pulseaudio for your card , reboot again
4.- use alsamixer (as root) or the YaST->sound->others->Volume… option to set the volume for front, rear, woofer etc. systemwide, and then of course you can set volume on a per-application base using your application’s volumecontrol.
Long (more detailed) version For new users:
1.- download the driver source from realtek site Realtek
2.- Install some necessary stuff we need to compile the driver.
Using zypper or the GUI software management app in YaST, install the following packages…
kernel-devel
gcc
gcc-c++
make
patch
3.- go to where you downloaded the driver and extract it.
4.- open a terminal, become root using
su -
and cd to the directory where you extracted the driver.
5.- once you are in that directory, type
./install
6.- reboot your pc
7.- Go to YaST->Sound, select your card, click the “others” button, then "Pulse Audio configuration, and in the dialogbox that appears, un-check the “Enable pulse audio support” checkbox. to disable pulseaudio
8.- Reboot again.
9.- open a terminal, become root again as before, and type
alsamixer
once it opens, press F6 to select your card, and using the arrow keys navigate to the far right and using up down arrows select 6 channel audio instead of 2 (as you can see, by default its set to 2ch)
http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/455/alsamixer2.png
By elvampir0 at 2011-07-16
**10.- **(Gnome, not sure on KDE) After you reboot and log back in, you will notice that the volume control icon on the notification area is gone. To set the master volume (as well as volume for individual channels), go to YaST->audio again, and again, select your card and click the “others” button, only this time select the “Volume…” options. Once you do this, YaST seems to save and remember the values.
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1475/yastvolume.png](http://img69.imageshack.us/i/yastvolume.png/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
You are done.
Yes there is no volume control icon in your panel, but you can of course, use the volume control on individual applications, or the physical volume control on your speakers.
Hope you find this useful.