This started popping up at logon (on OS 11.1 KDE 4.2.4 (x64-bit)) after installing some updates.
[The audio device HDA Intel (ALC888 Analog) does not work. Falling back to HDA Intel (ALC888 Digital)]
Sound still works for Amarok, Banshee, VLC, etc. I do not get the music at log on like I used to though. Can’t find any error messages in the logs, and I’m not sure where to start looking for a solution. Any help appreciated. 
I got rid of pulse (keep libpulse0) and have had no problems since.
There are a few threads on pulse if you do a search.
Same issue there. I’m using the KDE 4.2.4 and Creative “X-Fi” sound-card (mX Xtreme Audio, without the proper EMU20K1 chip). Music works out-of-box, but still getting that stupid message from Phonon, even with the latest build of ALSA 1.0.20 from additional repository. Btw, don’t you know guys if there’s an app for tweaking bass, treble, sound effects and so on?! Or is it possible only under Windows? Those X-Fi Crystalizer, EAX4.0 and CMSS 3D effects are great with headphones, too. :\
Just wanted to clarify something: You are talking about removing Pulse Audio itself from the system? (sounds silly, I know, but want to make sure I understand what you did. 
)
Don’t do this if you need a working audio system. This is a bug and it will be fixed soon. At this time, life with it, it is nothing danger 
I think if you get rid of all the pulse audio packages and leave the libpulse packages on there you should be fine. I’ve had to do this with my intel sound card before and I’ve never had a problem doing it. Results may vary though.
Take Care,
Ian
Remove pulseaudio. Found that on the KDE fora as the cause of the phenomenon. Did that myself on all machines and error messages have gone, sound is now as stable a factor as it should be.
Removing Pulseaudio solved the problem. It and the error message is gone, and the sound on my system still works.
Thanks everyone. 
same experience here - removing pulseaudio and all dependent packages solved the problem
If you’re just annoyed with this message, you can get rid of it by going to Configure Desktop -> Multimedia, and moving the working device (HDA Intel (ALC888 Digital)) to the top of the stack for each of the categories - no S/W changes required.
Thanks for the advice, but I have already removed the phonon stuff that was causing the problem. I’m going to keep your suggestion in mind though . . . I may need it on the wife’s laptop.
I installed from scratch on a new machine, OpenSuSE 11.2 and have Amarok V2.2. I’m new to Amarok.
Randomly, while playing a playlist, I’ll get the popup message mentioned in this thread.
Notification from Phonon: KDE'S Multimedia Library
The audio playback device HDA Intel (ALC888 Analog) does not work. Falling back to.
Does this message get logged any place? I had to screen capture it because it pops-up and then quickly disappears.
I use to think it was at the end of a playlist (I have Amarok set to repeat infinitely), but it has happened when I’ve started Amarok and other various times. Amarok’s playing along, I’m hearing the music, and then no music and the popup. The Time Position slider at the top is moving and the Time Values on the left and right are changing, but there is no sound. If I stop and restart Amarok, I get the sound. It’s really annoying. I just want quiet background music to play all day. If there is a fix or bandaid, I’d like to try it.
HDA Intel is at the top of the each category list in the System Settings: Configure Desktop -> Multimedia (per GeoBaltz, 13-Jul-2009 10:15).
zypper se -di pulse shows:
flash-player
libcanberra-gtk0
libcanberra0
libgsm1
libpulse-mainloop-glib0
libpulse0
libxine1-pulse
What exactly are users removing to prevent the problem (like janeri,13-Jul-2009 07:56?
Is there a fix (per JaDa0007, 29-Jun-2009 21:09)?
Thank you.
I removed phonon-backend-gstreamer.
Which was recommended here:
Linux & Lip Gloss: Ubuntu 9.04 / Amarok 2 Sound Problem
Which came from:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/amarok/+bug/349847
I googled for the message (“audio playback does not work hda intel phonon kde”). There are many entries, and I’ve tried to follow and understand, but the above seems to work.
I was able to recreate the problem pretty consistantly by double-clicking an entry in the playlist. When I removed phonon-backend-gstreamer I was not able to create a situation which casued the popup message and the lose of sound.
Unfortunately this did not work (sorry :-(). When using Amarok I randomly get the Notification message about audio playback not working. I ran amarok -d from the console.
Early in the trace there’s a QPainter::begin: Cannot paint on a null pixmap and later a socket(): Address family not supported by protocol. But nothing that indicates audio playback device not working all of a sudden and falling back.
xine works without these problems.
I had already tried changing the KDE settings to different audio devices. Still get the same error regardless of which I set as preferred. Phonon always shows failure even though the sound device works perfectly with all programs.What seems to be happening is that KDE is trying to use the hardware before it is completely ready. Guess I’ll say goodbye to Pulse, as that fix seems to work for most everyone.