Sound under Linux has, in the past, been less than easy to set up.  This is a
shortcut if it's not working.  (I have had to use this trick less and less as
the years go by, actually, but it still can come in handy).

Install the huge Debian kernel-image.  It will have a bazillion modules.
This is good, at least as a starting point.

Now, cd into /lib/modules/(current version)/kernel/sound/pci  (or similar).

Bust out with a loop like this (pasteable to the command line):

for n in *.ko; do
    echo $n
    sudo modprobe ${n%%.ko}
    speaker-test
done

(Note: this assumes you're using alsa, and have installed alsa-utils already
[that's where we get "speaker-test"].  Maybe you'll be on some OSS-based deal,
and then you should replace that line with something like the infamous: cat
/dev/urandom > /dev/audio)

Whichever module stops, is the winner.

Toss that into /etc/modules, and you're probably done.