I have a feeling there was a thread about this way back but I can't find it.
This problem didn't effect me on my old computer but on arch linux kde 4.4 (hedgewars 9.12) the sound plays in the menu but not after I start the game. I then discovered after I gave up trying to fix this that when I have been playing music sound then seems to work. This seems strange to me.

My card is an Intel 82801DB-ICH4. Did the other thread (if there was one) ever fix this problem. If so, how?

EDIT: I found it with google

http://www.hedgewars.org/node/1318

so no. Maybe it is to do with phonon?