[LAU] (very) Basic help to get 1010LT card going (mudita24 ?)

Hello all, I now see that I was spoiled by using Fedora and CCRMA. Everything worked. jackd (qjackctl) Ardour, playing any audio file (with vlc for instance). I have now switched to Linux Mint (KDE version, 64-bit, Nadia) and nothing works. I get the 1010LT card using lspci: 05:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. ICE1712 [Envy24] PCI Multi-Channel I/O Controller (rev 02) So that's a good sign. But then I start mudita24 and everything single vu meter is flanked with the '(off)' mention. When I play an audio file using vlc, no vu-meter is moving. What's wrong ? I'm not even comtemplating using jack and Ardour at this point, just getting basic sound working. /usr/bin/pulseaudio is running. Is this the culprit ? Thanks for any advice and suggestion, it's greatly appreciated !