hda/conexant sound worked in feisty, broken in gutsy

This guy on freenode #ubuntu+1 had working sound in feisty and now it doesn't work in gutsy.
He ran a script which dumped all the alsa info (the output is posted below). His sound card was
based on the Intel HDA specification and the codec chip was a "SigmaTel STAC9221 A1" / "conexant".

Relevant comments from other people on IRC:
<crimsun> support for that codec is incomplete
<crimsun> i.e., patch_conexant.c doesn't contain the necessary pins/nids for it

   1. ################################
   2. ALSA Information Script v 0.4.33
   3. ################################
   4.
   5. Script ran on: Sun Sep 23 09:46:37 CDT 2007
   6.
   7.
   8. Linux Distribution
   9. ------------------
  10.
  11. Ubuntu gutsy (development branch) \n \l DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu gutsy (development branch)"
  12.
  13.
  14. Kernel Information
  15. ------------------
  16.
  17. Kernel release: 2.6.22-12-generic
  18. Operating System: GNU/Linux
  19. Architecture: i686
  20. Processor: unknown
  21. SMP Enabled: Yes
  22.
  23.
  24. ALSA Version
  25. ------------
  26.
  27. Driver version: 1.0.14
  28. Library version:
  29. Utilities version: 1.0.14
  30.
  31.
  32. Loaded ALSA modules
  33. -------------------
  34.
  35. snd_hda_intel
  36. snd_usb_audio
  37.
  38.
  39. Soundcards recognised by ALSA
  40. -----------------------------
  41.
  42. 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
  43. HDA Intel at 0xdfffc000 irq 20
  44. 1 [U0x46d0x8c6 ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x8c6
  45. USB Device 0x46d:0x8c6 at usb-0000:00:1d.7-5, high speed
  46.
  47.
  48. PCI Soundcards installed in the system
  49. --------------------------------------
  50.
  51. 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
  52.
  53.
  54. Advanced information - PCI Vendor/Device/Susbsystem ID's
  55. --------------------------------------------------------
  56.
  57. 00:1b.0 0403: 8086:27d8 (rev 01)
  58. Subsystem: 1028:01d7
  59.
  60.
  61. Modprobe options (Sound related)
  62. --------------------------------
  63.
  64. snd-bt87x: index=-2
  65. snd-cx88_alsa: index=-2
  66. snd-atiixp-modem: index=-2
  67. snd-intel8x0m: index=-2
  68. snd-via82xx-modem: index=-2
  69. snd-usb-audio: index=-2
  70. snd-usb-usx2y: index=-2
  71. snd-usb-caiaq: index=-2
  72. snd-cmipci: mpu_port=0x330 fm_port=0x388
  73.
  74.
  75. HDA-Intel Codec information
  76. ---------------------------
  77.
  78. Codec: Conexant ID 2bfa
  79. Address: 1
  80. Vendor Id: 0x14f12bfa
  81. Subsystem Id: 0x14f100c3
  82. Revision Id: 0x90000
  83.
  84.
  85. ALSA Device nodes
  86. -----------------
  87.
  88. crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 6 2007-09-22 00:08 /dev/snd/controlC0
  89. crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 5 2007-09-22 00:08 /dev/snd/controlC1
  90. crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 4 2007-09-22 00:08 /dev/snd/pcmC1D0c
  91. crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 3 2007-09-22 00:08 /dev/snd/seq
  92. crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 2 2007-09-22 00:08 /dev/snd/timer
  93.
  94.
  95. Aplay/Arecord output
  96. ------------
  97.
  98. APLAY
  99.
 100. **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 101.
 102. ARECORD
 103.
 104. **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 105. card 1: U0x46d0x8c6 [USB Device 0x46d:0x8c6], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
 106. Subdevices: 1/1
 107. Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
 108.
 109. Amixer output
 110. -------------
 111.
 112. -------Mixer controls for card 0 [Intel]
 113.
 114. Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
 115. Capabilities: pvolume
 116. Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
 117. Limits: Playback 0 - 255
 118. Mono:
 119. Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
 120. Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
 121.
 122. -------Mixer controls for card 1 [U0x46d0x8c6]
 123.
 124. Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
 125. Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
 126. Capture channels: Mono
 127. Limits: Capture 0 - 3072
 128. Mono: Capture 0 [0%] [20.00dB] [on]
 129.
 130.
 131. All Loaded Modules
 132. ------------------
 133.
 134. Module
 135. michael_mic
 136. arc4
 137. ecb
 138. blkcipher
 139. ieee80211_crypt_tkip
 140. af_packet
 141. binfmt_misc
 142. ipv6
 143. ppdev
 144. acpi_cpufreq
 145. cpufreq_stats
 146. cpufreq_powersave
 147. cpufreq_conservative
 148. cpufreq_userspace
 149. cpufreq_ondemand
 150. freq_table
 151. video
 152. ac
 153. button
 154. battery
 155. container
 156. dock
 157. sbs
 158. sbp2
 159. parport_pc
 160. lp
 161. parport
 162. snd_usb_audio
 163. snd_usb_lib
 164. snd_hwdep
 165. snd_hda_intel
 166. joydev
 167. snd_pcm_oss
 168. snd_seq_dummy
 169. snd_mixer_oss
 170. snd_pcm
 171. snd_seq_oss
 172. snd_seq_midi
 173. snd_rawmidi
 174. snd_seq_midi_event
 175. snd_seq
 176. snd_timer
 177. uvcvideo
 178. snd_seq_device
 179. nvidia
 180. ipw3945
 181. compat_ioctl32
 182. videodev
 183. v4l1_compat
 184. v4l2_common
 185. snd
 186. ieee80211
 187. ieee80211_crypt
 188. serio_raw
 189. i2c_core
 190. psmouse
 191. pcspkr
 192. soundcore
 193. iTCO_wdt
 194. iTCO_vendor_support
 195. sdhci
 196. mmc_core
 197. intel_agp
 198. agpgart
 199. snd_page_alloc
 200. shpchp
 201. pci_hotplug
 202. evdev
 203. ext3
 204. jbd
 205. mbcache
 206. sg
 207. sr_mod
 208. cdrom
 209. sd_mod
 210. ata_generic
 211. ohci1394
 212. ieee1394
 213. b44
 214. mii
 215. ehci_hcd
 216. ata_piix
 217. libata
 218. scsi_mod
 219. uhci_hcd
 220. usbcore
 221. thermal
 222. processor
 223. fan
 224. fuse
 225. apparmor
 226. commoncap