disclaimer: these are raw notes i've gathered from other ppl who have installed alsa 
cvs; i have not done it myself;
mercurial svn app is also called hg; mercurial app can be installed using your package manager 
automake package must be installed; remove alsa packages before installing hg 
automake package may need upgrading if you can not 'make install' alsa-lib
automake must be upgraded if you get compile errors for alsa-lib or alsa-utils compile
install kernel source and kernel headers for your kernel; uname -r for kernel version
for ubuntu:  apt-get install build-essential     installs kernel sources
for ubuntu: you may need to install libconfig
ubuntu build alsa sources: 
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` libncurses5-dev automake autoconf
use 'hg clone' command to download the alsa cvs source files 
at http://alsa-project.org/download.php   at the hg repository link on this page; 
http://hg-mirror.alsa-project.org/   ;read the entire page too
use the "hg clone" command to download alsa-drivers, alsa-kernel, alsa-lib, alsa-utils
hg clone http://hg-mirror.alsa-project.org/alsa-driver alsa-driver
hg clone http://hg-mirror.alsa-project.org/alsa-lib alsa-lib
hg clone http://hg-mirror.alsa-project.org/alsa-utils alsa-utils
alsa driver needs alsa kernel to compile: 'hg clone http://hg-mirror.alsa-project.org/alsa-kernel alsa-kernel'
use ./hgcompile on all the alsa sources and not ./configure and make
then as root: make install  after the ./hgcompile on each sources = alsa drivers,lib and utils
hg info: http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/desktop/sound/alsa.xml
all sound apps should already be closed then restart alsa or reboot
gentoo: /etc/init.d/alsasound restart
ubuntu restart alsa: reboot
cat /process/asound/version  #if the version is not the new version installed then
cat /proc/asound/modules   #make a note of which snd- module you use then
modprobe -r $(lsmod |grep ^snd |awk '{print $1}')  # to remove all sound modules then
modprobe {which snd- module you use}; cat /process/asound/version  # to see if new version now
next, as root: alsamixer -V all
unmute and set volumes on all needed controls in alsamixer
close alsamixer and as root: alsactl store    #this command stores the current alsamixer settings
as root: speaker-test    #should hear pink noise in left/right front speakers
as root: aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav
visit freenode #alsa to keep us updated on progress and problems
references:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=305712    #info for building version alsa version 1.0.13
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto
http://ubuntuforums.org/tags/index.php/alsa/    #alsa ubuntu forum
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_Toshiba_Satellite_P100#Audio