hi
I don't use OSS but you are free to ....the balance assumes you might try alsa ok?
1) simple tests
open a terminal and run command
speakertest
If no sound there can be multiple reasons such as
1) onboard sound disabled at bios
2) hardware failure
3) multiple devices and wrong device has captured index=0 (will be explained later in wiki)
4) current kernel or its modules can not handle your device or needs a setting or quirk
(explained later in wiki)
5) you are not a member of audio group
6) mixer settings are muted or too low
7) One or more settings has not been made Persistent
Lets start with (6)
green colour means its On or active and white means disabled or not applicable etc
padlock means left and right channels are "locked" so changing one changes both
Install alsamixergui if you like or another mixer
min to activate are master and speaker....maybe PCM and raise the volumes
2) Irrespective of whether you prefer oss or alsa can you show results for
cat /proc/asound/modules
cat /proc/asound/devices
cat /etc/group
Name your device....and is it a variant of Intel?
If cat asound has no output you have not correctly loaded alsa which we can look at