Comment 17 for bug 129029

The system-wide sound settings *should* be read from /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist, but Gutsy Tribe-5 isn't accessing that file.

With an inotify watch on the file in a virtual terminal prior to log-in:

$ inotifywait -m /etc/sound/events/gnome-2.soundlist

no access to the file is reported. In Feisty the file is opened and accessed and, of course, the sounds play.