So, I installed vlc, only to find I had no sound. So I looked in the hand book configuring ALSA.
I had the sound device:
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
I changed the kernel configuration and added
Device Drivers --->
<*> Sound card support
<*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture --->
[*] PCI sound devices --->
Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller
Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD MC97 Modem
as modules.
And I added the following into the kernel:
Device Drivers --->
<*> Sound card support
<*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture --->
[*] PCI sound devices --->
Select the driver for your audio controller, e.g.:
<*> Intel HD Audio ---> (snd-hda-intel)
-*- Allow dynamic codec reconfiguration
[*] Support digital beep via input layer
(1) Digital beep registration mode (0=off, 1=on)
[*] Support initialization patch loading for HD-audio
<*> Build Realtek HD-audio codec support
...
<*> Build HDMI/DisplayPort HD-audio codec support
...
-*- Enable generic HD-audio codec parser
Then, I followed the guide, and rebooted. Now I have sound.