Comment 3 for bug 295158

my /proc/asound/cards is:
pecisk@pecisk-laptop:~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xf4700000 irq 16

About /etc/default/sl-modem-daemon - yes, it is strange. By default, this file has such look:

# NOTE: settings in /etc/defautls/slmodemd are used too

# set this to 1 to never run the daemon from the init script
# you can set it if you have an USB device, than the init script won't
# be started at boot (but when the USB device is plugged on)
DONTSTART=0

# This is the default configuration for the slmodem driver daemon
# running on Debian systems.
#
# Edit device node and country code here ...
#
# possible country codes are:
#
# USA
# GERMANY
# BELGIUM
# etc.
#
# use 'slmodemd --countrylist' to check out other countries
#
#
#SLMODEMD_DEVICE=slamr0
#SLMODEMD_COUNTRY=GERMANY

SLMODEMD_DEVICE=auto
SLMODEMD_COUNTRY=USA

#
# Additional options for slmodemd, see "slmodemd -h" output for details.
# Do NOT set country or device name here!

OPTS=""

# force the start of the daemon even if old type modules seem to be
# installed (set it to 1)

FORCESTART=0

# set this to not see any hints of the init script on startup

# BEQUIET=1

# set this to not create the /dev/modem symlink

# NOSYMLINK=1

****************
But to get card working I must provide device name just like this (skipping most of the part):
SLMODEMD_DEVICE=hw:0,6 instead of SLMODEMD_DEVICE=auto

I just checked /etc/init.d/sl-modem-daemon and your suspicions are confirmed, it greps same /proc/asound/cards. So it is bug in two places, init.d script for slmodemd and jockey, caused by something that has changed output in /proc/asound/cards.