How to install ALSA on Ubuntu 12.04?

Question

ALSA

Since the microphone input did not work for a long time, on the advice of friends, I decided to remove pulseaudio and add alsa. added from the base-alsa repository, then found this manuscript .
Completed almost all the points without errors. As a result, only the microphone settings (built-in and linear) work in the ossxmix mixer, and no sound is output at all.
The error occurred while modifying the ~/.asoundrc file. It didn't exist initially.
1) what package needs to be installed in order for this file to appear?
2) what else needs to be installed / configured in order for the sound to appear from the speakers / line-out?
3) is there any analogue of the volume control in the tray? I tried alsa-tray - the icon does not appear.
4) in skype (the reason for all the manipulations), only pulseaudio is still visible in the equipment list. what is needed to add alsa?
PS: I lied a little about the installation without horns and hooves. There was one nuance with point 14. In editing gstreamer-properties, the system/0.10/audio/default path is written. But this one doesn't exist. There is system/ gstreame r/0.10/audio/<a lot of things without default> and there is system/ gstreame r/0.10/default. Here in the second, these keys were found and changed them.