audio from netbook, but not via SSH

Hello All,
I don't know why this stopped working, maybe it was from a recent Debian apt update.
When it boots, and this on an Asus 701 netbook, 32 bit, it speaks using espeak-ng normally.
I don't use it directly.
I usually SSH into it from across the room, and I can usually hear audio from it when I send any command for audio, through SSH such as speaker-test, or espeak-ng test.
But lately, nothing is coming from it unless I enter it on the tiny keyboard directly.
I rebooted it and that did not resolve the problem.
So, it would work if I wasn't SSH'ing into it.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Glenn

"love is but a song we sing
Fear is when we die"

Glenn K0LNY & WSAT439