I've had a Gateway 600 series laptop for over 2 years now. Its sound card is an "ESS Allegro Maestro3." I use the Maestro3 ALSA driver (linux/pci/sound/maestro3.c) without OSS support compiled into the kernel (or as a module for that matter). This card has a built-in optical out port. Back in the not-so-golden days when I used Windows, I remember being able to activate it but selecting an "Enable SPDIF" option in the sound card settings.
After browsing through maestro3.c, it seems that the capability to enable the SPDIF out on this card is at least
theoretically present, yet I am at a loss for how to enable it. Any ideas?
kernel: 2.6.14-gentoo-r3
lspci -v (only pertinent information shown):
Code:
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 42) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=64
I/O behind bridge: 00004000-00005fff
Memory behind bridge: e8200000-e87fffff
0000:02:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1988 Allegro-1 (rev 12)
Subsystem: Gateway 2000: Unknown device 0602
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 5
I/O ports at 5000
Capabilities: [c0] Power Management version 2
