Unable to get optical/spdif input working on soundcard/CM106-F :(

athor · 02-09-2009, 03:01 PM

Hi, please help me

, I recently bought this Sweex sc004 (Chip: CM106-F) usb soundcard.

Everything with it works great, without the optical/toslink/spdif input, wich unfourtionately was the reason that I bought the card (I don't know about the output.).

It seems like what ever I try (goggled several hours I'm afraid

), I can't get any sound out, through the speakers or in audacity. I just don't seem to have any options for it in the alsamixer, see screenshot.
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/6933/alsamixergf8.jpg

My lsusb shows:

Code:

0d8c:0102 C-Media Electronics, Inc. CM106 Like Sound
Device

Alsa's loaded driver is usb-sound-device.

aplay -l shows:

Code:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: default [USB Sound Device        ], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

aplay -L shows:

Code:

default:CARD=default
    USB Sound Device        , USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=default,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device        , USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=default,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device        , USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=default,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device        , USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=default,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device        , USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=default,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device        , USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=default,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device        , USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=default,DEV=0
    USB Sound Device        , USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

cat /proc/asound/devices gives:

Code:

  0: [ 0]   : control
  1:        : sequencer
 16: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
 24: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture

The computer I try to get it working on runs 'Slackware 12.2', the 2.6.28.1 kernel, alsa 1.0.17.

Am I missing something, or is it possible to tweak it to work somehow?
If it's of any interest I can email you the chipset manual, with some info about the CM106.

farslayer · 02-11-2009, 12:30 PM

does slackware 12.2 use pulse audio ? I have a friend that is running the latest Suse and he can't get the spidf on his card working either, he said it has to do with pules audio grabing the first output and refusing to let you use anything else. (or something to that effect) he was very frustrated with it afgter having invested a considerable amount of time trying to get it working.

Yes heres the reoprt..

http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/139

Quote:

Many soundcards have more than one ALSA device, for example for analog and digital output. The HAL module currently ignores all devices except the first one, so that makes it impossible to select digital output without manual modification of the configuration file (or manual module load). Is there a specific reason why these devices are being ignored, i.e. will it cause issues with some soundcards if we change that?

01/24/09 00:16:23 changed by lennart ¶

* status changed from reopened to closed.
* resolution set to fixed.
* milestone set to 0.9.15.

PA in git is now able to automatically detect different possible profiles (i.e. "Stereo Analog" vs. "Stereo IEC958" vs. "Analog 5.1" and so on) to access ALSA devices and allows "hot" switching between.

I don't know if this applies to you or not..

athor · 02-12-2009, 06:33 AM

Hi farslayer, thanks for your reply!

Slackware doesn't use pulseaudio as default, but still it may be some similiar problem. I'll definately try to download the (pulseaudio) version in git and hope for the best!

I'll post again with my results.