Suse 9.1 + nForce2 +S/PDIF output = No sound.

Jeriko · 07-12-2004, 09:27 PM

It seems I have tried everything. I have read as many messages on the subject as possible, Googled for 10 hours straight, and no matter what advice I follow I just can't get it to work.

I have a Shuttle SN41G2 with Realtek ALC650 (Soundstorm) onboard audio.

I have Suse 9.1 installed with a dual boot alongside Windows, and the S/PDIF works very well under WinXP Pro so I know it's not a hardware issue.

I really need some help getting this to work, because I'm anout to start pulling hair out or worse. It seems no matter what little tweak here and there I try I can never get so much as a peep out of the port.

Suse recognizes the audip chip just fine. It even lists the IEC958 volume controls in ALSAMixer. It KNOWS, I think, that this chipset has an S/PDIF port but it just won't output to it.

If anyone has any ideas, or if you have a checklist of things I need to go down to make sure everything's as it should be, I'd much appreciate it.

Jeriko · 07-12-2004, 10:40 PM

At this link I have found the following information:

Quote:

I have been able to get AC3 / DTS output via the digital SPDIF on my
system with this chipset. This means I can playback DVD's using xine
with full Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

I have a Shuttle SN41G2 system running Gentoo Linux. The motherboard
has an nforce 2 chipset and an intel8xO sound chip. I have also
purchased the extra spdif add-on giving 4 digital connections

(1 optical in, 1 optical out, 1 coax in and 1 coax out). I am running
with CVS alsa-driver and CVS alsa-libs, and have the following
.asoundrc (based on the one above by Lars G). There is one small
change to the pcm value in the slave device.

pcm.nforce-hw {
type hw
card 0
}

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "nforce"
}

#0,0 is analog out (i.e. headphone socket on the shuttle), and 0,1 is
#spdif out.

pcm.nforce {
type dmix
ipc_key 1234
slave {
pcm "hw:0,1"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096
rate 44100
}
}

ctl.nforce-hw {
type hw
card 0
}

Everything else is as per the intel8xO sound card matrix.

HINTS
-----
o) KDE
By default KDE uses artsd to mix sounds, but since we are using the
dmix plugin this is no longer necessery. artsd holds the device in
such a way that it blocks any other programs from generating sound
output (unless they have an artsd plugin) which causes programs like
xmms, xine and even alsaplayer to just hang.

With the above .asoundrc, you can go into KDE, load the control panel
and turn off artsd and all sounds will work fine.

o) Noise / pops and interferance with aplay and KDE.
I found that with this .asoundrc I was getting annoying pops and
spikes at the end of sound clips when played with aplay (KDE uses
aplay to play sound clips such as the login / logout wav files). The
problem appeared to be with the CVS alsa-utils. I de-installed those
and then installed older ones (I used emerge in Gentoo which I think
loads version 9.2)

And specifically from above:

Quote:

By default KDE uses artsd to mix sounds, but since we are using the
dmix plugin this is no longer necessery. artsd holds the device in
such a way that it blocks any other programs from generating sound
output (unless they have an artsd plugin) which causes programs like
xmms, xine and even alsaplayer to just hang.

^^ I couldn't install this plugin if my life depended on it, having gone to the site, and I don't even know if I need it.

Quote:

#/etc/asound.conf start:

^^ This seemsto be the file they're editting, but Ido not have ths file.

Quote:

The SP/DIF support in this chipset currently requires a CVS version
of ALSA.

Why this is so is not up to me to answer, but the required device
under /dev/alsa is not created with the 'release' drivers and the
mixer is unable to see the SPDIF out controls as well.

I'm not sure if this has any relevance.

Could someone perhaps translate?

HomeUser · 11-03-2004, 07:34 AM

Somewhat old thread. For somebody with a similar problem looking at this thread it is perhaps usefull to know that by me (Realtek ALC655 AC'97) s/pdif is muted the moment the IEC958 output volume control has not the value 0.

With IEC958 at value 0 the volume follows that of one of the DXS controls.

Not that I understand...

What passes over the digital output (stereo sound (PCM ?), Dolby Digital stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS) is apparently decided by the program that plays the DVD.