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RobinLikesToCode

Member

Registered: 2016-10-04

Posts: 50

No Sound with Digital Stereo (IEC958) Profile

I have a laptop with an integrated Sound Blaster X-Fi card.
I'm using PulseAudio with ALSA.

I am able to choose a "Digital Stereo (IEC958)" profile in the PulseAudio settings GUI, but no sound comes out.

This is what I get with the command "pacmd list-cards"

   index: 1
        name: <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3>
        driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
        owner module: 7
        properties:
                alsa.card = "0"
                alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
                alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0x2ffff20000 irq 132"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1f.3"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "8086"
                device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
                device.product.id = "a170"
                device.product.name = "100 Series/C230 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller"
                device.form_factor = "internal"
                device.string = "0"
                device.description = "Built-in Audio"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        profiles:
                input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (priority 65, available: unknown)
                output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (priority 6500, available: unknown)
                output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (priority 6565, available: unknown)
                output:iec958-stereo: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output (priority 5500, available: unknown)
                output:iec958-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 5565, available: unknown)
                off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
        active profile: <output:analog-stereo>
        sinks:
                alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo/#4: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
        sources:
                alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor/#6: Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
        ports:
                analog-input-internal-mic: Internal Microphone (priority 8900, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:
                                device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
                analog-input-mic: Microphone (priority 8700, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
                        properties:
                                device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
                analog-input-linein: Line In (priority 8100, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
                        properties:

                analog-output-lineout: Line Out (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
                        properties:

                analog-output-speaker: Speakers (priority 10000, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
                        properties:
                                device.icon_name = "audio-speakers"
                iec958-stereo-output: Digital Output (S/PDIF) (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:

Right now, I'm able to get audio to play through the "analog-output-lineout" in the list of ports.
What is missing where I'm not able to play sound through the "iec958" port?

Also, I'm not familiar with the Linux audio environment so if there's other output you'd like to see please let me know.

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,285

Re: No Sound with Digital Stereo (IEC958) Profile

Just to make sure... there is an optical cable attached to your S/PDIF port, that is attached to some S/PDIF receiver on the other end and you have confirmed that the thing works with some other S/PDIF source?

RobinLikesToCode

Member

Registered: 2016-10-04

Posts: 50

Re: No Sound with Digital Stereo (IEC958) Profile

I'm using an integrated sound card with a Clevo laptop.
The physical S/PDIF "port" is a 3.5mm audio jack.
It functions normally in Windows 10.

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,567

Re: No Sound with Digital Stereo (IEC958) Profile

What is the output of cat /proc/asound/cards?
Also have you got /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf?

ratcheer

Member

Registered: 2011-10-09

Posts: 912

Re: No Sound with Digital Stereo (IEC958) Profile

It seems to me that you have attached it by a standard analog audio cable. S/PDIF should use either a coax cable or an optical TOSLINK cable.

Try changing the output selection in PulseAudio to Analog Stereo.

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,285

Re: No Sound with Digital Stereo (IEC958) Profile

Clevo boards with x-fi have regular Realtek audio cards with some software magic. The spdif port is controlled by the Realtek chip. My question still stands, are you sure you're using the right optical cable?