Pulseaudio and S/PDIF [was Re: ConsoleKit and esound retirement]

[DJ Delorie]

(subject changed, please strip the [was...] when replying)

> On 13/02/13 10:15 AM, DJ Delorie wrote:
> > (well, more like crap, since I still haven't figured out how to
> > get pulseaudio to use my digital audio outputs).
> 
> Really? It's not that hard. It's either a device or a profile right on 
> the very first tab of GNOME sound properties. If you're using 
> pavucontrol, devices are on the 'Output Devices' tab, profiles are on 
> the 'Configuration' tab. It's rather easier than doing the same thing 
> with ALSA, really.

I know all about those.  I've tried them all.  I've gone through all
the online discussions about how to get digital outputs to work with
pulseaudio.  I've hacked at the config files and tried to trace the
operation.  I've been doing this with every update since pulseaudio
was introduced, and they're all clean installs, not upgrades.  It
worked just fine with ALSA.  I've even run GNOME sound properties,
despite not running a GNOME desktop.  I haven't yet tried F18 though,
because I don't yet have the spare days it takes to do that.

It just doesn't work.

I know the hardware works, because XBMC uses the digital output just
fine (and sounds seriously better).  The motherboard is a Gigabyte
GA-X58A-UD3R although I do have an HDMI-compatible video card (and
yes, I know you have to disable audio on that, the video card is much
more recent than my PA woes).

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
03:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Barts HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6800 Series]
07:00.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 02)