Richard Jones' Log: Why Linux isn't ready for the masses (part two bazillion)

So the sound stopped working in the HTPC yesterday. Usually I just go through a relatively arcane interface to set the unfathomably-named "IEC958 Playback AC97-SPSA" setting to "0". This does something. And it usually makes the sound work.

Last night it didn't. I spent 40 minutes fiddling with the alsamixer interface trying to make sound come out of the computer.

In the end, I found a complete "asound.state" file online that I compared against my "/var/lib/alsa/asound.state" file. The culprit? A setting called "IEC958 Playback Default" which had the value:

'008200000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'

In the working configuration, the value is:

'008200020000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'

Fixing that "2" made sound work again. I have not a single clue what that "2" might switch. It's certainly not controlled by any of the alsa user interfaces.

I swear, if it wasn't for losing he ability to avoid DRM, I'd be all over using Microsoft products for this...