[Alsa-user] Asus Xonar STX, optical out not working

[Hendrik-Jan H. <hj...@gm...>]

Dear list,

I have an issue getting the optical connection on the Asus Xonar STX
working in my system.
The molex is connected, the card is found by the OS (Debian Wheezy),
and the modules are loaded.

I can see the device, and the alsamixer is available. In there, I
unmuted the spdif/tos channel already, however, when I try to play to
the tos connection using the aplay command, or VLC, I see no light at
all coming from the cable or the port.

The config (please disregard the USB, that one is working fine, but I
want to switch over to TOS):

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: M20 [Meitner USB Audio 2.0], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: STX [Xonar STX], device 0: Multichannel [Multichannel]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: STX [Xonar STX], device 1: Digital [Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default:CARD=M20
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=M20
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=M20,DEV=0
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=M20,DEV=0
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=M20,DEV=0
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=M20,DEV=0
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=M20,DEV=0
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=M20,DEV=0
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=M20,DEV=0
    Meitner USB Audio 2.0, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
default:CARD=STX
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=STX
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=STX,DEV=0
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=STX,DEV=0
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=STX,DEV=0
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=STX,DEV=0
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=STX,DEV=0
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=STX,DEV=0
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=STX,DEV=0
    Xonar STX, Multichannel
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output


My question: how do I play to the optical link so that I actually see
the light coming on?

thank you.

Hendrik-Jan