On Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:36:03 GMT, rthoreau
<rthoreau@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>
>First off I use hda-intel onboard spdif to pass everything to my 7.1
>receiver. When I reboot, or leave the computer on for a while sometimes
>I have to use rcalsasound restart to get my spdif working again. I think
>it is my ati 4850 graphics card that is hogging the /dev/dsp output. I
>would like to have my spdif come up every time without having to use
>restart. I am at a loss for what to do next as these guides don't seem
>to cover my situation. I do have sound working but not on initial
>startup, I have removed pulseaudio, and only use alsa. I also have
>hda-intel as the primary according to yast and I do not have any other
>options to set other than to modify the /etc/modprobe.d/sound file. If
>aplay is correct it looks like I have the wrong default, but I am unsure
>as to how to change this as I don't have a .soundrc and am unsure of the
>proper format for the modprobe.d/sound file.
>
>Here is a list what aplay puts out.
>
>default:CARD=Intel
>HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog
>Default Audio Device
>front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
>HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog
>Front speakers
>surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
>HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog
>4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
>surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
>HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog
>4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
>surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
>HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog
>5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
>surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
>HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog
>5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
>surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
>HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog
>7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer
>speakers
>iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
>HDA Intel, STAC92xx Digital
>IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
>null
>Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
>default:CARD=HDMI
>Default Audio Device
>hdmi:CARD=HDMI
>HDA ATI HDMI, ATI HDMI
>HDMI Audio Output
>
>'SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE' (http://tinyurl.com/45yytg)
>
>'SDB:Intel-HDA sound problems - openSUSE'
>(http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Intel-HDA_sound_problems)
>
>This is the contents of /etc/modprobe.d/sound
>
>options snd-hda-intel model=5stack
>options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
># u1Nb.PA+KAPLQWwF:82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
>alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel

This is just a wild guess, but it is something i have started seeing
recently. Some video cards have a sound card embedded for the
transition to HDMI. See if your system has a sound device associated
with your video card. If it does, try suppressing the video attached
sound hardware.