Sunday, March 24, 2013

Linux Kernel 3.8 Upgrade Breaks S/PDIF Optical Sound

After researching online, I found this little snippet that explains why my S/PDIF connection is dead silent after upgrading the Linux kernel from 3.5 to 3.8.2. It seems the developers sacrificed S/PDIF audio output to please HDMI users, who are more numerous. I guess you can't please everyone, as the song says. The best alternative I've found is to stop upgrading the kernel at 3.7.10--that's the cliff, after which S/PDIF goes silent. For my part, I'll just hold off on upgrading my htpc until there is a fix that satisfies both S/PDIF and HDMI. Apparently 3.8 isn't quite the thing for my htpc. A silent htpc is about as useful as a rock.

My htpc does not use HDMI, but the motherboard has an HDMI connection. Linux kernel 3.8.x disables S/PDIF. I removed 3.8.x and installed 3.7.10, and it is working fine with S/PDIF.

2 comments:

Arnaudv6 said...

just a let you know that the update alsa-lib thing worked like a charm here : enjoying 3.8 kernel, and S/PDIF too.
Thanks for the link by the way : saved me some time I guess.

igor said...

Yep, thanks for the input. I should have updated this post a while back. I too updated alsa-lib and am enjoying 3.8.13 kernel and S/PDIF. However, I also went into BIOS and disabled HDMI just to be on the safe side. I think disabling HDMI fixed S/PDIF for me, because if the kernel doesn't detect HDMI, it sets the default digital output to S/PDIF. I upgraded alsa-lib later, just to have the latest version and all.

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