Raymond: thank you for your time and effort! Following your advice I was able to configure iec958:CARD=U7 and point it at the correct hardware device. The following aplay command goes to the digital output:
$ aplay -D iec958:CARD=U7 test.wav However, the pulseaudio still redirects both, Analog and Digital (S/PDIF) outputs to the same analog output. There are no special characters in the card name. Here is an excerpt from /usr/share/alsa/cards/USB-Audio.conf: USB-Audio.pcm.iec958_device { "Xonar U7" 1 ... } The outputs of pactl list and aplay -L are attached. So, what shall I do with pulseaudio to recognize the iec958 output? ** Attachment added: "aplay -L output" https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1498129/+attachment/4585449/+files/aplay-L.txt -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to alsa-driver in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1498129 Title: Asus Xonar U7 S/PDIF output not recognized by pulseaudio Status in alsa-driver package in Ubuntu: New Bug description: The external USB audio card Asus Xonar U7 is capable of both analog and digital output. ALSA name for the digital (S/PDIF) output is hw:1,1, and it is listed in aplay -l output, and aplay can output to it: aplay -D plughw:1,1 sample.wav. So, direct alsa sound works fine. However, pulseadio does not recognize the digital output of Xonar U7, it offers only analog output. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04 Package: pulseaudio 1:4.0-0ubuntu11.1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-63.103-lowlatency 3.13.11-ckt25 Uname: Linux 3.13.0-63-lowlatency i686 ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.13 Architecture: i386 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC1: aoand 3756 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/controlC0: aoand 3756 F.... pulseaudio CurrentDesktop: Unity Date: Mon Sep 21 21:29:54 2015 EcryptfsInUse: Yes InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-02-20 (1674 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007.1) SourcePackage: pulseaudio UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-05-19 (490 days ago) dmi.bios.date: 11/29/2012 dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO dmi.bios.version: 7WET71WW (3.21 ) dmi.board.name: 7448CTO dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO dmi.board.version: Not Available dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information dmi.chassis.type: 10 dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO dmi.chassis.version: Not Available dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvr7WET71WW(3.21):bd11/29/2012:svnLENOVO:pn7448CTO:pvrThinkPadX200Tablet:rvnLENOVO:rn7448CTO:rvrNotAvailable:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable: dmi.product.name: 7448CTO dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X200 Tablet dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/1498129/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp