Asus A8N32-SLI-Deluxe No Digital Sound

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Hello All

I have an annoying problem with an ancient Asus A8N32 motherboard. I have installed Linux Lite 4.6 - 64 bit without any issues other than the sound from the onboard coax digital output doesn’t work at all. It works from the onboard analogue output and also from the HDMI output on the Graphics card. Because of the speaker configuration I have it would be very handy to get the coax port working. In Windows 10 the output works fine so I know it isn’t a hardware problem.

When I open the audio mixer app I can select Digital Stereo (IEC958) output but no sound comes out. In the Output Devices section the Port is described as Digital Output (S/PDIF). Selecting Analogue works just fine.

I’ve tried several Linux distributions (Mint, Fedora) and they don’t work either so I guess this problem may not be solvable. I’m not sure what info might be helpful but I can provide the following…..

The System Summary app describes the Audio Adapter as Nvidia CK804

inxi -A

Audio:    Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Caicos HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6450 / 7450/8450/8490 OEM / R5 230/235/235X OEM]
          driver: snd_hda_intel
          Card-2 NVIDIA CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller driver: snd_intel8x0
          Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-66-generic


aplay – L

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default
    Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    Audio:    Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Caicos HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6450 / 7450/8450/8490 OEM / R5 230/235/235X OEM]
          driver: snd_hda_intel
          Card-2 NVIDIA CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller driver: snd_intel8x0
          Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-66-genericDirect sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=CK804
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 - IEC958
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=CK804,DEV=2
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 - IEC958
    Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=CK804,DEV=2
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 - IEC958
    Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=CK804,DEV=2
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 - IEC958
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=CK804,DEV=0
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804
    Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=CK804,DEV=2
    NVidia CK804, NVidia CK804 - IEC958
    Hardware device with all software conversions



Does anyone have any ideas?

Many thanks