[gobolinux-users] bemoaning the lack of sound

[Isaac Dupree]

Isaac Dupree wrote:
> What the heck??? I don't know what I did, but I just noticed that there 
> is now a red glow coming out of the headphone jack in the computer, and 
> the headphones have completely the expected behavior when plugging and 
> unplugging!  Although I can't seem to find a way to mute the headphones.

inspired by https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/102818

it seems the "Surround" channel volume and mute affects the headphones 
(as well as affecting the built-in speakers when headphones aren't 
plugged in)

What does the red LED in the headphones place mean though?  Ah, this is 
the one and only effect of toggling IEC958: it controls whether that LED 
is on. (Why is there an LED there??)

Now I _think_ I only need to find some way to restore the settings I 
want every boot-up (and possibly between suspend/resume if I ever get 
that working)

(btw, headphones turning off main sound is a convention, but why does 
the OS seem to enforce it - provide no way to make sound through all 
hardware at once?  or does the hardware make that physically impossible?)

It seems LFE stands for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Frequency_Effects .

With headphones unplugged, (with my current test sound - voice -at 
least), only Front and Surround seem to have any effect: Front sounds 
slightly to the left, and more treble; Surround less locatable and more 
bass (if I'm using this musical terminology at all correctly with my 
untrained ears...)

Playing from audio CDs with MPlayer seems to pause every few seconds, 
which sounds rather disruptive.  I can transfer the CD contents to files 
on my computer, which can be played just fine.  Any idea why the CD trouble?

Isaac