FC3 & ALSA config questions

[bruce at pennypacker.org]

Hi all,

I'm building up a FC3 box that I plan to run mythtv on.  It has a MadDog
Entertainer sound card that uses the snd-ice1724 driver.  I have the
soundcard hooked up to my stereo via the SPDIF optical output.  I've tried
a handful of different /etc/asound.conf files, mostly based on the ones
posted at:

http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/template.php?company=Mad+Dog+Multimedia&card=Mad+Dog+Entertainer+7.1.&chip=ICE1724+%28Envy24HT%29&module=ice1724

Whenever I try running system-config-soundcard it recognizes the sound
card but playing test sounds fails.  If I use aplay I've been able to play
.ogg & .wav files over the stereo.  However I can't get any sound out of
mythtv and when I trigger the system bell (tab completion, etc.) I get a
really annoying sound out of the stereo.

First off, is there any good source of documentation on the
/etc/asound.conf file?  I haven't been able to find anything on the
alsa-project.org website or  through google that clearly explains how to
write an asound.conf file so I have no idea if what I have is accurate.

Also, can somebody explain the purpose of the files in /etc/alsa and
/etc/alsa/cards?  Since system-config-soundcard correctly recognizes the
soundcard & driver to use does this mean that /etc/alsa/cards/ICE1724.conf
is being used or do I need to do something to get that config file to be
recognized?  I'm just trying to get an understanding of how everything
fits together so that I'm not just stumbling around blindfolded trying to
get this all to work properly.

Thanks,

-Bruce