For quite a while, I've been playing all my music and stuff off of CDs. When I switched to Windows 10 months ago or so, I got rid of most of my computer collection, figuring I'd re-rip it, and then never bothered to find a program for Windows that could convert to .ogg. My stereo has a 5 CD changer and decent programming/shuffle capability, so it was okay. Then when I got back on Linux at the end of December, sound wasn't working at all—likely, I thought, because I have a pretty high-end sound card and needed to change some configuration files or recompile the kernel with the right drivers. When I switched to kernel 2.6.10 I found the right driver but it still didn't work properly. Again I figured it must be configuration files but I had no idea which, so I left it for a while.

Yesterday I decided to try to get it working. I doubted I could figure out what the problem with my current stuff was, so I decided to just go and install the latest version, following their instructions for that. This has worked for me in the past quite a few times (including with the kernel—that was my original "reason" for switching from 2.4 to 2.6). So I went to the ALSA site, got the sources, followed the instructions they gave on the site and the warnings given after (I think) make install that said I needed to change a config file and that it was muted by default, and it worked perfectly. Well enough to hook up my stereo's speakers and get (semi-)surround sound.

And now, in retrospect, the original problem was most likely that I needed to unmute it, or change that config file. Oh, well. I have the newest version now, and I learned a lot.