seebs@plethora.net (Peter Seebach) writes:

> In short, it looks like this is just some magic distinction between sound0
> and audio0 I don't understand.  But hey, it worked.

/dev/sound[0] is supposed to have its settings persist between opens,
while audio0 always starts as 8-bit, mu-law, monaural (at 8kHz?). I
wonder if the default setting for sound0 is one that isn't compatible
with the underlying hardware, preventing it from being succesfully
opened the first time?

        - Nathan