> > that is locked at 48000 and needs rate conversion is software?
>
> the problem is that some codecs only implement 48khz (rtfm)

That's what my last sentence said. And yeah, debug shows that this
AC97 does not support VRA. I guess my long term solution will be
to get an additional audio card. But there is a bug...

> mpg123 for example forgets to read back the actuall rate

I'm not using mpg123. The code in question does this:

AUDIO_INITINFO(&info);
[set params]
ioctl(fd, AUDIO_SETINFO, &info);
[no error reported]
ioctl(fd, AUDIO_GETINFO, &info);
[no error reported]

The returned audio info is then compared to what was requested.
It compares correct, even though the hardware doesn't support
the requested rate. That's a bug.

// marc