[PlanetCCRMA] "system" audio troubles

[Peter Lutek]

greetings!

my planet-ccrma fc3 laptop is fine for work with jack, but i'm having 
trouble getting "system" audio working (specifically, sound from firefox).

there is a built-in intel 82801 ac'97 using the snd-intel8x0 module, 
plus an rme multiface, using the snd-hdsp module. i would like to use 
only the multiface for system-wide audio.

according to system-config-soundcard, the multiface is set as the 
primary audio device, but when i do this:

aplay sound-sample.wav

i get this:

Playing WAVE 'sound-sample.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 
44100 Hz, Stereo
Warning: rate is not accurate (requested = 44100Hz, got = 48000Hz)
         please, try the plug plugin (-Dplug:default)
aplay: pcm_write:1171: write error: Input/output error

(that looks like it's trying to use the intel chip, with the 48k s.r.)
then, when i do this:

aplay -Dplug:default sound-sample.wav

i get this:

Playing WAVE 'sound-sample.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 
44100 Hz, Stereo

but the process never finishes (that line just sits there, and i have to 
ctrl-c the process) and i have no sound actually output from the multiface.

thanks in advance for any help!

-p