No optical out xbmcbuntu

hi everyone

i finally got my htpc up and running the way i want...
xbmcbuntu seems great but there's only one problem that i wish to solve if i am to use it..

no effin' 5.1 sound...
i have the asus f1a55 board with hdmi and spdif out
when i connect only the hdmi to the tv and have it on analog, the sound works fine...that is, stereo output to the tv

but the whole basis of an htpc in my case is to get 5.1 sound...which is why have this mobo

i have the board connected directly into my home theater/surround sound...but nothing comes out

i have gone into the terminal and checked if it was muted in alsamixer...it is not.. (that is, it says 00 on SPDIF, my default output)

i can't really copy and paste as the box is connected to my tv, but aplay -l gives me something like this:

card 0: generic (hd-audio generic), device 3: hdmi 0

card 1: generic (hd-audio generic), device 0: vt1708s analog

card 1: generic (hd-audio generic), device 1: vt1708s digital

card 1: generic (hd-audio generic), device2: vt1708s hp


so my thinking is to get dmix or hw 1,1 in my options for the audio...but neither gives any sound

in my system settings, i have audio output as optical/coax
speaker configuration 5.1
boost volume level on downmix
output stereo to all speakers
ac3 yes
dts yes
aac yes

audio output....like i said, i have tried hd-audio generic, vt1708s digital spdif, dmix card 1 dev 1, hw card 1 dev 1
for passthrough, i only have two options... hdmi generic audio and hd-audio generic vt1708s...tried both and nothing

i have no option for "custom" either...and i am using the xbmcbuntu from this thread: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=134252 the june 29 update

if anyone can help me out, i'd be forever grateful ...thank you...

quick edit: speaker-test -Dplughw:1,1 gives me static on front two speakers...and will not stop (have to control alt delete to stop it)