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Nagging problem - surround sound

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    Nagging problem - surround sound

    One of the most annoying issues I have consistently had with Linux for years now is the state of its sound support, especially when it comes to "budget" model sound cards. I realize this is mostly due to the lack of transparency on the part of hardware manufacturers, along with their lack of support for Linux in general, but I have worked on this is issue so many times now that I know it can be done, I just haven't managed to accomplish it.

    My current situation is this: I recently abandoned my crappy Audigy LS sound card (total lost cause when it comes to full Linux sound support) in favor of my motherboard's on-board sound device, an Intel ICH5 with AD1985 support. The hardware has three jacks available; a line in, front/stereo speaker out and mic in, however, those "in" jacks can be re-purposed as "out" jacks for rear speakers and LFE/center. In Windows, this is accomplished with a simple settings change on the SoundMAX driver configuration app, but obviously, no such app exists on Linux. Is there a way for me to do the same thing on Kubuntu and actually be able to use the 5.1 surround speakers I have connected to my machine?

    EDIT - It might help to tell you what I already did. Right now, not much. All I have tried is un-muting the surround, center, LFE and PCM channels in Kmix, turning them all the way up, then playing a 5.1 source (DVD in VLC). 5.1 surround isn't even a sound option in VLC at the moment, but I'm not sure if that is a problem with VLC or my speaker/sound card set-up. Past experience tells me that is probably a fault in the latter.

    EDIT2 - And after running "speaker-test -c6 -twav" to run a simple channel test, I can confirm that it has nothing to do with VLC. The other channels (rear, LFE and center) just don't exist. I did go through the Kmix options and add every possible channel I could to try and change the settings, but none of them, including the "Channel Mode" switch, seem to make a difference.
    Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the dogs of War!

    #2
    Re: Nagging problem - surround sound

    I have the ICH5 chipset as well and I was only able to configure the 4/6 channel output and S/PDIF using software that was supplied with my motherboard (and of course that only runs on Windows).

    Searching around, I've found this tutorial: http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~bondhugu/alsamch.shtml. Does it help you?
    Home: Kubuntu 12.04-amd64; Intel i7-860 on Intel DH55PJ; Nvidia 9500GT; 6GB RAM
    Network Slave: Xubuntu 11.10-x86; Intel P4-Prescott on MSI; 2GB RAM; Nvidia FX5200
    Portable: Xubuntu 11.10-amd64; Asus EeePC 1015PEM

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      #3
      Re: Nagging problem - surround sound

      Unfortunately, no. I've come across the same (or similar) instructions before and they always produce zero results. Most of the time, the instructions don't work just because they are woefully out of date. In this case, the part about setting the appropriate channels in rc.local is out of date as several of the options the instructions tell you to try and set simply don't exist anymore or aren't named the same anymore.

      EDIT - Holy crap, I'm not sure what I did, but after running over those instructions multiple times and failing each time, surround playback is (sort of) working. I can now replicate stereo sound across the front and rear channels and it appears that the center and sub are both working, but I still don't have 5.1 (including the "fake" 5.1 I just created) available as an option in any applications.
      Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the dogs of War!

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