No surround sound in 21.10, only stereo

[bradleypariah]

Hello, I am hesitant making this post, because it's about a problem I experienced on 21.10, but I've already rolled back to 20.04 to fix it. I'm mostly just wondering if I should report a bug, and if so, how to do that.

After upgrading to 21.10, all audio on my HTPC was in stereo.
If I went into my System Settings > Audio, my Profile was set as 5.0 (which is correct). If I clicked the test buttons for the surround channels, I heard the "Rear Left," and "Rear Right" recordings of a woman's voice coming out the rear speakers. I'm positive the channels were/are plugged in and working just fine, but all audio from all programs was always in stereo.
I checked /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, and I enabled remixing, but it made no difference.

If this issue is somehow related to PipeWire, a bug has been documented below, but they're only discussing the issue in Wine/Proton games:
Some Games in Steam Not Exposing 5.1 Surround Sound in Pipewire (Pipewire-Pulse?) (#876) · Issues · PipeWire / pipewire · GitLab

For me, the issue was in every application. Netflix in Firefox, movies on Kodi, and my entire game library.
I really don't understand PipeWire, so I felt lost.
After wiping the drive, and reinstalling 20.04.3, I changed my audio device profile from Stereo to "5.0 output + 2 ch input," and boom. Fixed.

So, should I report this to someone, or is my input useless since I already am no longer running 21.10?
I feel like the issue is easy to reproduce, but it may only be a problem with my specific motherboard.

[brianinnes]

An interesting post, did you also post this on the Kubuntu facebook group? If not, someone else had a very similar issue. At the moment Kubuntu 21.10 is on my HTPC box, but I suspect it'll go back to 20.04.3 soon.

It would certainly be interesting to see if anyone else has this same issue on Kubuntu 21.10.

Forgot to add, the following website is good to help diagnose audio issues, especially 5.1, 7.1 multi channel playback, gives various test tones.

https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/multichannel.html

[brianinnes]

More testing this evening, on the Kubuntu 21.10 install on my HTPC:
AMD A8-6600K, with Nvidia GT1030 GPU running Nvidia 470 driver.

No issue with 5.1 playback. The 5,1 speaker test in the audio settings plays back all the channels correctly.

I am using the Nvidia GPU as audio output to my Onkyo AV amp over HDMI

However I am unsure whether I'll stick with Kubuntu 21.10, as a few other gremlins are showing up, which aren't present in 20.04.

[mchrisp]

I have the exact problem. I am very new in Linux, but I might have a trace. aplay -L gives me a bunch of results. (I have 3 Soundcards installed)
Interestingly I get the "sourround51:" for my internal Soundcard and my external soundcard (which only can do Stereo btw).
My Nvidia card looks different. No Surround at all for the NVidia GPU:

mchrisp@LNXBrunhilde:~$ aplay -L
null
   Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
   Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
samplerate
   Rate Converter Plugin Using Samplerate Library
speexrate
   Rate Converter Plugin Using Speex Resampler
jack
   JACK Audio Connection Kit
oss
   Open Sound System
pulse
   PulseAudio Sound Server
upmix
   Plugin for channel upmix (4,6,8)
vdownmix
   Plugin for channel downmix (stereo) with a simple spacialization
hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=1
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Digital
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=1
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Digital
   Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   Front output / input
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Digital
   IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Analog
   Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=PCH,DEV=1
   HDA Intel PCH, ALC1220 Digital
   Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=PCH
   HDA Intel PCH
   USB Stream Output
hw:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=C1
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   Default Audio Device
front:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   Front output / input
surround21:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=C1,DEV=0
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1, USB Audio
   Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=C1
   Cambridge Audio DAC100 USB 1
   USB Stream Output
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 1
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 2
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=9
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 3
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=10
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 4
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=11
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 5
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=12
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 6
   Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
   Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 1
   Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 2
   Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=9
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 3
   Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=10
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 4
   Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=11
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 5
   Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=12
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 6
   Hardware device with all software conversions
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
   HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 1
   HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 2
   HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 3
   HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=4
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 4
   HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=5
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 5
   HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=6
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 6
   HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
   Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 1
   Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 2
   Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=9
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 3
   Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=10
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 4
   Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=11
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 5
   Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=12
   HDA NVidia, HDMI 6
   Direct sample mixing device
usbstream:CARD=NVidia
   HDA NVidia
   USB Stream Output
usbstream:CARD=U0x46d0x825
   USB Device 0x46d:0x825
   USB Stream Output

I can choose 5.1 and actually 7.1 in PulseAudio. In Stereo it is acutal stereo, but in 5.1 or 7.1 I get the Front and Surrounds on my L and R channel, Sub nothing.

That seems to me like ALSA might be the troublemaker. I tried to configure the device in Alsa but I am struggling hard. I don't even know how to check, if my config is beeing used. Same for Pulse Audio. I changed the standard config to 5.1 DD+ @44.1 KHz, but man, I have no Idea what I am doing. I have zero to non experience in Linux, only good understanding of Computers/Software etc. in general...

I had the same problem (Stereo mix of 5.1) on windows 10 btw until I used Dolby Atmos. (But that appears to be a bug on windows, so unlikely it is the same in Linux)