No Surround Sound

matty_r · 2015-12-03 01:28:45

G'day all,

I'm using my onboard audio which is hooked up to a 5.1 surround sound system. I do however get Stereo audio. I've tried troubleshooting but it's all very confusing to me - below are some various outputs throughout my troubleshooting.

I think the device I want is CA0132 with Surround51.

[matt@arch-matt-pc ~]$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CA0132 Analog [CA0132 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: CA0132 Digital [CA0132 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


[matt@arch-matt-pc ~]$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Analog
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CA0132 Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
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


Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 65536
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 14119 [22%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 14119 [22%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 65536
  Front Left: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]

[matt@arch-matt-pc ~]$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     49152  1
snd_hda_codec_ca0132    45056  1
snd_hda_intel          32768  6
snd_hda_codec         106496  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_ca0132
snd_hda_core           49152  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_ca0132
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                86016  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_core
snd_timer              28672  1 snd_pcm
snd                    65536  19 snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_ca0132
soundcore              16384  1 snd

Last edited by matty_r (2015-12-04 01:46:33)

V1del · 2015-12-03 10:08:10

Please use [ code ] tags when pasting command output/textfiles. Since you are using pulseaudio can you go into pavucontrol check the configuration tab and see if you can switch the profile to 5.1 there? Also be aware that this chip is notorious for having driver issues that are unlikely to get fixed in the near future because Creative doesn't provide specfiles, hence it is very much possible that 5.1 output might not work at all with this card.

matty_r · 2015-12-04 01:52:50

I've added the code tags. These are the only options I have: Volume Control

Roken · 2015-12-04 19:57:47

You may want to have a look at, and modify as necessary, AWebb's asoundrc at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18371907/asoundrc. Be warned, though, I eventually pulled my Creative card and went back to onboard. As fast as I fixed one issue, the fix created another.

th3voic3 · 2015-12-07 08:07:39

To enable surround sound in pulseaudio, you have to do this https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … nd_systems

V1del · 2015-12-08 09:36:02

@th3voic3 you don't have to, if you can set a profile this will be handled by the profile already, but it might be useful in this case if there's no ALSA control

@Roken this is an onboard creative card, he can't pull it (yes it is sad)

@Matty_r Maybe there's an ALSA control to flip, have you checked alsamixer? Another thing you might want to try while you don't have anything actively using sound is do a speaker-test to see if it works

speaker-test -Dhw:0 -c6

Last edited by V1del (2015-12-09 12:49:44)

Arch Linux

#1 2015-12-03 01:28:45

No Surround Sound

#2 2015-12-03 10:08:10

Re: No Surround Sound

#3 2015-12-04 01:52:50

Re: No Surround Sound

#4 2015-12-04 19:57:47

Re: No Surround Sound

#5 2015-12-07 08:07:39

Re: No Surround Sound

#6 2015-12-08 09:36:02

Re: No Surround Sound

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