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MW

Member

Registered: 2007-07-27

Posts: 127

[Solved - kinda] Intel series 9 surround sound?

I just upgraded my system to 1150 with a new motherboard, Asus H97M-E.

In the manual it states that you can choose to map the line in and mic to the necessary channels for 5.1 surround sound in Windows.

Now my question, can this be done on Linux as well or should I just splash on a sound card? I did a bit of the Google but cannot seem to find anything that will help.

Info:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8616
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29
        Memory at f6210000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

index: 1
        name: <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0>
        driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
        owner module: 7
        properties:
                alsa.card = "0"
                alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
                alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xf6210000 irq 29"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "8086"
                device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
                device.product.id = "8ca0"
                device.product.name = "9 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller"
                device.form_factor = "internal"
                device.string = "0"
                device.description = "Built-in Audio"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        profiles:
                input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (priority 60, available: unknown)
                output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (priority 6000, available: unknown)
                output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (priority 6060, available: unknown)
                output:iec958-stereo: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output (priority 5500, available: unknown)
                output:iec958-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output + Analog Stereo Input (priority 5560, available: unknown)
                off: Off (priority 0, available: unknown)
        active profile: <output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo>
        sinks:
                alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo/#1: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
        sources:
                alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor/#1: Monitor of Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
                alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo/#2: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
        ports:
                analog-input-front-mic: Front Microphone (priority 8500, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
                        properties:
                                device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
                analog-input-rear-mic: Rear Microphone (priority 8200, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
                        properties:
                                device.icon_name = "audio-input-microphone"
                analog-input-linein: Line In (priority 8100, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
                        properties:

                analog-output-lineout: Line Out (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
                        properties:

                analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority 9000, latency offset 0 usec, available: no)
                        properties:
                                device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
                iec958-stereo-output: Digital Output (S/PDIF) (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
                        properties:

Thank you.

Last edited by MW (2015-05-06 11:02:02)

MW

Member

Registered: 2007-07-27

Posts: 127

Re: [Solved - kinda] Intel series 9 surround sound?

Just a quick update.

I was able to get it working, sort of. I changed /etc/pulse/daemon.conf to force 5.1 and mapped the new channels:

default-sample-channels = 6
default-channel-map = front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,front-center,lfe

Now when I run:
speaker-test -c 6 -D surround51

Everything works like intended, but alas, pulse does not pick up any playback devices for Plasma5.
In KDE 4 you could force pulse to control alsa audio instead of pulseaudio:

$ echo export KMIX_PULSEAUDIO_DISABLE=1 > ~/.kde4/env/kmix_disable_pulse.sh
$ chmod +x ~/.kde4/env/kmix_disable_pulse.sh

Is there such a workaround in Plasma5? I have not done any searching yet on the matter, so if someone has it would greatly help!

MW

Member

Registered: 2007-07-27

Posts: 127

Re: [Solved - kinda] Intel series 9 surround sound?

Well, my not so elegant fix:
1.

nano /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
default-sample-channels = 6
default-channel-map = front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,front-center,lfe

2.

echo export KMIX_PULSEAUDIO_DISABLE=1 > ~/.config/plasma-workspace/env/kmix_disable_pulse.sh
chmod +x ~/.config/plasma-workspace/env/kmix_disable_pulse.sh

3.
Test if all works after loggin out and back in again:

speaker-test -c 6 -D surround51

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4KYoQKAnoE

The downside to this is that you cannot control you soundcard through the SystemSettings anymore, but you can still use kmix and alsamixer.