Arch Linux

Pudge

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

Registered: 2006-01-23

Posts: 300

I can't enable Realtek 4 channel mode in ALSA

Okay I've got a problem I haven't been able to solve yet.

I have a Zotac mini-itx motherboard.  It has 6 channel audio, with only 3 audio ports available. 

lspci shows:
00:10.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP51 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
but they are using a Realtek chip as the final audio driver.

In the manual, they show how to change the function of the "line in" jack to "rear speaker out" with a Realek Windows based app.  Of course that app isn't available in Linux.

The manual shows this chart as to the functions of the audio ports in 3 available modes.

Port              2-channel                     4-channel                    6-chanel
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blue              Line-In                      Rear Speakers out         Rear Speakers out
Green            Line-out                    Front speakers out        Front speakers out
Pink              Mic-in                       Mic-in                          Center/Subwoofer

Audio works great in 2-channel mode, but I've been trying to get this into 4 channel or 6 channel mode through ALSA.  I've messed with /etc/asound.state and /usr/share/alsa/init/alsa.conf and a few other files.  I've run alsaconf both before and after tweaking these config files to no avail. 

Someone suggested running the Windows Realtek app in WINE.  I haven't tried it but I don't think that will work as this type of configuration is usually done in the Windows registry.  Plus this probably works in conjunction with Realtek's Windows audio driver, again not available in Linux.

I've come up with a handful of nothing on mamma.com and google.

Anybody ever done this?  I'm open to any suggestions.

Pudge

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Dheart

Member

From: Sofia, Bulgaria

Registered: 2006-10-26

Posts: 956

Re: I can't enable Realtek 4 channel mode in ALSA

If your chipset is Realteck ac97, Alsa doesn't recognize the rear channel - However I got it to work quite easyly with oss4, just checking some boxes in ossxmix. I suggest you try it.

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