Problem with 5.1 speakers

Mr. Bond · 10-07-2007, 02:42 PM

Hi all,

I have a problem with my 5.1 speakers and integrated sound card on ASUS P5PL2-E mb. Simply sound is present only on 2 speakers instead on all 6.

I installed driver over an ALSA conf and I tried ALSA mixer so as KMix to change it... I put max volume on Line In and Mic inputs (becouse integrated card works on all three jacks if 5.1 mod is on).

Anybody have some idea?

sw67 · 10-07-2007, 03:41 PM

ALSA will only be routing sound to the front speakers (stereo 2.0) since that's the default configuration.
If you want to use Line In and Mic as speakers, you need to define a routing table to tell it what to do.
The easiest way is to create a file named .asoundrc in your home directory and put the following in it:

Quote:

pcm.ch51dup
{
slave.pcm surround51
slave.channels 6
type route
ttable.0.0 1
ttable.1.1 1
ttable.0.2 1
ttable.1.3 1
ttable.0.4 0.5
ttable.1.4 0.5
ttable.0.5 0.5
ttable.1.5 0.5
}

pcm.!default
{
type plug
slave.pcm "ch51dup"
}

That will duplicate the sound to your other outputs for anything using ALSA for your user.
I think you can put it in /etc somewhere too, for global usage, but I can't remember exactly where.

Hope this helps..

Mr. Bond · 10-07-2007, 04:37 PM

I did all as you said but still the same. Is there a need to somehow restart alsa or something like that?

sw67 · 10-07-2007, 08:08 PM

Theoretically not; alsa should re-read that config file when you next use it. But I guess it can't hurt to reboot the machine or something.
Failing that, check that Line-In and Mic-In-Mode are set to outputs in alsamixer.

Bruce Hill · 10-08-2007, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr. Bond

I did all as you said but still the same. Is there a need to somehow restart alsa or something like that?

As root issue "/etc/rc.d/rc.alsa restart"

Here are two ways to test speakers:

Code:

To test your speakers:
(for 5.1 speakers)
speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 -t wav
(for 2.1 speakers)
speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -t wav

Follow the other guys advice for getting 5.1 speakers to work. I use a sound card rather than onboard 6 channel soundchip.