Sourround sound not working on Linux Mint 17.1
 

Hello

I have linux mint 17.1 cinnamon installed on my computer, but the surround sound is not working (I only get stereo from two speakers)

When I run lspci I can see that my card is called

C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8738/CMI8768 PCI Audio (rev 10)

there is another embeded card that came with my computer called

[AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller

but I have my speakers hooked up to the first one and I have selected this card in the "output device" option on the lower right hand side of the screen, and I have selected the sound setting "analgog 4.0 surround".

My surround sound used to work when I had windows xp and xubuntu installed on an older computer with the same surround sound card attached. So I can't understand why it is not working now.

Can anyone help me with this?

when I run

aplay -l

I get:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CMI8738 [C-Media CMI8738], device 0: CMI8738 [C-Media PCI DAC/ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CMI8738 [C-Media CMI8738], device 1: CMI8738 [C-Media PCI 2nd DAC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CMI8738 [C-Media CMI8738], device 2: CMI8738 [C-Media PCI IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

inxi -Fzx
System: Host: rene-linuxmint Kernel: 3.13.0-37-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca
Machine: System: Gigabyte product: N/A
Mobo: Gigabyte model: F2A58M-DS2H version: x.x Bios: American Megatrends version: F1 date: 04/28/2014
CPU: Dual core AMD A4-4000 APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 11977.2
Clock Speeds: 1: 1400.00 MHz 2: 1400.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7480D] bus-ID: 00:01.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1600x900@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD ARUBA GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
Card-2: C-Media CMI8738/CMI8768 PCI Audio driver: snd_cmipci port: d000 bus-ID: 03:06.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-37-generic
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Card-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 01:00.0
IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 820.2GB (35.7% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD3200AVCS size: 320.1GB
2: USB id: /dev/sdc model: MQ01ABD050 size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID: / size: 290G used: 21G (8%) fs: ext4
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 0.4C mobo: N/A gpu: -3.0
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 169 Uptime: 4:07 Memory: 1209.9/3068.3MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4


aplay -L
default
Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
PulseAudio Sound Server
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
Hardware device with all software conversions
sysdefault:CARD=CMI8738
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
Front speakers
rear:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
Rear speakers
surround40:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
iec958:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=1
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=2
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI IEC958
Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=1
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=2
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI IEC958
Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=1
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=2
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI IEC958
Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=1
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=2
C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI IEC958
Hardware device with all software conversions