One of the most annoying issues I have consistently had with Linux for years now is the state of its sound support, especially when it comes to "budget" model sound cards. I realize this is mostly due to the lack of transparency on the part of hardware manufacturers, along with their lack of support for Linux in general, but I have worked on this is issue so many times now that I know it can be done, I just haven't managed to accomplish it.
My current situation is this: I recently abandoned my crappy Audigy LS sound card (total lost cause when it comes to full Linux sound support) in favor of my motherboard's on-board sound device, an Intel ICH5 with AD1985 support. The hardware has three jacks available; a line in, front/stereo speaker out and mic in, however, those "in" jacks can be re-purposed as "out" jacks for rear speakers and LFE/center. In Windows, this is accomplished with a simple settings change on the SoundMAX driver configuration app, but obviously, no such app exists on Linux. Is there a way for me to do the same thing on Kubuntu and actually be able to use the 5.1 surround speakers I have connected to my machine?
EDIT - It might help to tell you what I already did. Right now, not much. All I have tried is un-muting the surround, center, LFE and PCM channels in Kmix, turning them all the way up, then playing a 5.1 source (DVD in VLC). 5.1 surround isn't even a sound option in VLC at the moment, but I'm not sure if that is a problem with VLC or my speaker/sound card set-up. Past experience tells me that is probably a fault in the latter.
EDIT2 - And after running "speaker-test -c6 -twav" to run a simple channel test, I can confirm that it has nothing to do with VLC. The other channels (rear, LFE and center) just don't exist. I did go through the Kmix options and add every possible channel I could to try and change the settings, but none of them, including the "Channel Mode" switch, seem to make a difference.
My current situation is this: I recently abandoned my crappy Audigy LS sound card (total lost cause when it comes to full Linux sound support) in favor of my motherboard's on-board sound device, an Intel ICH5 with AD1985 support. The hardware has three jacks available; a line in, front/stereo speaker out and mic in, however, those "in" jacks can be re-purposed as "out" jacks for rear speakers and LFE/center. In Windows, this is accomplished with a simple settings change on the SoundMAX driver configuration app, but obviously, no such app exists on Linux. Is there a way for me to do the same thing on Kubuntu and actually be able to use the 5.1 surround speakers I have connected to my machine?
EDIT - It might help to tell you what I already did. Right now, not much. All I have tried is un-muting the surround, center, LFE and PCM channels in Kmix, turning them all the way up, then playing a 5.1 source (DVD in VLC). 5.1 surround isn't even a sound option in VLC at the moment, but I'm not sure if that is a problem with VLC or my speaker/sound card set-up. Past experience tells me that is probably a fault in the latter.
EDIT2 - And after running "speaker-test -c6 -twav" to run a simple channel test, I can confirm that it has nothing to do with VLC. The other channels (rear, LFE and center) just don't exist. I did go through the Kmix options and add every possible channel I could to try and change the settings, but none of them, including the "Channel Mode" switch, seem to make a difference.
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