[pulseaudio-discuss] Realtek 887-VD troubles

[Tanu Kaskinen]

On Mon, 2013-05-20 at 15:41 +0200, Fabio Coatti wrote:
> Hi all,
> I'm struggling to get pulseaudio working on a machine with Q77 chipset (
> device.product.name = "7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition
> Audio Controller",alsa.mixer_name = "Realtek ALC887-VD") but so far I had
> no success in getting pulseaudio working with 5.1 setup.
> Basically, my motherboard supports 2/4/6/8 channels configuration but
> pulseaudio activates only 2ch config.
> I'm using KDE and phonon shows only (using default configurations)
> left/right channels, (internal stereo audio)
> If I force pulseaudio to use all 5.1 channles, adding the following lines
> 
> enable-lfe-remixing = yes
> default-sample-channels=6
> default-channel-map =
> front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,front-center,lfe
> 
> in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
> 
> pulseaudio shows 5.1 channels (even in kde phonon), but front channels
> (l,r,c) works fine; lfe no sound and rl and rr are not working, anly a very
> low volume comes out from front speakers.
> 
> I've tried all suggestions from google, mailing lists and forums as well
> but no joy so far.
> 
> ===============
> Linux 3.9.3
> 
> $ aplay -L
> 
> sysdefault:CARD=PCH
>     HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
>     Default Audio Device
> front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
>     HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
>     Front speakers
> surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
>     HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
>     4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
> surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
>     HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
>     4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
> surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
>     HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
>     5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
> surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
>     HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
>     5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
> surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
>     HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
>     7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
> 
> ==========
> 
> pulseaudio -vvvvv tells a different story, here an excerpt from output; I
> can provide full output, I didn't posted here to avoid unnecessary
> cluttering
> [...]
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-mixer.c: Looking at profile output:analog-surround-51
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-mixer.c: Checking for playback on Analog Surround 5.1
> (analog-surround-51)
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Trying surround51:0 with
> SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Managed to open surround51:0
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_hw_params_set_channels(6) failed:
> Invalid argument
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Trying surround51:0 without
> SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Managed to open surround51:0
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_hw_params_set_channels(6) failed:
> Invalid argument
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Trying plug:surround51:0 with
> SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Managed to open plug:surround51:0
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_hw_params_set_channels(6) failed:
> Invalid argument
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Trying plug:surround51:0 without
> SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Managed to open plug:surround51:0
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_hw_params_set_channels(6) failed:
> Invalid argument
> I: [pulseaudio] alsa-util.c: Failed to set hardware parameters on
> plug:surround51:0: Invalid argument
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-mixer.c: Caching failure to open
> output:analog-surround-51
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-mixer.c: Skipping profile
> output:analog-surround-51+input:analog-mono - will not be able to open
> output:analog-surround-51
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-mixer.c: Skipping profile
> output:analog-surround-51+input:analog-stereo - will not be able to open
> output:analog-surround-51
> D: [pulseaudio] alsa-mixer.c: Skipping profile
> output:analog-surround-51+input:iec958-stereo - will not be able to open
> output:analog-surround-51
> [...]
> 
> Can someone give me an hint about how to sort this issue out? I'm pretty
> sure that I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not able to find what.

It looks like the "surround51" alsa device doesn't work. If you kill
pulseaudio, does "speaker-test -Dsurround51 --channels=6" work? If not,
it's an alsa bug.

Doing the changes you did in daemon.conf shouldn't help with this issue,
though, so I wonder how you're seeing a 6-channel output in phonon.
"pactl list" output would be interesting.

-- 
Tanu