5.1 & Audio Jacks

[atorch]

Hi everyone,

I bought a S76 pangolin a few days ago, and I'm very happy with it. Everything (important) works except for my speakers, and I'm hoping you could help me out.

My pangolin has two audio jacks: one marked with headphones (presumably meant to be audio out), another with a mic (meant for audio in).

On my old laptop, I was able to go into volume control (in ubuntu), and select "surround" in edit > preferences, and my laptop would send audio out through the mic jack.

I want to do this with my pangolin, but I don't see any option for "surround" in volume control. I've selected everything in edit > preferences, un-muted it and set it to full volume (except for the computer's internal speakers, which I keep muted), but there's still no audio signal coming out of the second jack, the one labeled with the mic. If I connect any of my speakers' three plugs to the mic jack, the corresponding speakers (either front speakers & bass, back speakers, or middle) become mute.

I have a two-way splitter plugged into the headphone jack, so two of the three jacks can be connected to the computer. This can give sound out of up to four speakers and the bass. But when I connect the third plug into the mic jack, the middle speaker stays silent.

What should I do to get audio through the mic jack? Thank you for any help!

As a side note:

My Video and Audio buttons (the physical buttons, above the keyboard) aren't working. The web button launches firefox, the mail button launches thunderbird... where do I go to map the audio and video buttons to launch certain software?

And finally, a trivial question: What does WOW in "WOW Video" stand for? Why not just print "Video" and "Audio"?

PS: I'm very happy with this computer, although that might be hard to tell from this post. And thanks again for any help!

[atorch]

Oh, and I forgot a little detail:

On my old computer, I had an option for 6ch in Volume Control, under the Options tab. Right now I'm only seeing an option for Input Source, but no channel boxes to check.

[thomasaaron]

The Pangolin does not support 5.1 sound, and I don't believe there is any way to get output from the mic jack.

For the video and audio buttons, try running the System 76 driver:
System > Adminstration > System76 Driver (Install Tab/Install Button)

[atorch]

Speakers:
After reading your response I bought a second two-way splitter, and now I can get sound out of all five speakers & the bass. So that issue is solved.

Video & Audio buttons:
I installed the S76 drivers, restarted the computer, and I'm still not getting anything. What should I try next?

I don't know whether this is related at all, but the S76 driver, under the System Information tab, tells me my computer is a serp3 Several Performance -- which it isn't.

[thomasaaron]

Yeah, that is a bug in the driver. I think it is being worked on, but it doesn't affect any functionality.

I've seen those buttons get messed up once before. The customer was either running KDE or had custom configured his keyboard. Do either of those ring a bell?

Try creating another user account with no custom configurationst and see if the buttons work in it.

[atorch]

I'm not running KDE, and I haven't done anything keyboard-related except unbind the "windows" key so that compiz would be free to use it (by default it opened the applications menu).

I've just created a new user account, didn't mess with any settings and loaded it up, but the buttons still didn't work. What can I try next?

[thomasaaron]

Two things:

1. Confirm you are not using 64-bit. I've been unable to make them work on 64-bit.

2. Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
Click "Media Player". It should then give you a "New Accelerator" prompt.
Then click a wow button and see if it sets.

[atorch]

1. I'm not using 64-bit.

2. Yes, it did set. What a simple solution! The only remaining problem: I don't see any "Video Player" listed in keyboard shortcuts (not do I see a video player option under preferred applications), so where do i go to set the wow video key?

[thomasaaron]

I'll figure it out. Probably will be Tuesday before I can do it, though.
I've got it on my Whiteboard so I won't forget.

[thomasaaron]

Here is what you have to do:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MultimediaKeys