HOWTO: Surround sound in pulseaudio

[matthewbpt]

hey all!
I want to get an external sound card connected via usb for my laptop to use with 5.1 speakers. Would an external sound card work with the setup on this thread? and if so can you recommend one that is known to work?
Great guide btw, even though I haven't tested it out yet it all seems pretty well explained, good job!

Matt

[sammydee]

I'm sure an external sound card would work fine. As for specific recommendations, this is the wrong place to ask. Try the alsa wiki or #alsa on irc.freenode.net. Or google it?

Sam

[alphahour]

Hi

I've done the steps written in this how to but I still get 2.0 sound.

Here is the content of my files:

daemon.conf:

# $Id: daemon.conf.in 2175 2008-03-27 23:39:10Z lennart $
#
# This file is part of PulseAudio.
#
# PulseAudio is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# PulseAudio is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
# General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
# along with PulseAudio; if not, write to the Free Software
# Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
# USA.

## Configuration file for the PulseAudio daemon. See pulse-daemon.conf(5) for
## more information. Default values a commented out. Use either ; or # for
## commenting.

; daemonize = no
; fail = yes
; disallow-module-loading = no
; use-pid-file = yes
; system-instance = no
; disable-shm = no

; high-priority = yes
; nice-level = -11

; realtime-scheduling = no
; realtime-priority = 5

; exit-idle-time = -1
; module-idle-time = 20
; scache-idle-time = 20

; dl-search-path = (depends on architecture)

; default-script-file =

; log-target = auto
; log-level = notice

; resample-method = speex-float-3
; disable-remixing = no

; no-cpu-limit = no

; rlimit-as = -1
; rlimit-core = -1
; rlimit-data = -1
; rlimit-fsize = -1
; rlimit-nofile = 256
; rlimit-stack = -1
; rlimit-nproc = -1
; rlimit-memlock = -1
; rlimit-nice = 31
; rlimit-rtprio = 9

; default-sample-format = s16le
; default-sample-rate = 44100
default-sample-channels = 6

; default-fragments = 4
; default-fragment-size-msec = 25

default.pa:

#!/usr/bin/pulseaudio -nF
#
# This file is part of PulseAudio.
#
# PulseAudio is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# PulseAudio is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
# General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
# along with PulseAudio; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
# Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.

.nofail

### Load something into the sample cache
#load-sample-lazy x11-bell /usr/share/sounds/gtk-events/activate.wav
load-sample-lazy pulse-hotplug /usr/share/sounds/startup3.wav
#load-sample-lazy pulse-coldplug /usr/share/sounds/startup3.wav
#load-sample-lazy pulse-access /usr/share/sounds/generic.wav

.fail

### Load audio drivers statically (it's probably better to not load
### these drivers manually, but instead use module-hal-detect --
### see below -- for doing this automatically)
#load-module module-alsa-sink
#load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:1,0
#load-module module-oss device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input
#load-module module-oss-mmap device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input
#load-module module-null-sink
#load-module module-pipe-sink

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
#.ifexists module-hal-detect.so
#load-module module-hal-detect
#.else
### Alternatively use the static hardware detection module (for systems that
### lack HAL support)
#load-module module-detect
#.endif

### Load manual channel config. Uncomment the above and recomment the below to go back to defaults.

load-module module-alsa-sink device_id=0 channels=6 channel_map=front-left,front-center,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,lfe


### Load several protocols
.ifexists module-esound-protocol-unix.so
load-module module-esound-protocol-unix
.endif
load-module module-native-protocol-unix

### Network access (may be configured with paprefs, so leave this commented
### here if you plan to use paprefs)
#load-module module-esound-protocol-tcp
#load-module module-native-protocol-tcp
#load-module module-zeroconf-publish

### Load the RTP reciever module (also configured via paprefs, see above)
#load-module module-rtp-recv

### Load the RTP sender module (also configured via paprefs, see above)
#load-module module-null-sink sink_name=rtp format=s16be channels=2 rate=44100 description="RTP Multicast Sink"
#load-module module-rtp-send source=rtp.monitor

### Automatically restore the volume of playback streams
load-module module-volume-restore

### Automatically restore the default sink/source when changed by the user during runtime
load-module module-default-device-restore

### Automatically move streams to the default sink if the sink they are
### connected to dies, similar for sources
load-module module-rescue-streams

### Automatically suspend sinks/sources that become idle for too long
load-module module-suspend-on-idle

### Load X11 bell module
#load-module module-x11-bell sample=x11-bell

### Register ourselves in the X11 session manager
# Deactivated by default, to avoid deadlock when PA is started as esd from gnome-session
# Instead we load this via /etc/xdg/autostart/ and "pactl load-module" now
# load-module module-x11-xsmp

### Load additional modules from GConf settings. This can be configured with the paprefs tool.
### Please keep in mind that the modules configured by paprefs might conflict with manually
### loaded modules.
.ifexists module-gconf.so
.nofail
load-module module-gconf
.fail
.endif

### Publish connection data in the X11 root window
.ifexists module-x11-publish.so
.nofail
load-module module-x11-publish
.fail
.endif

### Make some devices default
#set-default-sink output
#set-default-source input

My sound card is on board and the chipset is the ALC650D.

I'm using Ubuntu Studio (8.04).

Can you help me please?

Thanks in advance.
André.

[sammydee]

Andre:

Open a terminal and type:

pulseaudio -k && pulseaudio -vv

What does it say?

Sam

[alphahour]

It says this:

andre@andre:~$ pulseaudio -k && pulseaudio -vv
I: main.c: Called SUID root and real-time/high-priority scheduling was reque
in the configuration. However, we lack the necessary priviliges:
I: main.c: We are not in group 'pulse-rt' and PolicyKit refuse to grant us p
liges. Dropping SUID again.
I: main.c: For enabling real-time scheduling please acquire the appropriate
cyKit priviliges, or become a member of 'pulse-rt', or increase the RLIMIT_N
RLIMIT_RTPRIO resource limits for this user.
I: main.c: Note that real-time/high-priority scheduling is NOT normally requ
. If you experience crackling or other sound anomalies, consider one or more
the above solutions.
I: main.c: High-priority scheduling enabled in configuration but now allowed
policy. Disabling forcibly.
I: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operação não permitida
I: main.c: This is PulseAudio 0.9.10
I: main.c: Page size is 4096 bytes
I: main.c: Fresh high-resolution timers available! Bon appetit!
D: alsa-util.c: Trying surround51:0...
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Successfully opened device surround51:0.
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Successfully enabled mmap() mode.
ALSA lib control.c:909: (snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL surround51:0
I: alsa-util.c: Unable to attach to mixer surround51:0: Ficheiro ou director
nexistente
I: alsa-util.c: Successfully attached to mixer 'hw:0'
I: alsa-util.c: Using mixer control "Master".
I: sink.c: Created sink 0 "alsa_output.surround51_0" with sample spec "s16le
44100Hz"
I: source.c: Created source 0 "alsa_output.surround51_0.monitor" with sample
c "s16le 6ch 44100Hz"
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Using 4 fragments of size 13224 bytes.
I: alsa-util.c: ALSA device lacks separate volumes control for channel 'rear
t', falling back to software volume control.
D: module-alsa-sink.c: Thread starting up
D: rtpoll.c: Acquired POSIX realtime signal SIGRTMIN+29
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Starting playback.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-alsa-sink" (index: #0; argument: "device_id=0 ch
ls=6 channel_map=front-left,front-center,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,lf
D: cli-command.c: Checking for existance of '/usr/lib/pulse-0.9/modules/modu
sound-protocol-unix.so': success
I: module.c: Loaded "module-esound-protocol-unix" (index: #1; argument: "").
I: protocol-native.c: loading cookie from disk.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-native-protocol-unix" (index: #2; argument: "").
I: module.c: Loaded "module-volume-restore" (index: #3; argument: "").
D: module-default-device-restore.c: Restored default sink 'alsa_output.surro
1_0'.
D: module-default-device-restore.c: No previous default source setting, igno
.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-default-device-restore" (index: #4; argument: ""
I: module.c: Loaded "module-rescue-streams" (index: #5; argument: "").
D: module-suspend-on-idle.c: Sink alsa_output.surround51_0 becomes idle.
D: module-suspend-on-idle.c: Source alsa_output.surround51_0.monitor becomes
e.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-suspend-on-idle" (index: #6; argument: "").
D: cli-command.c: Checking for existance of '/usr/lib/pulse-0.9/modules/modu
conf.so': success
I: module.c: Loaded "module-gconf" (index: #7; argument: "").
D: cli-command.c: Checking for existance of '/usr/lib/pulse-0.9/modules/modu
11-publish.so': success
D: module-x11-publish.c: using already loaded auth cookie.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-x11-publish" (index: #8; argument: "").
I: main.c: Daemon startup complete.
I: module-suspend-on-idle.c: Sink alsa_output.surround51_0 idle for too long
spending ...
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Device suspended...
I: module-suspend-on-idle.c: Source alsa_output.surround51_0.monitor idle fo
o long, suspending ...
I: client.c: Created 0 "EsounD client (UNIX socket client)"
I: client.c: Created 1 "EsounD client (UNIX socket client)"

and it just stops (I think) at that line.

[sammydee]

Try renaming this line in your default.pa:

load-module module-alsa-sink device_id=0 channels=6 channel_map=front-left,front-center,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,lfe

to:

load-module module-alsa-sink device_id=hw:0 channels=6 channel_map=front-left,front-center,front-right,rear-left,rear-right,lfe

[MeURi]

Alphahour, you should also add your running user to the groups pulse-access and pulse-rt, and maybe even to pulse (I don't remember properly if the latter was needed)

Bye

[alphahour]

sorry for the late reply but I had problems with my external drive so these last weeks I was mostly concerned about recovering data and I forgot this 5.1 issue.

I tried the last two suggestions but nothing happen. I keep having the 2 channel system :s

Is there anything more I can try?

thanks again.
André.

[sammydee]

alphahour: Meuri's suggestion won't help, that just allows pulseaudio to run with realtime privileges.

I'm out of suggestions. Ask on irc, that's where the people that really know what's going on hang out. Or you could try the mailing list.

Sam

[alphahour]

ok. thanks anyway sammydee