Surround sound (4.0) not working

[Morgan Mackay Snyder]

//*Motherboard (M5A78L-M LX Plus) on-board sound (sudo aplay -l):*//

card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ID 887 Analog [ID 887 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: ID 887 Digital [ID 887 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

//*Is it assigned twice?*//

//*And this (lspci -v | grep -A7 -i "audio"):*//

00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
 Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8445
 Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
 Memory at f9ff4000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

//*When no source is playing (pacmd list-sinks):*//

* index: 0
 name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-surround-40>
 driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
 flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
 state: SUSPENDED
 suspend cause: IDLE
 priority: 9959
 volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, rear-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, rear-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
         balance 0.00
 base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
 volume steps: 65537
 muted: no
 current latency: 0.00 ms
 max request: 0 KiB
 max rewind: 0 KiB
 monitor source: 0
 sample spec: s16le 4ch 48000Hz
 channel map: front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right
              Surround 4.0
 used by: 0
 linked by: 0
 configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 170.67 ms
 card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_14.2>
 module: 6
 properties:
  alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
  device.api = "alsa"
  device.class = "sound"
  alsa.class = "generic"
  alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
  alsa.name = "ID 887 Analog"
  alsa.id = "ID 887 Analog"
  alsa.subdevice = "0"
  alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
  alsa.device = "0"
  alsa.card = "0"
  alsa.card_name = "HDA ATI SB"
  alsa.long_card_name = "HDA ATI SB at 0xf9ff4000 irq 16"
  alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
  device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:14.2"
  sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.2/sound/card0"
  device.bus = "pci"
  device.vendor.id = "1002"
  device.vendor.name = "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]"
  device.product.id = "4383"
  device.product.name = "SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)"
  device.form_factor = "internal"
  device.string = "surround40:0"
  device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
  device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"
  device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
  device.profile.name = "analog-surround-40"
  device.profile.description = "Analog Surround 4.0"
  device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Surround 4.0"
  alsa.mixer_name = "Realtek ID 887"
  alsa.components = "HDA:10ec0887,10438445,00100302"
  module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
  device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
 ports:
  analog-output-lineout: Line Out (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
   properties:

 active port: <analog-output-lineout>

//*When source is playing (pacmd list sinks):*//

* index: 0
 name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-surround-40>
 driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
 flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
 state: RUNNING
 suspend cause:
 priority: 9959
 volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, rear-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, rear-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
         balance 0.00
 base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
 volume steps: 65537
 muted: no
 current latency: 39.70 ms
 max request: 13 KiB
 max rewind: 64 KiB
 monitor source: 0
 sample spec: s16le 4ch 44100Hz
 channel map: front-left,front-right,rear-left,rear-right
              Surround 4.0
 used by: 1
 linked by: 1
 configured latency: 40.00 ms; range is 0.50 .. 185.76 ms
 card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_14.2>
 module: 6
 properties:
  alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
  device.api = "alsa"
  device.class = "sound"
  alsa.class = "generic"
  alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
  alsa.name = "ID 887 Analog"
  alsa.id = "ID 887 Analog"
  alsa.subdevice = "0"
  alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
  alsa.device = "0"
  alsa.card = "0"
  alsa.card_name = "HDA ATI SB"
  alsa.long_card_name = "HDA ATI SB at 0xf9ff4000 irq 16"
  alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
  device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:14.2"
  sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.2/sound/card0"
  device.bus = "pci"
  device.vendor.id = "1002"
  device.vendor.name = "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]"
  device.product.id = "4383"
  device.product.name = "SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)"
  device.form_factor = "internal"
  device.string = "surround40:0"
  device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
  device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"
  device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
  device.profile.name = "analog-surround-40"
  device.profile.description = "Analog Surround 4.0"
  device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Surround 4.0"
  alsa.mixer_name = "Realtek ID 887"
  alsa.components = "HDA:10ec0887,10438445,00100302"
  module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
  device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
 ports:
  analog-output-lineout: Line Out (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: yes)
   properties:

 active port: <analog-output-lineout>

//*But when I look at input source (pacmd list-sink-inputs):*//

index: 5
 driver: <protocol-native.c>
 flags: START_CORKED FIX_RATE
 state: RUNNING
 sink: 0 <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-surround-40>
 volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB, front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
         balance 0.00
 muted: no
 current latency: 417.75 ms
 requested latency: 40.00 ms
 sample spec: float32le 2ch 44100Hz
 channel map: front-left,front-right
              Stereo
 resample method: copy
 module: 7
 client: 14 <VLC media player>
 properties:
  media.role = "video"
  media.name = "audio stream"
  application.name = "VLC media player"
  native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
  native-protocol.version = "30"
  application.id = "org.VideoLAN.VLC"
  application.version = "2.2.1"
  application.icon_name = "vlc"
  application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
  application.process.id = "2645"
  application.process.user = "nagromlt"
  application.process.host = "Mainframe"
  application.process.binary = "vlc"
  window.x11.display = ":0"
  application.process.machine_id = "d4c42281f09f70b35960567f54b34727"
  application.process.session_id = "c2"
  module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-media-role:video"

//*Is it running from float32le 2ch instead of s16le 4ch???*//

Trying to get rear speakers to "work". 4.0 surround sound system (Creative) was working fine in 15.04. Then stopped with upgrade to 15.10... :/

I have been looking for a couple months now for solution but nothing. Tried forums, wikis, and even freenode ubuntu channels. Usually by now I would have found a fix online or messed with and re-installed a lot of stuff and figured it out/fixed it myself. Maybe I'm getting old. :D haha

What would have changed in pulse or alsa or whatever so drastically from 15.04 to 15.10?

(apt-cache policy pulseaudio)
pulseaudio:
  Installed: 1:6.0-0ubuntu13
  Candidate: 1:6.0-0ubuntu13
  Version table:
 *** 1:6.0-0ubuntu13 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner.

Ubuntu 15.10 (wily) reached end-of-life on July 28, 2016.

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue using a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know otherwise this report can be left to expire in approximately 60 days time.

Paul White
[Ubuntu Bug Squad]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for Ubuntu because there has been no activity for 60 days.]