Realtek ALC888 recognized as having 2 channels instead of 8

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه)]

I cannot see the controls for the 7.1 channels supported by the laptop. I tried to compile a new alsa snapshot just in case it's fixed but I lost the audio device altogether after rebooting. I also tried https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev/+archive/ppa
which should be the proper way to update alsa in ubuntu but again the audio device disappears altogether.

I tried to use
options snd-hda-intel model=targa-8ch-dig
and though I can see alsa controls now for the surround system but only 1 jack is working and the sound is coming from the wrong jack (rear instead of front/headphone) beside other problems.

I tried to send the bug the proper way but I got a crash like below:
$ ubuntu-bug audio
Bus::open: Can not get ibus-daemon's address.
IBusInputContext::createInputContext: no connection to ibus-daemon
Gtk-Message: (for origin information, set GTK_DEBUG): failed to retrieve property `gtk-enable-event-sounds' of type `gboolean' from rc file value "((GString*) 0x7fdce786db00)" of type `gboolean'
Gtk-Message: (for origin information, set GTK_DEBUG): failed to retrieve property `gtk-enable-input-feedback-sounds' of type `gboolean' from rc file value "((GString*) 0x7fdce786d940)" of type `gboolean'
: Fatal IO error: client killed
Attempting to load the system libmoon

So, attached is alsa-info

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Does your machine physically have 4 output jacks to allow for a 7.1 audio system to be connected? If so, have you selected the correct output profile in the sound preferences? TO select the output profile, click on the speaker icon, and choose "Sound preferences". Once the preferences window has opened, select the hardware tab, then select the audio output profile you want to use. If 7.1 is supported, you should be able to select it from the list of available profiles.

Please report back as to whether this helps solve your issue.

 affects ubuntu/alsa-driver
 status incomplete

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه) (munzirtaha)]

> Does your machine physically have 4 output jacks
Yes.

> have you selected the correct output profile
There is no 7.1 there. Attached is a screenshot of what's there.

The way I confirm this is an alsa bug
speaker-test -Dplug:surround71 -c8 -l1 -twav
plays only front left and front right.

It also worth mentioning that I need to kill pulseaudio or use alsa directly from applications to be able to hear any thing.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Please obtain a log from pulseaudio as outlined here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log. Hopefully this will give me an idea as to whats going on.

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه) (munzirtaha)]

I am sorry pulseaudio works properly I just need to select my card from the "Output" tab in the "Sound Preferences" dialog

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه) (munzirtaha)]

After I fixed pulseaudio configuration now things are different.
I plugged my headphones in the jacks and played speaker-test -c8, I can hear

0 - Front Left
 4 - Center
 1 - Front Right
 7 - Side Right
 3 - Rear Right
coming from the "Headphone out/Front" jack and the "Surround" jack at the same time, where I expected to only hear Front Left and Front Right from the first jack and Side Right and Side Left from the second jack.

2 - Rear Left
 6 - Side Left
 5 - LFE
is not coming from any jack.

Am I testing properly or should I test with speakers instead of headphones?

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه) (munzirtaha)]

Actually even
2 - Rear Left
6 - Side Left
are coming from the surround speakers (grey) but they are very low that I didn't notice.
It's a mess, ain't it?

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

You're probably best testing with a speaker system connected, and finding a player and file that can play 7.1 audio. Totem supports 5.1, but I don't think it supports 7.1. Mplayer or vlc may very well support 7.1 audio.

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه) (munzirtaha)]

Thanks Luke, I appreciate your patience.
I now retested with 8 speakers connected and tested both alsa and pulseaudio behaviour since its inconsistent.

Alsa issues (test with speaker-test -Dplug:surround71 -c8 -twav):
green (Headphone/Front) jack: works properly and plays Front Left and Front Right
grey (Line Out/Surround) jack: plays Front Left and Front Right duplicating the green jack instead of Side Left and Side Right.
blue (Rear) jack: nothing. It should play Rear Right and Rear Left.
pink (Mic In/Center/Subwoofer) jack: nothing. It should play the Center and LFE.

pulseaudio issues (test with speaker-test -Dpulse -c8 -twav):

speaker-test -Dpulse -c8 -l1 -twav
green (Headphone/Front) jack & grey (Line Out/Surround) jack: Both plays
0 - Front Left,
4 - Center
1 - Front Right
7 - Side Right
3 - Rear Right
2 - Rear Left
6 - Side Left

blue (Rear) jack: nothing. It should play Rear Right and Rear Left.
I also tested pulseaudio with option default-sample-channels = 8 instead of the default 2 but it doesn't make a difference.
Beside those bugs there is no alsamixer sliders to control the surround channel levels separately. If this info is enough please change the Incomplete status of the bug.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Ok, lets try updating your alsa drivers to the latest code. Add the Ubuntu Audio Dev PPA https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev/+archive as a software source, and install the package linux-alsa-driver-modules-2.6.35-22-generic and reboot. Does this change the behavior of your analog output jacks for surround sound at all?

Setting bug status to confirmed, as there is a problem. Now its a matter of working out how to address it.

 affects ubuntu/alsa-driver
 status confirmed

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه) (munzirtaha)]

I tried that before and I lost my sound device. However, to help you debug it, I tried it NOW and again the device is lost. Here is the alsa-info output:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=91f6a8fd05a0893e2a48f130de1d14faf3bf0c77

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه) (munzirtaha)]

Luke, beside my bugs, the new version could have a serious regression. Can you please take care of this?

[Munzir Taha (منذر طه) (munzirtaha)]

I now installed natty and by default there is no sliders for surround sound. alsa-info.sh shows
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=2fab86ace94244ab056c79277bb93964df124249
I then added
options snd-hda-intel model=targa-8ch-dig
and no sound at all

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

the auto parser need modification to put headphone and line out at same location (ext rear) in line_outs and retask of mic and line in jacks in order to support 7.1

autoconfig: line_outs=1 (0x17/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:line
   speaker_outs=1 (0x1b/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
   hp_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
   mono: mono_out=0x0
   dig-out=0x1e/0x0
   inputs:
     Mic=0x18
     Internal Mic=0x19
     Line=0x1a

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for alsa-driver (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]