Sennheiser GSX 1000/1200: only one subdevice exposed by Pulse & incorrect channel mapping

[roothorick]

Similar to the Steelseries Arctis headphones, these sound "cards" present as two output devices, one intended for voice chat and one for everything else. As a result they also need a special profile.

But there's another complication. They also have hardware HRTF that requires no special driver logic; instead, the "everything else" output pretends to be 7.1, and simply applies the HRTF to the streams sent by the host. However, the channel mappings picked up by ALSA are wrong -- the rear speakers and center/LFE are swapped.

I know, technically this is two bugs, but they have the same fix which is impractical to separate. I'm attaching a "sennheiser-gsx.conf" based on the Arctis 7 profile that both corrects the channel mapping and exposes both output subdevices. A simple udev rule seals the deal:

ATTRS{idVendor}=="1395", ATTRS{idProduct}=="005e", ENV{PULSE_PROFILE_SET}="sennheiser-gsx.conf"

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:11.1-1ubuntu7.2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.18.0-16.17~18.04.1-generic 4.18.20
Uname: Linux 4.18.0-16-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.6
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC3: roothorick 7548 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC2: roothorick 7548 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: roothorick 7548 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Mar 23 23:09:21 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-09-12 (193 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 08/07/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 2004
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: H87M-E
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr2004:bd08/07/2014:svnASUS:pnAllSeries:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnH87M-E:rvrRevX.0x:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.family: ASUS MB
dmi.product.name: All Series
dmi.product.sku: All
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUS
modified.conffile..etc.pulse.daemon.conf: [modified]
modified.conffile..etc.pulse.default.pa: [modified]
mtime.conffile..etc.pulse.daemon.conf: 2019-03-23T20:51:33.488207
mtime.conffile..etc.pulse.default.pa: 2019-03-23T23:03:49.029912

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks Ben.

Could you please propose that fix to the PulseAudio developers at

  https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/groups/pulseaudio/-/merge_requests

?

[Nelson Elhage (nelhage)]

I've submitted an upstream MR here based on the OP's fix with some slight edits based on my tseting: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/-/merge_requests/286