No 5.1 audio

Legacy Netrunner 14.x
1

I’m trying to get my 5.1 surround sound to work. I can set it in “Audio - System Settings” but it will not work. I have also lost stereo audio in qmmp, but in settings, the test works. Also in PulseAudio Volume Control has no effect. My system specs are:
AMD FX 8350 4.0 GHz
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO
ASRock 990 FX Extreme4 MB
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 video card
CORSAIR AX750 PS
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB)

I am quad booting Netrunner 14, LinuxMint 17, Ultimate Edition 4.2 & Windows 8.1

2

In qmmp you need to check if the audio output plugin is set to pulseaudio. If it is and you still encounter the problem I recommend you to start pavucontrol and see if the playback stream is set to the correct 5,1 output.

3

That got qmmp working, but only in stereo not 5.1 . When I change the settings in Configure, the audio stops but can see the analyzer still working.

4

Please try the pulseaudio control application pavucontrol then and see if you can change the playback stream to the 5,1 device.

5

Tried that, when I change the settings in Configure, the audio stops but can see the analyzer still working.

6

Maybe the volume is turned down.
Can you check the alsamixer tool in terminal by executing

alsamixer -c0

and see if some channels are muted or volume is turned down.

7

The Front, Surround, Center & Side are maxed out. Adjusting the levels has no effect, the only slider has any effect is the master. This is really trying, the 5.1 works in the other distros that I run.

8

The last thing that comes to my mind that you could try is this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SurroundSound

9

Tried that, complete with a reboot, no joy. I’m going to call it a night(well morning here) Thanks for trying.