surround sound support?

[adithyagenius]

I tried ubuntu 8.04 and fedora 9 and tried some tips from websites to enable 5.1. I was able to use 5.1 on fedora 6 and fedora 7 and year back. But now all linux distro I have used are unable to output 5.1. I also tried installing m2a-vm linux drivers on a system with m2a-vm but it got screwed up.
My configs:
690g and 740g mobos
realtek 883 and 888 ALC
7600gt and 8600gt gfx
rlt 8111 and 8139 ethernets
athlon x2 4000+ and 4800+

I want sound from all 5 speakers and subwoofer when I play songs on amarok or watch videos in mplayer or vlc.

Or please suggest a distro meets the following specs
1. 5.1 support in mplayer, amarok and gparted.
2. less than 7 gb hdd and should support ntfs read/write.
3. supports my hardware and has pppoe-conf or something as easy.
4. Should have gcc and java compiler in the installation or in their repos.
5. compiz is appreciated but not must.

[Faun]

1) Try Mandriva. AFAIK gparted dont need 5.1 support to format a HDD
2) avg size is far less than 7
3) openSUSE, mint or Mandriva
4) every current distro have gcc and java in their repos
5) yeah by defaults its installed in many distros, use debian or arch to make from scratch without any bloat.

[adithyagenius]

Dude I need 5.1 support to listen to music, not to foramt hdd. I by mistake put gparted there.
So do you know that 5.1 is going to work with mandriva? I am seeing that all distros are using similiar audio software. All have same interface and all have pulse audio. I think thats the problem. I need the old sound from fedora 7 back. It was not true 5.1 but it atleased utilised all the 5 speakers and most importantly the subwoofer.

[FilledVoid]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SurroundSound

If you are using Realtek or Intel HDA onboard sound devices then refer to the wiki for install directions for configuring them correctly. I don't use Hardy heron now so I'm not sure if it has been fixed correctly. Also the above link should ahve everythigny ou need to configure it correctly.

[mediator]

Fedora 9 gave me 5.1 by default! But in some cases u have to enable a switch called "Line in as Output".

[adithyagenius]

^
how to do that?

Originally Posted by FilledVoid

If you are using Realtek or Intel HDA onboard sound devices then refer to the wiki for install directions for configuring them correctly. I don't use Hardy heron now so I'm not sure if it has been fixed correctly. Also the above link should ahve everythigny ou need to configure it correctly.

tried similiar methods suggested in various forums but didnt work.

[FilledVoid]

This would go much easier if you said What you tried and why it doesn't work. As in error messages or whatever.

[Faun]

[adithyagenius]

Originally Posted by T159

I have headphone switch. No such switch as line in as output and mic as output.
All my mobos are AMD based -690G, 740G. I have confirmed the problem exists on ATI RS400/SB450 for Intel processors. All have Realtek HDA ALC883, ALC888 and ALC888 repectively.
Do ATI and linux hate each other?

[mediator]

Edit > Preferences > Line in as output

Checked there?

[FilledVoid]

I have headphone switch. No such switch as line in as output and mic as output.
All my mobos are AMD based -690G, 740G. I have confirmed the problem exists on ATI RS400/SB450 for Intel processors. All have Realtek HDA ALC883, ALC888 and ALC888 repectively.
Do ATI and linux hate each other?

I had the same problem with Realtek. I ended up compiling ALSA with the newer packages. Also I had to edit some options to specify the number of pins I have.

3stack-dig 3-stack (2-channel) with SPDIF
3stack-6ch 3-stack (6-channel)
3stack-6ch-dig 3-stack (6-channel) with SPDIF
6stack-dig 6-stack with SPDIF
lenovo-101e Lenovo laptop
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)

I selected one of these not sure which one. But whatever I did is specified on my blog which for some odd reason won't open up . Heres a thread I had on LinuxQuestions.org