[Openal] Re: Re: PCM.rear missing

[Chris Robinson]

On Tuesday 03 November 2009 11:44:39 pm Schneider, Thomas wrote:
> Yesterday I recognized it's not just PCM.rear missing, but also the rear
> speakers also don't play any sound in surround-Mode.
> To be application-independent I tried this with following command (
> trying surround40 surround51,surround71, ...):
> 
> speaker-test -c 4 -twav -Dplug:surround40
> 
> on my new Shuttle SX58H7.
> First try was with Debian Lenny, second try with a Live Ubuntu 9.10 ,
> I have problems with both, I only get sound out of the front speakers (
> telling "front-left" and "front-right" in the speaker-test example)
> 
> It's not a problem of the speakers. Parallel to my new Shuttle SX58H7, I
> also have a Shuttle SP35P2 ( with installed Debian Etch)
> where I can get surround Sound ( and also have the PCM.rear listed when
> calling "aplay -L"

Sounds like a driver problem, to me. Check alsamixer and see if there's any 
rear or surround channels. If they're there, make sure the volume is up and 
unmuted. If PulseAudio is installed, you might need to check through it for 
the volume controls.

You'd probably have better luck asking in ALSA-related forums and such, 
though.