Recently I run into problems with audio playing on my Manjaro machines, both PC and laptop. I still need to confirm that this is the same for both my integrated Realtek and external Xonar U7 MKII sound cards. I have also SoundBlaster AE5 Plus, but that one doesn’t work with Linux anyway.
I tried different stuff:
Live Manjaro USB boot
Plugin card into my laptop
Install pipewire
Change kernel version
Only thing that worked (just for proof that sound card is not broken) was mint linux live disk. I got 5.1 audio, no problem at all.
btw, interestingly, there is a difference:
Sound test from system settings: front, rear and center work, sub-woofer doesn’t.
Sound test with speaker-test -c6 -t wav all good.
One more thing, when switched to pipewire, sound test from system settings freezes when I press Subwoofer.
module-allow-passthrough When a passthrough stream is requested, route all the other streams to a dummy device
module-alsa-card ALSA Card
module-alsa-sink ALSA Sink
module-alsa-source ALSA Source
module-always-sink Always keeps at least one sink loaded even if it's a null one
module-always-source Always keeps at least one source loaded even if it's a null one
module-augment-properties Augment the property sets of streams with additional static information
module-bluetooth-discover Detect available Bluetooth daemon and load the corresponding discovery module
module-bluetooth-policy Policy module to make using bluetooth devices out-of-the-box easier
module-bluez5-device BlueZ 5 Bluetooth audio sink and source
module-bluez5-discover Detect available BlueZ 5 Bluetooth audio devices and load BlueZ 5 Bluetooth audio drivers
module-card-restore Automatically restore profile of cards
module-cli Command line interface
module-cli-protocol-tcp Command line interface protocol (TCP sockets)
module-cli-protocol-unix Command line interface protocol (UNIX sockets)
module-combine Compatibility module (module-combine rename)
module-combine-sink Combine multiple sinks to one
module-console-kit Create a client for each ConsoleKit session of this user
module-dbus-protocol D-Bus interface
module-default-device-restore Automatically restore the default sink and source
module-detect Detect available audio hardware and load matching drivers
module-device-manager Keep track of devices (and their descriptions) both past and present and prioritise by role
module-device-restore Automatically restore the volume/mute state of devices
module-echo-cancel Echo Cancellation
module-filter-apply Load filter sinks automatically when needed
module-filter-heuristics Detect when various filters are desirable
module-gsettings GSettings Adapter
module-hal-detect Compatibility module
module-http-protocol-tcp HTTP (TCP sockets)
module-http-protocol-unix HTTP (UNIX sockets)
module-intended-roles Automatically set device of streams based on intended roles of devices
module-jack-sink JACK Sink
module-jack-source JACK Source
module-jackdbus-detect Adds JACK sink/source ports when JACK is started
module-ladspa-sink Virtual LADSPA sink
module-lirc LIRC volume control
module-loopback Loopback from source to sink
module-match Playback stream expression matching module
module-mmkbd-evdev Multimedia keyboard support via Linux evdev
module-native-protocol-fd Native protocol autospawn helper
module-native-protocol-tcp Native protocol (TCP sockets)
module-native-protocol-unix Native protocol (UNIX sockets)
module-null-sink Clocked NULL sink
module-null-source Clocked NULL source
module-oss OSS Sink/Source
module-pipe-sink UNIX pipe sink
module-pipe-source UNIX pipe source
module-position-event-sounds Position event sounds between L and R depending on the position on screen of the widget triggering them.
module-raop-discover mDNS/DNS-SD Service Discovery of RAOP devices
module-raop-sink RAOP Sink
module-remap-sink Virtual channel remapping sink
module-remap-source Virtual channel remapping source
module-rescue-streams This module is obsolete, please remove it from your configuration.
module-role-cork Mute & cork streams with certain roles while others exist
module-role-ducking Apply a ducking effect based on streams roles
module-rtp-recv Receive data from a network via RTP/SAP/SDP
module-rtp-send Read data from source and send it to the network via RTP/SAP/SDP
module-rygel-media-server UPnP MediaServer Plugin for Rygel
module-simple-protocol-tcp Simple protocol (TCP sockets)
module-simple-protocol-unix Simple protocol (UNIX sockets)
module-sine Sine wave generator
module-sine-source Sine wave generator source
module-stream-restore Automatically restore the volume/mute/device state of streams
module-suspend-on-idle When a sink/source is idle for too long, suspend it
module-switch-on-connect When a sink/source is added, switch to it or conditionally switch to it
module-switch-on-port-available Switches ports and profiles when devices are plugged/unplugged
module-systemd-login Create a client for each login session of this user
module-tunnel-sink Tunnel module for sinks
module-tunnel-sink-new Create a network sink which connects via a stream to a remote PulseAudio server
module-tunnel-source Tunnel module for sources
module-tunnel-source-new Create a network source which connects via a stream to a remote PulseAudio server
module-udev-detect Detect available audio hardware and load matching drivers
module-virtual-sink Virtual sink
module-virtual-source Virtual source
module-virtual-surround-sink Virtual surround sink
module-volume-restore Compatibility module
module-x11-bell X11 bell interceptor
module-x11-cork-request Synthesize X11 media key events when cork/uncork is requested
module-x11-publish X11 credential publisher
module-x11-xsmp X11 session management
module-zeroconf-discover mDNS/DNS-SD Service Discovery
module-zeroconf-publish mDNS/DNS-SD Service Publisher
Another update: Exact same thing with integrated Realtek sound card. I can’t get subwoofer except from speaker-test program. Both sound cards and speakers work correctly under Mint Linux.
So, it is 5.1 configuration, and 5.1 is what i want to achieve. Wiring is also OK, according to the user manual. @Yochanan I tried settings that you recommended, and yes I have lfe output now. Thanks a lot! However, I’m still confused why it worked just a few months ago on integrated Realtek, without any interventions in config file, and now it doesn’t. I recently moved and didn’t really have time to setup my speakers for quite some time. Maybe that caused some miss configuration during update?
Well, not at all nothing fancy, but they have decent sound. I can’t remember the price actually, but it was around 100-150e.
I think this was the model: GENIUS SW-HF5.1 4800 5.1 Current price is 125e.
It looks like it’s discontinued and no longer sold.
…and here’s why my LFE settings worked:
Using the 5.1 input, bass all but disappeared from music sources because the subwoofer only reproduces audio from the subwoofer input rather than the bass frequencies from all inputs. This would be fine if each satellite could handle full-range playback, but they give up below about 80Hz.
My Creative 5.1 / 7.1 set I bought on NewEgg 15+ years ago has small satellite speakers and cannot handle full-range, either. Other than that they still work great.
Only thing that worked… …was mint linux live disk. I got 5.1 audio, no problem at all.
If 5.1 surround is working on this Live ISO, PulseAudio diagnostics pulseaudio --dump-conf and pacmd dump would show differences in configuration that can be used in Manjaro
The main configuration changes needed to create the LFE stream for subwoofer have already been suggested
If system is already capable of producing 5.0 output, default-sample-channels probably does not need to be changed
Settings for sample-format and sample-rate are not necessary for creating LFE subwoofer audio but does improve audio quality
PulseAudio has a manpage for the daemon.conf configuration file man pulse-daemon.conf that has more information on all these settings
SoundBlaster AE-5 Plus was patched to work in ALSA a few months ago Soundblaster Creative AE-5 Plus: No sound
This device usually works ok if user does not have to switch between stereo and 5.1 surround output.
Switching between stereo and 5.1 surround outputs on this device must be configured in ALSA controls and cannot be managed automatically in PulseAudio
Thanks for info! I know that AE-5 was patched couple of months ago, but you can only have stereo output. If you switch to any other stream card goes into some error state and and you get dummy output only. So, it kinda works, but not very well. I searched for solution but had no luck so far. Anyway that is offtopic a bit.
Wiring is also OK, according to the user manual.