HiFi 7.1 Not Working

[leyvi]

Hello Gentoo community.
I just got some HiFi 7.1 compatible wired headphones, and it would seem that they are only partially working: going into KDE audio settings and changing it to work with HiFi 2.0 works perfectly fine. On 7.1, only front-right and front-left work. The headphones came with a USB adapter, which includes a controller, DAC etc, but when I try to use it, it doesn't work. I imagine that there's a kernel option that I need to enable, but I really don't know, I've never really messed around with audio before.
Here's my kernel config by the way: http://0x0.st/8oH1.txt
This is `dmesg`: http://0x0.st/8oHj.txt
I looked it over, and I think this is interesting:

[pietinger]

Hmmm ... the default value here is 32 ... why you have changed it to 4 ?

[leyvi]

OK, I'll give it a shot. Here's the output of `cpuid | grep x2APIC`:

[leyvi]

OK, here's how it went:
Headphones are now picked up by the OS when plugged in with USB (before it was just with the 3.5mm). I get several options: Analog Stereo Output, Digital Stereo Output (IEC958), and Digital Surround HiFi 5.1 (IEC958/AC3) Output. Analog sound good, Digital is basically the same as Analog, but where is HiFi 7.1? And why is it that when I set the headphones to use HiFi 5.1, and try to test it, my ears are violently raped?

[pietinger]

I cannot answer your questions. What says "aplay -L" (and "aplay -l") and "alsactl info" ? Does "lsusb -v" tell us something? Something in your "dmesg"?
_________________
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[leyvi]

aplay -L.
aplay -l.
This is the USB DAC/sound card that came with the headphones: lsusb --verbose -s 001:007.
This is my motherboard's audio port: lsusb --verbose -s 005:006.
Here's some stuff I sifted out of `dmesg`:

[pietinger]

Hmmm ... looks good:

[leyvi]

Unfortunately, `CONFIG_USB_DYNAMIC_MINORS=y` did not do the trick. Here's the new config. Note that I made some other small changes that I thought might fix the problem. I wonder: is the problem that I'm missing support for a codec, in the kernel or elsewhere? The ear-rape that I get when I enable HiFi sounds exactly the same, no matter what I play. I wonder if those horrid sounds are actually a miss-interpreted codec?

[pietinger]

You have a monolithic kernel (like me) and I understand that very well. Unfortunately I don't know what to do. In such a case, the last thing to do is to investigate:

Boot with our GentoooLIVE-CD and check if this gaming headset is working properly. If not, we've lost anyway. If yes, then you can do the following:
1. chroot into your Gentoo system ( https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Pietinger/New_at_Gentoo#Pause_during_Installation )
2. go into /usr/src/linux-6.12.9-gentoo and
3. save your old .config (e.g. to /root)
4. make distclean
5. make localmodconfig (please NO localyesconfig) ->

You now have all necessary drivers as a module in this new config + everything that is STATICALLY activated in our Gentoo distribution kernel.

6. now check both:
6a. Do you have everything with =m ALSO in YOUR .config ? If yes, then that's done.
6b. Check whether everything that concerns USB and SND (and is static in this new config) is ALSO in YOUR old config.

Don't worry, you don't have to use this new config. When you have checked everything, you can do another “make distclean”, copy back your old .config (and apply it with “make oldconfig”).
_________________
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Pietinger

[leyvi]

I found something else: if you look at the files I sent earlier, you'll see something about 'iec958'. I tried searching for a kernel option related to it, and found this: `CONFIG_SND_PCM_IEC958`. It seems to be disabled in my kernel. Maybe enabling it would help? Problem is, the option doesn't appear as a direct option; it seems to be an "implied" option, or something. Does anyone know how to enable it?

[NeddySeagoon]

leyvi,

Sound cards can do two broad sound standards.

1. Analogue, sampled an 44.1kHz as per CD Digital Audio.
2. Digital, sampled at 48kHz and higher.
Most sound cards cannot do both at the same time. There is a trap for the unwary here as making digital outputs active (Unmuted) disables analogue outputs.

Digital is used for HDMI audio outputs and the like.
In mixers, the controls are labelled IEC958 or S/PDIF, they mean the same thing.
Note that volume control in the digital domain is difficult, so controls are limited to a Mute switch.

The help on SND_PCM_IEC958 says

[leyvi]

Short of booting a LiveCD (which I don't have time for today, I'd have to do it some other time, and I'd like this to work today if possible), what can I do to make this work? Trying to enable the previously mentioned kernel option would take all day...

[NeddySeagoon]

leyvi,

See my edit ^^^
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[leyvi]

Here is is:

[pietinger]

What happens if you give CONFIG_SND_MAX_CARDS a higher value than 32 (e.g. 64) ?
_________________
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Pietinger

[leyvi]

One second, let me give that a shot...

[leyvi]

Unfortunately, it had no effect. My ears still got raped when I tried to use HiFi. Here's something else I found: when I plug the headphones in with the USB adapter that came with it, and try to use HiFi, my ears get raped, but when I plug it in to the sound card built-in to my motherboard and enable HiFi 7.1, Front-Right and Front-Left work fine, and everything else is silent. Very strange, since these headphones are advertised to support HiFi 7.1...

[NeddySeagoon]

leyvi,

Eeewww six sound cards seen by the kernel. You will need

[logrusx]

What does "sounds good" mean? What does "not working" mean?

For 7.1 audio output you need 7.1 recording. Do you have one?

Best Regards,
Georgi

[leyvi]

A few details to clarify things:

[logrusx]

Honestly, I can't imagine how something more than 2.1 would work with headphones. 7.1 means you have 8 audio channels. I can imagine only how .1 works. It just adds low frequency to both earphones, it may not even use a separate low frequency speaker. But front, rear and so on, different than just right and left are not only mystery to me. They make no sense.

The surround sound works when you are surrounded by speakers and your brain figures where the sound is coming from by very subtle differences and delays between both inputs, i.e. both years. I don't know how that would be achieved inside an earphone. That's why I think those HiFi 7.1 headphones of yours are just a marketing scam.

Moreover by your own words, they only have a single jack, which cannot be anything more than stereo.

I'm sorry to disappoint you but this thing has no way of working the way you imagine it.

At least, please post the make and model and maybe pictures of all the inputs, splitters and so on. Regarding the MB, I guess I know what are the outputs. It's a block of female stereo jacks with different colors. Every color corresponds to what pair of speakers should be plugged in there. Central, Front, Rear, Subwoofer (should really be called bass or low freq) and so on, so no need to have a picture of that. It's very common. And it's most commonly, if not only HD-Audio standard.

Best Regards,
Georgi

[leyvi]

Here's a link to the product page.

[logrusx]

[leyvi]

Aw, that sucks. Why is Logitech allowed to advertise something as "HiFi 7.1 Compatible" when it clearly isn't? I'm not an audio expert as you can see, and I was duped by this. Most people know even less than me though. Shouldn't this be illegal (false advertising, clearly)?

[logrusx]