Universal Blue•2mo ago

Sound Card Output is Swapped/Mixed up

Creative Sound Blaster AE-5 5.1 analogue connection. Centre/Sub output and Rear output are literally swapped. If I swap the plugs, it fixes the issue, but then it's plugged incorrectly and when I boot into Windows, I'll have to swap plugs.... I'd like to figure out how I can swap them to the way they should be.

33 Replies

皇家海星•2mo ago

you can probably adjust it in windows in the sound blaster driver

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Unfortunately there's nothing in the Creative app or Windows settings that allows me to change anything other than reversing stereo channels, but as soon as I boot back into Linux that reverts anyway.

皇家海星•2mo ago

I meant to also reverse it in windows trying to mess with audio in linux is a pita you can probably do it via some pipewire configs, but that's also still kinda a pita you can either do it with alsa and wireplumber, or a pipewire virtual loopback device most solutions on the internet should work if they don't touch anything in /usr/

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Is pipewire something I can install? I tried alsamixer but couldn't find anything in there (although that did let me turn off the creative software effects which was nice since there is no creative app in linux).

皇家海星•2mo ago

pipewire is one of the audio systems in fedora(and most modern desktop linux distros) wireplumber is a layer that allows pipewire to run on top of existing linux audio systems alsa is advanced linux audio subsystem I'd advise you to not touch alsa if you don't know what you are doing

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

Can you install coppwr from bazaar ? and send node name of your sound cards? I will create file for you to create new sink that will swap outputs

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Just installed. Trying to find the nodename now Okay found it. Its "alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.0.analog-surround-51"

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

and can you also scroll up little and there should be audio position

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

FL,FR,RL,RR,FC,LFE

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

in your file browser enable showing hidden files in KDE it is (CTRL+M) and from home go to .config create folder wireplumber and inside wireplumber create another folder main.lua.d and inside main.lua.d create text file 51-fix-channels.lua in text file paste this:

rule = {
  matches = {
    {
      { "node.name", "matches", "alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.0.analog-surround-51" },
    },
  },
  apply_properties = {
--    ["audio.channels"]         = 2,
    ["audio.position"]         = "FL,FR,FC,LFE,RL,RR",
  },
}

table.insert(alsa_monitor.rules, rule)

rule = {
  matches = {
    {
      { "node.name", "matches", "alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.0.analog-surround-51" },
    },
  },
  apply_properties = {
--    ["audio.channels"]         = 2,
    ["audio.position"]         = "FL,FR,FC,LFE,RL,RR",
  },
}

table.insert(alsa_monitor.rules, rule)

and save

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Okay, done. Does the text file extension should be .txt or .lua?

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

and restart wireplumber systemctl --user restart wireplumber.service .lua

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Hmm doesn't seem to have changed anything unfortunately...

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

if you check audio position again. Is it swapped? also try restarting PC

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

I'll quickly restart, brb. Okay restarted. So if I go back into sound test, "front left" comes from front left, "Front Center" comes from Rear Left, "Front Right" comes from front right, "Rear Left" comes from Front Center, "Subwoofer" comes from Rear Right (and she actually says Rear Center) and then "rear Right" is coming from the subwoofer.

皇家海星•2mo ago

so it should be FL,FR,RL,RR,FC,LFE

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

that what it was default so it doesn't make sense or rule wasn't applied

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Yeah it's so bizarre. And it's definitely not Bazzite specific either. I had the same problem when I was testing Manjaro and Ubuntu. I've double checked those steps, made sure it was all copied correctly.

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

did audio possition change in coppwr?

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

ooo looks like it didn't. It's showing as default. Showing as "FL,FR,RL,RR,FC,LFE" which is the original I think

皇家海星•2mo ago

check systemctl --user status wireplumber maybe

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

Ah wireplumber changed conf files. ok rename the file from 51-fix-channels.lua to 51-fix-channels.conf and remove last line table.insert(alsa_monitor.rules, rule) from it

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Hmm still the same. For whatever reason it doesn't want to read that file

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

delete that file

monitor.alsa.rules = [
  {
    matches = [
      {
        device.name = "alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.0.analog-surround-51"
      }
    ]
    actions = {
      update-props = {
        audio.position = "FL,FR,FC,LFE,RL,RR"
      }
    }
  }
]

monitor.alsa.rules = [
  {
    matches = [
      {
        device.name = "alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.0.analog-surround-51"
      }
    ]
    actions = {
      update-props = {
        audio.position = "FL,FR,FC,LFE,RL,RR"
      }
    }
  }
]

and put it ~/.config/wireplumber/wireplumber.conf.d/

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Uh oh, now we get nothing at all from FC, Rl, LFE and RR channels 😅

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

what does coppwr says?

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

FL,FR,RL,RR,FC,LFE

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

try changing audio position line to audio.position = ["FL,FR,FC,LFE,RL,RR"]

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

Audio position is still showing "FL,FR,RL,RR,FC,LFE" but now the sound test is doing the inverted centre/rear again 😩

iMightBeSpyduck•2mo ago

We can try something else. Give me a minute. you can delete wireplumber config go to ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/ and create 51-fix-channels.conf

context.modules = [
{   name = libpipewire-module-combine-stream
    args = {
        combine.mode = sink
        node.name = "AudioFix"
        node.description = "AudioFix"
        combine.latency-compensate = false
        combine.props = {
            audio.position = [ FL FR RL RR FC LFE ]
        }
        stream.props = {
                stream.dont-remix = true
        }
        stream.rules = [
            {   matches = [
                    {   media.class = "Audio/Sink"
                        node.name = "alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.0.analog-surround-51"
                    } ]
                actions = { create-stream = {
                        combine.audio.position = [ FL FR RL RR FC LFE ]
                        audio.position = [ FL FR FC LFE RL RR ]
                } } }
         ]
    }
}
]

context.modules = [
{   name = libpipewire-module-combine-stream
    args = {
        combine.mode = sink
        node.name = "AudioFix"
        node.description = "AudioFix"
        combine.latency-compensate = false
        combine.props = {
            audio.position = [ FL FR RL RR FC LFE ]
        }
        stream.props = {
                stream.dont-remix = true
        }
        stream.rules = [
            {   matches = [
                    {   media.class = "Audio/Sink"
                        node.name = "alsa_output.pci-0000_05_00.0.analog-surround-51"
                    } ]
                actions = { create-stream = {
                        combine.audio.position = [ FL FR RL RR FC LFE ]
                        audio.position = [ FL FR FC LFE RL RR ]
                } } }
         ]
    }
}
]

save and restart. It should create new sink called Audio fix. You will need to set it as default so all your audio is routed through it or if you still have wireplumber conf try changing it again to audio.position = ["FL", "FR", "FC" , "LFE", "RL" ,"RR"]

DyNaMiXOP•2mo ago

When you say set as default, how do I do that? Oh wait I found it. It works!!!! Thank you both so much. 🙂 Curious what's causing the issue in the first place, as I said it happened in other Linux Distros I tried. But at least this seems to be a fix I can apply regardless.

皇家海星•2mo ago

probably misconfigured driver by default, or maybe sound blaster is using some weird way to control their stuff

HarleySqrlnutz•2mo ago

I'm having exactly the same issue. I've followed the above steps and can see the AudioFix node in coppwr, but I'm stuck at the last step..."set it to default". I was kind of stuck. I don't know if what I did was the 'right' way to do it, but I did a 'wpctl status' , got the ID of the new AudioFix sink, and then 'wpctl set-default ID' (replaced ID with the number of my AudioFix sink. Restarted services, and things appear to be working 🙂

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