PulseAudio network receiving in 5.1 on RPi2

frumble · July 17, 2017 at 6:08 PM

Hello,

I want to use my RPi2 as 5.1 output device on my AV receiver and want to be able to send audio from my Arch Linux computer running PulseAudio in 5.1 to the surround system. The 5.1 output on the RPi seems to be unfinished but with LibreELEC’s applied patches I get full surround sound playing videos with the UI, nice! Now, I want to leverage this hardware support (had no luck with Xubuntu and none with Raspbian) to use the PulseAudio networking feature, good documented in the LibreELEC wiki.

But here comes the problem: "pactl list short sinks" lists only this:
0 auto_null module-null-sink.c s16le 2ch 44100Hz RUNNING

And guess what, it’s really a null device, I checked. So, any way to get the 5.1 output established to PulseAudio? Thank you!

**lrusak** · July 17, 2017 at 6:54 PM Official Post

So in the same wiki page that you posted you missed the part that we don't load the required modules by default

Code

systemctl stop kodi
pactl load-module module-udev-detect
systemctl start kodi

Notice that this will require you to change your audio device in kodi and will also make audio performance suffer.

frumble · July 17, 2017 at 10:15 PM

Hey, thank you. But of course did I run the whole chain of commands:

Code

LibreELEC:~ # systemctl stop kodi
LibreELEC:~ # pactl load-module module-udev-detect
16
LibreELEC:~ # pactl list short sinks
0       auto_null       module-null-sink.c      s16le 2ch 44100Hz       SUSPENDED

Before and after, I can choose between four audio devices in LibreELEC‘s settings: "PI: HDMI", "PI: Analogue", "PI: HDMI and Analogue", "PULSE: Default, Bluetooth Audio (PULSEAUDIO)". It makes no difference what I choose, even before the commands above, "pactl list short sinks" still shows me only "auto_null".

It seems I‘m not the only one with this problem.

**lrusak** · July 18, 2017 at 4:37 AM Official Post

Ah, you have to load the modules in config.txt

Code

mount -o remount,rw /flash
nano /flash/config.txt

paste in at the bottom

Code

dtparam=audio=on

then reboot

frumble · July 18, 2017 at 11:44 AM

Okay, now "pactl list short sinks" lists:

Code

1       alsa_output.platform-soc_audio.analog-stereo    module-alsa-card.c      s16le 2ch 44100Hz       RUNNING

I can play on this from my computer but it‘s just stereo like the name suggests (strangely, it isn’t "analog-stereo", since I get it over HDMI audio). On native Kodi UI though, I can play 5.1 material in 5.1 (no passthrough used, just PCM). So, the 5.1 option is still missing in PulseAudio‘s exposed interfaces.

**lrusak** · July 19, 2017 at 11:16 PM Official Post

frumble did you enable the 5.1 profile in pulseaudio? I'm not sure if this is possible (don't have rpi handy)

but something like this

Code

pactl list cards

will show something like

Code

Card #0

	Name: alsa_card.pci-0000_00_08.0

	Driver: module-alsa-card.c

	Owner Module: 6

	Properties:

		alsa.card = "0"

		alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia"

<snip>
.......
</snip>

		device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"

	Profiles:

		input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (sinks: 0, sources: 1, priority: 60, available: yes)

		output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 6000, available: yes)

		output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 6060, available: yes)

		output:analog-surround-21: Analog Surround 2.1 Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 800, available: yes)

		output:analog-surround-21+input:analog-stereo: Analog Surround 2.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 860, available: yes)

		output:analog-surround-40: Analog Surround 4.0 Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 700, available: yes)

		output:analog-surround-40+input:analog-stereo: Analog Surround 4.0 Output + Analog Stereo Input (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority: 760, available: yes)

Display More

then do something like

Code

pactl set-card-profile 0 output:analog-surround-40

the "0" being the card number as given by "pactl list cards."

thankarezos · May 13, 2018 at 7:27 PM

Quote from lrusak
Ah, you have to load the modules in config.txt
Code
mount -o remount,rw /flash
nano /flash/config.txt
paste in at the bottom
Code
dtparam=audio=on
then reboot

hi, i had the same problem. adding dtparam=audio=on fixed the first problem but now bluetooth is completely disabled and i have to remove this line to reable that puts me on the start of the problem