I can confirm there is something wrong with this USB audio Chipset. The CM106 shows up in lsusb as "C-Media Electronics, Inc. CM106 Like Sound Device" It is used in external sound cards etc., offering up to 7.1 audio channles, mic + line in, microphone and headphone connectors. And SPDIF, but I never used that.
On Ubuntu 12.04 (original release) it was recognized and worked. It offered a bunch of profiles, of which I extensively used the '5.1 output only' one. I also tested the mic input and headphone connectors in other profiles: worked. Sometimes upon plugging in the card it was only recognized as stereo capable device or it was recoginizedas 5.1, but the stereo profile had been selected. Adjusting the settings or killing pulseaudio usually worked. Sometimes also the settings for the balancers got lost. Minor drawback: The card was always set to max volume upon plugging in, no matter what the volume regulator said. Therefore I had to manually switch back to my internal soundcard, then select again the CM106 and finally adjust the volume. Since some recent kernel upgrade (for ubuntu 12.04, but during spring 2014) this all vanished. I now experience the same problems as described above, with the card being only recognized as stereo device. This applies on current Ubuntu 12.04 versions as well as on Ubuntu 14.04. The problem is not dependent on the other hardware of the computer (checked with four entirely different computers). As it once worked a fix might be easily possible, but someone with knowledge of pulseaudio has to look into it. Is there any solution in sight? If anyone is willing to work on this bug I might gladly offer him or her such an device not only for fixing this bug but also as a little reward for the effort. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Studio Bugs, which is subscribed to alsa-driver in Ubuntu. Matching subscriptions: Ubuntu Studio Bugs https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/535476 Title: CM106 usb sound card incorrectly detected as stereo only Status in “alsa-driver” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: My usb CM106 card is 5.1 capable but pavucontrol and gnome-volume- control will only let me set it as if it was a stereo device. - On another computer running ubuntu 9.10 (a desktop with an onboard ICH9 surround card), this is correctly recognized as 5.1 capable, no matter what system account I am using (so it's not a configuration issue) - On a third computer, a laptop with onboard stereo, this usb sound card exhibits the same problem: it is recognized only as stereo. ProblemType: Bug AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21. Architecture: i386 AudioDevicesInUse: USER PID ACCESS COMMAND /dev/snd/controlC1: jeff 1115 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/controlC0: jeff 1115 F.... pulseaudio /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: jeff 1115 F...m pulseaudio Card0.Amixer.info: Card hw:0 'ICH6'/'Intel ICH6 with AD1981B at irq 22' Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1981B' Components : 'AC97a:41445374' Controls : 26 Simple ctrls : 18 Card1.Amixer.info: Card hw:1 'default'/'USB Sound Device at usb-0000:00:1d.1-2, full speed' Mixer name : 'USB Mixer' Components : 'USB0d8c:0102' Controls : 14 Simple ctrls : 6 Date: Tue Mar 9 21:39:12 2010 DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04 InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100113) Package: alsa-base 1.0.22.1+dfsg-0ubuntu3 PackageArchitecture: all ProcEnviron: LANG=en_CA.utf8 SHELL=/bin/bash ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-16.25-generic SourcePackage: alsa-driver Symptom: audio Title: Soundcard not detected Uname: Linux 2.6.32-16-generic i686 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/535476/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntustudio-bugs Post to : ubuntustudio-bugs@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntustudio-bugs More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp