[SOLVED] no 5.1 sound in Xfce4

Question

Hello all,
did a fresh install of arch last weekend, installed cinnamon and gnome 3.10.  I had sound working fine.  Since cinnamon would lock up on me (tried the update, didn't work), and didn't care of the new gnome classic, I uninstalled gnome and cinnamon and installed Xfce4.  Everything went smoothly, except after Xfce install, I have no sound, where it worked 1 hour prior with gnome and cinnamon.
I've read through the wiki's, and forums posts and tried their suggestions, however, nothing seems to work.
the output of speaker-test -c 6 appears to work, but I don't get sound.
Here is some output that will help determine what's going on, though I'm not sure what to look for and could use some help.
$ lsmod | grep '^snd' | column -t
snd_usb_audio 111545 0
snd_usbmidi_lib 19027 1 snd_usb_audio
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 27857 4
snd_emu10k1 139495 1
snd_util_mem 2339 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec 112216 1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hda_codec_realtek 62279 1
snd_rawmidi 18742 2 snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_emu10k1
snd_seq_device 5180 2 snd_rawmidi,snd_emu10k1
snd_hda_intel 33946 2
snd_hda_codec 101474 3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 6364 3 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec,snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm 76956 6 snd_usb_audio,snd_ac97_codec,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_emu10k1
snd_page_alloc 7298 3 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel,snd_emu10k1
snd_timer 18687 2 snd_pcm,snd_emu10k1
snd 58893 19 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_usb_audio,snd_ac97_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_emu10k1,snd_seq_device
$ ls -l /dev/snd
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 60 Apr 27 07:51 by-id
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 120 Apr 27 07:51 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 7 Apr 27 07:51 controlC0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 19 Apr 27 07:51 controlC1
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 28 Apr 27 07:51 controlC2
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 31 Apr 27 07:51 controlC3
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 6 Apr 27 07:51 hwC0D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 8 Apr 27 07:51 hwC1D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 27 Apr 27 07:51 hwC2D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 26 Apr 27 07:51 hwC2D1
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 25 Apr 27 07:51 hwC2D2
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 24 Apr 27 07:51 hwC2D3
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 10 Apr 27 07:51 midiC1D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 9 Apr 27 07:51 midiC1D1
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 5 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 4 Apr 27 11:44 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 3 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC0D1p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 2 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC0D2c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 18 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC1D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 17 Apr 27 11:55 pcmC1D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 16 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC1D1c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 15 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC1D2c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 14 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC1D2p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 13 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC1D3p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 12 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC1D4c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 11 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC1D4p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 23 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC2D3p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 22 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC2D7p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 21 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC2D8p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 20 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC2D9p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 30 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC3D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 29 Apr 27 07:51 pcmC3D0p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 1 Apr 27 07:51 seq
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Apr 27 07:51 timer
I even ran though the setting default sound card from the Alsa wiki, no help.
I'm new to Xfce, so not to sure what to look for, any and all help is appreciated.
Any and all help/guidance is appreciated.
--nixIT
*EDIT*
Changed subject to reflect 5.1 sound is not working.  with speaker-test -c 6, I have sound out of all the speakers at once only when speaker-test cycles to front left and front right.  no sound at all when cycling center, rear left or rear right.
Last edited by nixIT (2013-05-15 00:20:40)

Answer 1

Ok, I finally had some time to look into this.  Here is what I did:
-removed my SB Audigy card and using onboard only
-booted to windows to make sure 5.1 works.  *check
-booted to arch 64 w/Xfce4  -- no 5.1 sound
As a test, I booted to a linux mint 14 Xfce live media and installed, only took 5 minutes so no biggie.  Had 5.1 sound.  and "speaker-test -c 6" worked perfectly
As a second test, I booted to the recently released Xubuntu Xfce4, and installed, again, only took a few minutes.  Had 5.1 sound, and "speaker-test -c 6" worked perfectly
I then copied "/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf" from xubuntu to a data drive
Last night I downloaded the latest Arch 64 ISO and installed following the wiki.  Once it was time to test sound I ran "speaker-test -c 6" and I can see it cycle through the speakers but only got sound out of all the speakers when speaker-test would cycle to Front Left and Front Right, nothing when it hit Center, Rear Right, Rear Left of subwoofer. 
I then installed Xfce4 following the wiki, I can hear a slight static pop from the speakers, I then repeated the speaker test, same thing.  sound out of all the channels when speaker-test would cycle to Front Left and Front Right only.
I'm stumped.  This worked prior to when I moved from Cinnamon to Xfce.
I'm followed the wiki with setting sound cards, and nothing.  I even tried the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, which I copied from my Xubuntu install (above) and rebooted, same thing.
I don't know what to try to get my sound working under Arch and Xfce now.  Any help is appreciated.
--nixIT