I've only used 5.1 for movies, and only with mpv (Pulseaudio, some Intel audio chipset?) and it worked without a hitch.

Hopefully someone else can chime in on support in games.

Yes, it does work for games too, be it native or through Proton.
I didn't had to tweak/configure Proton in any way, just my system a bit in order to convert/send the 5.1 channels through an optical cable to my amp.

Last edited by dubigrasu on 21 May 2024 at 12:03 pm UTC

Yes, it does work for games too, be it native or through Proton.
I didn't had to do tweak/configure Proton in any way, just my system a bit in order to convert/send the 5.1 channels through an optical cable to my amp.

Thanks. Optical would actually be nice to get rid of any computer interference (although I'm not too disappointed with the current analogue setup). Otherwise you're probably looking at something USB based that needs specific Linux support. On the other hand, the on-board audio chipset is pretty trash. Had to increase buffer size in Pulse to make it run without stutter and it looks like I still need to do that for pipewire.

Surround sound work fine in general, but I have noticed major problems with Unity games. Most don't work at all when 5.1 is configured. I had to change config to stereo on my media center / homemade console in order to get sound working. Which is sad because it's a chore to change it back when it's movie time. Non-unity games have all worked flawlessly with surround however, both plain ALSA and Pulseaudio.