How do I change ALSA’s configuration so that it treats two mono channels as one stereo channel? I’ve tried it myself but I kept breaking sound.
You may need a custom .asoundrc file. If it were me trying to do this, I would install the program xchat, and log on to IRC chat “freenode” #alsa and ask the sound guru’s there. One may need to ask a dozen times, all at different times of the day, until one finally gets an answer.
You could also google search on this “.asoundrc mono to stereo” and look at the hits you will get.
Well after wasting well over 24 hours in total trying to achieve my goal, I’m throwing in towel. Every configuration and option I’ve tried just doesn’t work, ranging from just modifying .asoundrc to completely getting rid of ALSA and trying OSS (which didn’t work either, obviously).
For now I’ve just enabled onboard audio again and plan on using that (in windows I just disabled the onboard audio via the device manager). Based on my setup, what I plan on doing is hooking up my speaker’s rear L-R jack to the onboard and just configuring ALSA so that front and rear are switched, which should be quite a lot easier… it’s not like I’ll be losing much either, since I have the 1010LT primarily for music production in windows.
Sorry to read it did not work.
If you do decide to try again, please consider getting help on IRC chat freenode #alsa. You may need to ask a dozen times, at different times of the day (as the sound guru’s are located in different timezones in the world) but you may actually encounter someone on that chat channel who knows how.
That’s actually part of what I did over the past several weeks. The only information I received from people there was to either “go read the wiki” en masse (I think I’ve read every page on that wiki so far…) or just plain erroneous information (one tip someone gave me managed to break suse from booting somehow! Thank goodness for failsafe mode). I only encountered maybe three people genuinely interested in helping me, although none were able to get me to a solution.
Well, thats more or less to be expected, as one is travelling the terroritory where most of us do not tread. When they say “go read the wiki” in a case like this, IMHO one can simply politely answer back with a thankyou, and a note that one has read the wiki until one’s blue in the face, and tried all sorts of combinations unsuccessfully but the solution is elusive.
Speaking of elusive, did you look here:
ALSA project - the C library reference: PCM (digital audio) plugins
specifically here where it states: “Plugin: Multiple streams to One”
… I’m actually tempted to delete the above, because if it does not work, you may ask for more explanation, which I can not give, as I already noted I know nothing about this. … I still think IRC #alsa is your best bet.
I think you’re interpreting that I’m asking you for advice specifically? If so, I’m not. 
And don’t worry, if it doesn’t work, I was just doing to try the plan I outlined in my earlier post.
Cheers.