Hello to all,
I’ve recently installed openSUSE 11.0 and I can’t get 5.1 channels sound on my system. I believe I have the software set up correctly. Sound card seems to be detected correctly too. Channels are not muted (I tried different settings with KMix)but only front left, front right and bass speakers are worked. I have Creative SB Live 5.1 sound card and Creative Inspire T5800 speakers.
My system is desktop PC:
CPU CeleronD 2.66 GHz
MB AsRock 775i65PE
My 5.1 Altec Lansing speakers came with a remote controller, that has buttons on it for Stereo/Surround for playing music out of all the speakers, and I use VLC for movies which as an application supports 5.1 Dolby and works great 
Did your speakers come with a similar remote?
Cheers,
Tom
Try this in a console, will show you if the surround is set up
speaker-test -D surround51 -c 6 -t wav
Geoff
I am also having the same problem. I did the speaker test, Only Front Left, Front Right and the Subwoffer work.
I do not have a 5.1 device, but I have read of some users managing to get 5.1 to work by tuning their sound config via yast (and their mixer), and I have read of other’s getting 5.1 sound to work by adding a special .asoundrc file.
My recommendation if the above does not help, is to install an IRC chat program (such as xchat) and then go to “freenode” and IRC #alsa. There are some sound guru’s on that site who are very helpful in solving a users problem in real-time. One may have to post on that channel on a few different occasions, in order to get a response, as the users who provide support are located in different parts of the world.