Opening a dmix device (i.e. "default" on most distros), and calling snd_pcm_query_chmaps() on it, returns some surround audio channel maps, for example 5.1. Trying to set it with snd_pcm_set_chmap() will fail with ENXIO. Only setting the stereo channel map succeeds, and I suppose dmix supports stereo only.

I think this should be considered a bug. dmix probably merely passes through the channel layout of the underlying device, even though it supports stereo only - this behavior makes no sense at all. Any device should strictly report supported channel maps only.

To make matters worse, if you intend to play 5.1, and dmix fails in the manner described above, then it will report "FL FR NA NA NA NA" as channel map. This would require the application to pad stereo with 4 channels of silence, which requires extra code and is generally just stupid.