SoundBlaster

Discussion in 'Sound Cards and Speakers' started by Shmaarts, Feb 21, 2004.

  1. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    I have a SoundBlaster card, but it is not working on Mandrake Linux 9.2. System configuration tool shows that SB is available but it is not working. Maybe because of drivers? I couldn't find any suitable drivers for that card in soundblaster.com support page ...

    Can you help me?
     
  2. harrack52

    harrack52 Supreme Geek

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    Anti-Trend will be able to answer you with more accuracy but I strongly believe it is a driver issue.

    What I can tell you is to look around on Linux websites and try to find drivers for your sound card.

    You can also try at www.driverguide.com
     
  3. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    Drivers aren't really an issue, as Mandrake 8.0 and up fully supports Creative Labs sound cards up to the PCI 512. Mandrake 9.0 and up fully supports all Creative Labs cards based on the EMU10k1 chipset, which includes all Live/Audigy cards. However, there is still a slight matter of configuration. With Mandrake, this is certainly an easy, but there are a few nuances. There are two different sound subsystems that bundle with Mandrake (and most *nixes).

    OSS (Open Sound System) is the standard sound module for most versions of Linux (up until kernel 2.6). OSS has been around forever. It gets the job done, but offers minimal features and performance. However, Mandrake 9.0 and higher bundle with ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture), which is fast, responsive, and packed with features. I'd venture to say that it's superior to Window's sound subsystem.

    To recap, OSS is the standard architecture, but ALSA is superior. When you choose a sound driver, make sure you choose an ALSA driver. That way you make use of your ALSA sound module, and get the best possible sound performance out of your system. Once you've got that squared away, you just have to set the volumes and mix the bass and treble of your card using Kmix (assuming you're using KDE as your desktop environment). If you're using Gnome or something else, you'll want to use the ALSA sound mixer.
     
  4. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    OK ... I'll try ...

    Can i contact you somehow if I'll have any problems?

    IRC or ... ?

    PS I'm using Gnome ... I've heard that it is a bit faster than KDE ...
     
  5. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    Yeah, you can contact me via IM. My accounts are all public, so pick one and fire away. However, it's always better if we can do most of this publicly. Part of the beauty of public forums is that the community can benefit from problems that we've already discussed, without having to ask the same questions.
     
  6. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    well ...

    I found nice manual - http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Soundcards

    But ... rm *dep* is the place where I stoped ... rm: cannot lstat `*dep*': No such file or directory

    Tried to skip that ... but couldn't continue anyway ...

    After typing make I got this error ...

    make -Cscripts
    make[1]: Entering directory `/home/shmaarts/sblive/emu10k1/scripts'
    /usr/src/linux-2.4/include/linux/version.h is missing. Please run make config in your kernel source tree


    Am I doing something wrong or it's just wrong configuration of something on my PC?
     
  7. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    You shouldn't have to be compiling binaries to get your SB working; you're looking in all the wrong places, friend. Try running drakconfig, and choosing a different kernel module for your sound card. You shouldn't even have to leave the GUI to get a Creative Labs card going. :)
     
  8. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    :)

    I visited http://www.driverguide.com/ and all I got was a broken link to the driver for my card. Next step was http://www.google.com/ -> "EMU10K1 download". I found out that there are some files available at http://sourceforge.net/ but they were all binaries ... I tried to search for some more, but then found this manual at http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Soundcards and decided to try it out, just because there was nothing else available at the moment.

    So ... If you can help me with providing link to some place where I could found the driver or nice manual how to do the things I would be very thankfull ...
     
  9. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    If you're running Mandrake 9.2, you don't need to download any sound drivers for your Creative Labs sound card. The drivers are already built in; you simply have to choose them from the hardware setup menu, "Hard Drake". Here's a quick walkthrough that should get your card going, assuming your menu structure is unchanged and you're using KDE as your desktop interface.

    Click the K icon on the taskbar --> Configuration --> Hardware --> Hard Drake --> Enter root password

    If you don't have your menus set up in a fashion where the preceding works, open a terminal, and type su. You'll be prompted for your root password; enter it. Next type harddrake2.

    OK, now that we have Hard Drake up, find your sound card on the list. If it's been detected, it'll be under the Soundcard subheading. If not, it'll be under Unknown/Others. Select the soundcard, and click Run Config Tool. Next click the Driver dropdown menu and choose ap appropriate driver. If you have a Live! card, choose the ALSA driver (snd-emu10k1). If you have an Audigy/Audigy2, choose the ALSA Audigy driver (audigy).

    That should do it for you, but let us know how it goes.

    -A.T.
     
  10. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    Well ... actualy I got that far ... but ...

    System information from HardDrake
    --
    Vendor: ‎Creative Labs
    Alternative drivers: ‎audigy:emu10k1
    Bus: ‎PCI
    Bus identification: ‎1102:2:1102:8067
    Location on the bus: ‎1:5:0
    Description: ‎SB Live! (audio)
    Module: ‎snd-emu10k1
    Media class: ‎MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO
    --

    And still nothing ...

    Now all I have is an error from Totem media player and CD player is not responding ...

    Maybe there might be some problems with my integrated AC97 card?

    PS ... I'm using Gnome ...
     
  11. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    Don't know ... Maybe this could help ...

    --------------------------------------------------
    [shmaarts@localhost shmaarts]$ lspcidrake -v | fgrep AUDIO
    i810_audio : Intel Corporation|82801AA 810 Chipset AC'97 Audio Controller [MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO] (vendor:8086 device:2415 subv:11d4 subd:0040)
    snd-emu10k1 : Creative Labs|SB Live! (audio) [MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO] (vendor:1102 device:0002 subv:1102 subd:8067)

    [shmaarts@localhost shmaarts]$ grep sound-slot /etc/modules.conf
    alias sound-slot-0 i810_audio
    alias sound-slot-1 snd-emu10k1

    [shmaarts@localhost shmaarts]$ /sbin/lsmod
    Module Size Used by Not tainted
    sg 35068 0 (autoclean) (unused)
    st 30680 0 (autoclean) (unused)
    sr_mod 19384 0 (autoclean) (unused)
    sd_mod 13804 0 (autoclean) (unused)
    scsi_mod 106176 4 (autoclean) [sg st sr_mod sd_mod]
    snd-seq-midi 5056 0 (autoclean) (unused)
    snd-emu10k1-synth 5276 0 (autoclean) (unused)
    snd-emux-synth 31900 0 (autoclean) [snd-emu10k1-synth]
    snd-seq-midi-emul 6924 0 (autoclean) [snd-emux-synth]
    snd-seq-virmidi 4588 0 (autoclean) [snd-emux-synth]
    snd-seq-oss 32000 0 (unused)
    snd-seq-midi-event 6080 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-virmidi snd-seq-oss]
    snd-seq 42544 2 [snd-seq-midi snd-emux-synth snd-seq-midi-emul snd-seq-virmidi snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event]
    snd-pcm-oss 43652 0 (unused)
    snd-mixer-oss 14200 1 [snd-pcm-oss]
    snd-emu10k1 70948 1 [snd-emu10k1-synth]
    snd-pcm 79588 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-emu10k1]
    snd-timer 18436 0 [snd-seq snd-pcm]
    snd-page-alloc 9044 0 [snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm]
    snd-rawmidi 17760 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-virmidi snd-emu10k1]
    snd-util-mem 3040 0 [snd-emux-synth snd-emu10k1]
    snd-seq-device 5832 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-emu10k1-synth snd-emux-synth snd-seq-oss snd-seq snd-emu10k1 snd-rawmidi]
    snd-hwdep 6304 0 [snd-emu10k1]
    snd-ac97-codec 45720 0 [snd-emu10k1]
    snd 41380 0 [snd-seq-midi snd-emux-synth snd-seq-virmidi snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-rawmidi snd-util-mem snd-seq-device snd-hwdep snd-ac97-codec]
    soundcore 6340 0 [snd]
    nfsd 75280 0 (autoclean)
    af_packet 14856 1 (autoclean)
    ide-floppy 16128 0 (autoclean)
    ide-tape 48816 0 (autoclean)
    ide-cd 33956 0 (autoclean)
    cdrom 32608 0 (autoclean) [sr_mod ide-cd]
    floppy 55932 0
    8139too 17384 1 (autoclean)
    mii 3864 0 (autoclean) [8139too]
    supermount 84032 2 (autoclean)
    usb-uhci 25136 0 (unused)
    usbcore 74988 1 [usb-uhci]
    rtc 9004 0 (autoclean)
    ext3 60048 2
    jbd 39264 2 [ext3]
    --------------------------------------------------

    Is it possible that these problems are caused by some software?
     
  12. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    Ahh, now we're getting somewhere! You really should disable your AC97 in the BIOS. It'll make things much less complicated, and the AC97 is only slightly better than nothing anyway. You'll get better overall perfomance with it turned off. Once it's turned off, you can remove it from harddrake (if it's still lingering there), and setup Linux to use your Live. Use the ALSA Mixer to set the volumes, etc. for your Live. If you don't have ALSA Mixer, install it; it's included on one of the Mandrake discs.

    P.S. - Totem isn't very good at all - try Xine or VideoLAN. Also, you can get advanced video codecs that cannot be legally distributed with commercial Linux Distros from the PLF (Penguin Liberation Front).
     
  13. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    OK ... I'll do that ...

    /me reboots ...
     
  14. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    It's entertaining to me that you have to announce that you're rebooting in Linux. :) With some other operating systems, rebooting is a bit like brushing your teeth -- it has to be done at least twice a day.
     
  15. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    Well ... thats the only way to disable my AC97 ... :) ...

    It didn't gave any results ...

    dunno what to do ...

    PS I have had "Windows 2003 Server Standart Edition" uptime more than 8 days without having any anti-virus software when it finaly crashed ... :)
     
  16. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    You still have to choose and configure your Live from within the hardrake menu. When finished, it should look like this:
     

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  17. Shmaarts

    Shmaarts Geek Trainee

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    My screen look exactly like yours and that's the problem ... :)
     
  18. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    I've noticed that with some systems, you must tweak the volume settings before the sound functions properly. I'm not sure why this is, but give that a go. If it still doesn't work, I'd reinstall MDK9.2 (or MDK10 now), and see if you can get your sound card configured before you even leave the initial configuration screens. That way, all the audio/video packages you install will be properly linked to your sound card. Also, that way you can avoid installing Totem and choose Xine and XMMS instead. ;)
     

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