Soundblaster Live 24-bit 7.1. No surround sound.

**mooreted** · 23-Jan-2009, 15:50

Using openSuse 11.1 64-bit, Kde 4.1.3.

I have two stereo speakers and one bass-booster. I can only get sound out of the stereo speakers. I can hear the bass-booster thump when the system is started. The bass-booster also works fine in Windows XP.

I have gone through all the threads on soundblaster and the sound troubleshooting on the openSuse webpage and still can't get it.

Possibly the following information will help:

alsa-info.sh:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=1b...874728dfd74063

tsalsa:
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon file system /home/mooreted/.gvfs
Output information may be incomplete.
uploading /tmp/tsalsa.txt to nopaste.com
tsalsa completed in 84 seconds
paste this url in #alsa: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
<html><head><title>Internal Server Error</title></head><body><h1>Internal Server Error</h1></body></html>

rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.18-6.13
alsa-firmware-1.0.17-1.42
alsa-oss-1.0.17-1.43
alsa-oss-32bit-1.0.17-1.37
alsa-1.0.18-8.9
alsa-plugins-1.0.18-6.13
alsa-utils-1.0.18-6.4
alsa-tools-1.0.18-1.16

rpm -qa | grep pulse
libpulse0-0.9.12-9.5
alsa-plugins-pulse-1.0.18-6.13
libpulse-browse0-0.9.12-9.5
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.12-9.5
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.12-9.5
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.12-9.5
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.12-9.5
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.12-9.5
pulseaudio-0.9.12-9.5
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.12-9.5
pulseaudio-module-jack-0.9.12-9.5
libpulsecore4-0.9.12-9.5
libxine1-pulse-1.1.15-20.8
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.12-9.5

rpm -qa | grep libasound2
libasound2-1.0.18-8.9
libasound2-32bit-1.0.18-8.7

uname -a
Linux linux-5433 2.6.27.7-9-default #1 SMP 2008-12-04 18:10:04 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

options snd slots=snd-ca0106
# zsAr.zLuYlVt4gCF:SB Audigy LS
alias snd-card-0 snd-ca0106

**mooreted** · 24-Jan-2009, 01:56

I'm done. I've been using Linux since Red Hat 6.0 and I'm done. It's always the same. You spend days and days getting the simplest thing to work. I'm tired of spending my life trying to configure Linux. I'm going back to Windows.

Later.

**oldcpu** · 24-Jan-2009, 03:21

Originally Posted by mooreted

I'm done. I've been using Linux since Red Hat 6.0 and I'm done. It's always the same. You spend days and days getting the simplest thing to work. I'm tired of spending my life trying to configure Linux. I'm going back to Windows.

Most my friends use MS-Windows. It still is the operating system with the monopoly, and all hardware manufacturers work hard to provide user friendly drivers for MS-Windows. Most hardware manufactures do NOT spend any effort trying to provide user friendly drivers for Linux.

Configuring MS-Windows for sound has never been a complaint of my friends. Instead my MS-Windows friends complain a LOT about different things (PC slow downs, blue screen of death, instability, spyware, virus, trojans, slow startups, slow shutdowns, bloat, having to scan every new piece of software for virus, having to keep their virus/trojan/spyware lists up to date, having to constantly update their firewall, having to fork out a LOT MORE money for legal software, ... etc .... ). But if you can manage those (and my friends, despite their complaints, with a fair amount of pain and effort on their part do manage with MS-Windows) then I think Windows is a good choice.

Linux is not for everyone.

The philosophy behind Linux is one of openSource where everyone contributes. Relatively few people have 7.1 sound systems (with associated hardware) and hence relatively few people volunteer to write guides for 7.1 hardware. I am still waiting for a good openSUSE 5.1/7.1 sound guide to be written. But being a Linux user is all about volunteering and contributing, and being a Linux user is not about taking our toys home when things do not work and when someone else does not do the work for us. If we want others to do all the work for us, then IMHO one is better off with a MacIntosh or with an MS-Windows PC (matching your recent decision).

So best of luck in your efforts with MS-Windows. You are with the majority of PC users now, and you should have superb sound support there. I hope the other Windows aspects are not too irritating.

**mooreted** · 24-Jan-2009, 09:16

I have been a contributing member of the Linux community for 9 years now. I have helped countless people with their Linux problems.

I've spent weeks staying up late, pouring through howtos and forums, trying every Alsa configuration I could find, installing Pulse Audio and trying to configure that. It should not be this hard. I've put in all the effort one person can put in and it still refuses to work.

I don't like Windows and I don't want to use Windows, but I need my computer to work.

I wonder of Suse's paid support might be worth it.

**mooreted** · 24-Jan-2009, 10:33

Well, I found a workaround. I have onboard Realtek HD Audio. When I'm in Linux surround works fine on that card. I opened BIOS and enabled it. Now I have two sound cards; one for Windows and one for Linux. Maybe not the most elegant solution, but I can't fix it.

You know, Linux experts could make money off of people like me. I'd pay somebody to fix it.

**oldcpu** · 24-Jan-2009, 11:50

Originally Posted by mooreted

Well, I found a workaround. I have onboard Realtek HD Audio. When I'm in Linux surround works fine on that card. I opened BIOS and enabled it. Now I have two sound cards; one for Windows and one for Linux. Maybe not the most elegant solution, but I can't fix it.

You know, Linux experts could make money off of people like me. I'd pay somebody to fix it.

Glad to read you found a work around.

I think you are the rare kind of Linux user. Most Linux users like to do as much as they can for free. One of the beauty's of Linux is users can do that legally.

(as opposed to MS-Windows where piracy is still rampant).

I suspect there would be superior Linux sound support, if more people would donate sound hardware to the alsa developers and to the alsa volunteer support staff.

**mooreted** · 24-Jan-2009, 14:44

So, how would you donate sound hardware to Alsa? Is there anything else that would help. Most new computers now have multimedia systems and more people are going to run into this problem.