Sound Blaster Z on openSUSE Leap 42.3

English Hardware
#1

Hello,

I tried to run Sound Blaster Z on my new machine. Unfortunately, no sound was detected in the system, I found only the SB 1500 AUDIGY FX in YAST if the snd-hda-intel driver .

So I tried to implement the latest dummy version of the 4.12.8.1 (openSUSE:Factory on Tumbleweed) kernel with zero effect. Is there an option to make this sound card operational?

I did not find anything positive on the internet. I’ll just add that if I install the system completely, without saving the old account, see / home / xxxx, so in the system tray, I see “SB RECON 3D” but sometimes the sound goes up and sometimes not.

I do not know if setting up an older folder with an account in / home / xxx has this effect, but even if I create a completely new account where I see SB RECON 3D in volume control, so the sound goes one once and not one.

Can someone please advise me?

Great thanks Martin

#2

My recollection is some Sound Blaster variants work ok with GNU/Linux, and some do not.

Please can you run the following diagnositic script in konsole/xterm as a regular user (!) while PC is connected to the internet:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

Select the share/upload option and let the script run to completion. After it has completed, in the konsole/xterm will be a URL/web-address where the results from the script will have been uploaded. Please post that URL/address here.

Looking at that may give us a hint whether this is forum solveable, or whether a bug report is needed to bring this to an openSUSE sound packager attention, for their assessment and possible fix.
.

#3

Hello,

thank you for answer. I did and the result is available here: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=232b2bb59b8d2e25315d1d57c9571d19ba293689

Thank you Martin

#4

wow. Interesting hardware. I note a Gigabyte AX370-Gaming K7 that is using 3 instances of the snd_hda_intel kernel module (alsa driver). Card-0 is the creative soundblaster with a CA0132 codec. Card-1 is an ATI HDMI with an R6xx HDMI codec. And Card-2 is a Realtek ALC1220.

You noted you wish to get the Creative Sound Blaster Z working.

When I look in the dmesg from that script output I note this error :


    9.082931] snd_hda_intel 0000:0a:00.0: Direct firmware load for ctefx.bin failed with error -2

That makes me suspect the firmware for the Creative is not loading upon boot.

I note that the application/package ‘alsa-firmware.rpm’ has these files:


/usr/share/doc/packages/alsa-firmware/ca0132
/usr/share/doc/packages/alsa-firmware/ca0132/README
/usr/share/doc/packages/alsa-firmware/ca0132/creative.txt

So that leads me to ask … Do you have ‘alsa-firmware’ installed ? If not, please install that, reboot and test / check to see if the creative sound blaster works with that installed.

Good luck.
.

#5

Hello,

you’re right. I did not install this package on my system. I tried to install it, restart the system. Unfortunately, I still can not hear the sound. I will try to create a new user account if the old home account is still unaffected, which has been gradually transferred from 42.1.

In the current statement, I can not see the error with the erroter. See: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=2a4f0dc8883fa6dc0b057d2c8caeb6d4297474bb

Otherwise, thank you for your help, I appreciate it a lot.

#6

Hi,

Again me. I tried in my folder to delete everything in /config/pulse and restart the pc. Now I can see the SB RECON 3D + ATI + ALC 1220 volume control on the system tray, but there is no audio yet. I forgot that the home folder is being transferred from the old machine.

Thanks Martin

#7

Ok … try this in an xterm/konsole, and advise if it yields any sound


pasuspender -- aplay -D hw:0,0 -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

and also try this


pasuspender -- aplay -D hw:0,1 -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

I don’t expect the “hw:0,1” to work, but I think the “hw:0,0” may work.

The idea of the above is to see if aplay works with pulse audio suspended for the one command. If you get audio from either then it “may” be a simple matter to install pulse audio volume control (pavucontrol) and ensure the sound coming froom an application is directed to the correct audio device.

#8

I tried both, but the result is that no sound is heard. See image: http://www.imgup.cz/image/LjWm

Thanks Martin

#9

That screenshot doesn’t work for me. Maybe try http://www.imagebam.com/.

Did you get any errors with those commands ?

Have you checked anyway to see if pavucontrol is redirecting the sound from your applications to the wrong device ?

#10

Hi,

i tried first code: martin@linux-mx5m:~> pasuspender – aplay -D hw:0,0 -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

with result:


Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Hardware PCM card 0 'HDA Creative' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 2
  rate         : 44100
  exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 22016
  period_size  : 5504
  period_time  : 124807
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  tstamp_type  : MONOTONIC
  period_step  : 1
  avail_min    : 5504
  period_event : 0
  start_threshold  : 22016
  stop_threshold   : 22016
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 6196953087261802496
  appl_ptr     : 0
  hw_ptr       : 0
#  +                                               | 04%
martin@linux-mx5m:~>

second code: martin@linux-mx5m:~> pasuspender – aplay -D hw:0,1 -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav




Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Hardware PCM card 0 'HDA Creative' device 1 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 2
  rate         : 44100
  exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 22016
  period_size  : 5504
  period_time  : 124807
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  tstamp_type  : MONOTONIC
  period_step  : 1
  avail_min    : 5504
  period_event : 0
  start_threshold  : 22016
  stop_threshold   : 22016
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 6196953087261802496
  appl_ptr     : 0
  hw_ptr       : 0
#+                                                 | 00%
martin@linux-mx5m:~>

Currently configured pavucontrol:

http://thumbs.imagebam.com/b0/78/7f/57e07c586333923.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/57e07c586333923)
http://thumbs.imagebam.com/4f/43/1b/f0f51f586334053.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/f0f51f586334053)
http://thumbs.imagebam.com/67/c9/1d/3bc340586334063.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/3bc340586334063)
http://thumbs.imagebam.com/d1/46/e7/3bc340586334113.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/3bc340586334113)

Thank you

#11

Note in the past you had to be a member of audio group to get sound blaster stuff to work

#12

Hi,

I added my account to the audio group to restart and the result is unfortunately still the same, so the sound is not going.

#13

Thanks … but possibly the most useful screen shot (the configuration tab - or “Nastaveni”(?)) you elected not to share ? :frowning: It would be very useful to see what options are there and which ones you did not select.

Further for the middle tab (output devices) you did not select advanced so that we can see what is there. :frowning:

Also, have you cleaned out the pulse directories AFTER adding the alsa-firmware which you originally forgot ?

#14

Hello,

I am sorry. It’s gone. Sending current settings:

http://thumbs.imagebam.com/e1/45/04/f04e4f586952713.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/f04e4f586952713) http://thumbs.imagebam.com/0d/50/70/7a5007586952723.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/7a5007586952723) http://thumbs.imagebam.com/bd/9a/7e/de9876586952733.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/de9876586952733) http://thumbs.imagebam.com/21/02/65/ebd021586952743.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/ebd021586952743)

In home / xxxx / .config / pulse all deleted. Executed restart, result so far. There is no sound.

Thank you

#15

I note that your profile settings show that PulseAudio is set for ‘Digital Stero (IEC958) Output’. Is that what you really intended? Or do you require analog output?

To get a list of profiles for each card

pacmd list-cards

Filtered for just the profiles…

pacmd list-cards |grep output
#16

Sure.

I would like to use the optical output. I’m still using my older Creative inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 with this output. And I would like to use an analog input for microphones to skype or hangouts and I’m trying to set the Digital Stereo (IEC958) output with Analog Stereo input.

Thank you

#17

Digital sound ?

When I look at the diagnostic script you posted earlier, digital sound is muted.


**Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0**
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback **[off]**

I’ve never played with digital sound myself on any PC, but based on my inexperienced view - that setting just looks wrong to me.

Hence if digital sound is what you are trying, then you have your openSUSE configured currently to block the sound. Take a look at that diagnostic script output.

#18

Now I have set:



Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM', 0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]

Alsamixer:

http://thumbs.imagebam.com/07/f8/f5/b85198587410723.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/b85198587410723)

I’m looking at Alsamixer and I see S / PDIF is “00” but I do not know how to set this value to higher? I’m sorry, maybe, for a stupid question.

Actual:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=003bff6ec95e0296cd3124ac11f45b3e8c2e70e2

#19

I rarely use alsamixer. Normally to change the level in alsamixer one uses the right/left arrow keys to move the selection to the appropriate control, and then use the up/down arrow keys to adjust volume levels.

One can also nominally control audio levels with amixer and a very specific synatax. But B/SPIF may not be listed in amixer ? What is the output of:


amixer -c 0 scontrols

Have you gone back and tried paucontrol again, now that you unmuted the digital audio ? Have you also tried a digital audio setting in pavucontrol that does not use an analog mic ?
.

#20

I tried the Digital Stereo IEC958 duplex stereo and the same result. No sound.

I have used your command: amixer -c 0 scontrols

and results:


Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic SVM',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic1-Boost (30dB)',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
Simple mixer control 'AMic1/DMic',0
Simple mixer control 'AMic1/DMic Auto Detect',0
Simple mixer control 'Analog-Mic2',0
Simple mixer control 'CrystalVoice',0
Simple mixer control 'Crystalizer',0
Simple mixer control 'Dialog Plus',0
Simple mixer control 'Echo Cancellation',0
Simple mixer control 'Equalizer',0
Simple mixer control 'HP/Speaker',0
Simple mixer control 'HP/Speaker Auto Detect',0
Simple mixer control 'Noise Reduction',0
Simple mixer control 'PlayEnhancement',0
Simple mixer control 'Smart Volume',0
Simple mixer control 'Voice Focus',0
Simple mixer control 'VoiceFX',0
Simple mixer control 'What U Hear',0
Simple mixer control 'X-Bass',0

Could an analog output from the case be affected by what is directly on the pins on the card?

Otherwise looking for google I found that for S / PDIF can not be set in alsamixer sound, values 0 -100 as for analog, so there that they can not use arrows is about okey? If I understood it well.

I do not know Amixer, I hear about it for the first time.