Sound problems, 11.2 x64 and X-fi

Mhondoz · December 9, 2009, 11:54am

Hi, this is my first post here I have been using openSUSE since 11.1, and are now on 11.2. Consider myself as a Linux newbie, but have more experience with computers in general, mostly on Windows then.

My problem is that the sound on my new 11.2 installation has “cracks” (don’t know the correct English word for it, but it sounds like a radio that is slightly out of tune).

With 11.1 I had to compile the driver myself, and the sound worked then. With 11.2 the card is detected automatically, and I have sound, - but of bad quality… On Windows XP the sound is working.

Some observations:

In the Multimedia - System Settings of KDE the card shows up as Creative X-Fi, and in KMixer it is also named as X-Fi.
But in YaST2 Sound Configuration the card is not listed. When I try to add it manually, I get an error message saying: “The kernel module error for sound support could not be loaded. This can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including IO or IRQ parameters.”
The hardware information in YaST2 list the card like this

Other hardware specs: Asus A8N SLI Premium mainboard, AMD X2 CPU.

Any help appreciated.

Chrysantine · December 9, 2009, 12:19pm

YAST2 sound no longer handles the sound when it comes to X-Fi and you should not use it nor alsaconf to configure the X-Fi card or you’ll end up with no sound at all.

Which X-Fi is it by the way? I have Gamer+Platinum working right out of the box with no issues.

Mhondoz · December 9, 2009, 1:13pm

Thanks for the reply. I have a X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro.

Didn’t know that I should not use YaST for sound configuration. I do not have any cards listed there now. I have sound, but with the noise as before.

Below is an image from my setup:http://bayimg.com/image/gagpmaaco.jpg

Chrysantine · December 9, 2009, 2:05pm

Clicky on the Mixer -> Settings -> Configure channels and expose more of them (checkmark them so they’ll appear on the mixer), especially ones that deal with PCM.

Try raising / lowering the PCM levels and master levels, perhaps it’s outputting at a too high a volume and hence crackling.

Like this;
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk282/Chrysantine/x-fi.jpg

oldcpu · December 9, 2009, 3:39pm

As Chrysantine noted, YaST2 does not support X-fi. Please ensure in your efforts to use YaST2 that you did not create an /etc/modprobed.d/50-sound.conf file.

I have noted on my openSUSE-11.2 gnome install (on a sandbox PC with a different audio card) that sometimes gstreamer, with non-optimal settings can cause static/crackling noise in different applications. Its very annoying and makes the audio mostly unuseable. I have resorted to selecting a different output audio mode in each multimedia application’s preferences/settings to get rid of this noise, which works for me (I think I selected “OSS” in some of the applications).

On my openSUSE-11.2 KDE install (where applications use the xine engine as opposed to the gstreamer sound engine) I don’t have this problem.

Mhondoz · December 9, 2009, 6:03pm

Thanks again for the replies.

I tried to adjust the mixer settings, but the problem is still there.

http://bayimg.com/image/jagahaacp.jpg

It seems like the 50-sound.conf file is created, ls -l /etc/modprobe.d/ gives this:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2873 2009-10-24 05:08 00-system.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  532 2009-10-24 05:08 10-unsupported-modules.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5870 2009-11-03 01:50 50-blacklist.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  128 2009-10-22 00:49 50-bluetooth.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   23 2009-11-16 13:10 50-ipv6.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   33 2009-10-19 20:04 50-ipw2200.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   86 2009-11-02 13:11 50-nvidia.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  640 2009-10-20 11:13 50-pam_fp-uinput.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   18 2009-10-19 20:04 50-prism54.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    1 2009-12-09 10:54 50-sound.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  104 2009-11-13 21:43 50-sound.conf.YaST2save
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  398 2009-10-24 05:02 50-thinkpad_acpi.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 2009-11-13 21:43 50-tv.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   47 2009-10-24 05:08 99-local.conf

oldcpu · December 9, 2009, 6:05pm

IMHO you should move 50-sound.conf and 50-sound.conf.YaST2save to a location outside of the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory to somewhere else … say /home/yourusername so that it is no longer in that /etc/modprobe.d/ directory.

Then reboot and test your audio.

Mhondoz · December 9, 2009, 7:09pm

I have now tried to move the 50-sound.conf and 50-sound.conf.YaST2save files to my home directory, and rebooted. But the problem is still there. I captured the KDE test sound with another PC, and uploaded it here if it can help: http://home.online.no/~ba-dahlb/x-fi-noise.ogg

Maybe it is relevant to mention that when I installed openSUSE 11.2 (fresh install), I had a SoundBlaster Live! card in the PC, which worked. The Live! card was then replaced with the X-Fi, and it seemed that everything worked out of the box, the new card were discovered and the old card “forgotten”. But unfortunately the sound quality is not yet there…

oldcpu · December 9, 2009, 7:14pm

This sounds like an application/pulse problem. Go to your applications preference/setup and change the output mode to a different setting. Try OSS. Or try other settings.

Mhondoz · December 9, 2009, 9:06pm

Not quite sure I understand what you mean :embarrassed:… but I tried this:

In Amarok I went to Settings → Configure Amarok… → Configure Playback → Sound system configuration. Here I get the same options as in KDE System Settings as shown in the screenshot in an earlier post. It shows two Creative X-Fi devices (front and side), and PulseAudio. X-Fi front works, but the noise problem is there. X-Fi side gives no sound, guess that is because I only have a 2.1 speaker setup, so no speaker is connected to side. For PulseAudio I get a system notification of an error and fall back to X-Fi front.

In VLC and Audacity I found other options, like OSS and Jack. But they all give the same noise, or no sound at all.

So I guess I maybe have to go back to my old Live card for now, and try the X-Fi again when I buy a new PC or do a fresh install…

Anyway, thanks for the help!

oldcpu · December 9, 2009, 9:10pm

A point of “english”. You say you “tried” to move the 50-sound.conf file. Did you succeed, or only try? There IS a difference.

Mhondoz · December 9, 2009, 9:16pm

Yes it was moved.

ls -l /etc/modprobe.d/
total 48
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2873 2009-10-24 05:08 00-system.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  532 2009-10-24 05:08 10-unsupported-modules.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5870 2009-11-03 01:50 50-blacklist.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  128 2009-10-22 00:49 50-bluetooth.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   23 2009-11-16 13:10 50-ipv6.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   33 2009-10-19 20:04 50-ipw2200.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   86 2009-11-02 13:11 50-nvidia.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  640 2009-10-20 11:13 50-pam_fp-uinput.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   18 2009-10-19 20:04 50-prism54.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  398 2009-10-24 05:02 50-thinkpad_acpi.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    0 2009-11-13 21:43 50-tv.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   47 2009-10-24 05:08 99-local.conf

Mhondoz · December 23, 2009, 4:09pm

Some more information in this thread. I have now tested another distribution (Ubuntu 9.10 32bit) form a USB stick (not installed), and there the sound worked nicely. I then did the same with an openSUSE USB stick (11.2 x86_64), and there is the same sound problems that I have with my installed version.

My conclusion from this is that the default setup with openSUSE (as is running with the live stick) does not work with my sound card/PC.

Would appreciate any more help on this. Any hardware specs I can list that will help analyze the problem for example? Should I file a bug report?

oldcpu · December 23, 2009, 4:37pm

That test with Ubuntu 9.10 32bit on a USB stick was a GREAT idea !!

Please, could you run that test again, and this time if you have internet with Ubuntu, type when booting to Ubuntu:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

and select SHARE/UPLOAD and then when finished copy the URL it gives you and post it here.

IF you have no internet with that USB stick, then try:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh --no-upload

where the “no-upload” option creates the file /tmp/alsa-info.txt, so then go to /tmp/alsa-info.txt and try to copy that file to another USB stick.

Then, boot to openSUSE, and run same diagnostic script:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

and provide the URL.

The idea is that we will have the script output from Ubuntu USB stick where the sound works, and from openSUSE where the sound does not work, and we can compare ! … and based on that comparison maybe we can sort the problem. If not, we can pass it to someone who can sort the problem.

I also note there is an update available to alsa from 1.0.21 to 1.0.22, and there were some updates to X-Fi:

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi (20K1/20K2)

    - ALSA: Cleanup redundant tests on unsigned 
    The variables are unsigned so the test `&gt;= 0' is always true, 
    the `< 0' test always fails. In these cases the other part of 
    the test catches wrapped values. 
    In dac_audio_write() there does not occur a test for wrapped 
    values, but the test appears redundant. 
    - ALSA: ctxfi: Swapped SURROUND-SIDE mute 
    On Soundblaster X-FI Titenium with emu20k2 the SIDE and SURROUND mute 
    functions are swapped. 
    It was checked with 'speaker-test -c 8 -s 3' and (un)mute surround or 
    'speaker-test -c 8 -s 7' and (un)mute side. The volume seems not 
    to be affected and works as expected.

so if our comparing script outputs does not help, then I can provide you guidance on how to update alsa, and we can give that a try.

Mhondoz · December 23, 2009, 9:24pm

I did not find /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh in the Ubuntu Live distro, but downloaded and ran the script as described here.

The result was uploaded to Pastebin: pastebin - ubuntu - post number 1725193 (Ubuntu 9.10 alsa-info output)

In openSUSE the script uploaded the result here: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=654d32af45bd29ed028b91ed388d2913a9e355c8

oldcpu · December 23, 2009, 9:54pm

Am I correct that sound worked on the Ubuntu? I find that a bit surprising as the Ubuntu reports 1.0.20 of alsa, and X-Fi support was only introduced in 1.0.21 of alsa. Hence if there is sound in Ubuntu then the Ubuntu packagers must have specially packaged and modified alsa-1.0.20 for X-Fi support.

Anyway, if you compare the mixer results, I note the Ubuntu script indicates surround sound is on with volume levels UP. The openSUSE script indicates surround sound at 0%. How about moving that volume UP on openSUSE?

If no joy there, then you should IMHO raise a bug report. There is guidance here for that: Submitting Bug Reports - openSUSE

Raise the report against openSUSE-11.2 component “sound”. Include both scripts as attachment text files to the bug report, NOT as upload URLs.

Mhondoz · December 24, 2009, 12:02am

Yes, the sound is working with Ubuntu. Adjusting the Surround volume did not help.

I have filed a bug report: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=567129

oldcpu · December 24, 2009, 12:25am

OK, well done. Its so close to the holiday season, it is difficult to predict when you will get a response. We just need to wait and see.

My guess is you will be asked to update to alsa-1.0.22, but we will need to wait and see.

Dexter1979 · December 24, 2009, 12:30am

I have a X-fi xtreme gamer and find the sound in OpenSUSE (I use 32bit) fine. One thing I did straight away is remove pulseaudio. I found it doesn’t play nice with the card. Go to install software and search for ‘pulse’. Remove everything you can. I think libpulse is the only one I can’t remove due to dependency errors.

Then follow the multimedia guide here -> Multimedia Guide for 11.2

This installs everything you need to play almost any sound. Reboot your machine after and see if it helps.