The support for X-Fi in Linux is pathetic. Its only very recently that Creative released information on this card, and hence the support for this card is still very primative, even though the card technology has been out for a long time. For a long time Creative simply refused to release technical details on the card sufficient for their to be alsa support.
Recently, Creative did release some information, and efforts are now being made to support the card, but its very very limited.
Unsupported] [PCI] Card delivered to developers. Completely new architecture. Creative have supplied a data sheet to developers. Development work has started.Preliminary support need testers.The patch is now merged into sound-unstable GIT tree topic/ctxfi
You best bet may be to update to the openSUSE alsa 1.0.20 packaged by Tiwai and hope that he has incorporated some X-fi support into that. Guidance here: Alsa-update - openSUSE But if that does not work, then you are likely going to have to try setting up your card from a tarball / custom compilation from Tiwai’s unstable directory.
Frankly, IMH0, this is only for advanced users. You are better off purchasing an inexpensive but Linux compatible sound card.
You could try and download the creative x-fi drivers and see will they work. You will have to compile them yourself but they work fine for me on my X-fi Xtreme Gamer PCI card.
If this fails I would probably see if I can find a nice Sound Blaster Audigy 2 on ebay or something. I must say I find the onboard sound in my motherboard to be working fine.
If you are using windows for gaming I would look into getting your onboard x-fi working since this card works very well under Windows and sounds good in games.
My own view is this is quite likely wasted effort because of the horrible support for x-fi, but I’ve been wrong before, so you could still try. But if you wish us to take a look at it then you need to provide more information.
But before that, when testing if you have sound, please copy and paste the following speaker-test into a Gnome terminal or a kde konsole:
speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav
Note Linux is case sensitive, and “D” is not the same as “d”. To stop the above test, while the konsole/xterm has the mouse focus, press <CTRL><C> on the keyboard. Note you should check your mixer settings (kmix if using KDE, and alsamixer if using Gnome) to ensure that PCM and Master Volume are set around 95%. Once you have basic sound established you can back off to lower volume levels. Note the test for surround sound is different.
If that test yields errors (and its not uncommon to get errors there), try instead this more simple test: speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twavYou should hear a female voice saying ‘FRONT LEFT’, ‘FRONT RIGHT’ five times. Its quite common that one of those speaker tests will work and one will NOT work, so don’t be distressed if that is the case. IF that test gives sound, stop now, post that the sound test gives sound, and we will look at other possible causes for your applications not giving you the sound you want (such as missing codecs, using the wrong packaged version … etc … ).
Try those speaker-tests as both a regular user, and with root permissions. If you have a headset, try with your headset plugged in, and also with your headset not plugged in (for speakers).
Assuming no sound, can you provide more very detailed information so a good recommendation can be given? For openSUSE-11.1, you can do that, with your laptop connected to the internet, by opening a gnome-terminal or a kde konsole and copy and paste the following into that terminal/konsole
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
Run that with root permissions the first time, and select YES to update it. Then run it again and it will give you a URL when it is finished. Post here the output URL. Please post that URL here. JUST the URL. Not the entire output. JUST the URL.
Also, please copy and paste the following commands one line at a time into a gnome-terminal or a konsole and post here the output: rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -qa | grep pulse
rpm -q libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
But, having typed the above (in response to your question), this is IMHO likely a lot of wasted effort. You are probably better off following Chrysantine’s suggestion.
Playback device is plug:front
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
ALSA lib pcm.c:2202:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.front
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2202:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.front
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2202:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.front
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2202:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.front
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2202:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.front
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2202:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.front
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav
speaker-test 1.0.18
Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused
Playback open error: -111,Connection refused
ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused
Playback open error: -111,Connection refused
ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused
Playback open error: -111,Connection refused
ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused
Playback open error: -111,Connection refused
ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused
Add your regular user to group audio, restart and test. Unlikely to work, but its worth a try. Guidance here: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE
But first, fix your installed rpms. I believe it is wrong.
This is wrong, I believe. You need to remove alsa-driver-unstable-kmp-default and keep alsa-driver-kmp-default. Reboot and test.
And if that does not work, then try the reverse. Try installing the unstable alsa-1.0.20. … ie remove alsa-driver-kmp-default and install alsa-driver-unstable-kmp-default. Then reboot and test.
My understanding is you should never have both installed.
I believe that shows the affect of the wrong rpms. No driver loaded. It definitely prevents any audio.
Having typed that, I still think purchasing a separate inexpensive sound card is the easiest way to go about this.
Well I will try that way and oldcpu it should work because in HCL/Sound Cards - openSUSE I have that card X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card and it should be the same one?.