n01getsout

I have always had problems installing sound cards in Linux, whether it was on-board or a Sound Blaster. I have tried several SimplyMepis LiveCDs and they always seem to get some sort of sound out of my cards so I figured it was something in my configuration. I recently installed Debian on my main computer, and this time was typical with my Sound Blaster only halfway working.

Attempt #1 - Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit

When I installed Debian on my computer, I had a Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit sound card (model SB0410 - CA0106-DAT) installed. Alsa seemed to find the card perfectly, but I was only getting sound out of my front two speakers (Cambridge Soundworks 4.1 speakers) and I would get clicks at random in certain programs even though it worked fine in others. I looked at my mixer and found that the names for the channels were nonsensical. Alsa loaded the ca0106 driver, which was the correct chipset. Because I had two other cards handy, I decided not to troubleshoot further and I would just replace it.

Attempt #2 - Sound Blaster Live!
I then installed my Sound Blaster Live! sound card (model CT4830 - EMU10K1-NEF). This card would hang on boot when trying to set an IRQ (I think it said 249?) for the game port. I booted into a SimplyMepis 6 beta LiveCD to see if it was something with my Debian installation. I had the exact same problem. It could be due to the fact that the card has gone bad as I haven’t used it in a long time, but it was working when I pulled it. On to the next (and last) card!

Attempt #3 - Sound Blaster Audigy eX

I also had a Sound Blaster Audigy (model SB0090 - EMU10k2) that I bought on eBay that kept freezing Windows 2000, so I assumed it was incompatible with my motherboard. As it was the only card I had left, I figure what the hell. I plugged it in, ran alsaconf which loaded the emu10k1 driver, and it worked flawlessly. I now had both my front and rear speakers working and no pops, clicks, or static. Winner!!!

Conclusion

Despite my problems, I am very impressed with the Alsa team. I remember a time (around Mandrake 7) that I couldn’t get my sound card (I believe it was a Sound Blaster AWE64) to work at all. Alsa now supports an amazing array of cards and I didn’t have to configure anything manually. I did expect more from Creative as I always thought they were the best brand and have heard of their open source project. I think if their commitment to open source was sincere, their cards should be working flawlessly a few years after their release.