It's Official: Valve Releasing Steam, Source Engine For Linux!

[Dragonlord]

Sorry but the x-fi alsa driver modules do hardware mixing pretty well. And, actually, they work almost flawlessy.

For instance, nowadays it's pretty uncommon to find sound cards with hardware mixing...

Mind saying what you did (config, kernel)? I can't use my X-fi properly since the sound is crackling using the X-fi alsa driver... and with GenToo I get the newest.

[deanjo]

Mind saying what you did (config, kernel)? I can't use my X-fi properly since the sound is crackling using the X-fi alsa driver... and with GenToo I get the newest.

In opensuse, I didn't do anything. Plugged it in and "It just worked (tm)"

[Adriano ML]

Mind saying what you did (config, kernel)? I can't use my X-fi properly since the sound is crackling using the X-fi alsa driver... and with GenToo I get the newest.

well, that's somewhat unexpected. which X-fi did ya get? I have the X-Fi Platinum, from the first "generation". It's really all working without any intervention.

I can only think of the "fake" x-fi (those which do not include the real x-fi chip, only the brand) to be troublesome.

[Dragonlord]

well, that's somewhat unexpected. which X-fi did ya get? I have the X-Fi Platinum, from the first "generation". It's really all working without any intervention.

I can only think of the "fake" x-fi (those which do not include the real x-fi chip, only the brand) to be troublesome.

It's an "X-fi 1024 Players Choice". As far as I remember it's somewhere around the platinum too, below it though.

[Dragonlord]

Tried out a newer kernel version. Seems the crackling is gone there but no 5.1 support. KDE-4 shows 3 X-fi devices which seem to map to front, surround and side speakers. Some way to force ALSA to use a 5.1 scheme for X-fi?

[GNU/Blind]

Tried out a newer kernel version. Seems the crackling is gone there but no 5.1 support. KDE-4 shows 3 X-fi devices which seem to map to front, surround and side speakers. Some way to force ALSA to use a 5.1 scheme for X-fi?

Might try running alsamixer, there may be some "check boxed" toggles that you have to enable/disable.

[Dragonlord]

Might try running alsamixer, there may be some "check boxed" toggles that you have to enable/disable.

Nope, everything is alright there. I can test the different X-fi devices KDE4 shows me and the front and surround jacks on the back give sound but the side one jack stays silent. 5.1 definitely works properly if ALSA driver doesn't mess up since the Realtek (onboard) I used so far gives 5.1 without a problem showing only one device in KDE4. Looks like x-fi driver problem.

[GNU/Blind]

Nope, everything is alright there. I can test the different X-fi devices KDE4 shows me and the front and surround jacks on the back give sound but the side one jack stays silent. 5.1 definitely works properly if ALSA driver doesn't mess up since the Realtek (onboard) I used so far gives 5.1 without a problem showing only one device in KDE4. Looks like x-fi driver problem.

When you play a mp3 file does the front left and right work with the sub? If so, this is normal, try firring up a dvd with 5.1 sound. also check to see if whatever you are using for a dvd player has sound preferences that allows you to set 5.1 as an option.

[GNU/Blind]

Nope, everything is alright there. I can test the different X-fi devices KDE4 shows me and the front and surround jacks on the back give sound but the side one jack stays silent. 5.1 definitely works properly if ALSA driver doesn't mess up since the Realtek (onboard) I used so far gives 5.1 without a problem showing only one device in KDE4. Looks like x-fi driver problem.

http://frashtips.blogspot.com/2010/0...ster-x-fi.html might help you on your way. Oh man all this to configure sound, wish sound was easy in Linux.

[V!NCENT]

Except for the fact nothing beats a nice physical keyboard. Hell even the trackpad is better than a touchscreen. I don't know but I think it takes a lot less effort using these than a touchscreen...

Yes that's why 90% of all computer users buy a computer. But computers have less influence of modern tech than they had back in the 90's. Hell even news papers are dropping flash for that iPad, so what's influencing what these day? Even h.264 is being popular over Theora/ogg because on portable computers they run smoothly due to HW accel.

But we are getting a little too much offtopic now