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  • #11
    Originally posted by TheLexMachine View Post
    Not coming from Creative. I'm dredging my memory so the details are fuzzy, but the Soundblaster Z cards are Intel HDA compliant and there's even a mobo integrated version of Z, so the upcoming improvements in audio consolidation will allow them to work properly with the Intel HDA driver that pretty much all the audio chips use, at least on a basic level, or so I read many months ago.
    They're not so compliant at least now at the moment lol I have been dealing with this head on since the my first post on here regarding this card an all variants. The problem is the current driver/codec in the snd-hda-intel driver is missing a lot of correct information allowing the kernel to properly interface with it. For starters it was originally made for the Chrome Book Pixel.

    Here is some of my correspondence with Ian Minett:

    Hello Ron,
    Thank you for getting in touch, and many apologies for the delayed response.

    I'm sorry to hear that you are having difficulty getting your SoundBlaster Z to work on your system under Linux. I was involved in the upstreaming of the Creative CA0132 codec to the ALSA repository, so I might be able to help provide some information on this.

    The CA0132 codec was originally intended for and designed to support the Chromebook Pixel hardware architecture. I'm sorry to say that this means that the current codec isn't expected to work on other products that have different architectures, such as the Z series. Thank you very much for all the information and details you provided though, it is much appreciated, and I hope they may come in useful at a later date.

    Best regards,
    - Ian
    I had received Ian's contact information from Takashi Iwai , as you know whom is an active ALSA kernel Developer. I've had correspondence with him relating to these cards he is missing vital information to code a proper driver/codec in which no one with the exception of Ian may have. Creative has been completely useless as both me and Taksashi have been trying to get some sort of correspondence with Creative Labs. It's one thing to say you're not going to help write a driver or make a driver whichever but the least Creative can do is give him the proper information and let the opensource Community handle it.

    Now I forwarded the above response over to Takashi in hopes both him and Ian can get an open dialogue going, they're both very busy so I don't know what's going on behind the scene. However I haven't stopped trying to get the thing to work on my own almost every single day since when I have the time lol.

    I basically can't get analogue sound out of it , I have been able to get Digital out working which I normally use anyway but this isn't going to be viable for the rest of the community. You can follow what I and others have been trying via the kernel.org Bugzilla and Creative forums.





    Hopefully at some point we will get a working driver or codec patch for a future kernel soon but it's been real slow going especially since there is variants to the ca0132 setups like Recon3D, Blaster Z series, and as you mentioned on board audio setups which I think Asrock and Gigabyte make boards with such setups. Oh and I emailed Asrock as well being for whatever reason beyond me on one of the boards I looked up used the Realtek HDA codec while most of them are just packaging the creative drivers. So I'm not sure what that is all about either but I reached out never the less both to Asrock and Realtek in hopes they can shed some light on the information needed.

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    • #12
      If their support sucks for Windows you could expect it also sucks for Linux. In short, do not buy sound cards from Creative Labs.
      Some people gotta learn the hard way.

      Comment


      • #13
        Sound Blaster Z

        [QUOTE=Acidphase;330351]Well I have tried just about everything that I can think of including http://phoronix.com/forums/showthrea...106#post328106

        Hi Acidphase,

        By now you've probably have had someone help you but maybe this will help someone else.
        I'm no expert. Not even close but I can tell you what I did because mine is working fine.
        I have Sound Blaster Z and bought it when it first came out last year. I'm running Windows 7 64bit. I had the sound card installed by a computer guy and he got it running just fine. (I had Sound Blaster XFI on my computer already installed on my Dell XPS 435T/9000 PC) but XFI hadn't worked for a year or 2 because of no decent drivers!)
        After it was installed I went to the Sound BlasterZ program file, right clicked properties and took Administrative ownership of the folder, clicked okay and closed it. Then I went back, right clicked on the Security Tab Permissions added Administrative, my User name and my Owner name.
        I gave all 3 Full Control. No check mark in any little boxes. I deleted all other permissions names including System and Everyone etc so there was just my 3.
        Then I went to the Windows Firewall under Allow a program through. It gives you a list of what is already allowed through and then lets you browse to your Program and you'll find SoundBlaster Program in the Icon that's black square with red around it. self explanatory.
        I check my SounblasterZ sound AFTER each Window Update by playing a CD. Updates have caused it to stop working before so I uninstall the updates one by one until the SoundBlaster comes back.
        I don't believe there's anything faulty about the SoundBlaster Z Card or the drivers. I do believe there is a huge competition in sound programs such as ITunes and Amazon, ITunes Cloud and Amazon Cloud and 20 others!
        As far as the Device Manager and Windows Player Play back device choices, I didn't have to do one thing to update the drivers or screw with them.
        (Listed in the Sound Video and Game Controller was :
        High Definition Audio Device
        Monitor Webcam
        Nvidia Virtual Audio Device Wave Ext.WDM
        Sound Blaster Z
        Sound Blaster Z Audio Controller.


        Best of Luck ~

        Comment


        • #14
          [QUOTE=Givealittlebit;415232]
          Originally posted by Acidphase View Post
          Well I have tried just about everything that I can think of including http://phoronix.com/forums/showthrea...106#post328106

          Hi Acidphase,

          By now you've probably have had someone help you but maybe this will help someone else.
          I'm no expert. Not even close but I can tell you what I did because mine is working fine.
          I have Sound Blaster Z and bought it when it first came out last year. I'm running Windows 7 64bit. I had the sound card installed by a computer guy and he got it running just fine. (I had Sound Blaster XFI on my computer already installed on my Dell XPS 435T/9000 PC) but XFI hadn't worked for a year or 2 because of no decent drivers!)
          After it was installed I went to the Sound BlasterZ program file, right clicked properties and took Administrative ownership of the folder, clicked okay and closed it. Then I went back, right clicked on the Security Tab Permissions added Administrative, my User name and my Owner name.
          I gave all 3 Full Control. No check mark in any little boxes. I deleted all other permissions names including System and Everyone etc so there was just my 3.
          Then I went to the Windows Firewall under Allow a program through. It gives you a list of what is already allowed through and then lets you browse to your Program and you'll find SoundBlaster Program in the Icon that's black square with red around it. self explanatory.
          I check my SounblasterZ sound AFTER each Window Update by playing a CD. Updates have caused it to stop working before so I uninstall the updates one by one until the SoundBlaster comes back.
          I don't believe there's anything faulty about the SoundBlaster Z Card or the drivers. I do believe there is a huge competition in sound programs such as ITunes and Amazon, ITunes Cloud and Amazon Cloud and 20 others!
          As far as the Device Manager and Windows Player Play back device choices, I didn't have to do one thing to update the drivers or screw with them.
          (Listed in the Sound Video and Game Controller was :
          High Definition Audio Device
          Monitor Webcam
          Nvidia Virtual Audio Device Wave Ext.WDM
          Sound Blaster Z
          Sound Blaster Z Audio Controller.


          Best of Luck ~
          Don't see how that can help getting sound on linux.

          By the way, Soundblaster Z is still a lemon on linux and I don't see much interest from Creative to change that.

          Comment


          • #15
            Can you get the standard jacks working?
            Are you on Kernel 3.14?
            Does your Motherboard have onboard sound?

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            • #16
              I'm using ubuntu 14.04 with kernel 3.13. None of the analog ports work. I have onboard audio disabled.

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              • #17
                Originally posted by fanATic View Post
                If their support sucks for Windows you could expect it also sucks for Linux. In short, do not buy sound cards from Creative Labs.
                Some people gotta learn the hard way.
                Its not like any of ASUS's (or any other C-Media CMI-8788/8888 derivative) is working any better...

                Comment


                • #18
                  Originally posted by gamerk2 View Post
                  Its not like any of ASUS's (or any other C-Media CMI-8788/8888 derivative) is working any better...
                  It's not the same. By the way, Creative Labs even screw Windows users by forcing them to "upgrade" their sound cards for use on newer versions on Windows. In short, their driver support sucks big time.

                  Comment


                  • #19
                    Originally posted by fanATic View Post
                    It's not the same.
                    Sure it is; ASUS's cards have been better then Creative for some time (Since the D2 launched in 2008), have comparable features, but still lack even a basic driver.

                    By the way, Creative Labs even screw Windows users by forcing them to "upgrade" their sound cards for use on newer versions on Windows. In short, their driver support sucks big time.
                    Which has been known for years. That being said, everything post-Audigy 2 still has a valid driver, even on Win 8.

                    Comment


                    • #20
                      [QUOTE=gamerk2;415539]Sure it is; ASUS's cards have been better then Creative for some time (Since the D2 launched in 2008), have comparable features, but still lack even a basic driver.

                      Is Asus creator of C-Media CMI-8788/8888 audio chips? Than how do you expect that Asus give better support for GNU/Linux?

                      It's like blaming Asus for graphic card with Radeon GPU with lousy driver support for GNU/Linux, or manufacturer of USB Wi-F Adapters e.g. AirLive for lousy Wi-Fi driver support under GNU/Linux.

                      Blame chip(set) manufacturer.

                      Creative Labs have its own DSP's.

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