Author Topic: Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.  (Read 896 times)

Calum

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I just bought a creative soundblaster 4.1 digital.

it is a PCI card and it comes with windows drivers.

the first instruction for installation includes the phrase 'windows will automatically detect the sound card'.

Unsusprisingly windows does not do this as i am running mandrake 9.0.

Mandrake 9.0 does, in point of fact, think i have NO sound card at all.

What can i do about this. I am fuming to say the least. i really thought a creative soundblaster would be a safe bet to be supported by mandrake.

thanks in advance for all replies.

PS - as you know i am the worlds no 1 dunce at installing drivers and in particular recompiling my kernel. Just thought you might want to know in advance.

edit: i am even more irritated now, look:

http://uk.europe.creative.com/suppo...51&drivertype=2

 
quote:
Sorry, no drivers were available matching your query.

Please go back and correct your query.

they allow you to select 'soundblaster 4.1 digital' and 'linux' and then they tell you you are not 'correct' for choosing them! i shall bloody email them!

[ January 03, 2003: Message edited by: Calum ]

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pkd_lives

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #1 on: 4 January 2003, 06:23 »
Yeah I was similarly annoyed at creative for this. However my soundcard is old enought that kernel support of a sort is included. However Creative say that they will support Linux as and when demand increases. In the mean time this site might help

Creative Developer Site

You might find this helps as well. Unfortunately it mentions Kernel source code, so I will wish you good luck. Sorry I can't be of more help, still a newbie myself with all this stuff, as you know well. However it does give you a place to ask questions directly to people who have some experience.

Creative Forums
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Calum

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #2 on: 4 January 2003, 06:34 »
i emailed them so maybe they'll get the idea that there's a demand (i demand well!)

if not, i told them i would just take my card back to the shop. No loss to me. I'll get a terratec 128i they work fine (this was what i had till today when it suddenly made my computer stop working until i unplugged it, i took it back to the shop and they gave me this shitty creative card to replace it).
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beltorak0

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #3 on: 4 January 2003, 07:18 »
have you looked at the file: /usr/src/linux-`uname -r`/Documentation/sound/Soundblaster ?

You might have to watch the boot up lines and grab the io, irq, and port stuff.

see file "/usr/src/`uname -r`/Documentation/sound/README.modules"
 
quote:

 Then, [after a kenel compile]
< snip>
If you are not yet using the very cool kerneld, [kernel autoloads device drivers as needed] you will have to "modprobe
-k sb" yourself to get things going. Eventually things may be fixed so
that this kludgery is not necessary; for the time being, it seems to work
well.

  Replace 'sb' with the driver for your card, and give it the right
options. To find the filename of the driver, look in
/lib/modules/<kernel-version>/misc. Mine looks like:

adlib_card.o # This is the generic OPLx driver
opl3.o # The OPL3 driver
sb.o # <<The SoundBlaster driver. Yours may differ.>>
sound.o # The sound driver
uart401.o # Used by sb, maybe other cards
< snip>
 Note that at present there is no way to configure the io, irq and other
parameters for the modular drivers as one does for the wired drivers.. One
needs to pass the modules the necessary parameters as arguments, either
with /etc/modules.conf or with command-line args to modprobe, e.g.

modprobe -k sb io=0x220 irq=7 dma=1 dma16=5 mpu_io=0x330
modprobe -k adlib_card io=0x388



Just a shot in the dark.

btw, check you current kernel config file (should be symlinked to /boot/config for most distrobutions); if you have a line like:
Code: [Select]
then you will have to compile the kernel with soundblaster support.

if on the otherhand it says "CONFIG_SOUND_SB=y" then it should be loaded into the kernel by default.; use "modprobe -k sb etc etc".  If the line is "CONFIG_SOUND_SB=m" and you don't have the kerneld autoloader compiled in (another line in the config file: "CONFIG_KMOD=y" real close to the top), you will have to "modprobe sb etc etc".  Appearently, sound blaster cards won't work without that stuff set.  You can also try "modprobe -v sound*" and see what device driver it is trying to load for sound.  my success with modprobe is ... off and on so you might have to play with that modprobe command a bit.  once you find the command that works, add it to "/etc/rc.d/rc.modules" or equivelent.  I think it is "/etc/rc.d/modules.conf" in red hat, but don't quote me on that.

i hope any of this has been helpful; maybe it'll give you an idea about where to go from here if none of the above works....

also, if you do have the current config file for your kernel, re-compiling shoud be fairly straight forward.
Code: [Select]

as long as you edit <Makefile: EXTRAVERSION=xxx>, make modules_install will not obliterate your current module set; if the above line is not present in the Makefile (for some really weird reason), append a string to "SUBLEVEL".

well, i have rambled on for far too long;

hope any of this helps...
from Attrition.Org
 
quote:
Like many times before, Microsoft is re-inventing the wheel and opting for something other than round.

-t.


Calum

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #4 on: 4 January 2003, 07:44 »
thank you very much! that is helpful to a lot of people, but not me. sadly the soundblaster i have does not appear to be 'sound blaster compatible'   :rolleyes:  the OS does not even see it anywhere. It sucks donkeys in a huge way.

anyway i bought a sound card that is fully soundblaster compatible, new, boxed, and supports linux!!!!!!! on ebay for
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dbl221

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #5 on: 4 January 2003, 21:02 »
I have had a SoundBlaster pci512 and I have yet to run into an OS that doesn't recognize the card.

Ok its not a fancy schancey card for you musicians but it does work.

Its also cheap.
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choasforages

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #6 on: 4 January 2003, 21:20 »
i thought that an emu10k1 driver existed. hell, alsa should support it.
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pkd_lives

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #7 on: 4 January 2003, 21:44 »
That driver does exist (see my post earlier) but it requires kerel recompilling.
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KernelPanic

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #8 on: 4 January 2003, 21:54 »
Calum, why did you buy a new soundcard when the original one you had works?

[ January 04, 2003: Message edited by: Tux ]

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Calum

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Help Please: Creative Soundblaster FAILS completely to work.
« Reply #9 on: 4 January 2003, 22:58 »
ok, i bought a new desktop computer, it contained a shit modem and shit soundcard. i pulled them out and went looking for alternatives. bought an intel pci modem, it was shit. took it back. bought a terratec 128i sound card, it was fine but it stopped working within a week. i took it back, got a creative shitto digital sound card, which failed to work. took it back, got refund.

finally getting serial modem and this sound card off ebay, hopefully they will all work fine when they arrive. it's getting close to the time when it all needs to work as i start university at the end of the month...
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