Creative SoundBlaster Live! only on 2 channels

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Username : Date : Action : Comments [ close all ]
cvd : 01/11/01 01:34 PM : Incident created -   It seems that my Creative SoundBlaster Live! is not detected correctly by some programs. I.e. KMix sees a "SigmaTel STAC9708". If everything worked, it wouldn't be a problem, but only 2 of the available 4 speakers are used! And that's a problem... It works without a problem in "that other OS". Any idea on how to fix this?
Tin Weasil : 01/11/01 04:22 PM : Reply received -   Try running "sndconfig" as root to manually setup your card.
cvd : 01/11/01 04:30 PM : More info provided -   That one only identifies the on-board soundcard (which btw is disabled in the BIOS, so it shouldn't have found it). :(
sentenzaex : 02/11/01 11:06 AM : More info requested -   Hey, Linux is sometimes Smarter than your Bios... I had it start computers without Bioses In, and it worked perfectly... But that's not our problem. Please type lspci and send the output of the command
cvd : 02/11/01 09:11 PM : More info provided -   Damn, and I thought X terminals were kewl :) [cvd@PietjePuk cvd]$ lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 0305 (rev 03) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 8305 00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super] (rev 40) 00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586 IDE [Apollo] (rev 06) 00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586B USB (rev 16) 00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586B USB (rev 16) 00:07.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 40) 00:07.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super AC97/Audio] (rev 50) 00:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10000 (rev 07) 00:09.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! (rev 07) 00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139 (rev 10) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV15 (Geforce2 GTS) (rev a4) [cvd@PietjePuk cvd]$
Aeenzawthi : 20/12/01 06:10 PM : Reply received -   I too, have an SB Live! 5.1, and gmix is also calling it a SigmaTel STAC9708. And again, I can get output to all 4 speakers, but only becuase my rear speakers is actually a stereo system capable of boosting the signal to hearable ranges. I have no mixer volume controls for rear channel, and no tone response controls <bass and trable> and no synth controls for midi. The closest I can find to fix the issue is to obtain, either from romfind or your 8.1 installation CD2 the emu10k1tools, and modify the /etc/emu10k1.conf and in /usr/bin the emu10k1-crt files untill you get the desired results. As for the mixer mislabling the soundcard, I have no idea, but I'm looking at RedHat 7.x and Mandrake 8.0 files to figure it out <since they both acurately label the SB Live! cards>
cvd : 26/12/01 08:52 PM : More info provided -   Those tools are really bad configured in the package. They're looking for files in /usr/local while all files are in the /usr/bin or /etc or something. But I'm fixing that (I hope). Thanks for the reply, I'll let you know if this solved it (gotta try a little more, first).
cvd : 04/01/02 02:54 PM : More info provided -   I never could get the package to work properly. Now I'm using a configuration-program 'emu-dspmgr' that at least let's me specify the number of sound channels. But now I need to set a 'base address' and that's just unclear :( Any thoughts?
obiwan : 29/01/02 11:48 AM : More info requested -   yep, you need to install emu10k1-tools. Than, you need to modify some files (I will tell you later, no access to my machine now). With the program aumix you can set the record source to IGAIN and set this volume to 1, set OGAIN to the requested volume of channel2. I will tell you which files to modify after I checked at home. btw: you need to run the standard mdk kernel for the standard emu10k1-tools to work, otherwise(kernel > 2.4.10 I think) download the newer (from cooker) emu10k1-tools. Danny
obiwan : 29/01/02 05:33 PM : More info requested -   ok, here the info: use the OSS sound, this means you will not have midi:( prolly things also work with alsa (including midi) but I haven't tried yet. install emu10k1-tools.(for correct kernel version) check the /usr/bin/emu10k1-ctl in a text editor, the BASE_PATH, DSPPATH, DSPMGR and CONFIG variables should point to existing files or paths. also check if there are any occurences of aumix-minimal (or something like that, search for aumix in the file): if you do not have the program aumix-minimal, change this to aumix. check your /etc/emu10k1.conf file in a text editor, it is self-explanatoiry and you might want to enable multi-channel. now, inorder to use the special settings you need to run the emu10k-ctl program on boot. I did this by changing the /etc/init.d/sound file: load this file into a text editor, on any place where it calls aumix to save or restore mixer settings change this to /usr/bin/emu10k1-ctl save or for loading settings: /usr/bin/emu10k1-ctl restore. BTW for the people complaining about SIGMATEL: the SIGMATEL is the Chip used on the SBLIVE!!!!! so the mixers are very correct:) Danny
cvd : 02/02/02 06:03 PM : Incident closed -

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