Re: Problem with Creative SBLive!

[Prabhu Ramachandran <prabhu_r@users.sf.net>]

>>>>> "M" == michael  <linux@networkingnewsletter.org.uk> writes:

    M> On Wed, 2005-01-26 at 03:07 +0530, Prabhu Ramachandran wrote:
    >> I find that I have the same problem as reported by you here:
    >>
    >> http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2004/11/msg02336.html
    >>
    >> I too have an "SB Live! 24bit" card but lspci reports it as an
    >> Audigy LS.
    >>
    >> Unfortunately, I can't see any solution posted on the debian
    >> mailing list.  I was wondering if you found a solution to your
    >> problem.  I'm running Debian sarge.

    M> Yes, lspci also reports my SB Live as Audigy. I've not had time
    M> to try it but I believe the best bet is to get the 2.6 kernel
    M> and alsa sources, then compile up and install said kernel.

Thanks for the response.  I blew the afternoon figuring this out.
Finally, I did the following:

 1. Installed the alsa-source-1.0.8-2 debian package from unstable
    (this requires that one also install alsa-base, and alsa-utils
    from unstable).  You might also want to install alsa-oss as well.

 2. I was running a stock 2.6 kernel and had module-assistant
    installed (along with the kernel headers).  So, I simply had to do
    this.

      # cd /usr/src/
      # module-assistant build alsa
      
    Then I installed the resulting debian package like so:
      # dpkg -i alsa-modules*.deb

    You could also do this in one single step.
      # module-assistant auto-install alsa

 3. I then ran alsaconfig and everything works.  It detects the card
    as a "ca0106" (as several sites on the net mention).

    I am not sure you need to reboot here but if it still does not
    work, maybe a reboot would help.

 4. The only problem was that I could not figure out how to set the
    card to output only in 2 channel mode (I use headphones rather
    than a 7.1 speaker system).  After a lot of googling I tried this:

      alsaplayer -c2 <some_ogg_file>

    This works perfectly.  Till that time I was only getting one
    channel.

Now, everything works beautifully!

I hope this helps.  Thanks for CC'ing debian-user. Hopefully other
users won't have to struggle with this again.

BTW, Eduard Bloch has done an amazing job with module-assistant.
Along with Manoj's kernel-package this makes building kernels and
modules such a breeze.  Many thanks to both of you! :)

cheers,
prabhu