Re: [gentoo-user] Creative Sound Blaster Z 5.1 (CA0132)

[Alexandru N. Barloiu]

On Sun, 2020-03-29 at 20:09 +0200, tuxic@××××××.de wrote:
> On 03/29 08:41, Alexandru N. Barloiu wrote:
> > On Sun, 2020-03-29 at 17:36 +0200, tuxic@××××××.de wrote:
> > > hi,
> > >
> > > The onboard sound chip of my new motherboard is ...<hrrrm>...
> > >
> > > I am looking for a soundcard. I came accross the
> > >
> > > Creative Sound Blaster Z 5.1
> > >
> > > the problem with the soundcard is: I can find a
> > > CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CA0132
> > > setting in the kernel configuration file (not set yet of course)
> > > and
> > > on the other hand I can find a lot of people complaining about
> > > not
> > > getting this beast to work under Linux. The CA0132 is the sound
> > > chip
> > > of that card.
> > > And I dont know how well the support is, if it will work at all.
> > >
> > > If someone on this list ownes this card I would be very happy for
> > > a short info about whether it works und Linux, whether there are
> > > any restrictions and how well the support is.
> > >
> > > Thanks a lot in advance for any helpful advice!
> > > :)
> > >
> > > Cheers!
> > > Meino
> > >
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > First of all, I have a slightly different board, called ZxR. My
> > experience is that it used to not work with linux at all. For the
> > longest time. And then, simply over night, it started working. And
> > working ok, by my standards.
> >
> > https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Sound-Blaster-ZxR-Linux
> >
> > Here's an article about it. Anyway, as a ZxR owner, I didn't find
> > anything to complain about. It's what I came to expect from
> > creative
> > products. Like the live and audigy boards. Don't work, for the
> > longest
> > time, and boom, a day comes and they start working.
> >
> > A bit awkward at first, to adjust to the new controls. It happened
> > with
> > Live! and audigy too. Treble and bass. Now it's a x-bass control
> > thing.
> > 5 things with sliders to control, an equalizer control thing.
> > It  gives
> > you a little more control. It's like, I never used to run alsa-
> > mixer.
> > Now I kinda have to because the sound ain't right. But it's not my
> > sound board. With ac97 you never notice stuff like this, and even
> > if
> > you do, you can't change anything about. this movie is too bass-ey.
> > or
> > too treble-ey. Now you constantly start alsa-mixer to adjust the
> > controls to sound just right. and you can.
> >
> > So overall I can confirm at least 2 theories. 1, it didn't work for
> > the
> > longest time (I seem to recall to buy it in 2016 and it was not new
> > then). And it started working at the end of 2018. And it's working
> > just
> > fine now. Not one problem. Other than the OCD controls. always
> > fiddling
> > with them.
> >
> >
> >
>
> Hi Alexandru,
>
> Thanks a lot for the info.
> One question: Do you update your system -- the kernel especially --
> on a regular basis?
> I want to sort out, whether the card "suddenly" work due to lucky
> circumstances (which I am not able to reconstruct possibly) or
> due to a better support by the kernel and its drivers.
> I think the latter is more likely...
>
> Cheers!
> Meino
>


It's already merged upstream. The driver is now part of the normal
kernel. I have no clue why it took so long, or who contributed the
patches.