My SABRENT CMI8738 sound card is not working at all. Using SLACKWARE 10.2, KDE 3.5. The information says it's compatible with Linux, but I have yet to see it. I have followed the instructions found on the CD and still no luck. Suggestions?

Information:

Yahoo, search SABRENT CMI8738. The first result is the site. (LQ says I can't make URLs yet.)

Try lspci | grep audio and look for something like cmi8738 chip. Also known as C-media 8738 chipset. Then lsmod or 'lsmod | grep snd' to see if module needed for alsa is shown. Then alsaconf should work. If module not present then check /etc/rc.d/rc.modules for line to uncomment for your sound card or try 'modprobe that module' to load module and get alsaconf to work.
What kernel are you using in SW10.2? Did you upgrade recently? A newer kernel may support chip better. Search LQ for cmi8738 or C-media 8738 for several post about the card. Good luck and happy slacking

Alright... I'll try that (not on my linux box right now). BTW, I have kernel 2.4.31, the same that came with the installation. If I use the test26.s (2.6.10) kernel, I get many errors on boot. Maybe I should upgrade to 2.6.15....

Alright... I give in...

I upgraded my kernel to 2.6.19.1 - I can now use this sound card, but ALSA can't detect either of my sound cards (onboard Via AC '97 Codec VT1612 and my C-Media 8738). I now have to use OSS (deprecated), so now many of my applications can't use sound properly. This probably has to do with it somehow, but the kernel keeps complaining about missing files in /lib/modules/2.6.19.1. The problem is, this directory doesn't exist. I still have the old /lib/modules/2.4.31 though.

I have reconfigured my kernel to do everything I need it to, and implemented every driver I need (plus a couple extras). I found the CMI8738 and AC97 under the configuration, and compiled them into the kernel. Still doesn't work.

Everything else works great - now if I could just solve this sound problem...

Hello everyone,

I faced with similar problem. I have Audigy sound card (c-media sb 8738 5.1 channel (CMI8738/PCI-6ch-LX)) on my gentoo computer.

lspci | grep audio
08:00.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy LS

I've got my sound card working through a couple of speakers but still struggling with 5.1 and microphone.

Any info, input would be appreciated.

This card is not related to the CMI8738 in any way.

Does it work with speaker-test?

Please show the output of "arecord -l" and "amixer scontents".

Hi cladisch,

Thanks for your attention to my problem.

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 0: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 1: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 2: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CA0106 [CA0106], device 3: ca0106 [CA0106]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ amixer
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono: Playback 213 [84%] [42.75dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Line in',0
Capabilities: cvolume
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 255
Front Left: Capture 255 [100%] [24.00dB]
Front Right: Capture 255 [100%] [24.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Capabilities: cvolume
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 255
Front Left: Capture 233 [91%] [13.00dB]
Front Right: Capture 233 [91%] [13.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Phone',0
Capabilities: cvolume
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 255
Front Left: Capture 233 [91%] [13.00dB]
Front Right: Capture 233 [91%] [13.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Center/LFE',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 227 [89%] [5.00dB]
Front Right: Playback 227 [89%] [5.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Front',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 210 [82%] [0.75dB]
Front Right: Playback 210 [82%] [0.75dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Rear',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 227 [89%] [5.00dB]
Front Right: Playback 227 [89%] [5.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Unknown',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 217 [85%] [2.50dB]
Front Right: Playback 217 [85%] [2.50dB]
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
Capabilities: cvolume
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Capture 0 - 255
Front Left: Capture 213 [84%] [3.00dB]
Front Right: Capture 213 [84%] [3.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Center/LFE',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 225 [88%] [4.50dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 225 [88%] [4.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Front',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 225 [88%] [4.50dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 225 [88%] [4.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Rear',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 243 [95%] [9.00dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 243 [95%] [9.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Side',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 233 [91%] [6.50dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 233 [91%] [6.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Analog Source',0
Capabilities: cenum
Items: 'Phone' 'Mic' 'Line in' 'Aux'
Item0: 'Aux'
Simple mixer control 'CAPTURE feedback',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [12.00dB]
Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [12.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Digital Source',0
Capabilities: cenum
Items: 'IEC958 out' 'i2s mixer out' 'IEC958 in' 'i2s in' 'AC97 in' 'SRC out'
Item0: 'IEC958 in'
Simple mixer control 'Shared Mic/Line in',0
Capabilities: cenum
Items: 'Line in' 'Mic in'
Item0: 'Mic in'

My sound card is working through speakers connecting to 'Master' chanel with speaker-test.

What happens with "speaker-test -c6 -Dsurround51 -twav"?

Raise this to 0 dB.

Set the source to "Mic".

Hello,

Thanks! I tried your recommendations but unfortunately it did't help me I think I have to add some flags to my /etc/make.conf file and update my system. But I don't know what exactly flags.

Now my amixer says
I've chanched in alsamixer:
Analog S to Mic
Digital to i2s in
Shared to Mic in

I won a microphone but I continue strugle with 5.1 I think for this I need pulseaudio server.

My sound card works fine with pulseaudio server.