Relatively new Linux convert, trying to get Linux installed on my desktop after running it on my laptop for a while now. My laptop works fine, but on my desktop, the sound card, a SoundBlaster AE-7, seems to disappear and reappear randomly, even not showing up after a reboot.

I understand the AE-7 is supported (unofficially, as far as Creative Labs is concerned), as of kernel version 5.10. I'm currently running Kubuntu with kernel 5.13.0-22-generic.

Here is the output of lspci:

03:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
03:03.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
03:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
03:05.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
03:08.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
03:09.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
03:0a.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse PCIe GPP Bridge
04:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981/PM983
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8125 2.5GbE Controller
06:00.0 PCI bridge: Tundra Semiconductor Corp. Tsi381 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 02)
07:00.0 Audio device: Creative Labs Device 0010 (rev 01)
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I211 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 03)
09:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP
09:00.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller
09:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller
0a:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 51)
0b:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 51)
0c:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU106 [GeForce GTX 1650] (rev a1)
0c:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation TU106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
0d:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse PCIe Dummy Function
0e:00.0 Non-Essential Instrumentation [1300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Reserved SPP
0e:00.1 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Starship/Matisse Cryptographic Coprocessor PSPCPP
0e:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Matisse USB 3.0 Host Controller

Even though the sound card is listed, it is not functioning. I do have the onboard sound on the motherboard disabled.

Anyone have any clues or suggestions?

Sorry. I did not read the original post well and comment on using kernel 5.10 which was already mentioned by the author.

I am no expert but my guess is that there is a conflict with your Nvidia audio. Perhaps you have an HDMI output enabled. (HDMI audio counts as a separate card in its own right. Check and perhaps alter your settings in your terminal with alsamixer . Have you tried the effect of setting the onboard sound to 'auto' in the BIOS ? Good Luck.

I did some more searching and found this article, https://techgage.com/news/disabling_...o_under_linux/. It talks about using the "lspci -vv" command to see what kernel module that the audio cards are using that might be causing a conflict. I found that the AE-7 and the Nvidia audio are both using the snd_hda_intel kernel driver. So, until I can find another audio card option here that doesn't use that same driver, I think I'm stuck unless someone has another theory (or says I'm going in the wrong direction).

It shouldn't be a problem having two devices that both use the hda driver - for example I've never seen it as a problem with multiple GPUs that each have HDMI audio support, or a GPU alongside built-in Realtek HD audio. Instead, I think the issue is just the Sound Blaster - 'supported' is potentially a generous word for getting the SoundCore-based cards working in linux (they do work better than previous Creative cards, but that isn't saying much). Lots of features do not work, and the driver will reset/crash when attempting to do various things (if I remember right this is intended behavior to prevent an overall system crash), for example as far as I'm aware multi-channel audio is simply not an option with any of them. AE-7 is one of the 'newer' models as well, which means I'd expect support to be even spottier.

The whole 'you must disable all secondary audio cards, disable onboard audio' advice is very Windows-esque - it's a non-issue on linux with functioning devices, but the Creative card may also have issues if you're trying to run in a pure UEFI environment (I don't know this for certain I'm speculating (and being a bit harsh on Creative) it may require CSM to be enabled to function properly).

Honestly I'd dump the Creative card and use the built-in HD audio, the GPU's audio, or get something that's better put together if you need an add-in card for whatever reason.

EDIT
Something else I just remembered: the SoundCore cards had a hardware bug that prevented them from consistently 'waking' when the system went through suspend/resume cycles - this existed on the first two 'generations' and I can't imagine Creative has done much to differentiate the 'new generation' of these cards beyond branding (given that was the case for the previous 'generations'), so that may also be an element of this configuration. The fix is the same as above: get something that isn't from Creative.

Thanks, obobskivich! That behavior kind of fits in with what I'm seeing. Fortunately, I've been able to use my PreSonus AudioBox USB device for sound, and it works quite well with PulseEffects/EasyEffects (depending on if I use PulseAudio or Pipewire - I've been testing the audio in different distros). Seems to be working consistently, so I think I'll use that when I boot to my Linux build, and use the Creative Card in Windows for playing games that don't work on the Linux side.

Thanks for the help, everyone, and letting me bounce ideas around in here.

darthmongo

I'm assuming that PreSonus is a 'basic' USB Audio device, and such devices should be very compatible with linux - thats another option I forgot to mention (alongside 'add-in card').

On the Creative card resume/suspend thing - if you need the machine to suspend/resume that's a problem, but I remember it being an issue even on machines that never use that feature (and in Windows), but setting the machine to 'sleep' in Windows and then 'waking' it tends to 'fix' it, at least until it bugs out again...