anyone got Creative X-Fi soundcard working?

Kristian2 · 04-22-2010, 02:21 PM

hi,
If I'm correct the Alsa driver packaged with Slackware 13 doesn't support the X-Fi soundcard, so a later alsa driver is required? I read somewhere someone managed to get it working for alsa.
I thought I'd ask first, although I haven't found any threads about this. Soundblaster being supported is rather dated.
cheers,
Kristian

Daedra · 04-22-2010, 02:49 PM

Yes, you need a newer version of alsa (1.0.20 or newer). So you can either compile yourself a newer kernel or you can upgrade to -current. Then run "alsaconf" and it should find it and set it up for you.

puntjuh · 04-22-2010, 02:53 PM

According to this link:

here

The soundblaster X-Fi should be supported as of alsa version 1.0.21. Though EAX and crystalizer are not working!

it's also build into the kernel in the SoundCard/Alsa/PCI part:

Code:

│ CONFIG_SND_CTXFI:                                                                                                                                                                                                                    │
  │                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      │
  │ If you want to use soundcards based on Creative Sound Blastr X-Fi                                                                                                                                                                    │
  │ boards with 20k1 or 20k2 chips, say Y here.                                                                                                                                                                                          │
  │                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      │
  │ To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module                                                                                                                                                                        │
  │ will be called snd-ctxfi.                                                                                                                                                                                                            │
  │                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      │
  │ Symbol: SND_CTXFI [=m]                                                                                                                                                                                                               │
  │ Prompt: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi                                                                                                                                                                                                  │
  │   Defined at sound/pci/Kconfig:278                                                                                                                                                                                                   │
  │   Depends on: SOUND && !M68K && SND && SND_PCI                                                                                                                                                                                       │
  │   Location:                                                                                                                                                                                                                          │
  │     -> Device Drivers                                                                                                                                                                                                                │
  │       -> Sound card support (SOUND [=m])                                                                                                                                                                                             │
  │         -> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (SND [=m])                                                                                                                                                                              │
  │           -> PCI sound devices (SND_PCI [=y])                                                                                                                                                                                        │
  │   Selects: SND_PCM                                                                                                                                                                                                                   │
  │

So this card should work for you.

Good luck!

Daedra · 04-22-2010, 02:58 PM

oops, that's right 1.0.21. not 1.0.20

And like the above post said, it is a very basic driver. With the Soundblaster live and Audigy cards creative labs released the datasheets to alsa and let alsa write the driver. But with the X-FI creative was lame and didn't release that info so instead they wrote there own crippled driver for alsa. However it does work pretty decent.

Kristian2 · 04-22-2010, 03:05 PM

Thanks for your answers. I expected I would need to upgrade alsa. I'm having some problems getting the new kernel working (Xwin rather slow), so perhaps not a bad idea to get it working with the generic kernel first before I build the new kernel.

puntjuh · 04-22-2010, 04:25 PM

Depending on your current version, you would be required to do an upgrade yes.

Let us know if you run into any other problems, we'll try to help ofc!