Sound Blaster Z, Zx, ZxR Linux test-patch

[voron00]

Hi, i'm not sure if there are any Linux user here, but since it's an official Creative forum i thought it would be wise to post here anyway. We've been investigating why the SB Z-Series does'nt work on Linux and so far situation are not looking very good:

The ca0132 chip that powers the Z-Series basically shound work on Linux, there is a driver for Google ChromeBook Pixel but...it does not work. It turned out that maybe some archtectural changes on Z-Series or a new DAC prevents the DSP firmware from ChromeBook to work on Z-Series. The firmware is proprietary and it's source code can't be changed, but since SB Z-Series technically should be comptabile with Intel HD-Audio Architecture it's possible to make it work without using any proprietary stuff from Creative. Huge thanks to Takashi Iwai for his initial patch. I've been playing with the code and done alot of testing, and came with slightly better variant and here we go:

sbz_linux.jpg

Updated Patch Link:
GitHub

What works:

- Line out (mid jack)
- Mic in (1st jack)

What does not work:

- Everything else...

Bugs:
- Possible distorted mic in:
Fix: Turn your PC off and remove the power, then turn it back on.

Confirmed Working:
Sound Blaster Z (SSID 0x1102:0010)
Sound Blaster Z (SSID 0x1102:0027)
Sound Blaster Zx (SSID 0x1102:0025)

Possibly Works:
Sound Blaster Z (SSID 0x1102:0023)
Sound Blaster Z (SSID 0x1102:0024)

Not Working:
Sound Blaster ZxR (SSID 0x1102:0033)

And yeah, this means you have to compile the Linux kernel yourself in order to test this patch, either build from my repo or cherrypick the patch and build with your kernel, unless you're under Ubuntu (64 bit) for which i can provide a prebuilt kernel.

Prebuilt Kernel for Ubuntu 64 bit:
Dropbox

Please test, thanks. I still have doubts about ZxR so if it does not work for you please provide some information about your system, kernel dmesg and alsa-info, and make sure you booted the right kernel

[TheDude22]

I have zxr and linux mint 64 bit installed on one partition. I'll try it out when I get the chance.

I should have just bought a USB dac/amp or Asus xonar. No more creative.

[voron00]

I have zxr and linux mint 64 bit installed on one partition. I'll try it out when I get the chance.

I should have just bought a USB dac/amp or Asus xonar. No more creative.

So did you had any chance to try it? I still need confirmation for ZxR, i guess people that have been complaining about linux support already changed their sound cards

[Noujin]

Hey voron00,
first of all thank you very much for your time on this project.
I am relatively new to Linux and am using Arch since a few months. How would one apply your patch to the linux kernel the easiest way? Would I need to recompile it?

This is really good news for all Soundblaster and Linux users and it saddens me that Creative doesn't help at all in this matter.


Thanks!

[voron00]

Hey voron00,
first of all thank you very much for your time on this project.
I am relatively new to Linux and am using Arch since a few months. How would one apply your patch to the linux kernel the easiest way? Would I need to recompile it?

This is really good news for all Soundblaster and Linux users and it saddens me that Creative doesn't help at all in this matter.


Thanks!

Yes you need to recompile the kernel using my git repo https://github.com/voron00/linux. On Arch this might be quite tricky, but there are plenty of tutorials such as: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...on/Traditional

[Isles487]

So did you had any chance to try it? I still need confirmation for ZxR, i guess people that have been complaining about linux support already changed their sound cards

Hi Voron, I am on Mint Linux 17.3. I installed your pre-built kernel and my Sound Blaster Z works great! Thanks for your work! Also, just as a heads up, it took the moderators almost 2 weeks to activate my account. I've been wanting to reply for a while. Perhaps this isn't the best place to spread knowledge about your patch??

[Caldazar]

I have a ZxR sound card, and after installing the prebuilt kernel, alsamixer crashes when I try to use alsamixer to mute/unmute. What info do you need for finding the cause?

EDIT:
Running ubuntu Xenial

[Caldazar]

Tried the newest pre-built kernel, but no luck. alsamixer fails with the message "cannot load mixer controls: Ugyldig argument".

dmesg is http://pastebin.com/X3L1RJSJ

alsa-info is http://pastebin.com/GZHWn1Hp

[voron00]

Tried the newest pre-built kernel, but no luck. alsamixer fails with the message "cannot load mixer controls: Ugyldig argument".

dmesg is http://pastebin.com/X3L1RJSJ

alsa-info is http://pastebin.com/GZHWn1Hp

Thanks, that's what i was afraid of, looks like ZxR needs a different pin config, i'll see what i can do and (shame on me i don't have ZxR board) will upload a new test kernel later.

Edit: Kernel uploaded.

Patch: https://github.com/voron00/linux/com...d8118926b7052c

Please try it, this is sort of based on windows's driver pin configs (as for Z and Zx) so techically should work.

[Caldazar]

I tried the latest prebuilt kernel. Same error.