[nzlug] Using the Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit USB on Linux

[Robin Sheat]

As a bit of a gamble, I bought a Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit USB soundcard 
model SB0490) for my laptop, so I can get multichannel sound out of it (I've 
been playing with http://mixxx.sf.net recently). There was an easy but 
slightly non-obvious step to making it work better, so I figure I may as well 
detail it here.

To start with, it doesn't work great in Linux, but it does seem to function, 
which is the important bit for me. When you plug it in to an Ubuntu Gutsy 
machine, it will see it as USB audio immediately, and the headphone port will 
function.

If you install linux-backports-modules (and reboot), to get the latest version 
of ALSA, then surround sound starts working, and you can direct output to the 
front or rear speakers as you like.

That's about all you can do with it. It has a single PCM volume control, and 
the mute button on the device will mute but not unmute it. Mine also seems to 
have a fast clicking on the right-front channel that I can only hear when 
wearing good headphones. I'll play with it a bit more before I decide that 
it's a fault or not, as it's not easily audible.

I haven't tried recording, I have little use for that, although I might 
experiment some time.
-- 
Robin <robin at kallisti.net.nz> JabberID: <eythian at jabber.kallisti.net.nz>

Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt. Qui annus est?

PGP Key 0xA99CEB6D = 5957 6D23 8B16 EFAB FEF8  7175 14D3 6485 A99C EB6D
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