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

[Steve Holdoway]

On Thu, 2007-11-01 at 19:09 +1300, Robin Sheat wrote:
> 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.

Pulse Audio ( http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/pa-097.html ) may be of
some help. I know it's being added to Fedora 8 but you may want to try
building it for your lappie??

Steve.