Sound Card Recommendation

[LoRdMaUL]

I recently screwed myself by buying an Aureal Vortex that I realized after the fact doesn't work under linux and doesn't work all the time with the VIA chipset on my motherboard. So before I buy another one...I want to get a lil input on what is a good card. It needs to be compatible with my MSI KT7 Turbo motherboard. It needs to be PCI since i have no ISA slots on this board. And it needs to work under Linux and not cost me an arm and a leg in the process. Any input would be greatly appreciated.. :)

[FoBoT]

OT- did you return that card? do you want to sell it?

i have only used ISA sound cards in linux, so i can't help :o

[LoRdMaUL]

I haven't got rid of it yet...but like I said...it doesn't work under Linux...but I might consider selling it...yes.. :)

[bdg1983]

I've never had problems using the SB PCI-128 with Linux. Detected and works every single time.

Of course I use Caldera's distros, so your choice is rather limited if you use something other than Caldera. ;)

[word]

Aureal chipsets 8810, 8820, and 8830 are supported in Linux. You get:

Full duplex PCM playback and record
Multiple audio channels
Mixer support
MPU-401 support
Analog joystick support
OSS compatibility

But no support for A3d.

Originally posted by mdwatts the 3rd:
<STRONG>Of course I use Caldera's distros, so your choice is rather limited if you use something other than Caldera. ;)</STRONG>


How is Caldera supporting soundcards differently than what is supported in the Linux kernel?

[LoRdMaUL]

well...I use Red Hat 7.1 and when I went to configure the soundcard using setup at the command line...it said the chipset wasn't supported...*shrug* :confused:

[Breetie]

I haven't had a lick of trouble out of my SB Live! Linux sees it for what it is, so I'd say you'd be safe with it. I mean, everything works on it, so I can't see where there would any trouble.

Distro/sys:
Mandrake 8.0
PII 350/PIIX4 chipset (BX)

[LoRdMaUL]

Well I don't have a SB Live PCI at the moment...I have the Aureal Vortex SQ1500 PCI Sound Card....when I run setup...here is what it says when I try to configure the soundcard....

"The Aureal Semiconductor|AU8810 Vortex Digital Audio Processor is not supported."

That is an exact copy and paste from the soundcard configuration part of setup under Red Hat 7.1....I am about ready to just give up and buy a SB PCI sound card....
:mad: :mad:

[Dave's not here]

SB live value. detected every time and cheap. Pretty good sound too.

[word]

Originally posted by LoRdMaUL:
<STRONG>I have the Aureal Vortex SQ1500 PCI Sound Card.... I am about ready to just give up and buy a SB PCI sound card....
:mad: :mad:</STRONG>

Fear not, LoRdMaUL, here are the drivers (http://www.vortexofsound.com/drivers/drv_lnx.htm). The included README has simple instructions for getting these installed.

[jrbush82]

I have an SBLive! Family (I think) OEM that you could buy. Works with 4 speaker surround sound if you wanted to hook it up like that. $20 bux and shipping and I'll part with it :)

[LoRdMaUL]

I have tried those drivers once...well I got them from sourceforge...and when i tried the make install10 to make the drivers for my card...it got errors out the wazzoo... :(

[word]

Just for kicks I just built these (1.1.2) from here http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=8109&release_id=20020

You may want to look over the Makefile, particularly:

INCLUDEDIRS = -I/usr/src/linux/include

This means you need to have configured kernel source installed.

Also the installation uses 'gawk' which I didn't have. I just edited the Makefile to build the drivers without moving them to /lib/modules/ or writing to /etc/modules.conf.

You are very close to having a working Aureal card in Linux. This is what Linux is all about... don't sell out and buy a Creative card. Your Aureal card is 1337. :D

[LoRdMaUL]

well here is where my newbieness will show...I have no idea what you just said...heh...I have never edited makefiles or anything... :(

[quasimojo]

Creative Sound Blaster. The emu10k1 driver has been tried and true for over almost two years now I think. They also make PCI SB cards. RH Linux from 6.1 on up picked it up with no problems.

I have noticed some isolated issues with via chipsets and sb's though.

[word]

Originally posted by word:
<STRONG>You are very close to having a working Aureal card in Linux.</STRONG>
.
Originally posted by LoRdMaUL:
<STRONG>...I have no idea what you just said... :(</STRONG>

Heh, close and not so close... :)
Do you have a these installed:

The GNU compiler
whereis gcc

The kernel source
ls /usr/src/

gawk (required by the installation script)
whereis gawk

If you want to build these drivers make sure they're installed, they will be on your RH CD.

I'm out for Mexican and beer. :cool:

[ 18 August 2001: Message edited by: word ]

[LoRdMaUL]

welp...here are the errors after i tried again....


[root@localhost aureal]# make install10
make install AUCHIP=AU8810
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/lordmaul/aureal'
cc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DAU8810 -mpentium -O6 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -pipe -I/us
r/src/linux-2.4/include -c -o au_audio.o au_audio.c
cc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DAU8810 -mpentium -O6 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -pipe -I/us
r/src/linux-2.4/include -c -o au_midi.o au_midi.c
cc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DAU8810 -mpentium -O6 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -pipe -I/us
r/src/linux-2.4/include -c -o au_core.o au_core.c
cc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DAU8810 -mpentium -O6 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -pipe -I/us
r/src/linux-2.4/include -c -o au_sndstat.o au_sndstat.c
cc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DAU8810 -mpentium -O6 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -pipe -I/us
r/src/linux-2.4/include -c -o au_mixer.o au_mixer.c
cc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DAU8810 -mpentium -O6 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -pipe -I/us
r/src/linux-2.4/include -c -o au_utils.o au_utils.c
cc -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DAU8810 -mpentium -O6 -fomit-frame-pointer -Wall -pipe -I/us
r/src/linux-2.4/include -c -o au_vortex.o au_vortex.c
ld -m elf_i386 -r au_audio.o au_midi.o au_core.o au_sndstat.o au_mixer.o au_utils.o au_v
ortex.o asp10.o -o au8810.o
mv -f /etc/modules.conf /etc/modules.conf.old
gawk -f mod_conf /etc/modules.conf.old &gt; /etc/modules.conf
echo "alias sound au8810" &gt;&gt; /etc/modules.conf
echo "alias midi au8810" &gt;&gt; /etc/modules.conf
mkdir -p /lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc
cp -f au8810.o /lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc
/sbin/depmod -a
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o
/sbin/rmmod au8810
rmmod: module au8810 is not loaded
make[1]: [install] Error 1 (ignored)
/sbin/modprobe au8810
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol __pollwait_Rf55e743f
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol mem_map_R53821d33
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol register_sound_dsp_Rfb0875dd
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol register_sound_mixer_R7af30ad2
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol register_sound_special_R4760d1e2
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol register_sound_midi_R8e0cc8e3
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: insmod au8810 failed
make[1]: [install] Error 255 (ignored)
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lordmaul/aureal'

:(

[word]

From the REAME:
Note: if you get "unresolved symbol" errors during the install,
rebuild your kernel with sound support (soundcore) built in
(not a module).

Now I was able to build them but I have soundcore loaded as a module. Do 'modprobe soundcore' and then try again. (do 'make clean' before doing 'make install10')

[LoRdMaUL]

ahh to hell wif it...anyone wanna buy an Aureal soundcard?...Now before I go out and buy a Sound Blaster PCI soundcard...does anyone know if it has problems with the VIA chipset?

[bdg1983]

I have a SB PCI-128 with the via chipset and it works great with the es1370 module. Dvd's sound amazing plus all others including xmms.

I've had the 128 for a couple of years now and in my other new pc, I have a Live Value 5.1 though I still need to install Linux on it. Having a problem with the damn thing as it won't boot from anything except a 720MB dos bootdisk. Not even a bootable cd. Strange.

[binary_boy]

Originally posted by LoRdMaUL:
<STRONG>rmmod: module au8810 is not loaded
make[1]: [install] Error 1 (ignored)
/sbin/modprobe au8810
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol __pollwait_Rf55e743f
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol mem_map_R53821d33
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol register_sound_dsp_Rfb0875dd
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol register_sound_mixer_R7af30ad2
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol register_sound_special_R4760d1e2
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: unresolved symbol register_sound_midi_R8e0cc8e3
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.2-2/misc/au8810.o: insmod au8810 failed
make[1]: [install] Error 255 (ignored)
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/lordmaul/aureal'

:(</STRONG>

Do you have sound support compiled into your kernel? You need the OSS sound driver compiled in, or as a module for the aureal to work.

[LoRdMaUL]

I have decided to give up on the Aureal card. It is for sale now for anyone interested. $20 for the card and I will cover shipping. First come first serve basis....email me at grant@onecallinc.com if you are interested. Now back to the question at hand...would I be better off with the SoundBlaster PCI 128 or 512? I have seen both on EBay and there wasn't a big difference in the prices that I saw.

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by LoRdMaUL:
<STRONG>I have decided to give up on the Aureal card. It is for sale now for anyone interested.</STRONG>

can you give the exact model #?

there seems to be different "aureal vortex" sound cards out there

thanks

[LoRdMaUL]

model: #SQ1500

Aureal
Vortex
PCI
DIGTAL
Soundcard
512 Voice

512 Voices
A3D positional audio for realistic gaming effects

Aureal Vortex Chipset

Digital Audio

Hope that helps.

[LoRdMaUL]

think this would be a good card?

Creative Labs ES1371 PCI 64 Sound Card
Creative Labs Model: ES1371
PCI Interface
Frequency Response: 30Hz - 20KHz (Line-out)
Signal to Noise Ratio: 90 db
Total Harmonic Distortion @ 1 Vrms (10 KOhm load): 0.01%
Sampling Rate for Playback/Recording (Stereo): 4 KHz - 48 KHz
Supply Voltage Requirement (Loading): +5, +12, -12 Volt
Current Consumption (Typical): 250, 500, 50 mA respectively
Microphone Impedance: 600 Ohms
Line-In Impedance: 47 KOhms
CD Audio-In Impedance: 50 KOhms
Microphone Sensitivity: 10 - 200 mVpp
Line-In Sensitivity: 0 - 2 Vpp
CD Audio-In Sensitivity: 0 - 2 Vpp
AD/DA Resolution: 16 bits
Connectors :
Line-In (which also serves as Rear Out).
Microphone-In
Line-Out (Front)
MIDI/Joystick Port
CD-ROM Audio-In
Internal TAD Connector
Internal TV Tuner Connector
Card & Drivers on CD Only