HOWTO: Use a Sound Blaster Live to the fullest.

[Guitar John]

I got the Sound Blaster Live! 24 bit card to work under Ubuntu Feisty (7.04).

To sum up the solution:
1. disable default onboard card in BIOS
2. create /home/your_username/.asoundrc

Save .asoundrc with:

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "surround51"
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}


Here's how I got there (describing this here so you won't have to go through the same trouble):

My computer has two sound chipsets:

onno@onno-desktop:~$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
ICH6
CA0106

CA0106 is the Sound Blaster Live! 24 bit card, the other is the onboard sound card.

If I use the command:

asoundconf set-default-card CA0106

- then after the FIRST reboot, the Sound Blaster is now the default card. You can check this in the alsamixergui. Unfortunately, it seems as though, after a SECOND reboot, the default switches back to the onboard card.

No wait, upon testing this, I notice that the command doesn't seem to have any effect at all, not even after the first reboot. I have now disabled the onboard card in the BIOS.

Now, only the front boxes are playing any music in Amarok, while in Rhythmbox only the rear boxes are playing!

Also, issuing the command "asoundconf set-default-card CA0106", as I did earlier, has the effect that this file is created:

/home/onno/.asoundrc.asoundconf

This file ruins everything!

1. delete the file
2. create a file /home/onno/.asoundrc
3. put this in it and save it:

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "surround51"
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}


To sum up the solution:
1. disable default onboard card in BIOS
2. create /home/onno/.asoundrc

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!!
This got my surround working like it should. And the sound quality is much better than on the integral Intel motherboard soundcard.

[CaptainShanks]

Thank you so much onno! My friend has been running Ubuntu for the first time on his Laptop and now he'll finally be able to use his card! I'll post results later.

UPDATE:
Having problems again. The sound card is not being detected by the laptop. It's a real pain. >.>

[Tha_Guru]

Hello everybody, I'm new to Linux, I've a sound blaster live 5.1 on Ubuntu 7.10 and following the post I was able to make the rear left and right and the center speakers work properly. The problem is I'm not hearing any sound from the front left and front right speaker.. Pretty strange in my opinion maybe someone can help me and tell me what should I change in alsa mixer.. I'll post a screen shot of my alsamixer
Thanks a lot.

[zFb]

Im brand new to Ubuntu (I have 7.10). When I first installed Ubuntu on my computer the sound played from my Sound Blaster Live card. For some reason now it will only play through my onboard. I want the sound to work on my Sound Blaster again... I've tried about everything i can find... Any help?

[MethosCR]

I used this to temporary fix the distorcion go the terminal and paste this

sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install alsamixergui

then check in sound and video alsamixergui

then I click on analog front (thats is mine you maybe something else)for the sound then I lower both bars all the way to cero or botton, then I only raise one bar wich is the left side and dindt see a diference the sound came normal for both left and right then I raise the right bar and thats were the distortion started to apear when both bars are in the same level,
so I play a little to see if that will make a diference on wich side will sound louder so I din`t see a diference one bar the left or right will sound the same for both I left the right side all to the botton and the distortion went away now is nice and crispy.

I hope that this will help someone
I don`t know how to post a creenshoot so I can show what I am talking about.

I have an Athlon, 512MB RAM, AGP ATI Radeon 9200, Hauppage TV Capture PCI Card, a PCI SoundBlaster Live! and Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy).

I had the noise problem... I hear the system sounds, mp3 and so on, but a strong noise in the background. I did what you said... to get the ALSA Mix GUI, then I mute the SB Live Analog Output Jack.. and NOISE IS GONE!!

Thanks a lot, tlaloczint. =D>

[onno]

I'm running into problems with my Sound Blaster Live under Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04).

I've got only one speaker blurting out my music: the front left speaker (out of a 5.1 setup). All the other channels are silent.

According to the Volume Control app, this is used for music playback:
ALSA PCM on front:1(CA0106) via DMA (PulseAudio Mixer).

Is anyone familiar with this problem? Is there a solution to it? If not, how do you revert to the old (non Pulseaudio) setup from 7.04?

EDIT:

I came across a solution from nstamoul: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=759147

nstamoul has posted a deb package containing an audiopulse configuration utility. It works like a charm! Do not forget to login again [ctrl-alt-backspace] after running the configuration utility.



Cheers,
Onno

[Ariccanfly]

Hello,

I'm have a Sound Blaster Audigy, and I'm not getting ANY sound. I've already gone in, and tried to make the EMU10K1 driver work by putting in

.
It didn't work, so I looking into this thread.

When I typed alsamixer, and the sound thing came up I noticed that it says:


Does this mean that it's looking at my MB's default card, and not my Sound Blaster Audigy?

Can someone please help me?! I'm about to pull out my hair!

Disable your onboard card in the BIOS and then reinstall.. (the package, and if that dosnt work, the os)

[taurusvip]

many thanks, you saved me to spent more 2 hours around this

regards
J.Ladeira

[nicosafull]

I have 2 sound cards, Sb Live! Value installed, it worked fine, when I disabled default sound card onboard thorugh BIOS (not SB onboard) never had sound again, any.. I did and tried all, still no sound on my Xubuntu... can anyone tell me pliz, how they configured their SB live! Value on Xubuntu pliz!! need sound!!!