Creative Recon3D + Sound Blaster Z (CA0132) Support

**mmstick** · May 22nd, 2013

I have discovered a solution:

Someone noted that the 32-bit kernel plays just fine, but that the 64-bit kernel needs a special fix in /etc/rc.local. Add the following before exit0:

rmmod snd_hda_intel
modprobe snd_hda_intel position_fix=1

Reboot and it will work. Someone in the ALSA team simply needs to get this patch upstream. The sound is amazingly beautiful along with the pulseaudio equalizer. Much better than Windows.

**mantisdolphin** · May 22nd, 2013

I added a Sound Blaster Z card (model SB1500), turned off the motherboard integrated audio, and *poof* no sound in Ubuntu. *Sigh* So there is no support for this card in Linux, right?

In Windows, which I dual-boot and use for gaming, when installing the Creative software for the card, my system returned an error. So in the BIOS I turned off the integrated audio on the motherboard, and then the Creative software installed just fine. Plugged my headset and speakers into the Z card, and voila, sound! Trippy kick-ass sound too: Watching Game of Thrones and a guy going through the woods at night, I was hearing the relative range, the distance of background sounds, hoots, and howls. It was an awesome audio experience.

But now in Linux, I'm head-scratching. I think I'll turn the integrated audio back on and see what happens.

**mmstick** · May 22nd, 2013

All I can say is in Ubuntu, use integrated audio with a finely tuned qpaeq equalizer. These cards simply do not work in Ubuntu.

**mantisdolphin** · May 22nd, 2013

Saw this helpful and hopeful post--semi-hopeful--about Sound Blaster Z card at Mint forums:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=125941
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Re: Any compatible drivers for Sound Blaster Z in 64bit?
Post by craftkiller on Mon Apr 29, 2013 4:40 am

I realize this thread is a little old but it looks like Linux 3.9 might be adding support for the Sound Blaster Z. According to alsa_info.sh my Sound Blaster Z uses the CA0132 codec, which accord to http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTMwODM support for that DSP is getting added to 3.9.

**mmstick** · May 22nd, 2013

Sorry, but it doesn't. As I have posted in the original post, I'm using kernel 3.9 (Ubuntu 13.10 development branch) right now. It doesn't work. I'm thinking about compiling kernel 3.10 soon.

**mmstick** · May 22nd, 2013

I'm afraid that no, compiling kernel 3.10 didn't help at all.

**mantisdolphin** · May 22nd, 2013

Dang. Well, good try. Creative used to support their cards for Linux fairly well. Lots of positive posts on the web where people felt good about using SB cards with Linux. Creative, 2008, made a driver for their well regarded and widely used Titanium card. I'm wondering what it will take, and how long, for a driver to be created for the SB Z card.

**ZombieApocalypse** · May 30th, 2013

I'm having the same problems with this card. I've tried 3.10rc3, but still no joy. Card works fine in Windows. No way I'm swapping which sound card my speakers are plugged into each time I switch operating system!

**mmstick** · May 31st, 2013

I'm pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place over this Creative Recon3D and several other problems with Linux. Linux gives me significantly faster processing capabilities with my AMD FX CPU (I've seen up to 4x faster processing in Linux compared to the same thing running in Windows), it also gives me significantly better OpenCL performance with my Radeon HD 7950 (at reduced power consumption). I do a lot of BOINC projects 24/7 on a lot of machines, so operations per second and energy savings means a lot to me. However, my main problem is fglrx drivers for GCN hardware is almost completely broken, and I can't get the amazing sound of my Recon3D in Linux. Pulseaudio with a pulseaudio equalizer on this high end integrated sound chip in my Sabertooth 990FX simply can't compete. I get a lot of latency issues with pulseaudio in general as it is.