CS4630 (Santa Cruz) with 10.1 Community [SOLVED]

[jagibbs]

** Setting up CS4630 Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card on 10.1 Community **

 

1st off I'm a relative newbie to linux...used only about 1 week..but pretty nonstop :)

I'm about to give up on this card entirely, but stories of people getting it to work keep me trying. If I can even get clean 2-channel sound out of it I'll be extremely happy.

 

THINGS I'VE TRIED:

** Fresh install of 10.0 Community w/ KDE (2.4.x kernel) which included ALSA 1.0.2 drivers. -- I got sound out of the right channel of the CS4630 with this setup.

 

** I'm now using 10.1 Community w/ KDE (2.6.x kernel) which includes ALSA 1.0.6 drivers prepackaged. -- I get no sound at all from my CS4630 card but with a similar card (CS4280 chipset) I get great sound from both channels without any fiddling.

 

For all cases I made sure the snd-CS46xx driver was selected in the hardware configuration and the "Kmix" application levels were set correctly. I really want to use the CS4630 card instead of the CS4280 since the 4280 seems to accept a lot of noise from the system (buzzing, static, clicks, pops and beeps from the computer), and I'm only borrowing it.

 

QUESTIONS:

** Is there some setting or config file I can check to see if something is just not enabled correctly?

 

** Would installing older or newer ALSA drivers help my chances? The only newer ALSA drivers are the 1.0.7's which are still beta. The fact that it kind of worked with the 1.0.2 and doesn't work at all with the 1.0.6 doesn't make me feel good about the 1.0.7's.

 

** I've read almost everything there is to read from the alsa-project website and related sites and am still as confused about how to actually install the drivers (see my newbie status above...) Do I need to download and install the drivers, lib's, tools, and utilities or just the drivers if I upgrade? Should I quit X before installing all of these?

 

** Also, is there any chance that in 3 weeks when I download 10.1 Official there will be more support built in? I'm guessing not since neither Cirrus Logic and Turtle Beach develop linux drivers and it's pretty much just ALSA. Will 10.1 Official include ALSA 1.0 6 or newer?

 

If anyone has a decent step by step for installing what you think may be required for my setup that would be awesome... if not I'll either keep pulling my hair out, buy another soundcard and hope for the best, or just give up..

 

Jason

Edited November 12, 2004 by jagibbs

[devries]

Did you get any errors? If not that almost always means some channel is muted. Have a look at all channels with alsamixergui (or if you're not afraid of the console, at alsamixer). Exoeriment with different settings etc etc.

 

With Linux you can do the samething in different ways. You can use the alsa tools to setup 'sound' but you can also use the Mandrake tools. Since this is a Mandrake install I suggest you stick with the Mandrake Control Center. Look in hardware/hardware for the soundcard and how to configure it. If you don't get any errors configuring it, well, read my first paragraph.

 

There is always a chance that newer modules (drivers) will solve your problem. :)

 

A step by step acount:

 

Open the MCC

 

Go to hardware/hardware

 

Select your soundcard

 

Make sure everys soundapplication is closed (including kmix in the systray)

 

Press configure and change what you want to change. Mandrake will take care if something needs to be installed.

 

Check in: MCC/system/services if alsa is running.

 

Start an audioprogram and play something: That's it. If it's not working, and you didn't get any errors, read the first paragraph :D

 

Good luck

[jagibbs]

thanks, I'll try those few things out and see what happens. I've already tried out every setting I could find in the MCC related to the soundcard in addition to playing with the Kmixer settings...but I'll double check and then try running alsamixergui.. I'm pretty sure the alsa drivers are loaded because when it boots up it loads them and says [OK] next to the line.

 

offtopic(I'm going to do a fresh reinstall again since I managed to mess up something with the Xorg.config file (and probably more) when trying to patch some ATI drivers...really just need ATI to get off their butt with the official Xorg releases..)

 

If this thing ends up working I'll let everybody know..

 

thanks

[jagibbs]

ok tried the alsamixer (from the command promt and through the KDE start menu), but everything was unmuted and looked good. The Kmixer setting also were unmuted and turned up.

 

One odd thing is that during the verbose system initilization it says it loads the ALSA drivers OK, but when I go to: MCC/system/services it says ALSA is stopped. Pressing Start will start it but there is no change. It's set to load on boot also.

 

I finally tried to play a CD, which I have not tried yet, and it plays fine and sounds good. Yay, at least some sound is coming out of this thing! Just can't get mp3's or wavs to play no matter what application. ..XMMS, Amarok... I've double checked the input and output plugins for XMMS.

 

Another of the Cirrus Logic chipsets that uses the same ALSA driver works so I thought this may also.. Maybe it just isn't possible without a lot of linux or coding knowledge which is what I don't have :unsure:

 

thanks for the ideas.

Edited November 14, 2004 by jagibbs

[jagibbs]

This is what I feel like right now!

I'VE FINALLY GOT THIS JAHNKE TO WORK!!

 

I've been trying for about a week to get some kind of sound from my Turtle Beach Santa Cruz (CS4630) soundcard using Mandrake 10.1 Community, and finally have clean clear stereo with mp3's and CD. This isn't fuzzy 3D sound or static sound, but good sound...lol Earlier I only had CD sound. I had tried everything including KMix, AlsaMixer, and application specific settings but to no avail.

 

Forgive me if I misuse some terms, as I'm a linux newbie.

Steps I did:

 

1) Check that the card comes up as CS 4614/22/24 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] and uses the ALSA snd-46xx driver (not CS46xx) in the Mandrake Control Center ->Hardware, which is correct.

 

2) Close MCC and shut down any applications that may be accessing the sound driver. Make sure to check the taskbar for any running apps like Kmix volume level or Amarok... There's a command to check what apps are running, but I can't remember what it is.

 

3) Go to MCC->system->services and make sure the ALSA is running, if not stop and restart it. YOU MUST HAVE MADE SURE YOU DID STEP 2 OR YOU'LL GET AN ERROR.

 

4) open a terminal window (Konsole). Log in as "SU"

 

5) Type "cd /sbin" to go to the sbin directory

Type "./lsmod" to find what sound module is running. mine had 'snd-CS46xx 81896 7'

Type "./modprobe -r snd-CS46xx" to remove the sound module and change 'snd-CS46xx' to whatever yours is from the lsmod command if necessary

Type "./modprobe snd-CS46xx" to reinstall the module

Type "alsamixer" to start the mixer (don't do this from the KDE start menu but do it here in the terminal

Check that the 'Master' 'PCM' and 'DAC' levels are turned up pretty far. Arrow right to move to the ones not shown on the screen. These three were the only ones I needed, plus the CD level. All the others could be muted. Actually making sure the two 3DContr levels were muted actually helped the sound quality. Use the 'm' key to mute/unmute.

Press the 'Esc' key to exit.

 

6) Make sure whatever setting for the application your using are ok and it should be good to go.

 

If you're using XMMS and the volume control slider doesn't change the level, go into XMMS Options->Preferences and configure the ALSA driver to use software volume control.

 

Jason

Edited November 14, 2004 by jagibbs

[devries]

Good work

 

I don't know if the modprobe is neccesary. The MCC should take care of all of that. But if that is what it takes that is what you do. :D