Audigy 4 and some other hardware support questions

[Murda]

Hi.

 

I just found out that World of Warcaft works under Linux with wine and cedega, so I'm getting closer to switch all my computers to Linux. And the reason why I'm asking these things here is that I've decided to make the switch to Mandriva 2006, if it is possible. I've been using Linux for a couple of years now, but only the server side, this thread is all about desktops/gaming computers.

 

I was searching for an answer for this one and found another thread (Mandrivausers.org - Hardware/Audigy 4) but it wasn't the thing that I was looking for. Does Sound Blaster Audigy 4 really work under Linux? I had problems with Hercules Digifire 7.1 card and everyone just kept telling me (on other bulletin boards and forums) that Linux doesn't have any 7.1 support and no-one's developing it. Is it true?

I don't need to have any 7.1 effects like in games where someone walks behind me, I hear the voice from the two rear speakers, just want that the music that I play comes out from all speakers at the same time and not only from the front speakers.

 

I've found out that my ATI/Connect 3D Radeon 9600 Pro works under Linux with previous Mandrake/Mandriva installs, but I wasn't able to get 3D acceleration to work properly, does it work in Mandriva 2006? My friend had the same problem in SuSE, so it might be a common Linux problem, not only Mandriva. ATI has these drivers for Linux, any experience with them? ATI Customer Care - Radeon Linux

 

What about converting my NTFS partitions to ext3? Is there a tool to do that or do i have to copy my files to another partition, format, copy them back and do the same to my 3 other HDDs? And how should I mount them to have them easily accessible? I have 3x 200gb HDD and 1x 40gb, so that 40gb will be the one where I install the OS, and the others are the ones where I store all my files. Two of those 200gb HDDs are SATA, but Mandrake/Mandriva 10.1 and 10.2 had no problems with supporting them.

 

I would appreciate if someone told me about these things. If you have some of these hardware, please post your experiences under Linux.

[ianw1974]

I have found that my ATI Radeon 9250 R925 works much better if you don't use ATI's drivers. In fact, ATI's drivers screw it up completely for me.

 

This isn't always the case though, as some people do use them successfully. My system gets about 1200fps with the Mandriva supplied drivers, and worked fine with LE2005 and 2006.

 

It's pretty simple to get it working. Install the distro, then make sure Mesa is installed, and make sure you have the correct settings in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf. And that's it. If I then install the ATI drivers, it screws everything completely.

 

If you do try the ATI, take a copy of your xorg.conf first, and then install. If it breaks, remove the drivers, and copy back your xorg.conf and you'll be back to where you were before you tried them.

[Murda]

ok I found out that there might be Linux support for Audigy 4, according to these links:

 

This says that latest ALSA supports it:

Soundblaster Audigy

 

I'm not really sure about what this guy is saying but i think he means it will work:

Sound Blaster Live 24bit 7.1

 

Posted them so other Audigy users don't have to search for them. I'm still not convinced about it...

 

Found these on the forum, might be helpful (when I started this thread, the search engine on mandrivausers.org didn't find anything related to Audigy). Both explain how to get Audigy cards to work.

 

Mandrivausers.org - New sound card [solved]

 

Mandrivausers.org - Audigy 2: only 4.1 sound not 6.1

 

I'll give it a try this weekend. Let's hope it works.

 

EDIT: Added 2 links

Edited March 21, 2006 by Murda