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Topic: Recommended Linux Sound Drivers for ASUS Xonar Essence ST? (Read 14990 times) previous topic - next topic
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Recommended Linux Sound Drivers for ASUS Xonar Essence ST?

A while back I attempted (and failed) to get my sound card to function on Ubuntu using ALSA, and then I tried switching to either OSS or PulseAudio (I forget which), but because ALSA was installed, I failed to get it to work, and ended up damaging my system.

Now I've installed Arch Linux, running LXDE, and currently have no sound drivers whatsoever.  So it's completely clean in the sound driver department.  I can easily install whichever drivers I want, so I want to make sure I not only install drivers that aren't completely dysfunctional (e.g. ALSA), but the best drivers overall.  All I know of is OSS and PulseAudio, but if there's something better, please enlighten me.  Sound drivers are currently the only thing my Arch install is lacking, so after many failed attempts of even getting a functioning DE running, I'm quite happy with the current state of affairs on my computer 

Recommended Linux Sound Drivers for ASUS Xonar Essence ST?

Reply #1 –
Quote from: TheWalrus on
A while back I attempted (and failed) to get my sound card to function on Ubuntu using ALSA, and then I tried switching to either OSS or PulseAudio (I forget which), but because ALSA was installed, I failed to get it to work, and ended up damaging my system.


First of all Pulseaudio is only a soundserver, it outputs to either ALSA or OSS.

What happens if you start a mixer, do you see the card? The channels are muted by default after installation. You need to unmute them.

If you don't see the card, according to the ALSA soundcard matrix, the ASUS Xonar Essence ST requires (at the minimum) either ALSA 1.0.22 or kernel 2.6.33. What is your output of

Code: [Select]
uname -a


?

If your kernel version is at or above that, run "alsaconf" as root and you you should be set. Don't forget to unmute the channels with a mixer such as alsamixer.

If you have a H6 daughterboard you need ALSA 1.0.24 or kernel 2.6.38 (or above).


Recommended Linux Sound Drivers for ASUS Xonar Essence ST?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: cpchan on
Quote from: TheWalrus on
A while back I attempted (and failed) to get my sound card to function on Ubuntu using ALSA, and then I tried switching to either OSS or PulseAudio (I forget which), but because ALSA was installed, I failed to get it to work, and ended up damaging my system.


First of all Pulseaudio is only a soundserver, it outputs to either ALSA or OSS.

What happens if you start a mixer, do you see the card? The channels are muted by default after installation. You need to unmute them.

If you don't see the card, according to the ALSA soundcard matrix, the ASUS Xonar Essence ST requires (at the minimum) either ALSA 1.0.22 or kernel 2.6.33. What is your output of

Code: [Select]
uname -a


?

If your kernel version is at or above that, run "alsaconf" as root and you you should be set. Don't forget to unmute the channels with a mixer such as alsamixer.

If you have a H6 daughterboard you need ALSA 1.0.24 or kernel 2.6.38 (or above).

I'm running Linux 3.1.9.  I'll try installing ALSA now.  And thanks for clarifying on PulseAudio.

Recommended Linux Sound Drivers for ASUS Xonar Essence ST?

Reply #3 –
Ok, I have ALSA running, but still can't get any sound to play through my headphones or speakers (unless you count the alarmingly loud popping noise that sometimes results from changing the Analog Output).  I have two hunches as to the source of the problem.  But first, here's a screenshot of alsamixer.

Here's the output when I try to run a speaker test.
Code: [Select]
speaker-test -c 2

speaker-test 1.0.24.2

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
ALSA lib pulse.c:229:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused

Playback open error: -111,Connection refused


If you look at the screenshot I posted, you'll notice that Xonar ST is listed as device 1, with nothing marked as the default.  I might be mistaken on what " - (default) " means, but when I select it, I get the following error:
Code: [Select]
Cannot open mixer device 'default'. Connection refused

The words "Connection refused" are used here, as they are in the error from the sound test, so maybe there's a connection.

Another possible cause of this problem is my ATI card.  I'm using a DVI-I to HDMI converter that came with the card, and because my video card (HD 4870) has a built-in sound card, it can output audio through HDMI.  I recall reading in the Ubuntu forums that people had issues with their ATI HDMI sound taking priority over their Xonar ST cards, and had to blacklist the ATI sound.  Do you think this is necessary?  And if it is, how would I do this?

Recommended Linux Sound Drivers for ASUS Xonar Essence ST?

Reply #4 –
Try putting this in /etc/asound.conf:

Code: [Select]
pcm.!default{
    type hw
    card 1
}
ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 1
}


restart ALSA with:

Code: [Select]
rcalsasound restart


as root and try again.

Recommended Linux Sound Drivers for ASUS Xonar Essence ST?

Reply #5 –
I did what you said, but still no sound.  Xonar ST is now device 0, instead of device 1, which is at least some progress.  I think the kernel might not be paying attention to ALSA though.
Code: [Select]
lspci | grep HD
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
03:07.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8788 [Oxygen HD Audio]

As you can see, it's still using the on-board sound card, and grepping for the ASUS card shows no results.

I assume I need to somehow tell the kernel it needs to use ALSA.  If it's necessary, I already have a full system backup from last night, so if blacklisting the other two cards might cause problems, I can always do a full system restore.

Recommended Linux Sound Drivers for ASUS Xonar Essence ST?

Reply #6 –
Ok, I finally got it working.  Turns out all I had to do was blacklist the other sound cards with the command
Code: [Select]
echo blacklist snd_hda_intel | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

and reboot (which might not actually be necessary, I didn't test it until after rebooting)

Now my windows install can finally be used exclusively for gaming and nothing else