OMG, Creative release X-Fi source code - Yay proper drivers!

ben_j_davis · 7 Nov 2008 at 11:29

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=creative_xfi_gift&num=1

"The Sound Blaster X-Fi sound card driver for Linux from Creative Labs was awful. That's simply the nicest way to put it. The driver was home to many bugs, initially only supported 64-bit Linux, and it was arriving extremely late. The open-source drivers supporting the Creative X-Fi drivers have also been at a stand still. However, Creative Labs today has finally turned this situation around and they have open-sourced the code to this notorious driver. The source-code for the Creative X-Fi driver is now licensed under the GNU GPLv2."

"The announcement was made on the Creative Labs Forums and the full source-code is available for download from its support area as file XFiDrv_Linux_Public_US_1.00.tar.gz."

bledd · 7 Nov 2008 at 11:31

wish they did this with their windows drivers too

z0mbi3 · 7 Nov 2008 at 11:33

This is fantastic news.

Was really the only thing stopping me from dual booting, now it's only a matter of time

yashiro · 7 Nov 2008 at 11:35

Ok, think about it.
The driver is terrible, they couldn't make it work. They then release the code for it...

While it makes Creative look like cool guys in the news, essentially they're washing their hands of the driver because they are not upto doing it in house. Someone will have to do the hard work and basically rewrite the driver.

Hopefully this at least stirs up some interest and people get better audio as a result.

GarethDW · 7 Nov 2008 at 11:42

Fantastic news. I don't mind Creative not wanting to dedicate resources to writing drivers - I don't think that it's because it's beyond them, but rather they don't want to spend the time/cash involved in doing it. By open sourcing it there are people who will be able to improve things because they'll be able to see the underlying code and modify it accordingly without falling foul of Creative's legal team.

Been waiting for this for quite some time. Really pleased to hear this.

Outcast · 7 Nov 2008 at 12:38

Lets hope others follow suit.

FoxEye · 7 Nov 2008 at 14:23

They should have done this back when they banned some guy for releasing his own drivers. Apparently they were embarrassed as his were a lot better.

I still wouldn't put another Creative card in my machine, ever. They can go to hell for killing Aureal

Cromulent · 14 Nov 2008 at 09:19

Just a shame they released them under the GNU GPLv2 license and not the BSD license.

Scougar · 14 Nov 2008 at 11:30

So lets get this straight.. they can't/won't take the time to develop a proper driver so are gonna let the community do it for them.. LMAO. Nice one creative.

GarethDW · 14 Nov 2008 at 12:25

Scougar said:
So lets get this straight.. they can't/won't take the time to develop a proper driver so are gonna let the community do it for them.. LMAO. Nice one creative.

What's the alternative though? They don't do anything and we all miss out?

Fop · 15 Nov 2008 at 12:36

SOUND!!!

AdamEW · 16 Nov 2008 at 13:27

OSS have had a driver out for a while. Its a bit basic feature-wise but it's stable and sounds fine.

mattgaunt · 16 Nov 2008 at 23:56

I agree with GarethDW, I think its better that they open source their code rather than hide it. Quicker bug fixes and updates.

So will this mean 3D sound in Linux or is that still a far away dream?

Just curious cos I have no understanding of surround sound or sound cards.

ben_j_davis · 17 Nov 2008 at 15:44

Hmm I think I'm going to have to undo the previous jiggery pokery I did to get my XFI working the last time before this new driver will work. Sigh