Asus Xonar DX works under linux?

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

Associate
Joined
9 Mar 2008
Posts
1,039
Finally got Ubuntu installed today (32 bit 8.04), and the short answer is no. The card is found by ubuntu, but it doesnt seem to be able to actually use it, which is a bit of a disappointment. Googling returns results of people getting the D2 pci card to run, but i havent found one for the DX yet. Some people on the ubuntu forums have filed bug reports, so i guess it may be resolved, but at the moment (in my experience), it doesnt work.
 

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

Associate
Joined
9 Mar 2008
Posts
1,039
Cheers ethics, i'll have a go at this later, although i am a bit of a noob when it comes to linux! I must admit its not such a problem for me - i dont use linux as my main os, mainly just to play around and learn with. Still, would be a good learning experience if i could get this working...
 

Ethics

Ethics

Ethics

Associate
Joined
22 Feb 2008
Posts
776
ChrissyT88 said:
Cheers ethics, i'll have a go at this later, although i am a bit of a noob when it comes to linux! I must admit its not such a problem for me - i dont use linux as my main os, mainly just to play around and learn with. Still, would be a good learning experience if i could get this working...
Click to expand...

it boils down to loading the correct module for your soundcard, very similar to having a driver. The Kernel uses the module to know how to interact with the card.

There are instructions in the link i posted, or you could research the ubuntu docs onto how to load modules in Ubunut in some easier fashion.
 

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

Associate
Joined
9 Mar 2008
Posts
1,039
Was just about to give up on the trying to get the driver to compile front, but i think i have done it (at least it didnt report any errors). However, still not working. @ Ethics - i am a little unclear as to what some parts of the guide mean. Perhaps one of the biggest problems is that i do not fully understand the first paragraph. It says to enable the soundcore module, but in the kernel file is simple a soundcore.ko file - i have no idea how i would use this to enable the soundcore module. It says to edit /etc/modules.conf, but i only seem to have a plain text file named modules... i guess it is the same so i added the code there.

I also do not understand the part where it mentions 'Native devices' - does this stuff need to be put into the modules.conf file as well and if so where? Is it in addition to the already edited extras or to replace parts of them? Any help would be appreciated, but i will have another stab at it tomorrow.
 

Ethics

Ethics

Ethics

Associate
Joined
22 Feb 2008
Posts
776
Sorry it's my own laziness i should have explained it, but at work during the day so a bit limited.

The first bit is about installing alsa/alsa libs/ alsa driver. This is the sound server, sort of the backend that handles al lthe sound processing etc. Most modern distros (especially Ubuntu) have these installed out of the box. If not try:

sudo apt-get install alsa alsa-libs alsa-oss alsa-utils.

This line:
modprobe snd-virtuoso ; modprobe snd-pcm-oss ; modprobe snd-mixer-oss

Is where getting the actual card to work starts, cause you're telling the kernel to load the particular module for the chipset of your card.

modprobe only loads them for the current session however and would be lost on a reboot so typically (in older distros) you'd add an entry to /etc/modules.conf or /etc/rc.conf etc. but a quick google tells me these are replaced in Ubuntu with an /etc/modprobe.d/ directory with individual scripts, you could look at one of these, copy it and change it to contain the above modules, but be careful cause it may cause it not to boot if it errors on starting a module.

Hope that helps, post back how you get on
 

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

Associate
Joined
9 Mar 2008
Posts
1,039
Cheers Ethics, i will give it a go now. Btw, i wouldnt consider your contribution to be lazy - heck, i wouldnt have known where to start, and to be honest its down to my own incompetance that i dont know what all this stuff means!

EDIT: Still nothing. Realised that i had missed the alsa library download (!), so followed the instructions and compiled from source. Running apt-get install for the drivers, libs and utils states that i have the most recent versions of all, and downloads nothing. Have run modprobe...etc with elevated privileges and as root, and have used alsamixer and amixer to ensure that the card is not muted, but have not yet got any sound out of the thing! Checked using lspci, and it is found by ubuntu, but using aplay -l does not show the card in sound devices. I have managed to find this thread in the ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=779837 ,

This pretty much lists the same problems. Opinion is that because this card uses a pci-pcie link chip, a bug in ubuntu means that the drivers and the card cannot be linked. One of the posters has filed a bug report on launchpad, but the site still reports that it is unfixed. Strangely enough, someone else in this thread said the card works fine under ubuntu 7.10, which strikes me as being a little odd. I may send a webnote to asus to (maybe) prompt them to do something about it, but as i mentioned earlier, its not such a massive problem for me (and onboard sound still works anyway - at least i didnt completely destroy my sound drivers in the process of experimenting :D). If someone else who knows more about linux can get this to work, i would be very interested in the solution, but im afraid its got the best of me...
 
Last edited:

craptakular

craptakular

craptakular

Soldato
OP
Joined
7 Jan 2007
Posts
10,608
Location
Sussex, UK
Yeh apparently the DX works fine with a driver install on Opensuse 11.0, but doesnt work in ubuntu.

However the D2 (PCI Version) works out-of-the-box on Ubuntu, think ill get that one :D Hope your card works soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom