Kernel 2.6.31, Creative X-fi, static

[anuraaga]

Hello,

I've been trying out the snd-ctxfi module included in kernel 2.6.31 since a few RCs back, and there has always been an issue with it where sound is played with a large amount of static which makes the module unusable. The static isn't there the entire time, it's just when sound is played it's very low quality with lots of static in it. The old, ctxfi driver (included in the xfi-drivers package) has worked fine, so I went back to using it (after modifying the source a bit so it'd compile on 2.6.30+), but now that 2.6.31 is officially here, I'd like to see if it's possible to move to the kernel tree (and therefore open source ALSA) version. Anyone else have a problem with static using snd-ctxfi? Scanning around the net, it seems that most people seem to be having no problems with it... One strange effect I noticed is when using alsamixer, the sound was affected by the settings for every channel. Despite only having a set of stereo speakers plugged into the card, reducing Front volume would lower the sound output, reducing center volume would lower it, reducing surround volume would lower it, essentially it seemed that sound was always the minimum of any of these three bars, despite only having speakers hooked up to the front.

If anyone has any insight, it'd be appreciated.

[PaulBredbury]

Static in which app? Be specific.

Here's a fix for static in SDL.

[anuraaga]

Sorry, I should have been more clear.

It's happening in all applications as far as I can tell. I normally use Pulseaudio and the same crackled sound came out of mplayer (native pulse), rhythmbox (gstreamer pulse), and flash (alsa pulse). I also just tried every app directly through alsa after killing pulseaudio, and the same symptoms occurred, so I believe the problem lies at an ALSA/driver level.

However, one thing I just realized that is probably related is when alsasound starts up, it gives a message: