# New SB Soundcard

## rabcor

I just installed this http://asia.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=1&subcategory=872&product=20885&listby=usage (Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI-E) into my computer, as i needed it for my surround sound (intergrated only had stereo support)

Now lspci does list it as "Creative Labs Device 0012" however.... it's not working in my X Windows system as my intergrated card did.

What do i do to make this work?

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## Ant P.

Creative Labs has a history of appalling Linux support. You're probably better off getting a refund.

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## PaulBredbury

It needs kernel 3.5.

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## rabcor

 *PaulBredbury wrote:*   

> It needs kernel 3.5.

 

Thanks bro, wow i must be seriously lucky... that the just-released 3.5 kernel would support it, it was released on 21. july it seems but... doesn't seem to be available on gentoo yet. any idea how long i'll be waiting?

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## PaulBredbury

You're not looking properly. Kernel 3.5 is already available.

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## rabcor

 *PaulBredbury wrote:*   

> You're not looking properly. Kernel 3.5 is already available.

 

no its not just that, its also me being a noob  :Smile:  thanks, but i believe it says there it only goes to 3.4.9 on amd64... it doesn't seem to have kernel 3.5 and my gentoo sources are up to date with 3.4.9 according to portage... in other words... i don't know how i'd get it.

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## PaulBredbury

Ya need to use Google and read the docs available.

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## rabcor

 *PaulBredbury wrote:*   

> Ya need to use Google and read the docs available.

 

I seriously do try, its not as easy as i'm used to, i don't know all the keywords i'd use, and i don't know when i'm on the right or wrong page all the time which is exactly why i'm here and not on google. (when i google i usually only know 2/3 or more words to search, one being gentoo)(On windows i never used any forums to get assistance cus everything was easily lying around for me on google, but i'm still getting used to this on linux)

and above i meant keywords for google, since its a keyword based search engine after all, now to think the word i was looking for was actually keyword...

you've been a great help to me. thanks a lot!

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## Chiitoo

One other place to look into, while not exactly guides, is the 'man pages' of things which will in most cases tell you everything you need to know, if not more.

```
man portage
```

But as I said, they're more for explaining the functions and switches, not so much as how to do everything exactly but once you get more used to it all, it is often times more than enough.

Keep up the spirit!  Your adventures seem exactly like mine when I jumped into Gentoo nearly (only) 2 years ago, without any previous experience of Linux in general (aside from a quick, very brief try on Ubuntu which taught me a lot of nothing).  If you keep at it, everything will become more clear to you too, I'm sure, if you just keep at it!

You're doing very well from what I can see, and don't be reluctant to ask for help even if people are quick to reply with RTFM.  Usually they do point out which manual, and they wouldn't probably be here if they were annoyed by us noobs.  ^^;

The Gentoo forums/community in general are/is no doubt the most helpful and friendliest I have ever encountered, and active, too!

With all that said: Welcome!

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## NeddySeagoon

rabcor,

Look in the Gentoo handbook in the bit abaout mixing testing packages into a stable install.

Its not there in those exact words ...

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## PaulBredbury

Given your other thread (another whiny plea for attention, annoyingly duplicating this) - try Ubuntu Quantal, because it uses kernel 3.5.

And in future, show that you've put in some effort yourself.

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## rabcor

You're right, i do need to get used to using the man function... i've only used it once on my own initiative, all of that will come with just a bit of time probably.

I'm now having a problem where my audio device is being detected by the kernel and alsa properly, but it seems random (upon reeboots) whether it's actually going to work or not. usually i'll log out, go into windows for a while, log back into gentoo and it just may work, i haven't tried to see how it reacts to cold boots yet tho, but i think it might help her do it right. if you want me to i could try that.

My drivers however are clearly working since the sound kicks in while i'm booting. (the speakers give this thumping sound) but in my kde-environment, even if alsa did detect the soundcard somehow it is not using it properly for reasons unknown to me. But sometimes, just sometimes, (i haven't figured out yet how i can trigger it) it will work properly.

I have a few other issues aswell, (like kmix wasn't working for tuning the volume) but until my card is actually working (again) i can't quite test that.

Edited out unhelpful rant for forum guidelines violations. — JRG

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## John R. Graham

Hey, you've got no choice, right? When you're chastised, the only rational, mature choice is to retaliate, right?

You're not furthering your cause here. Gentoo is probably the most technically difficult Linux distribution (apart from Linux from Scratch) for noobs, yet we welcome people of all experience levels—so long as they're willing to work at it. If we're wrong—and you are working at it, but just having trouble—you can explain that politely.

Handy reference material includes:Gentoo Forum Guidelines

Wikipedia's Netiquette article- John

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## Ant P.

If you choose your OS based solely on 4chan memes, you're gonna have a bad time.

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## rabcor

 *Ant P. wrote:*   

> If you choose your OS based solely on 4chan memes, you're gonna have a bad time.

 

What do you mean? are you implying gentoo is a bad system? It's everything i wanted to see in an operating system and more but lacking a bit on the compatibility side of things... despite everything i had a wonderful time with gentoo... even if its starting to look like this is the end of the journey for now i'll probably be back later once i have more compatible hardware but seeing as no one here seems to be able (or want to) help me out atm.

So if no one can help me with this i'll just steer clear from any linux for an umber of months (or maybe years) but when the time is right i will probably come back and its more than likely that if i go back to linux i'll go straight to gentoo, because o ut of the handful of linux distros i tested, gentoo was the most fun.

But if my laptop overheats on it, and sound will randomly go haywire on my main pc, i guess theres really not much i can do, as i'm too stubborn to get a different hardware that supports linux. but it will probably be something i'll keep in mind in future computer part purchases just in case.

I've tried everything i could think of, it wasn't enough, so if no one wants to (or can for the matter...) help me, i'll be on my way until later, because i predict support for linux will increase in the passing years thanks to how horrible windows 8 is. it makes windows vista (and i mean this literally) look good.

And a big number of the regular windows customers are mac/apple haters (understandingly) which points towards linux of course, and most likely kde aswell.

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## John R. Graham

He was probably talking about this: *rabcor wrote:*   

> This picture is the only reason i ever installed this OS...

 You have a detailed reply in the thread you've stopped looking at that attempts to help you interact better with the community and also gives you the next steps for troubleshooting your sound card issues.

I'll also mention that thermal management isn't installed by default. There are kernel configuration settings and also userspace applications to install to get it working properly. There's even a helpful guide.

- John

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