# X58 chipset

## HePeR

Hi there,

I'm planning on buying a new toy to play with.

It seems not too much info can be found about the latest intel x58 chipset.

I am wondering if the optical s/pdif is working under linux (gentoo) with the intel x58 smack over motherboard.

It's using the ICH10 southbridge with alc889a .

Can anyone with such a system give this a try , or can anyone who knows for a fact that it does or doesn't work let me know.

Thanks

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## SDNick484

A few months ago I did an install on an Intel G45 Mobo and ran into a lot of issues with the 2008.1 installer.  In particular several critical modules (eg. the e1000e NIC driver) were missing, so things like networking (and therefore fetching new packages) didn't function.  I was able to download a later kernel source (2.6.27 at the time) and compile that, but it was definitely a pain in the butt to figure out why it wasn't working and to get to that point.  I'm fairly confident a X58 board will have that NIC issue at the very least (not a showstopper if you got a spare machine, or even better a supported PCI network card), so it may be worth waiting until the 2009.0 release is done (although I have no clue when that will be).

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## netarchy

The various bits of all the X58 motherboards I've seen are working fine with kernel 2.6.27+, 

When I set up my core i7 system I booted off a sysresccd ( www.sysresccd.org )because the current gentoo livecd

has a kernel that is too old for the chipset.

The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is the optical/spdif, I can only vouch for the analog working for sure.

Though as an interesting note, when configuring the kernel, use NUMA for memory, it's the official recommendation

of the kernel devs for core i7 chips to best use the builtin memory controller.

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## HePeR

i found some post about being succesfully getting the basic system up and running.

yet no info to be found on the s/pdif output ... i checked on the alsa site ... but that didn't get me any usefull info.

For some reason when i connect my computer to my amp using the analog output i get a lot of distortion.

That's why i started using an optical s/pdif cable several years ago.

The problem seems to be a bad ground(earth) connection on the electrical system in my house that is causing 

this problem.

So every time i buy myself a new toy i try to make sure that the s/pdif works on linux  :Wink: 

Hopefully there is someone reading this post that can try this for me

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## HePeR

i'm trying this currently with a livecd

I can't seem to get sound over s/pdif (haven't tried analog)

the card gets detected. i have the IEC958 toggle in alsamixer

yet no sound, nor errors.

What supprises me is that there no light coming out of the s/pdif port ... while my other system "shines" even before linux is booted up completely

Anyone have a clue ?

```
aplay -L

default:CARD=Intel

    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog

    Default Audio Device

front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0

    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog

    Front speakers

surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0

    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog

    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers

surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0

    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog

    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers

surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0

    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog

    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers

surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0

    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog

    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers

surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0

    HDA Intel, ALC889 Analog

    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers

iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0

    HDA Intel, ALC889 Digital

    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

null

    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)

```

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