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I'm running a Sound Blaster E5 portable soundcard/amplifier to my headphones. It works via a USB connection from my rig, to the sound card, then through 3.5mm audio connection to my headphones. I am running KDE on a fresh install as I was stuck on Windows for a few years due to some mandatory software. Pulseaudio is installed, as KDE installs it by default.
According to this video, the Sound Blaster E5 works fine on Linux through ALSA, as some other reviews on Amazon and whatnot backed up. When I tried to get something to run, it originally would just play the captured audio from my sound card's microphone back through my headphones, and nothing else could play back. I googled a bit and read the wiki a bit more (Arch Linux 101), and ran the following command:
$ aplay -l | grep card
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
card 2: E5 [Sound Blaster E5], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: E5 [Sound Blaster E5], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0It correctly identifies the device I want to use as card 2. After unplugging it a few times, I was able to get normal playback to work, however the microphone input was still being played back as well, and there is no way to mute this in pulseaudio.
As of right now, when looking at the "configuration" tab of KDE's pulseaudio interface, there are three "devices". GK110 HDMI Audio (my graphics card), Built - In Audio (Onboard audio), and then Sound Blaster E5 (sound card). I have the first two set to Off, but it doesn't matter what I change the third to, the output doesn't change in the slightest, not even for a split second. The Sound Card has the following options:
Analog Stereo Input
Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
Analog Stereo Output
Analog Stereo Duplex
Analog Stereo Output + Digital Stereo (IEC958) Input
Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output
Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output + Analog Stereo Input
Digital Stereo Duplex (IEC958)
And of course, Off.Again, it doesn't matter what I change it to, there is ZERO change in the audio output. It still does correct playback (as it should) and plays my microphone input as well (should NOT do).
Under the Output Devices tab, I have two "devices."
Sound Blaster E5
Sound Blaster E5 Digital Stereo (IEC958)The first one doesn't change a thing, and even when I unplug my device it remains. The second one goes away when I remove the device, but does not affect volume at all no matter what I change it to.
Under the Input Devices tab, I have only one "device."
Sound Blaster E5 Analog StereoAgain, muting it and changing the volume level have ZERO affect on anything.
According to the video I linked at the top of this post, this person is not using pulseaudio at all, and just using ALSA. So, I figured I could try this as well. Running alsamixer and looking at the cards via the F2 menu does see the E5 device, similarly to if I ran aplay -l. However, I cannot get ALSA to affect volume levels or anything, and if memory serves correctly this is because pulseaudio basically takes control when it is installed.
I tried removing pulseaudio, but pacman won't let me as it would mess up the dependencies for the plasma group. If I need to try removing pulseaudio, I will need some instructions on how to remove pulseaudio without removing plasma (I have the plasma group installed, not plasma-meta though I tried switching between the two to see if that would make a difference. It didn't.)
Googling isn't doing much for me, though inevitably it's out there somewhere, I just can't find it. I really appreciate any and all help I receive, as I need this to work in order to use Linux at all. Thanks for your time!
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