Arch Linux

craw

Member

Registered: 2005-01-06

Posts: 29

SoundBlaster Z woes

Hi everyone,

i am having a hard time figuring out why my SoundBlaster Z card (attached Headphones to headphones jack if anyone cares) will only work after some rebooting the kernel.
This is a fresh install, so i cannot tell what i might have done that might have caused this.

The device will always show up in alsamixer and pavucontrol and also correctly detect which port my headphones are connected to. It just won't output any audio.

The issue is the firmware will not be downloaded onto the device, resulting in no possibility to output audio. This is of course just my guess, anyone might correct me on this.

dmesg | grep ca0132

will produce this:

[    4.912988] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1: autoconfig for Sound Blaster Z: line_outs=3 (0xb/0x11/0x10/0x0/0x0) type:line
[    4.912990] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    4.912991] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    hp_outs=1 (0xf/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    4.912992] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    mono: mono_out=0x0
[    4.912993] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    dig-out=0xc/0xd
[    4.912993] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    inputs:
[    4.912995] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:      Mic=0x12
[    4.912996] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:      Line=0x13
[    4.912997] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    dig-in=0xe
[    7.500930] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1: ca0132 failed to download DSP

However if i reboot several times - there is no fixed count on when this will happen chances are that things work out and firmware download succeeds (Success message for ca0132 in dmesg). Then audio output will work just fine - well until rebooting again that is.

Has anyone experienced something like this or could point me in the right direction as how to get this working reliably?

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by craw (2020-01-12 17:54:17)

craw

Member

Registered: 2005-01-06

Posts: 29

Re: SoundBlaster Z woes

I have to add that the opposite case also does not output audio.
So if my dmesg says this:

[    4.387221] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1: autoconfig for Sound Blaster Z: line_outs=3 (0xb/0x11/0x10/0x0/0x0) type:line
[    4.387236] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    4.387239] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    hp_outs=1 (0xf/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    4.387240] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    mono: mono_out=0x0
[    4.387242] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    dig-out=0xc/0xd
[    4.387243] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    inputs:
[    4.387246] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:      Mic=0x12
[    4.387248] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:      Line=0x13
[    4.387249] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1:    dig-in=0xe
[    5.009326] snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC0D1: ca0132 DSP downloaded and running

I also cannot manage to produce output to my headphones.

Clues anyone?