Astonished myself w. soundcard
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| hkwint Apr 22, 2009 12:42 PM EDT |
OK, so here's what just happened, thought you might like it. Onboard (mobo) sound is scratching and volume constantly changing without any reason, so I needed 'new sound'. Nothing fancy like 4.1 or 5.1 or anything, just subwoofer + 2 desktop speakers; meaning 2.1, simple old fashioned stereo that'd be. So yesterday, 10 minutes before closing time I crossed the road to the local parts-dealer to buy a new soundcard. Probably I told you I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to sound and Linux, so of course I bought the cheapest one, those always work. Much to the horror of some friends of mine, who already become sick when thinking of incorporating anything Sweex in their system. I just unpacked it and the first thing to do after throwing the driver-CD away is looking at the chip: "What's on it?" When I read those tiny almost unreadable dark-gold on sillicium chars saying CMI 8738 I felt relieved. You see, buying hardware for Linux is really simple. No need to look in the shop for 'compatible' logos, no need for driver CD or downloading, no need to ask the people in the store (it's not a service store anyway, more like a 'takeaway'; the only thing they don't have is a drive-in). Just look at the chipset, if it sounds familiar from your kernel-configuring adventures then you're ok. Normally I wouldn't refer to myself as a geek, but reading the tiny 4pt chars on a chip... Wow, is that geek or not? To answer my own question: It used to be plain normal, but nowadays in the Ubuntu-era I guess it might be considered geek, if it wasn't for this message being typed on LXer of course. However, when it comes to soundcards there's nothing a non-geek would not understand: just buy the cheapest and you're OK. My computer used to be ever more spartan, normally I'd have to compile the snd-cmipci driver by now, but as I used some .config I found in Sabayon my harddisk is full of available modules of hardware I don't use at this time, but may sometime. Combining that with alsaconf who does the rest, this is a truly plug-and-play system without nagging screens telling me new hardware has been found. While this reflects my system is not that approachable (most people would say 'it lacks user-friendliness) it is really user friendly, that's user friendly for me. It remembers me of last time I installed a new network-card in Windows, what a horror! I didn't know how to make it work, there was no CLI to read man's or use Lynx, and the internet was also unavailable to look for an answer. In great panic I called my 'Windows-expert' only to find out I needed that driver CD. Right, the ones I always immediately throw in the dustbin or cut in two using scissors - for my grandma to make some nice christmas-cards. If you forgot there's another use for those driver-CD's, I guess you're a good Linux-citizen. |
| ColonelPanik Apr 22, 2009 1:04 PM EDT |
hkwint, Good article, gives us all hope for a Linux future! |
| hkwint Apr 22, 2009 1:12 PM EDT |
Surely belongs to "Where Linux is easier than Windows" I suppose. |
| machiner Apr 23, 2009 10:32 AM EDT |
I thought all that cheap hardware was Windows only. Winmodems, that sort of thing. Maybe things are changing...I dunno. |
| gus3 Apr 23, 2009 10:55 AM EDT |
machiner: The latest Linux can go on cheaper hardware than the latest Windows can. What Eee PC offers Windows Vista? |
| hkwint Apr 25, 2009 7:17 PM EDT |
Depends on what you're buying I geuss. Cheap ethernet network cards and soundcards always work with Linux, and if you look for a cheap way to take an ordinary phone line and connect it to your PC running Asterisk on Linux, a Winmodem seems to be the cheap way to go! |
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