# Audio Hardware Support - Stereo Mix



## af3 (Jun 18, 2008)

Is there any such support for Sigmatel's or Creative X-Fi's "Stereo Mix" input pin? I have yet to find it in ANY distro. Every time I try Linux, there is always a hand full of reasons to go back to Windows. These reasons include:

- Poor DirectX emulation... Wine is getting better, and I have donated but they still have a long way to go.

- Strange nVidia problems... maybe it is because with Windows, I can force the use of GeForce 8600GT drivers on my GeForce 8600M GT and I can't get away with it on Linux. I always have to use an older release of the drivers and Compiz Fusion is always slower than I would like it to be. Simply put, the frame rate feels unstable. I like the effects, they beat Vista any day of the week! :wink:

So far, my favorite distro has been PCLinuxOS Gnome Edition, just to give you an idea of my OS preferences. I have tried many Live CDs and a fair share of install-only distros.

Thanks for your help, I love the idea of alternative operating systems, and love the network performance of Linux's stack but can't seem to commit to a migration for one reason or another. :4-dontkno


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## lensman3 (Oct 19, 2007)

Have you tried VMware instead of Wine?

As for nVidia, you will have to talk to them. They haven't released their drivers into the shareware realm, so Linux kernel developers are at the mercy of nVidia for ALL driver releases (and so is Microsoft). See http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=76994 . Microsoft has released the stats on the BSOD and nVidia is the clear winner.

I will agree with you about nVidia not being very stable under X11. I run Fedora Core 9 and the "xv" series of drivers seem to have disappeared. Programs that ran under Core 8 now can't do graphics.

The "Stereo Mix" input pin looks like it has been axed by (and I quote) "dell and all companies who did this for the greedy RIAA, shame on dell for siding with RIAA and not their customers may their profits burn for that" to quote one source. I appears to allow ripping of Internet audio streams, I think that is what it can be used for. Googling Sigmatel and "Stereo Mix" results in a lot of hits saying all/most drivers for Vista running on Dell's don't work. Everything used to work under XP, but now the card doesn't work. 

I would look to see if Dell has dropped the sale of these cards, since RIAA is so aggressive. Dell may be dropping that product line.


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## af3 (Jun 18, 2008)

VMWare is not free... and I know about the free server edition but don't feel like supplying the information required to download it.

I have the driver that supports Stereo Mix for windows, why doesn't anyone coding for Linux support the use of a "Stereo Mix" pin?! I use it primarily for archiving a mix I have running through various audio applications.

The alternative of course is Virtual Audio Cable which is a kernel level driver that acts as a second, third, fifth or 22nd sound card if needed but what are the chances of that working with Linux? Slim to none I fear.

Let’s not talk politics please. I am inquiring about Linux hardware support. The matter of the fact is that I have NEVER seen "Stereo Mix" support for any audio device in Linux regardless of the current hostility toward home use of such technology.

Please, does anyone have a solution?


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## shuuhen (Sep 4, 2004)

For the main question about Creative: No idea. Creative has had a bad history of producing drivers for non-Windows operating systems, so I've avoided buying anything from them.

DirectX - I avoid it, so I can't help with this one. Microsoft technologies tend to have little to no support on other operating systems. You'd have the same issues with DirectX on Mac OS X or any other non-Windows operating system.

Strange Nvidia problems - What driver are you using and what's in */etc/X11/xorg.conf*? I've never used the open source "nv" driver, but the proprietary drivers work great for me.

As far as Compiz-Fusion speed, what are the specs of your machine? Compiz-Fusion does some fairly intense calculations for its graphical abilities.

Virtual Audio Cable definitely wouldn't work since it's written for a different operating system. You might be able to find something for Linux that does the same thing though. Maybe special ALSA configuration or something on Sourceforge.

I personally like VMWare for virtualization, but VirtualBox works fairly well too.


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## af3 (Jun 18, 2008)

I am using a Inspiron 1720 w/ T7700, 4GB DDR2, 8600M GT (512MB)
I could not get anti-aliasing to work in Direct3D apps running under Wine. The graphics look fine, besides lacking shader effects and being a bit jagged. Does VMWare or VirtualBox support Direct3D or OpenGL pass-through (any hardware acceleration to speak of)? I doubt VMWare does...


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