First post: Help with Linux sound.
After all the shenanigans regarding the windows echo-system I decided to give Linux a try. I’m more than noob, it’s my first attempt, so please be gentle
I install bare metal in an old HDD, to feel the real deal without virtualization. I tried the latest Fedora but was not successful.
First thing I do in any new OS installation is to turn the desktop background to solid black.
I’m probably not intelligent enough to use Fedora OS as after more than half an hour trying to do this, I quit. It was frustrating to see 3 buttons on the background app (wallpapers/pictures/colors) without being able to change any of the presets (and none was black).
My second (and actual) try is Mint 18.1. I was able to configure all I want in minutes! Great integration… But I have a very big issue with it, and that’s why I’m asking for help. I tried google (for about 2 days of research now) and I couldn’t find a solution to my big “no-no”: the sound!
I have a creative x-fi fatal1ty for "almost a decade" LOL and I always disable the integrated sound as it is miles away in sound quality (even in my asus x99 deluxe) and the sound I get from Pulse is atrocious! As bad as the integrated sound
I’ve been reading about using ALSA instead of Pulse, but sometimes people say Pulse is just a front-end of ALSA, others say they are independent, others say ALSA is the best, other say bla, bla… So I found a driver from Creative’s website (XFiDrv_Linux_Public_US_1.00.tar) and was trying to see if I could get, at least, the hardware bass and treble functionality of the card, in hopes it would change the horrible, weak, lifeless sound from Pulse Equalizer (or without equalizer).
While trying to install this driver (and even before the hoops I will have to jump to change from Pulse to Alsa, but that will come later, I’m sure) it aborts, saying it can’t find the “sound/driver.h”.
I can’t see any “sound” folder in the root of the installation package, so did they forget to add a folder to the driver tar? A “sound” folder with some .h files (driver.h)?
Can some nice and knowledgeable Linux masters help me make my sound card great again?
I just want the hardware bass and treble. Pulse equalizer is too distortion prone and lifeless. I’m a kind of audiophile, if that’s even a real adjective
Thanks in advance for any insights!