I’m disabled (one usable hand, among other things). I need my mouse software to be able to map buttons to keys on my keyboard (and it must have individual profiles per application, and it must auto switch based on the active window) for me to be able to play shooters and similar.
I have tried many times in the past 20 years to switch, but I always had to come back. I installed bazzite to help a friend transition from w10, and to be able to talk them through any issues they might come across. I used this opportunity to again see how doable it would be, temporary dual booting.
In addition to the mouse, I don’t use my mobos onboard audio, instead using two creative sound blaster cards - one for my surround sound (main output), and the other for voice chat or if I have to be quiet (late night gaming). The drivers for both cards fail - L/R channels work as expected, but RL/RR/FC/Sub are wrong. I tried for two days to fix it, overriding settings, trying different settings in the UI, different overrides, switch cards around to see if they work correctly when outputting to the other hardware… And searching online, this has been a problem for years, maybe a decade+ across many distros. Okay, so, it’s not a ‘fix’ but what if we get new sound cards… Asus has some… Aaaaand survey says they are shit in Linux too. What about looking for some Linux specific hardware? The only company I found had cards for $1k+, and geared more towards audio creation. Hell no, you’d have to be insane.
That’s a hard stop, as I’m not about to give up my audio system because of botched drivers thst are seemingly never getting a fix. But similarly, I have a ThinkPad with a 5G modem in it. I tried a dozen distros before begrudgingly settling on Kubuntu, as it was the only system that would actually work (see the modem, interact with it, fcc unlock after terminal commands, and actually transfer data).
Linux has this bubble of users who are the typical norm - they need the basics, and nothing more. Which is fine, I’m happy for them, but damn does the experience suck shit if you aren’t in that bubble. I remember the days when I’d have to wrap windows wifi drivers to get online, or sleep wouldn’t work, or an update would brick the system (or grub, oh fuck me I’m having ptsd flashbacks), or even stuff like stereo in and out would be broken out of the box. And there often wasn’t a guide to fix this shit, it was just ‘have fun’. It has come a good way, but there is so much that still needs work.
And, as my friend found out, while all his games were native or compatable via proton or lutris, some needed to be built from source… Even though the fucking dev offers executables for windows, and could easily do the same for Debian-based systems, ready to go for those users… But no, here are some half-assed instructions that are out of date, glhf. Ugh…
There’s a ton of other things, but those are recent - like, within the last 3-6 months recent, and are real world examples of why some have to stay chained to windows.
Now if anyone wants to patch the shitty drivers for my sound blasters, I could actually try to maintain and actually use the install. But until then, I’ve got to use what actually works.
Fair point! In the end, everyone needs to use what works best for them. I do concede that I’m not really familiar with accessibility issues and I perceive the accessibility options to be lacking in the distros I know. Maybe it will change in the future and I hope it does :) thank you for your contribution!
…no? I said I searched for sound cards that are made by other companies, like Asus, but they too have similar problems. And then I looked up if there are any manufacturers that claim to support Linux, of which I only found one, and who charged an absurd amount of money since their target market is creators, not consumers.
Like, I’m not sure how you got to that conclusion, but it was wholly on your own.
So I reached the wrong conclusion, but you did a lot of research and found no one who made a sound card that can reliably work on Linux except one overpriced company.
This is what you yourself reiterated. Not sure where the disconnect is.
My onboard sound works fine. Purchased the hardware years before deciding to even try Linux. You are trying to make one specific scenario out to be the norm but it’s clearly not.
In my initial comment, I state that my situation isn’t typical, and that I’m outside the bubble of typical hardware and use case. I state why I use two sound cards. I state what is wrong with the drivers, my attempts to resolve it, my search for alternative hardware, and why falling back to a more basic setup in unacceptable.
I’m not ‘making a specific scenario’, this is my main machine I use daily. You are literally proving my point, about the ‘bubble’ of users that use basic hardware and think everything is fine, but those who use things that aren’t common hit snags and issues. And then you want to blame me for using hardware that I’ve used for years? Are you actually kidding me?
I am blaming you for claiming one literally cannot find sound hardware that works on Linux. It is a false statement. You can say whatever you want about “support” and pretend that is a standard to measure by but the actual truth you intend to obscure is that for nearly any sound hardware, it will work without any effort or attention paid whatsoever. It doesn’t matter in the least what companies claim to support Linux. 99% chance it works fine for any given random hardware.
‘I cannot find an add-on sound card that claims compatability with Linux at a reasonable cost’ != ‘everyone with a Linux machine doesn’t have sound’.
Find me a pci sound card that can handle 5.1 channel audio over 3.5mm. I spent a couple hours several weeks ago and came up empty (excluding the aforementioned card for creators).
That’s demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of how support works on Linux. You won’t find many pieces of hardware that claim support and yet nearly all of it works with the OS, usually with little to zero effort. I can’t be sure if you know this and pretend not to, or somehow missed it, but that’s how it works.
Forum posts and my own experience say that cards from Creative Labs and Asus, which both work correctly under windows, fail to achieve correct output above 2.0 (2.1?). There are almost no other options for pci add-on sound cards, being a niche market for the last 15 years or so.
So, unless you can point me to a card that I can purchase today and that has either a manufacturer-backed statement of compatability, or there are current owners who own that card, this conversation is over. I’ve given you way too much of my time, misunderstanding and misinterpret what is a basic concept and statement, such that you are not acting in good faith. I’d be happy to find a card that fits my quite basic requirements, but everything that I came across myself had reports of issues, or dead-end forum posts where no solution was reached.
Ight you can’t use your specific and statistically small example to label a majority of Linux users as just a bubble. It sucks what you’re dealing with, but it’ll only get fixed if more people switch to Linux and talk about.
I can - they asked for an example, I provided one. Most users don’t need to use custom input controls, or aren’t running a home theater system. They are in the bubble of ‘typical’, and they don’t think about situations other than their own (why would they?), thus people like myself who don’t fit in the bubble struggle.
Also do note the fact that my sound card issue has been a known issue through forum posts for basically a decade. Like sure, eventually sure, but it’s been a decade now and my current experience matches that of years ago, so…
Also miss me with that fake sympathy. I’ve heard ‘it’s sucks what you’re going through’ or something very close to it, for yeaaaars now, and the inevitable ‘but’ just tells me ‘that was a lie but I wanted to pretend to care’. Every time, always the same thing.
I’m disabled (one usable hand, among other things). I need my mouse software to be able to map buttons to keys on my keyboard (and it must have individual profiles per application, and it must auto switch based on the active window) for me to be able to play shooters and similar.
I have tried many times in the past 20 years to switch, but I always had to come back. I installed bazzite to help a friend transition from w10, and to be able to talk them through any issues they might come across. I used this opportunity to again see how doable it would be, temporary dual booting.
In addition to the mouse, I don’t use my mobos onboard audio, instead using two creative sound blaster cards - one for my surround sound (main output), and the other for voice chat or if I have to be quiet (late night gaming). The drivers for both cards fail - L/R channels work as expected, but RL/RR/FC/Sub are wrong. I tried for two days to fix it, overriding settings, trying different settings in the UI, different overrides, switch cards around to see if they work correctly when outputting to the other hardware… And searching online, this has been a problem for years, maybe a decade+ across many distros. Okay, so, it’s not a ‘fix’ but what if we get new sound cards… Asus has some… Aaaaand survey says they are shit in Linux too. What about looking for some Linux specific hardware? The only company I found had cards for $1k+, and geared more towards audio creation. Hell no, you’d have to be insane.
That’s a hard stop, as I’m not about to give up my audio system because of botched drivers thst are seemingly never getting a fix. But similarly, I have a ThinkPad with a 5G modem in it. I tried a dozen distros before begrudgingly settling on Kubuntu, as it was the only system that would actually work (see the modem, interact with it, fcc unlock after terminal commands, and actually transfer data).
Linux has this bubble of users who are the typical norm - they need the basics, and nothing more. Which is fine, I’m happy for them, but damn does the experience suck shit if you aren’t in that bubble. I remember the days when I’d have to wrap windows wifi drivers to get online, or sleep wouldn’t work, or an update would brick the system (or grub, oh fuck me I’m having ptsd flashbacks), or even stuff like stereo in and out would be broken out of the box. And there often wasn’t a guide to fix this shit, it was just ‘have fun’. It has come a good way, but there is so much that still needs work.
And, as my friend found out, while all his games were native or compatable via proton or lutris, some needed to be built from source… Even though the fucking dev offers executables for windows, and could easily do the same for Debian-based systems, ready to go for those users… But no, here are some half-assed instructions that are out of date, glhf. Ugh…
There’s a ton of other things, but those are recent - like, within the last 3-6 months recent, and are real world examples of why some have to stay chained to windows.
Now if anyone wants to patch the shitty drivers for my sound blasters, I could actually try to maintain and actually use the install. But until then, I’ve got to use what actually works.
Fair point! In the end, everyone needs to use what works best for them. I do concede that I’m not really familiar with accessibility issues and I perceive the accessibility options to be lacking in the distros I know. Maybe it will change in the future and I hope it does :) thank you for your contribution!
You just claimed it’s not possible to have working sound on Linux even if buying new hardware. This is… False. To say the least.
…no? I said I searched for sound cards that are made by other companies, like Asus, but they too have similar problems. And then I looked up if there are any manufacturers that claim to support Linux, of which I only found one, and who charged an absurd amount of money since their target market is creators, not consumers.
Like, I’m not sure how you got to that conclusion, but it was wholly on your own.
So I reached the wrong conclusion, but you did a lot of research and found no one who made a sound card that can reliably work on Linux except one overpriced company.
This is what you yourself reiterated. Not sure where the disconnect is.
My onboard sound works fine. Purchased the hardware years before deciding to even try Linux. You are trying to make one specific scenario out to be the norm but it’s clearly not.
In my initial comment, I state that my situation isn’t typical, and that I’m outside the bubble of typical hardware and use case. I state why I use two sound cards. I state what is wrong with the drivers, my attempts to resolve it, my search for alternative hardware, and why falling back to a more basic setup in unacceptable.
I’m not ‘making a specific scenario’, this is my main machine I use daily. You are literally proving my point, about the ‘bubble’ of users that use basic hardware and think everything is fine, but those who use things that aren’t common hit snags and issues. And then you want to blame me for using hardware that I’ve used for years? Are you actually kidding me?
I am blaming you for claiming one literally cannot find sound hardware that works on Linux. It is a false statement. You can say whatever you want about “support” and pretend that is a standard to measure by but the actual truth you intend to obscure is that for nearly any sound hardware, it will work without any effort or attention paid whatsoever. It doesn’t matter in the least what companies claim to support Linux. 99% chance it works fine for any given random hardware.
‘I cannot find an add-on sound card that claims compatability with Linux at a reasonable cost’ != ‘everyone with a Linux machine doesn’t have sound’.
Find me a pci sound card that can handle 5.1 channel audio over 3.5mm. I spent a couple hours several weeks ago and came up empty (excluding the aforementioned card for creators).
That’s demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of how support works on Linux. You won’t find many pieces of hardware that claim support and yet nearly all of it works with the OS, usually with little to zero effort. I can’t be sure if you know this and pretend not to, or somehow missed it, but that’s how it works.
Forum posts and my own experience say that cards from Creative Labs and Asus, which both work correctly under windows, fail to achieve correct output above 2.0 (2.1?). There are almost no other options for pci add-on sound cards, being a niche market for the last 15 years or so.
So, unless you can point me to a card that I can purchase today and that has either a manufacturer-backed statement of compatability, or there are current owners who own that card, this conversation is over. I’ve given you way too much of my time, misunderstanding and misinterpret what is a basic concept and statement, such that you are not acting in good faith. I’d be happy to find a card that fits my quite basic requirements, but everything that I came across myself had reports of issues, or dead-end forum posts where no solution was reached.
So, do you have a card for me or not?
Ight you can’t use your specific and statistically small example to label a majority of Linux users as just a bubble. It sucks what you’re dealing with, but it’ll only get fixed if more people switch to Linux and talk about.
Many such cases
I can - they asked for an example, I provided one. Most users don’t need to use custom input controls, or aren’t running a home theater system. They are in the bubble of ‘typical’, and they don’t think about situations other than their own (why would they?), thus people like myself who don’t fit in the bubble struggle.
Also do note the fact that my sound card issue has been a known issue through forum posts for basically a decade. Like sure, eventually sure, but it’s been a decade now and my current experience matches that of years ago, so…
Also miss me with that fake sympathy. I’ve heard ‘it’s sucks what you’re going through’ or something very close to it, for yeaaaars now, and the inevitable ‘but’ just tells me ‘that was a lie but I wanted to pretend to care’. Every time, always the same thing.