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Sound Blaster Audigy2 Platinum eX Installation February 24, 2009

Posted by Paimon in Uncategorized.
Tags: Audigy2, Creative Linux, Intrepid Ibex, Ubuntu 8.10
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One of the hardest things that I had to accomplish with the installation of Ubuntu was getting my SB Audigy2 Live Drive (the external box on the platinum series products) to work.  I managed to get it working after hours and hours of searching and toying around.  Heres what has worked for me:

First, we are going to need to grab the Linux Infrared Remote Control software package.  You can do this by firing up Terminal and entering the following command

sudo apt-get install lirc lirc-x

When lirc is installing, it will ask you which remote control you have, select “livedrive_midi”.  At the next screen it asks for an IR Transmitter which you will answer “None”.

The next thing you want to do, is edit the alsa driver configuration file by doing the following in terminal

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

You want to scroll down to the bottom, and enter the following line at the end

options snd-emu10k1 enable_ir=1

Next we want to make sure everything is set up correctly in the lirc package.  Open up the lirc configuration file with the following command

gksudo gedit /etc/lirc/hardware.conf

Replace your file’s contents with the following

# /etc/lirc/hardware.conf
#
LIRCD_ARGS=”-d /dev/snd/midiC0D1 -H livedrive_midi”

#Chosen Remote Control
REMOTE=”Creative LiveDrive midi”
REMOTE_MODULES=”"
REMOTE_DRIVER=”livedrive_midi”
REMOTE_DEVICE=”"
REMOTE_LIRCD_CONF=”creative/lircd.conf.livedrive”
REMOTE_LIRCD_ARGS=”-d /dev/snd/midiC0D1 -H livedrive_midi”

#Chosen IR Transmitter
TRANSMITTER=”None”
TRANSMITTER_MODULES=”"
TRANSMITTER_DRIVER=”"
TRANSMITTER_DEVICE=”"
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_CONF=”"
TRANSMITTER_LIRCD_ARGS=”"

#Enable lircd
START_LIRCD=”true”

#Don’t start lircmd even if there seems to be a good config file
#START_LIRCMD=”false”

#Try to load appropriate kernel modules
LOAD_MODULES=”true”

# Default configuration files for your hardware if any
LIRCMD_CONF=”"

#Forcing noninteractive reconfiguration
#If lirc is to be reconfigured by an external application
#that doesn’t have a debconf frontend available, the noninteractive
#frontend can be invoked and set to parse REMOTE and TRANSMITTER
#It will then populate all other variables without any user input
#If you would like to configure lirc via standard methods, be sure
#to leave this set to “false”
FORCE_NONINTERACTIVE_RECONFIGURATION=”false”
START_LIRCMD=”"

Save the file and next we will initialize our live drive.  For some reason, on devices with a live drive, you need to “initialize” it by sending some random bytes to see if it will start responding.  We can easily do this by:

echo -e ‘\360004041\141000000\17700\367′ > /dev/snd/midiC0D1

Lets now make sure that we can get some output.  Enter the following in terminal

cat /dev/snd/midiC0D1

Now if you press some buttons on your remote, or play with the buttons on your live drive, you will notice some garbage printed to the screen.  If you are seeing some garbage we will check to see if lirc is recognizing our remote.  Type the following in terminal

irw

Running IPW

Now press some buttons on your remote, you should see some text describing the button pressed, as well as the address of the button.  If you do, then you have successfully activated lirc within ubuntu!

The last step is to configure the remote, which is great because it allows for customization.  You will need to create a .lircrc file in your home directory and you may use this template to get you started

begin
prog = irexec
button = display
config = /usr/bin/totem &
end
begin
prog = irexec
button = play
config = totem –play-pause
end
begin
prog = totem
button = eax
config = fullscreen
end
begin
prog = totem
button = next
config = next
end
begin
prog = totem
button = prev
config = previous
end
begin
prog = totem
button = close
config = quit
end
begin
prog = irexec
button = start
config = /usr/bin/beep-media-player -a&
end
begin
prog = irexec
button = ok
config = /usr/bin/beep-media-player -t&
end
begin
prog = irexec
button = down
config = /usr/bin/beep-media-player -f&
end
begin
prog = irexec
button = up
config = /usr/bin/beep-media-player -r&
end
begin
prog = irexec
button = vol+
config = /usr/bin/amixer -q set Master,0 5+,5+
end
begin
prog = irexec
button = vol-
config = /usr/bin/amixer -q set Master,0 5-,5-
end