Only because the sound card is exclusively designed for windows.
It’s not that way anymore. I actually can’t configure gain (and some other features) for my Fiio KA3 on Windows. Now Android (and iOS) are their main priority.
Which does give the useful quirk of allowing me to configure it in desktop linux…
This is going to be a pattern though. It won’t necessarily get better for the Linux desktop, but Windows is going to increasingly feel the pain of being a “lower priority” OS for hardware.
We’re not doing this. People in the Linux community are so tweaked by years of bad support that they assume every complaint is a call for help.
It is not.
I know what’s broken, I know why, I know it’s not easily fixable, I have a workaround. This is not a tech support thread.
I don’t need information from users more savvy than me, I need the bad sound firmware they’re loading in lieu of specific support for my audio card to be fixed, or even better, replaced by actual specifically supported firmware so my card works. In the meantime, crappy on-board audio and wasting money on hardware I’m not using it is.
That’s fair, and I don’t have a problem with that. I’m just annoyed by the tendency of the community to react to criticism with technical advice, which I find to be a frustrating crutch.
FWIW, the card is a Sound Blaster X AE5 (that name sure has aged poorly), and I’ve had similar issues with it in both a Manjaro and a Bazzite install.
IMO that reaction is healthy, as long as it isn’t a hostile “you’re holding it wrong” (which was not my intent, and is very much a community problem). Communal troubleshooting is the nature of the Linux desktop.
If you don’t want advice, that’s fine, probably reasonable based on what you described. But I have had some similar (but not so severe) issues with Fioo and Xonar cards that got fixed with some low level configs I had no idea existed.
And maybe I could get to some more in-depth solution that sorts it out, but that’s me spending time on a problem that a) I shouldn’t have to, and b) I have a functional workaround for already.
Communal troubleshooting is the nature of Linux desktop, but also a massive problem. You shouldn’t need communal troubleshooting in the first place. It’s not a stand-in for proper UX, hardware compatibility or reliable implementation. If the goal is for more people to migrate to Linux the community needs to get over the assumption that troubleshooting is a valid answer to these types of issues.
Which is not to say the community shouldn’t be helpful, but there’s this tendency to aggressively troubleshoot at people complaining about issues and limitations and then to snark at people actively asking for help troubleshooting for not reading documentation or not providing thorough enough logs and information. I find that obnoxious, admittedly because it’s been decades, so I may be on a hair trigger for it at this point.
What distro? What sound card?
You might try something new that runs pipewire by default, if you haven’t already. But I might also know of some specific quirks with specific cards.
Things a random user of Windows never asks themselves in their lives
Only because the sound card is exclusively designed for windows.
It’s not that way anymore. I actually can’t configure gain (and some other features) for my Fiio KA3 on Windows. Now Android (and iOS) are their main priority.
Which does give the useful quirk of allowing me to configure it in desktop linux…
This is going to be a pattern though. It won’t necessarily get better for the Linux desktop, but Windows is going to increasingly feel the pain of being a “lower priority” OS for hardware.
We’re not doing this. People in the Linux community are so tweaked by years of bad support that they assume every complaint is a call for help.
It is not.
I know what’s broken, I know why, I know it’s not easily fixable, I have a workaround. This is not a tech support thread.
I don’t need information from users more savvy than me, I need the bad sound firmware they’re loading in lieu of specific support for my audio card to be fixed, or even better, replaced by actual specifically supported firmware so my card works. In the meantime, crappy on-board audio and wasting money on hardware I’m not using it is.
I was kind curious too, even if I can’t fix it. But… okay.
That’s fair, and I don’t have a problem with that. I’m just annoyed by the tendency of the community to react to criticism with technical advice, which I find to be a frustrating crutch.
FWIW, the card is a Sound Blaster X AE5 (that name sure has aged poorly), and I’ve had similar issues with it in both a Manjaro and a Bazzite install.
IMO that reaction is healthy, as long as it isn’t a hostile “you’re holding it wrong” (which was not my intent, and is very much a community problem). Communal troubleshooting is the nature of the Linux desktop.
If you don’t want advice, that’s fine, probably reasonable based on what you described. But I have had some similar (but not so severe) issues with Fioo and Xonar cards that got fixed with some low level configs I had no idea existed.
And maybe I could get to some more in-depth solution that sorts it out, but that’s me spending time on a problem that a) I shouldn’t have to, and b) I have a functional workaround for already.
Communal troubleshooting is the nature of Linux desktop, but also a massive problem. You shouldn’t need communal troubleshooting in the first place. It’s not a stand-in for proper UX, hardware compatibility or reliable implementation. If the goal is for more people to migrate to Linux the community needs to get over the assumption that troubleshooting is a valid answer to these types of issues.
Which is not to say the community shouldn’t be helpful, but there’s this tendency to aggressively troubleshoot at people complaining about issues and limitations and then to snark at people actively asking for help troubleshooting for not reading documentation or not providing thorough enough logs and information. I find that obnoxious, admittedly because it’s been decades, so I may be on a hair trigger for it at this point.