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Installing an Audio Card - CMI8738 on X10DRL-i with Fedora 34

08/05/2022 @ Saigon Linux

I am the owner of a motherboard named X10DRL-i from Supermicro. Regarding its specification, there is no audio component on this motherboard which means that I cannot listen to music or do voice call.

Of course, there are few tricks to output/input audio via USB components however it’s not a method that I would like to use in long term.

I really don’t want to waste an USB socket on this motherboard.

First of all, this is the motherboard layout that I rererence from Supermicro.

[1] Supermicro X10DRL-i
[1] Supermicro X10DRL-i

And this is the the audio card Cmedia CMI8738, this audio card has reached its end of life. I bought it from Shopee.

[2] Audio Card - Cmedia CMI8738
[2] Audio Card - Cmedia CMI8738

Right now, I am using a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, as a consequence, I cannot test CPU 1 SLOT 5 PCI-E 3.0 X16 socket on the motherboard. Meanwhile, after testing all available sockets, there is only one socket which works, it’s PCH SLOT 1 PCI-E 2.0.

lspci gives more information.

$ lspci -nnk | grep -A3 Audio

08:00.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8738/CMI8768 PCI Audio [13f6:0111] (rev 10)
        Subsystem: C-Media Electronics Inc CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device [13f6:0111]
        Kernel driver in use: snd_cmipci
        Kernel modules: snd_cmipci

Other failed tests lead to an unknown conflict with Graphic Card. A dark blank screen with flashing cursor.

After installing the audio card on PCH SLOT 1 PCI-E 2.0. I have tested the Pink Socket - Mic In and Green Socket - Front Out. They all works flawlessly. Of course, it’s a must to configure an audio setting on Fedora 34, this is my audio setting.

[3] Audio Settings
[3] Audio Settings

In case, you wonder my server specification:

  • OS: Fedora 34 (Workstation Edition) x8
  • Kernel: 5.17.5-100.fc34.x86_64
  • Desktop Environment: GNOME 40.9
  • CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4 (56) @ 3.300GHz
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

References: