Public bug reported:
**Summary**
Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus is detected correctly by the kernel,
ALSA and PipeWire, but produces no analogue audio through the dedicated
headphone output. The problem appeared following an `apt upgrade` on
Ubuntu 24.04 and has persisted since then.
**Hardware**
Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z890 GAMING X WIFI7
Sound card:
```
83:00.0 Audio device: Creative Labs CA0132 Sound Core3D [Sound Blaster Recon3D
/ Z-Series / Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Creative Labs CA0132 Sound Core3D - CA0113 [Sound BlasterX
AE-5 Plus]
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
```
PCI device ID: `1102:0012`
Subsystem ID: `1102:0191`
The headphones are connected to the AE-5 Plus dedicated headphone
socket.
This is a dual-boot system. The same sound card and headphones work
correctly under Windows, so the hardware itself appears to be
functioning correctly.
**Ubuntu/kernel versions tested**
The problem has been reproduced with at least:
```
7.0.0-28-generic
6.17.0-40-generic
```
Booting the older 6.17.0-40 kernel did not restore audio.
The problem originally appeared after an `apt upgrade`, but I cannot
identify the exact package/kernel update that introduced it.
**ALSA detection**
`aplay -l` correctly detects:
```
card 1: Creative [HDA Creative], device 0: CA0132 Analog [CA0132 Analog]
card 1: Creative [HDA Creative], device 1: CA0132 Digital [CA0132 Digital]
```
The CA0132 driver initializes and reports:
```
snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC1D1: CA0132: picked fixup for PCI SSID 1102:0191
snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC1D1: autoconfig for Sound BlasterX AE-5
snd_hda_codec_ca0132 hdaudioC1D1: ca0132 DSP downloaded and running
```
There is an earlier firmware message:
```
snd_hda_intel 0000:83:00.0: Direct firmware load for ctefx-desktop.bin failed
with error -2
```
but the driver subsequently reports that the CA0132 DSP has downloaded
and is running.
**PipeWire**
PipeWire correctly detects the card and creates an analogue sink. The
Creative analogue sink is selected as the default output.
The headphone route has explicitly been selected:
```
Active Port: analog-output-headphones;output-headphones
```
The ALSA CA0132-specific output selector is also explicitly set to
headphones:
```
$ amixer -c Creative get 'Output Select'
Simple mixer control 'Output Select',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: 'Speakers' 'Headphone'
Item0: 'Headphone'
```
`HP/Speaker Auto Detect` has also been tested both enabled and disabled.
Mixer controls including Master, PCM and Front are unmuted and have non-
zero volume.
**Playback tests**
Normal PipeWire/ALSA playback runs successfully but is silent:
```
speaker-test -D default -c2
```
prints repeated:
```
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
```
but no sound is produced.
The ALSA `sysdefault` device also successfully accepts playback:
```
speaker-test -D sysdefault:Creative -c2
```
again repeatedly reports Front Left / Front Right but produces no
audible output.
Direct hardware playback with:
```
speaker-test -D hw:1,0 -c2
```
fails while setting hardware parameters:
```
Unable to set hw params for playback: Cannot allocate memory
Setting of hwparams failed: Cannot allocate memory
```
`--dump-hw-params` reports that the hardware supports S16_LE/S32_LE, 2-6
channels and 16000-96000 Hz.
**Codec state**
The rear analogue pin reports:
```
Node 0x0b [Pin Complex] wcaps 0x400581: Stereo
Pincap 0x00010014: OUT EAPD Detect
EAPD 0x0:
Pin Default 0x01014010: [Jack] Line Out at Ext Rear
Pin-ctls: 0x40: OUT
Power: setting=D0, actual=D0
```
As a diagnostic test, EAPD was manually enabled using `hda-verb`, but
this made no difference.
**Other troubleshooting already performed**
- Verified correct Creative card is the default output.
- Explicitly selected both speaker/line-out and headphone routes.
- Explicitly selected `Output Select = Headphone`.
- Checked Master, PCM and Front mixer levels/muting.
- Disabled CA0132 output effects.
- Tested with PipeWire and via ALSA `sysdefault`.
- Tested kernel 7.0.0-28 and 6.17.0-40.
- Performed a complete cold power-down including removing mains power.
- Confirmed the same headphones/card work correctly under Windows.
- No recent BIOS configuration change is known.
The problem persists.
**Expected result**
Audio played through the Creative CA0132 analogue device should be
audible through headphones connected to the AE-5 Plus headphone output.
**Actual result**
Playback proceeds apparently normally through ALSA/PipeWire, but the
AE-5 Plus produces no audible analogue headphone output.
**Additional observation**
There are recent reports from other Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus users that
sound can become non-functional after system updates and sometimes be
restored by reinitialising ALSA (`alsactl init`) and/or resetting
WirePlumber state. This may indicate an initialization/state-restoration
problem involving `snd_hda_codec_ca0132`.
Please let me know if additional CA0132 codec dumps, `alsa-info.sh`
output, or testing with particular kernel builds/patches would be
useful.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 24.04
Package: linux-image-7.0.0-31-generic 7.0.0-31.31~24.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 7.0.0-31.31~24.04.1-generic 7.0.14
Uname: Linux 7.0.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.28.3-0ubuntu0.1
Architecture: amd64
CRDA: N/A
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Fri Sep 11 14:36:12 2026
InstallationDate: Installed on 2025-08-03 (404 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS "Noble Numbat" - Release amd64 (20250215)
IwConfig:
lo no wireless extensions.
enp130s0 no wireless extensions.
wlp129s0 no wireless extensions.
MachineType: PCSpecialist Nebula Pro
ProcFB: 0 nvidia-drmdrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-7.0.0-31-generic
root=UUID=1f142300-69ff-4409-84cd-3f0def6b540a ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
PulseList: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: No
PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
RelatedPackageVersions:
linux-restricted-modules-7.0.0-31-generic N/A
linux-backports-modules-7.0.0-31-generic N/A
linux-firmware 20240318.git3b128b60.0ubuntu3.1
SourcePackage: linux-hwe-7.0
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/16/2025
dmi.bios.release: 5.32
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends International, LLC.
dmi.bios.version: F17e PI
dmi.board.asset.tag: Default string
dmi.board.name: Z890 GAMING X WIFI7
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.board.version: x.x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Default string
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Default string
dmi.chassis.version: Default string
dmi.modalias:
dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInternational,LLC.:bvrF17ePI:bd07/16/2025:br5.32:svnPCSpecialist:pnNebulaPro:pvr-CF-WCP-IDO:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnZ890GAMINGXWIFI7:rvrx.x:cvnDefaultstring:ct3:cvrDefaultstring:sku3141886:pfaIntelZ890Systems:
dmi.product.family: Intel Z890 Systems
dmi.product.name: Nebula Pro
dmi.product.sku: 3141886
dmi.product.version: -CF-WCP-IDO
dmi.sys.vendor: PCSpecialist
** Affects: linux-hwe-7.0 (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug noble
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2167102
Title:
No sound with Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 Plus
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