Re: Creative X-Fi hw20k2 (SB0880) that appeared in kernel 6.12.85

Hello Takashi, hello Cliff,

I have four of those cards in active service on AMD64. I pulled the 6.12.85 tarball from kernel.org and set up a test install with pulseaudio (all my production systems are on pipewire by now).
I played back audio through parole (gstreamer backend) and paplay.
I followed the initial reproduction steps by Cliff of "restarting pulseaudio" by killing the service and starting it again.
This ends the playback for both Parole and paplay with a backend error and confirms that they are actually playing back through pulseaudio.
But resuming the playback also reliably resumes the audio. I could not observe any silent failure on kernel 6.12.85.

Sink is running, access mode is "mmap+timer" as mentioned by Cliff.

--- snip ------------------------------------------------------------------
karsten@forky:~$ pulseaudio --version
pulseaudio 17.0
karsten@forky:~$ pactl --version
pactl 17.0
Kompiliert mit libpulse 17.0.0
Gelinkt mit libpulse 17.0.0
karsten@forky:~$ pulseaudio -k
karsten@forky:~$ pulseaudio --start
karsten@forky:~$ pactl list sinks
Ziel #0
	Status: RUNNING
	Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_04_00.0.analog-stereo
	Beschreibung: EMU20k2 [Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Series] (SB0880 [SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium PCI-e]) Analog Stereo
	Treiber: module-alsa-card.c
	Abtastwert-Angabe: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
	Kanalzuordnung: front-left,front-right
	Besitzer-Modul: 8
	Stumm: nein
	Lautstärke: front-left: 64636 /  99% / -0,36 dB,   front-right: 64636 /  99% / -0,36 dB
	        Verteilung 0,00
	Basis-Lautstärke: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
	Quellen-Monitor: alsa_output.pci-0000_04_00.0.analog-stereo.monitor
	Latenz: 6888 usec, eingestellt 6944 usec
	Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
	Eigenschaften:
		alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
		device.api = "alsa"
		device.class = "sound"
		alsa.class = "generic"
		alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
		alsa.name = "Front/WaveIn"
		alsa.id = "ctxfi"
		alsa.subdevice = "0"
		alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
		alsa.device = "0"
		alsa.card = "0"
		alsa.card_name = "Creative X-Fi"
		alsa.long_card_name = "Creative X-Fi 20K2 SB0880"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_ctxfi"
		device.bus_path = "pci-0000:04:00.0"
		sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.6/0000:04:00.0/sound/card0"
		device.bus = "pci"
		device.vendor.id = "1102"
		device.vendor.name = "Creative Labs"
		device.product.id = "000b"
		device.product.name = "EMU20k2 [Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Series] (SB0880 [SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium PCI-e])"
		device.string = "front:0"
		device.buffering.buffer_size = "131072"
		device.buffering.fragment_size = "65536"
		device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
		device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
		device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
		device.description = "EMU20k2 [Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Series] (SB0880 [SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium PCI-e]) Analog Stereo"
		module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
	Ports:
		analog-output: Analoge Ausgabe (Typ: Analog, Priorität: 9900, Verfügbarkeit unbekannt)
	Aktiver Port: analog-output
	Formate:
		pcm
karsten@forky:~$ uname -a
Linux forky 6.12.85 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Jun  4 18:41:43 CEST 2026 x86_64 GNU/Linux
karsten@forky:~$
--- snip ------------------------------------------------------------------

It is a shame, that one has to ask these days: Cliff, are you feeding us some AI-assisted confidently wrong hallucinations?

Regards

Karsten