Dell XPS 710 or 720 plus and Sound Blaster X-Fi * Cards and Linux (Ubuntu or Any Distro)

According to the Alsa Project:

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Vendor-Creative_Labs

It looks like this is on hold due to "lack of time" etc. Does Dell know this? Is there any way we can help ALSA or Dell can help move this project forward? I really think this is major show stopper for Ubuntu on XPS systems that utilize the Soundblaster X-Fi card.

I have a Dell XPS 720 with the X-Fi card...and of course don't have sound on my machine. I'm probably going to go out and just buy a 30 buck card just so I can have sound. It really makes me depressed, but I have seen a lot of people on IRC do this (and this is the only suggestion people can really have) -- and just put their great X-Fi card aside while someone fixes the real underlying issue. 

Soundblaster promised X-Fi open source drivers during Q 1 of 2007; however, they still have not delivered 32 bit drivers, only 64 bit drivers and these even fail to work properly (they released these in the end of Q4 2007).

Please see Ubuntu's launchpad "Wishlist" item:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/63352

It's not even a "low" priority item. Dell should be aware of this. The X-Fi card is the leading card that Sound Blaster and Dell is shipping out and promoting at this time. Linux/Ubuntu/Dell as a whole should really help the ALSA developers in any way possible to develop this driver.

Sincerely,

Craig Huffstetler / xq / xarquid

xq on freenode