Creative Sound Blaster ZxR Finally Seeing Linux Support

After getting the Linux support squared away for Creative's Sound BlasterX AE-5 and Sound Blaster Recon3D, Connor McAdams latest challenge was getting the Sound Blaster ZxR support working on Linux. Overnight a set of 11 patches were sent out to get this ZxR sound card working on the mainline Linux kernel.

With these patches, the Sound Blaster ZxR should be finally working on Linux and also marks the last Creative card not working with the CA0132 Linux kernel driver. Adding in the Sound Blaster ZxR support took just about 400 lines of new code for this driver.

The Sound Blaster ZxR is a very high-end sound card and among its features are a 124 dB SNR rating, a DBPro daughter board and audio control module for more connectivity, a Sound Core3D audio processor, 5.1 channel support, and relies upon a PCI Express x1 interface.

The Sound Blaster ZxR retails for over $200 USD. The card has been out for several years already while now with these patches the support is in place and should be part of the mainline Linux kernel potentially for Linux 4.20~5.0 otherwise the follow-on cycle in early 2019.