I wish to report success in using a PCI to PCIe adapter card. Of necessity, I upgraded my Core Duo motherboard. The new one, an Asus Prime X390-p motherboard with an Intel I5 processor has no PCI slot so I expected that I would have to abandon my beloved M-audio Delta 1010 audio card. I knew that adapter cards existed but did not expect them to work for audio. Nevertheless, for an outlay of around £10, I bought one to try. I plugged it in and to my delight, it worked straight away. I have run it for a few hours so far, with no issues whatever.
Given that finding audio cards for Linux is, ‘A bit of a problem’, a whole new avenue of supply has opened; second hand PIC cards.
I would dispute that “finding audio cards for Linux is, ‘A bit of a problem’”
Certainly with PCI(foo) devices, one needs to be careful about Linux support. But there are some fine options still available.
Many people are quite happy with USB connected devices, and the story with those these days just gets better and better for Linux users. There’s scarcely a single such device that has been released within the last 5 years that doesn’t work out of the box with Linux.
While I tend to agree with your post, I’m still very cautious as what to buy in terms of hardware for Linux.
For instance, last year I bought a simple Focusrite Scarlett Solo interface (USB). By default it connects as a mass storage device. I had to connect it to a Mac so I could use the included control software to switch it to Audio device. Wine couldn’t install it. Of course, after that it worked just fine.
For future reference, try using ALSA mixer to see what you can edit in terms of the Solo’s internal software. With the bigger Focusrite Scarletts (first and second generations), ALSA can edit just about everything under the hood unless you’re running a very old kernel.
@dickelec I’m glad to hear that a PCIe to PCI adapter works. I have a PCI card and was wondering what I would do when I upgrade. Which exact adapter did you get? Did it have a Molex connector for power?
eh … Over on the Linux Musicians forum I have seen a huge amount of pain caused by USB interfaces. Good News : apparently this will be fixed in kernel 5.11. The problem is how ALSA handles implicit feedback and a lot of interfaces from the last five years use implicit feedback. As an example the SSL2 and SSL2+ need a kernel patch. The Focusrite 3rd generation interfaces have been a problem too.
Things may be steadily getting better (they must have been really bad before ) but it appears to go up and down. I don’t think a person can be too cautious when choosing an audio interface to use with Linux.
Did you do the smoking? If so I’d be interested which exact PCIe adapter this was and I’ll avoid that one, or at least research why it might have happened so I can avoid that.
Here is a link to the card on Ebay. PCI to PCIe. It does have a Molex connector - a pretty poor one at that. The pins were loose in housing and it was difficult to get it to mate with its opposite number.
As for smoking the PCI card, perhaps it is a risk but in my case, the Delta 1010 would have been toast without this adapter. I had little to lose. Maybe, if I had considered the risk, I would have tried a lesser PCI card first.
Another issue to be considered is mechanics of fitting it. The adapter raises the PCI card by about 1 inch so, the PC case needs to accommodate it. Mine did but the installation is none too elegant. Nevertheless, I’m delighted with the result.
) but it appears to go up and down. I don’t think a person can be too cautious when choosing an audio interface to use with Linux.