now that we have this Alt. OS slot over here, do all LINUX questions go here - even if they are hardware / OS related?
eg. I dual boot Winblows 98 and Mandrake 8.1, my SB Live works great under Win (all applications) but crackles and pops when I'm playing CD's under lunux (WAV files play fine) - what gives?

Sorry if I'm in the "wrong spot" here.

Duh unch: <---JULIO! That's really annoying man...
Since "Winblows" is the majority used OS, manufacturers usually make their hardware geared toward it. I'd say you're facing driver problems. Last time you upgraded them? Or are there no Linux based Creative drivers (I don't doubt it...)? I know of one company who really integrates their hardware into other OS's...Matrox...And their hardware is good...but not the best...(No, I did not buy the Millenium G400 in my computer )

As all other forum are more visited by 'windows-users', problems are mostly related to that OS. Technicaly you are right that Hardware problems in Linux should also be in the hardware section.

But, users of alternative OS's will surely visit the the Alt. OS section. I guess you will be helped faster when posted in that section.

And if you want to post it in the 'correct' section, please mention very clearly it's another OS. This way you will be helped faster and more efficient.

This ofcourse, is what I think. What about the others?

What type of "Linux specific hardware" do you get? Linux is software.

Hardware problems are hardware problems whether you are running Linux or Windows. A faulty DIMM is still faulty regardless of what operating system you are running.

If you are having a problem getting a piece of hardware to work under linux, post here.

In this case, the question is software related, because it relates to drivers, kernels, OS settings, and so forth.

But if you are having a problem getting hardware to work AT ALL, then post in the hardware related forums.

Okay I'll go dig around for "better" or more recent derivers....
although I thought that those that came with Mandrake 8.1 would be pretty current since it's not that old and nor is the
sound card. maybe the CD drive is flaky / old/ crappy (it is only an old no-name brand pre-multiread 24X thing) due for a
"trade-in" anyway it's a pain when it struggles to read CDRW's