As for the quiet soundcard, this question has been asked before but as far as I know, never answered. I also have a SB live and if you turn the volume on you speakers all the way up, and play something loud, there is sound, just not much. As for the other things, I don't know, I'm relatively knew to linux myself. I've been ttrying for agood long while just to get my card reader working on a hard drive install... Best of luck.