Hey .

I am unsure weather this is the correct category to psot the issue in, but I think this problem is caused by a linux hardware support of the sound card.

I should mention that the card actually works and I am able to play sound through all the different out pouts, analog, Adat etc.
But what I am not able to do is to use the 8 channels digital adat outputs in 4 separate stereo channels.

If I try configuring my asound.conf with 4 direct pcm devices:

pcm.stereo1 {
type plug
ttable.0.0 1
ttable.1.1 1
slave.pcm "hw:0,0"
}

pcm.stereo2 {
type plug
ttable.0.2 1
ttable.1.3 1
slave.pcm "hw:0,0"
}

I am able to use them one at a time, and if I try simultaniously i get an error saying : Resource busy...

Then I have tried with dmix, which should help me avoide this problem of recource access.

I have tried several different configurations of the dmix settings, and am pretty sure that it should work:

pcm.hdsp_dmix {
type dmix
ipc_perm 0666
ipc_key 1025
ipc_key_add_uid true
slave {
pcm "hw:0,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 8192
rate 44100
format S16_LE
channels 4
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
2 2
3 3
}
}


ctl.hdsp {
type hw
card 0

}

pcm.stereo1 {
type plug
slave {
pcm "hdsp_dmix"
channels 4
}
ttable.0.0 1
ttable.1.1 1
}


but when using dmix i am not able to play evan one of the stream, and the I receive an error saying:

ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:978:(snd1_pcm_direct_initialize_slave) unable to install hw params
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1022:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to initialize slave
aplay: main:608: audio open error: Device or resource busy


I have been sweeping google clean for any help on any of the problems, and have not found a solution which helped me.

It is likely that the device has already been opened by some other program, probably some sound server like Pulseaudio.

Hey cladisch and thanks for the reply.

It might be possible that pulse audio or jack has allocated some of the resource, though I am not sure what they could be called in the process list:

PID TTY TIME CMD
1 ? 00:00:00 init
2 ? 00:00:00 kthreadd
3 ? 00:00:00 migration/0
4 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
5 ? 00:00:00 watchdog/0
6 ? 00:00:00 migration/1
7 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/1
8 ? 00:00:00 watchdog/1
9 ? 00:00:00 events/0
10 ? 00:00:00 events/1
11 ? 00:00:00 khelper
12 ? 00:00:00 async/mgr
13 ? 00:00:00 kblockd/0
14 ? 00:00:00 kblockd/1
15 ? 00:00:00 kacpid
16 ? 00:00:00 kacpi_notify
17 ? 00:00:00 kseriod
18 ? 00:00:00 khungtaskd
19 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
20 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
21 ? 00:00:00 kswapd0
22 ? 00:00:00 aio/0
23 ? 00:00:00 aio/1
24 ? 00:00:00 crypto/0
25 ? 00:00:00 crypto/1
372 ? 00:00:01 ata/0
373 ? 00:00:00 ata/1
374 ? 00:00:00 ata_aux
375 ? 00:00:01 scsi_eh_0
376 ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_1
378 ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_2
380 ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_3
477 ? 00:00:00 kjournald
502 ? 00:00:00 udevd
985 ? 00:00:00 ksuspend_usbd
1045 ? 00:00:00 khubd
1326 ? 00:00:00 khpsbpkt
1439 ? 00:00:00 knodemgrd_0
1510 ? 00:00:00 usbhid_resumer
1539 ? 00:00:00 kjournald
1831 ? 00:00:00 syslog-ng
1832 ? 00:00:00 syslog-ng
1852 ? 00:00:00 crond
1869 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon
1872 ? 00:00:00 hald
1875 ? 00:00:00 console-kit-dae
1876 ? 00:00:00 hald-runner
1966 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-inpu
1997 ? 00:00:02 hald-addon-stor
2000 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-acpi
2010 ? 00:00:00 cupsd
2046 ? 00:00:00 sshd
2050 tty1 00:00:00 agetty
2051 tty2 00:00:00 agetty
2052 tty3 00:00:00 agetty
2053 tty4 00:00:00 agetty
2054 tty5 00:00:00 agetty
2055 tty6 00:00:00 agetty
2056 ? 00:00:00 gdm-binary
2059 ? 00:00:00 gdm-binary
2061 tty7 00:00:00 Xorg
2082 ? 00:00:00 gdm-binary
2512 ? 00:00:00 sshd
2514 ? 00:00:00 sshd
2515 pts/0 00:00:00 bash
2526 pts/0 00:00:00 ps

anything here that looks like sound programs ?

I am also curious what the two other errors mean just prior to thew resource busy error:

ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:978:(snd1_pcm_direct_initialize_slave) unable to install hw params

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1022:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to initialize slave

These only shows when using dmix.

As i mentiones, I am perfektly able to play sound directly through every channel as long as it is not more than 1 player at a time.

Oops. The first error means that some of the sample format settings are not supported by the sound card. Try S32_LE instead of S16_LE.

hmm thanks for the suggestion, but I have tried this also .

I have also tried without any settings of frequency or format, but nothing makes a different.

I have tried copying a nother dmix setting by a user using the same sound card, and it still gives the same error .
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7024

Aahhaaa finally i found a solution.

An old threst regarding the format through the HDSP used dmix.
if turns out that the dmix setting has to be configures with channels 18 to avoid it trying to use switch the card to double speed for some reaosn.

It is quit odd i think, because as I recall the dmix only tries playing everything with 48000 khz as standard, and this does not require double speed.

But never the less I am now able to use four stereo outputs through the same adat channel.

Thankyou for clearifying the hw parameter error.


http://www.mail-archive.com/alsa-dev.../msg11158.html

here is my asound.conf:

pcm.hdsp{
type hw
card 0
}

pcm.hdsp_dmix {
type dmix
ipc_perm 0666
ipc_key 1025
ipc_key_add_uid true
slave {
pcm hdsp
rate 44100
format S32_LE
channels 18
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 4
5 5
6 6
7 7
}
}


ctl.hdsp {
type hw
card 0

}

pcm.stereo1 {
type plug
slave {
pcm "hdsp_dmix"
channels 8
}
ttable.0.0 1
ttable.1.1 1
}


pcm.stereo2 {
type plug
slave {
pcm "hdsp_dmix"
channels 8
}
ttable.0.2 1
ttable.1.3 1
}

pcm.stereo3 {
type plug
slave {
pcm "hdsp_dmix"
channels 8
}
ttable.0.4 1
ttable.1.5 1
}

pcm.stereo4 {
type plug
slave {
pcm "hdsp_dmix"
channels 8
}
ttable.0.6 1
ttable.1.7 1
}