neither mobo soundcard nor rme multiface soundcard now function here with mint-debian

ura soul · 09-13-2013, 10:15 AM

greetings!

i am using linux mint debian edition 15 (64bit) here and am having the same trouble activating the external rme multiface soundcard that i successfully used with windows as i had when i installed ubuntu studio previously.

when i first installed both linux OSs, the built-in mobo soundcard operated fine via pulseaudio and alsa (as far as i am aware). i then attempted to install the rme card using the alsa drivers/firmware that are specific for the rme card (hdsp). on both OSs i had the same issues.. i could not successfully get the rme card activated and i then also lost sound from the mobo card too.

presently i have no sound devices identified in the sound preferences > hardware panel..

i have read many webpages that attempt to provide walkthroughs for this and i notice that the alsa website does not appear to be being updated.

here's what i have done so far (as i recall) on this LMDE installation:

installed alsa components via synaptic installer.
downloaded alsa components from the alsa site to install updates and elements that were not installed/available in synaptic.
built the alsa components using the recommended method from the alsa website
used modprobe to integrate the hdsp driver
used various methods to get the driver to be used at boot (unsuccessfully) - including using 'startup apps' tool and also entering: modprobe snd-hdsp into the appropriate file
disabled mobo audio card in the bios - (made no difference to anything except that card did not function)
re-enabled the mobo soundcard in the bios.
used various troubleshooting approaches from various webpages (see below)

net result = no soundcards usable presently.

here's some of the pages i have referenced:

sound troubleshooting guide on google docs - recommended from page on ubuntu forum
ubuntu forum: Sound Troubleshooting Procedure
Using the Hammerfall HDSP on Linux

if anyone knows how to activate a hammerfall hdsp card and what i am missing then i'd appreciate the assistance..
even knowing how to reactivate the mobo card would be helpful!

output of lspci

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 1
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 5
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 6
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 SATA Controller [RAID mode]
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 430] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet (rev b0)
03:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6121 SATA II / PATA Controller (rev b2)
05:01.0 Multimedia audio controller: Xilinx Corporation RME Hammerfall DSP (rev 11)
05:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): LSI Corporation FW322/323 [TrueFire] 1394a Controller (rev 70)

kernel: 3.2.0-4-amd64

n.b. both soundcards operate flawlessly side by side in windows.

thanks

Shadow_7 · 09-13-2013, 04:23 PM

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/ind...ix:Module-hdsp

Try to modprobe the sound module. And set the mixer levels, in linux they default to muted.

# modprobe snd-hdsp
$ cat /proc/asound/cards
$ alsamixer -c 0
$ speaker-test -c 2
# alsactl store

Or I guess once it's modprobed, pulseaudio should see it and let you play with it's settings.

# modprobe snd-hdsp
$ pavucontrol

The onboard soundcard might be disabled in the bios, or other configurations are possible. Generally it's not a good idea to run two soundcards with the same output. As the clocks on them run at slightly different speeds, even if it's the same make and model. So they'll lose sync over a duration at best.

ura soul · 09-15-2013, 05:19 PM

thanks for the tips..
i had seen the rme page on the alsa site previously and gone through the steps provided there.
i am not sure why, but this time when i ran modprobe snd-hdsp i noticed that the red light on the rme multiface box was out and thus that means that the card is being recognised.
so then i ran the alsamixer and could choose the card in there.
however i am not able to use the alsamixer to 'unmute' any channels since the available options in there are all 'non volume' type options, such as default sample rate and others.

i loaded the hdsp mixer and moved some sliders.

however, the same issue remains in that the card is not listed in the alsa volume control (or pavucontrol) - i see only 'dummy mixer'.

i rebuilt the alsa driver to include the two card options (since i only built it with support for hdsp the first time) - this time i built in support for snd-hdsp and also snd-hda-intel - which i think is the correct module for the built-in mobo soundcard.
i attempted to load modprobe snd-hda-intel and saw an error in the terminal:

Code:

ERROR: could not insert 'snd_hda_intel': Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

dmesg ends with:

Code:

[ 2264.912663] snd_hda_codec: Unknown symbol snd_jack_report (err 0)
[ 2264.912740] snd_hda_codec: Unknown symbol snd_kctl_jack_new (err 0)
[ 2264.912782] snd_hda_codec: Unknown symbol snd_ctl_make_virtual_master (err 0)
[ 2264.912837] snd_hda_codec: Unknown symbol snd_jack_new (err 0)
[ 2264.912875] snd_hda_codec: Unknown symbol snd_kctl_jack_report (err 0)
[ 2264.912909] snd_hda_codec: Unknown symbol _snd_ctl_add_slave (err 0)

i can see some progress now..

any more tips welcomed. thanks.

ura soul · 09-15-2013, 05:37 PM

aha! i got the intel card working again by editing /etc/modules to include listings for both cards..
so now both cards are loaded and the intel one is functional.
however, the rme card remains unlisted in the sound control preferences..
i continue!

ura soul · 09-15-2013, 07:16 PM

woo!

after disabling pulseaudio following the advice here: http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewto...d=86108#p86108
i have got the rme card to play audio from channels 1+2.

now i need to know how to assign specific apps to specific channels, since there is no drop-down selector in the apps i am using (e.g. clementine) to choose the outputs.

cascade9 · 09-16-2013, 02:35 AM

Just for your info ura soul, Linux Mint 15 and LMDE are different.

Mint 15 is based on ubuntu 13.04 (all mint XX realses are based on a ubuntu version), LMDE is based on debian 'testing'.

ura soul · 09-16-2013, 06:18 AM

i am aware that lmde is claimed to be based on debian and not ubuntu.
there is some cross-over in some apps for some reason that i do not fully comprehend, since the update manager -> software sources -> updates panel includes an option at the bottom relating to retrieving 'the latest ubuntu version'... this is in ldme!

i'm not sure if lmde is actually version 15 or not.. i just meant that i downloaded lmde while ubuntu/mint version 15 was the current one.

ura soul · 09-16-2013, 06:40 AM

hmm.. so now, after playing with jackd and then suspending the pc and rebooting.. the hammerfall hdsp card is not recognised again at all!
so far nothing i have been able to do has caused the system to list the card in any sense at all.

although i do not think this specific issue is being caused by a config file i will share here the two ones i am changing from time to time in case anyone has any thoughts:

Code:

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
# Parameters can be specified after the module name.

loop
       # ALSA portion
       alias char-major-116 snd
       alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
       alias snd-card-1 snd-hdsp
       
       # module options should go here
       
       # OSS/Free portion
       alias char-major-14 soundcore
       alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
       alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
       
       # card #1
       alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
       alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
       alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
       alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
       alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

asound.conf:

Code:

pcm.hdsp {
        type hw
        card 1	
}

ctl.hdsp {
        type hw
        card 1
}

pcm.hdsp_analog {
        type plug
        ttable.0.0 1
        ttable.1.1 1
        ttable.2.2 1
        ttable.3.3 1
        ttable.4.4 1
        ttable.5.5 1
        ttable.6.6 1
        ttable.7.7 1
        slave.pcm hdsp
}

pcm.hdsp_adat {
        type plug
        ttable.0.8  1
        ttable.1.9  1
        ttable.2.10 1
        ttable.3.11 1
        ttable.4.12 1
        ttable.5.13 1
        ttable.6.14 1
        ttable.7.15 1
        slave.pcm hdsp
}

pcm.hdsp_spdif {
    type plug
    ttable.0.16 1
    ttable.1.17 1
    slave.pcm hdsp
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug slave.pcm{
    type hw card 1 device 0
    }
}
#ctl.!default {
#    type pulse
#}

cascade9 · 09-16-2013, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ura soul

there is some cross-over in some apps for some reason that i do not fully comprehend, since the update manager -> software sources -> updates panel includes an option at the bottom relating to retrieving 'the latest ubuntu version'... this is in ldme!

Sounds more like Mint 15 than LMDE.

cat /etc/*-release

That command should tell you if its Mint 15 or LMDE.

ura soul · 09-16-2013, 07:39 AM

Code:

DISTRIB_ID=LinuxMint
DISTRIB_RELEASE=1
DISTRIB_CODENAME=debian
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="LMDE MATE Edition"
PRETTY_NAME="Linux Mint LMDE"
NAME="Linux Mint LMDE"
ID=linuxmint

ura soul · 09-16-2013, 08:07 AM

so yes, i am using LMDE, not linux mint 15 - i realise now that LMDE is a rolling release, so there are no specific version numbers.
the ubuntu text is definitely in the update manager. perhaps an oversight... though that suggests that ubuntu is more closely related to debian than is sometimes claimed.. i don't know the truth of that as i have not been using gnu/linux for long.

i have now got the two soundcards to function side by side..
i have discovered that the rme card is, during some bootups, only detected from a cold boot - so if i suspend and resume the pc or just do a warm reboot the card sometimes gets 'lost'/ 'denied'.. i will explore that as i go.

so presently i have the intel mobo card as the system default and the system sounds go through that (including web browser sounds) and then i have the other audio routed through the rme card via JACK. i would prefer to use the rme card for system sounds too, though i'm not sure that i can because the rme card only operates on one sample rate at a time and the browser/system generally is clocked at 44.1khz which is too low quality for most audio tasks.

most likely when i resolve all of this i will write a tutorial because it has been by far the most frustrating and complicated part of the mint journey for me.

Shadow_7 · 09-16-2013, 12:41 PM

You can run pulse over jack. There may be a preformance hit doing that with the resampling. But you can do it.

http://jackaudio.org/pulseaudio_and_jack

I do option 3. But I have it setup so I can stop pulse "autospawn = no".