I bought an Aureon usb sound card to try and get surround sound on my laptop and while it doesn't whine continually in my ear like the Hercules usb surround card I had before (doesn't work with surround sound headphones)it doesn't seem to do much else.

Ive been looking all over for a way to get my laptop (hp nx6325 running Kubuntu 7.04) to use the usb sound card instead of the computers on board speakers

Resources used:
Alsa project page
Alsa Wiki

Please assist

Please paste the output of this command while the device is plugged in.

sudo cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

This will tell us what is plugged in to your laptop.

AnRkey

Its been a while since I last posted but still not working in linux. Though unlike my last one it does work in windows.

T: Bus=03 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=480 MxCh= 8
B: Alloc= 0/800 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=01 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.20-15-generic ehci_hcd
S: Product=EHCI Host Controller
S: SerialNumber=0000:00:13.2
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 4 Ivl=256ms

T: Bus=02 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 4
B: Alloc= 14/900 us ( 2%), #Int= 1, #Iso= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.20-15-generic ohci_hcd
S: Product=OHCI Host Controller
S: SerialNumber=0000:00:13.1
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms

T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=00 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=08ff ProdID=2580 Rev= 6.23
S: Product=Fingerprint Sensor
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=100mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=(none)
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 32 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 8 Ivl=0ms

T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=03 Cnt=02 Dev#= 3 Spd=1.5 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=046d ProdID=c402 Rev= 2.20
S: Manufacturer=Logitech
S: Product=Trackball
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=100mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=usbhid
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=10ms

T: Bus=01 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 4
B: Alloc= 0/900 us ( 0%), #Int= 1, #Iso= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.20-15-generic ohci_hcd
S: Product=OHCI Host Controller
S: SerialNumber=0000:00:13.0
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=e0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms

T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=02 Cnt=01 Dev#= 4 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0ccd ProdID=0028 Rev= 1.00
S: Product=USB Audio
C:* #Ifs= 4 Cfg#= 1 Atr=a0 MxPwr=500mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=01(audio) Sub=01 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
I: If#= 1 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=01(audio) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
I: If#= 1 Alt= 1 #EPs= 1 Cls=01(audio) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
E: Ad=01(O) Atr=09(Isoc) MxPS= 200 Ivl=1ms
I: If#= 1 Alt= 2 #EPs= 1 Cls=01(audio) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
E: Ad=01(O) Atr=09(Isoc) MxPS= 600 Ivl=1ms
I: If#= 2 Alt= 0 #EPs= 0 Cls=01(audio) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
I: If#= 2 Alt= 1 #EPs= 1 Cls=01(audio) Sub=02 Prot=00 Driver=snd-usb-audio
E: Ad=82(I) Atr=05(Isoc) MxPS= 200 Ivl=1ms
I: If#= 3 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=usbhid
E: Ad=83(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 3 Ivl=32ms

If I sort this out I might do a full write up and submit it to the alsa wiki

Hi Omnutia

The last section of the output shows that the device is being found. A friend of mine had success by compiling the latest beta of ALSA for his distro (Ubuntu 7.04) and it just worked. The chipset in the device is CMedia as far as I know so you should be able to get it going.

Let us know

AnRkey

Well I've never been able to compile and by the looks of it the new drivers will be out within a month (already on release candidate 4) so I think I can wait.
Ive been wondering what I could use to write a program that lets you look up and install the various asound.rc files for different situations.

Why not submit your suggestion as a spec on Launchpad? It could just end up in the next Ubuntu.

Do let us know if you get it working when the next ALSA release is out.

AnRkey

ok, im having a slight problem trying to get Linux to use the sound card instead of the inbuilt speakers/headphone jack.
I had a look in the bios but I cant manually turn off the built in sound card. Any sugestions in forcing the use of the external sound card?

In Ubuntu using Gnome it's like this...

System -> Preferences -> Sound

Then in the default mixer settings choose the device you want in the dropdown menu.

That should be it.

AnRkey

Cant find that option but I'm working through the alsa wiki, I think it'll be worth me learning everything instead of just the specifics if I want to try writing this program.

Currently reading: http://alsa.opensrc.org/MultipleCards

Wooo! asoundconf-gtk is all I needed to get it working! just need to get the surround going now.

If you run it in konsole or similar it will tell you to include ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf in ~/.asoundrc
To do this just open up ~/.asoundrc and add in "</home/you/.asoundrc.asoundconf>"

Shweet! I am glad you got it working. I just got my laptop's volume control buttons to work too so it looks like a good weekend for both of us

AnRkey

Yeah! Ive now got everything to work and after 2 months all I had to do was change two values!

Herethere is an example of what the .asoundrc file should contain.
This was fine except that I had it pointing at the on board sound card instead of the external USB one.

To fix this go to the console and type in "aplay -l" which will list all available sound cards starting with card 0.
In my case card 0 was my on board sound card and card 1 was the usb audio device. Yours may be a different number depending on how many active sound cards there are and which order they get loaded in.

Now open asound.rc and copy the example from the wiki into it.
Next, take your number and go down until you find:
and change it to
where X is the number for your card
and then again change
to
Restart and you should now enjoy fully mixed audio, surround sound and duplication of stereo audio to surround.