[SOLVED] ALSA Does Not Give Me the Option to Choose Direct Hardware Device Without Any Conversions

xhivo · 10-22-2019, 08:53 PM

Hello,

I am using a class compliant USB DAC with a raspberry pi running piCore, and want to run Pianoteq with Direct Hardware output, which I can do no problem on the same hardware with a Debian installation, that's this is posted here rather then the hardware section.

After installing alsa, alsa-util and some other alsa packages available from piCore's package installer, I can access the USB DAC (Scarlett 2i2), but not the Direct Hardware option.

.asoundrc:

Code:

pcm.!default {
        type hw
        card 0
}

ctl.!default {
        type hw           
        card 0
}

But still aplay -L gives me no hw: option but it does list all the other options (surround, defaults and such). The only one missing are direct hw without conversion and direct hw with conversion.

I also checked lsmod and all the modules needed seem to be loaded. I think I don't know how to configure ALSA properly for this setup. Why would it not show on piCore but work perfectly on debian? Unless some libraries or packages that are needed for direct hw access are not installed or configured on my system.

Best,
Xhivo

frankbell · 10-23-2019, 07:47 PM

Take a look at alsactl, if you have not already done so. I'm not sure it will do what you want, but, since you do not mention it, it warrants investigation.

See man alsactl for more.

xhivo · 10-26-2019, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

Take a look at alsactl, if you have not already done so. I'm not sure it will do what you want, but, since you do not mention it, it warrants investigation.

See man alsactl for more.

Thank you for the reply frankbell, I agree I need to read the man pages.

My setup seems to work just fine without the hw: plugin, which made me think, since I don't have dmix or any software mixer set up, does that mean I am already talking directly to the driver? I will read the alsa documentation and attempt to really understand it, maybe that will answer all of my questions. I'll post an update if I find out how all of this works.

xhivo · 10-26-2019, 07:53 PM

According to https://alsa-project.org/wiki/DeviceNames, the front output I am using is accessing the hardware directly. Problem solved, although it never existed, oh well... At least I learned something.

Best,
Xhivo