Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

tx-cary · 2006-02-20 02:02:17

I have a USB sound card, C-Media chipset. It works well in Windows XP and also in Knoppix 3.4. But it works not well in my dear Arch linux. I " modprobe snd-usb-audio ", alsamixer can run. And mpg321 can play mp3 files.

But, any other media software can not work at arch linux. Said sound card not find or busy (Ex. xine mplayer and so on).

I find that the module used in knoppix 3.4 to drive the USB sound card is "audio", it seems like a OSS driver (/lib/modules/2.6.5/kernel/drivers/usb/class/audio.ko). This module can not find in arch.

How can I setup to make the USB sound card work well in ALSA? Or must I recompile the kernel to build OSS support?

And, I have another problem with onboard sound card:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=18883

Thanks!

oggb4mp3 · 2006-02-21 02:41:32

You have to specify the alsa hardware device in those other players. It is hw:2,0 on my laptop and hw:1,0 on my desktop. You can see what it might be by trying to configure it in the xmms alsa plugin. There shoukld be a drop down there with all of the available alsa devices.

tx-cary · 2006-02-21 05:42:00

I have tried xmms. It find my USB sound card is hw:0,0 , but it still not work. I use "mpg321 -a hw:0,0 music.mp3", sound is not problem, but any other apps can not work with hw:0,0.

This USB sound card work well in my desktop, the hardware device in desktop is hw:1,0.

oggb4mp3 · 2006-02-23 15:13:56

I just realized that I hadn't used my usb device under the new udev when I plugged it in today and tried to use it. It no longer works here, I am getting "device or resource busy" errorswhen I try to choose it as the output device. It looks like udev has loaded the module, so I am not sure what the problem is.

oggb4mp3 · 2006-02-23 15:51:01

I'm googling around and I don't see anything. and the fiddling I have doen to blacklist the module and then manually load it has not been any help. It's possible that snd-usb-audio is broken in 2.6.15. I will try to rebuild the kernel and see if that helps.

oggb4mp3 · 2006-02-24 01:25:42

Answering myself again, when watching the log when I plug in the device, udev is loading the yealink module because it detects the burr-brown device as some kind of phone device. I think this is coming down to a problem with udev loading the wrong modules and locking the device from the alsa process. I'll keep testing, but hopefully this gives some clues.

oggb4mp3 · 2006-02-24 01:59:39

I'm starting to think the snd-usb-audio module is broken in 2.6.15. I get the same result using kernel25 and kernel26archck. I know it worked in 2.6.14, and the module loads fine, but the apps just report that they can't open the device.

oggb4mp3 · 2006-02-24 03:32:14

and I really hate to say this, but it works in Windows

oggb4mp3 · 2006-02-24 03:53:20

Okay, I have found your answer, and mine too It seems usb audio is broken in 2.6.15 for many devices. Here is an explanation and a patch to fix it if you are so inclined to roll your own kernel.

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/foru … um_id=1752

and here is the alsa bug report

https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa- … hp?id=1585

oggb4mp3 · 2006-02-24 05:10:06

Well, maybe not, depending on which kernel you are using. It seems that this patch is already applied to 2.6.15.archck4-2 and my device still doesn't work. perhaps my device was one of the ones that worked before the patch was applied.

oggb4mp3 · 2006-03-02 13:44:38

Okay, I have done quite a bit of testing on this and this alsa bug report will be of interest to anyone with this problem. https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa- … hp?id=1874

brain0 · 2006-03-02 13:58:07

Late answer to your first question: The oss module for usb audio will be or has been removed from the kernel, as all OSS drivers are being deprecated.

I also had snd-usb-audio trouble with 2.6.15 kernels, I could solve them by downloading the lates alsa-driver package from the alsa homepage and building the alsa subsystem from there, my snd-usb-audio worked fine then. 2.6.15.4 includes a snd-usb-audio fix, but I'm not sure if it solves my problem, as I haven't used my usb headset for a while now.

oggb4mp3 · 2006-03-03 01:58:44

brain0 wrote:

I also had snd-usb-audio trouble with 2.6.15 kernels, I could solve them by downloading the lates alsa-driver package from the alsa homepage and building the alsa subsystem from there, my snd-usb-audio worked fine then. 2.6.15.4 includes a snd-usb-audio fix, but I'm not sure if it solves my problem, as I haven't used my usb headset for a while now.

The driver you downloaded and compiled yoruself is the same driver that is in 2.6.15.4. alsa cvs is routinely synched up with the kernel tree, so if the alsa driver package from alsa-project.org worked for you, then the 2.6.14.4 kernel should too.

lilsirecho · 2006-03-06 19:38:06

My experiences with usb-audio were solved with the entry of ..snd-usb-audio.. in rc.conf for what its worth!

Arch Linux

#1 2006-02-20 02:02:17

Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#2 2006-02-21 02:41:32

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#3 2006-02-21 05:42:00

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#4 2006-02-23 15:13:56

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#5 2006-02-23 15:51:01

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#6 2006-02-24 01:25:42

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#7 2006-02-24 01:59:39

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#8 2006-02-24 03:32:14

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#9 2006-02-24 03:53:20

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#10 2006-02-24 05:10:06

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#11 2006-03-02 13:44:38

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#12 2006-03-02 13:58:07

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#13 2006-03-03 01:58:44

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

#14 2006-03-06 19:38:06

Re: Can a USB sound card work well under ALSA drivers?

Board footer