Soundblaster, Debian, Alsa, and Pogoplug

I am really desperate to get back support for my SoundBlaster Live! 24-it SB0490 USB sound box. I have tried for many months to try to get my card FULLY working in either ArchLinux or Debian. It does a generic 44.1Khz/16-bit.

uname -a

Linux debian 3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2 #2 PREEMPT Sun Aug 31 18:56:01 PDT 2014 armv5

Card: http://support.creative.com/Products/ProductDetails.aspx?catID=1&prodID=10702&prodName=Live!+24-bit+External&CatName=Sound+Blaster

1. It is detected OK, but a generic driver is loaded. Generic snd-usb-audio. I would like to get 24-bit/96Khz, which this card supports.
2. I desperately need the Alsa module snd-ca0106, which is supposed to be the driver for this card.
But is looks like this module is not supported anymore in Alsa, nor is it loaded or found in the kernel.
3. There is a page supposedly about compiling ca0106, but I cannot get it compiled since I am a total noob when it comes to this, and many, many of my efforts have gone nowhere.
4. Also, I presume I have to compile it for the current kernel ........

If anyone can compile this for me for the above Linux version, I will be happy to provide some cash incentive - $20.00.

Link for ca0106 http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-ca0106

OR any hints how to get this card

Help !!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2015 05:54PM by befuddled.

befuddled,

Let's see if I can find the module in the old builds for you. Have you got it working before? or you are only trying now?

And being desperate, your post title looks like a spam post with $ in it :)) please change.

-bodhi
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befuddled,

Which kernel version when it was working?

-bodhi
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Yea !! It's Bodhi !!! :-)

Removed the $ signs etc.......... Not spam !!

Some points:

0. I have this card for some time - the card was supported in kernel 2.6, alsa 1.0.12 -1.0.15 using module snd-ca0106. As you can see this was some time ago. I don't know if snd-usb-audio now fully includes the old modules.

1. The card already works with optical out and does 44.1 KHz and 16-bit. It has a analog components that are supposed to do 5.1 audio. The analog outputs sound at standard rates 44.1 KHz - BUT only front channel.

2. alsamixer shows just "PCM" Controls.

2. The snd-usb-audio driver is running all this.

3. When I play 96 KHz 2 4-bit audio - using professional test files - the music player progress bar moves but no sound is ouput.

My first thing is to hear audio from a 96 KHz 24-bit stream. BUT I do not know if this is the analog side or optical side that outputs it.

aplay -L

default:CARD=External
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=External
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=External,DEV=0
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=External,DEV=0
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=External,DEV=0
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=External,DEV=0
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=External,DEV=0
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=External,DEV=0
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=External,DEV=0
    SB Live! 24-bit External, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

amixer --card 0 scontrols

Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Simple mixer control 'CMSS LED',0
Simple mixer control 'Power LED',0

amixer --card 0 contents

numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Switch'
  ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
  : values=on
numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Volume'
  ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=1,min=0,max=100,step=0
  : values=78
  | dBminmax-min=-50.00dB,max=0.00dB
numid=5,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Capture Volume'
  ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=1,min=0,max=15,step=0
  : values=0
  | dBminmax-min=0.00dB,max=22.50dB
numid=6,iface=MIXER,name='CMSS LED Switch'
  ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
  : values=off
numid=7,iface=MIXER,name='Power LED Switch'
  ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
  : values=on
numid=2,iface=PCM,name='Capture Channel Map'
  ; type=INTEGER,access=r----R--,values=2,min=0,max=36,step=0
  : values=0,0
  |     | TLV size error (257, 8, 0)!

numid=1,iface=PCM,name='Playback Channel Map'
  ; type=INTEGER,access=r----R--,values=2,min=0,max=36,step=0
  : values=0,0
  |     | TLV size error (257, 8, 0)!

cat /proc/asound/cards

 0 [External       ]: USB-Audio - SB Live! 24-bit External
                      Creative Technology SB Live! 24-bit External at usb-orion-ehci.0-1.1, full spee

cat /proc/asound/devices

  1:        : sequencer
  2: [ 0]   : control
  3: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
  4: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
  5: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent
 33:        : timer

cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/hw_params

access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 44100 (44100/1)
period_size: 5513
buffer_size: 22050

speaker-test -t wav -c 2 -f S24_LE -r 96000 -D default

speaker-test 1.0.25

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 96000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 96000Hz (requested 96000Hz)
Buffer size range from 4096 to 32768
Period size range from 2047 to 2049
Using max buffer size 32768
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 2048
was set buffer_size = 32768
Sample rate doesn't match (48000) for /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav

ABOVE, IT GIVE THE "SAMPLE RATE" MISMATCH ERROR EVEN WITH 44100HZ. WHEN I USE 48000 HZ IT WORKS. BUT Always defaults to S16_LE.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2015 07:50PM by befuddled.

befuddled,

> 1. The card already works with optical out and
> does 44.1 KHz and 16-bit. It has a analog
> components that are supposed to do 5.1 audio. The
> analog outputs sound at standard rates 44.1 KHz -
> BUT only front channel.
>
>
> 3. When I play 96 KHz 2 4-bit audio - using
> professional test files - the music player
> progress bar moves but no sound is ouput.
>
> My first thing is to hear audio from a 96 KHz
> 24-bit stream. BUT I do not know if this is the
> analog side or optical side that outputs it.

So the new module is running and working. It's just not doing what you want it to do! In this case, I don't think I can can help you much more than pointing you to the Gentoo ALSA page, where I always go to if I have question:
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ALSA

Briefly scaned the page, they do talk about 96Khz setup and why the S16_LE downmixing occurs. It's for PCI, but I think the topics aslo apply to USB.

If you find something that requires kernel patching/rebuild (e.g. usb quirks) then I could help with that.

-bodhi
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Thanks, bodhi for your advice !

1. For some reason my debian install got borked .... :-(

2. I have to reinstall but have this stupid problem : I have only one Ubuntu box. I need that to write the image to disk.
a. when I try to format the USB flash drive to ext3 with gparted, gparted takes > 1 hour or so........huh?
b. when I use a different flash drive again same problem. Formatting takes huge amount of time.


c. You say in your install post for the debian Wheezy that I need to format the flash drive to ext3? Can i do it with "fdisk"?
d. Or any other way to load the image? Or format my drive with mke2fs ? How to do that and specify ext3/

Darn this !!!!!!!!

Thanks for your help !!

befuddled,

On Ubuntu:

- Become root
sudo su

- Plug in the USB drive. Assuming it is assigned as /dev/sdb

- Use fdisk to clear out all partitions and create a new one
fdisk /dev/sdb

- format as ext3, and label it rootfs
mke2fs -j -L rootfs /dev/sdb1

- mount the USB drive partition sdb1, extract the archive 3.16 to it
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?4,23425,23427#msg-23427

That's it. Bring the USB drive to the Pogo and boot with it.

-bodhi
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