Problem with ALSA on PPC

Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Lee Revell]

Hello,

I am developing an ALSA application for an embedded PPC platform.  I
have alsa-lib and alsa-utils installed and created the device nodes, and
am attempting to test with the dummy driver, but no matter what I do,
aplay fails to find a config.  It just returns "No such file or
directory".

~ # aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
ALSA lib control.c:816:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL hw:0
aplay: device_list:232: control open (0): No such file or directory
ALSA lib control.c:816:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL hw:1
aplay: device_list:232: control open (1): No such file or directory

~ # aplay -D hw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav 
ALSA lib pcm.c:2146:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM hw:0,0
aplay: main:548: audio open error: No such file or directory

I do not have strace on this platform.  How can I determine which file
or directory is missing?

/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf is present as well as the correct device node:

~ # ls -al /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p 
crw-rw----    1 root     29       116,  16 Jun  9 15:54 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p

What am I doing wrong?

Lee

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Lee Revell]

On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 18:18 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> I do not have strace on this platform.  How can I determine which file
> or directory is missing?
> 
> /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf is present as well as the correct device
> node:
> 
> ~ # ls -al /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p 
> crw-rw----    1 root     29       116,  16 Jun  9
> 15:54 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
> 
> What am I doing wrong?
> 

I found the problem by installing strace on the PPC board.  alsa-lib is
looking for its config files using the original path from the build
host.  Either my build environment is still incorrect or it's a bug -
probably the former ;-)

Once I am done maybe I will write an embedded ALSA HOWTO.

Lee

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Adrian McMenamin]

On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 21:26 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 18:18 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> > I do not have strace on this platform.  How can I determine which file
> > or directory is missing?
> > 
> > /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf is present as well as the correct device
> > node:
> > 
> > ~ # ls -al /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p 
> > crw-rw----    1 root     29       116,  16 Jun  9
> > 15:54 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
> > 
> > What am I doing wrong?
> > 
> 
> I found the problem by installing strace on the PPC board.  alsa-lib is
> looking for its config files using the original path from the build
> host.  Either my build environment is still incorrect or it's a bug -
> probably the former ;-)
> 
> Once I am done maybe I will write an embedded ALSA HOWTO.
> 
> Lee
> 

I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
the oss emulation

Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to your
problem with anticipation...

/ # aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Lee Revell]

On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 11:00 +0100, Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 21:26 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> > On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 18:18 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> > > I do not have strace on this platform.  How can I determine which file
> > > or directory is missing?
> > > 
> > > /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf is present as well as the correct device
> > > node:
> > > 
> > > ~ # ls -al /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p 
> > > crw-rw----    1 root     29       116,  16 Jun  9
> > > 15:54 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
> > > 
> > > What am I doing wrong?
> > > 
> > 
> > I found the problem by installing strace on the PPC board.  alsa-lib is
> > looking for its config files using the original path from the build
> > host.  Either my build environment is still incorrect or it's a bug -
> > probably the former ;-)
> > 
> > Once I am done maybe I will write an embedded ALSA HOWTO.
> > 
> > Lee
> > 
> 
> I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
> the oss emulation
> 
> Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to your
> problem with anticipation...
> 
> / # aplay -l
> **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument

I don't know how I ever could have solved this without strace - the ALSA
library is a twisty maze of function pointers.  Have you looked into
porting strace to your platform?

Lee

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Takashi Iwai]

At Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:59:15 -0400,
Lee Revell wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 11:00 +0100, Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> > On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 21:26 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> > > On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 18:18 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> > > > I do not have strace on this platform.  How can I determine which file
> > > > or directory is missing?
> > > > 
> > > > /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf is present as well as the correct device
> > > > node:
> > > > 
> > > > ~ # ls -al /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p 
> > > > crw-rw----    1 root     29       116,  16 Jun  9
> > > > 15:54 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
> > > > 
> > > > What am I doing wrong?
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > I found the problem by installing strace on the PPC board.  alsa-lib is
> > > looking for its config files using the original path from the build
> > > host.  Either my build environment is still incorrect or it's a bug -
> > > probably the former ;-)
> > > 
> > > Once I am done maybe I will write an embedded ALSA HOWTO.
> > > 
> > > Lee
> > > 
> > 
> > I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
> > the oss emulation
> > 
> > Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to your
> > problem with anticipation...
> > 
> > / # aplay -l
> > **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> > aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument
> 
> I don't know how I ever could have solved this without strace - the ALSA
> library is a twisty maze of function pointers.

Yeah, plugins hell.

>  Have you looked into
> porting strace to your platform?

The open/close of all config stuff is done only in src/input.c and
output.c.  The open of device files is done via snd_open_device()
defined in include/local.h.  So, checking these entries cover most of
open/close operations in alsa-lib.


Takashi

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Liam Girdwood]

On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 11:00 +0100, Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 21:26 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> > On Fri, 2006-06-09 at 18:18 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> > > I do not have strace on this platform.  How can I determine which file
> > > or directory is missing?
> > > 
> > > /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf is present as well as the correct device
> > > node:
> > > 
> > > ~ # ls -al /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p 
> > > crw-rw----    1 root     29       116,  16 Jun  9
> > > 15:54 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
> > > 
> > > What am I doing wrong?
> > > 
> > 
> > I found the problem by installing strace on the PPC board.  alsa-lib is
> > looking for its config files using the original path from the build
> > host.  Either my build environment is still incorrect or it's a bug -
> > probably the former ;-)

Fwiw, I've been using OE 

http://www.openembedded.org/

to do all my embedded (non x86) ALSA user space building. It's quite
simple and I've not had any issues wih building alsa-* yet. It even
creates the device nodes and puts all the config files in the correct
place in your target file system.


> 
> I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
> the oss emulation
> 
> Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to your
> problem with anticipation...
> 
> / # aplay -l
> **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument
> 
> 

I've had a similar issue in the past. I could see the alsa device nodes
under /dev/snd and could see the pcms in /proc/asound/pcm, although I
had error messages like this when opening the devices in alsa mode. OSS
mode worked fine.

It turned out that my alsa nodes were not in the target file
systems  /etc/device_table file. After adding them to this file and
rebooting, alsa worked fine.  

HTH

Liam 

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Lee Revell]

On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 13:03 +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> At Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:59:15 -0400,
> Lee Revell wrote:
> > > > I found the problem by installing strace on the PPC board.  alsa-lib is
> > > > looking for its config files using the original path from the build
> > > > host.  Either my build environment is still incorrect or it's a bug -
> > > > probably the former ;-)
> > > > 
> > > > Once I am done maybe I will write an embedded ALSA HOWTO.
> > > > 
> > > > Lee
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
> > > the oss emulation
> > > 
> > > Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to your
> > > problem with anticipation...
> > > 
> > > / # aplay -l
> > > **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> > > aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument
> > 
> > I don't know how I ever could have solved this without strace - the ALSA
> > library is a twisty maze of function pointers.
> 
> Yeah, plugins hell.
> 
> >  Have you looked into
> > porting strace to your platform?
> 
> The open/close of all config stuff is done only in src/input.c and
> output.c.  The open of device files is done via snd_open_device()
> defined in include/local.h.  So, checking these entries cover most of
> open/close operations in alsa-lib.

How can I build alsa-lib with a non-standard --prefix, but at runtime
have it look for its config files in the standard location?  IOW how do
I prevent the --prefix from being prepended?

I am generating a ramdisk image that is transferred over to a PPC board,
and except for this problem, alsa-lib works on the target.

Looking at ./configure options, it seems like it's not possible?

Lee

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Lee Revell]

On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 12:41 +0100, Liam Girdwood wrote:
> Fwiw, I've been using OE 
> 
> http://www.openembedded.org/
> 
> to do all my embedded (non x86) ALSA user space building. It's quite
> simple and I've not had any issues wih building alsa-* yet. It even
> creates the device nodes and puts all the config files in the correct
> place in your target file system. 

I use Kegel's crosstool:

http://www.kegel.com/crosstool/

and modified scripts from the board vendor.  I can't easily switch as
this is what everyone else in the shop uses.

I guess OE solves this problem by building in a chroot or something?  I
cannot see a way to prevent alsa-lib from prepending $PREFIX to the
location of the config files.

Lee

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Lee Revell]

On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 11:00 +0100, Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
> the oss emulation
> 
> Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to
> your
> problem with anticipation...
> 
> / # aplay -l
> **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument
> 

Adrian,

I looked at the strace source and it seems that Super-H is supported:

$ ls packages/strace-4.5.14/linux/sh
errnoent.h  ioctlent.h  signalent.h  syscallent.h

Have you tried it?

Lee

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Takashi Iwai]

At Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:57:23 -0400,
Lee Revell wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 13:03 +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > At Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:59:15 -0400,
> > Lee Revell wrote:
> > > > > I found the problem by installing strace on the PPC board.  alsa-lib is
> > > > > looking for its config files using the original path from the build
> > > > > host.  Either my build environment is still incorrect or it's a bug -
> > > > > probably the former ;-)
> > > > > 
> > > > > Once I am done maybe I will write an embedded ALSA HOWTO.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Lee
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
> > > > the oss emulation
> > > > 
> > > > Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to your
> > > > problem with anticipation...
> > > > 
> > > > / # aplay -l
> > > > **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> > > > aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument
> > > 
> > > I don't know how I ever could have solved this without strace - the ALSA
> > > library is a twisty maze of function pointers.
> > 
> > Yeah, plugins hell.
> > 
> > >  Have you looked into
> > > porting strace to your platform?
> > 
> > The open/close of all config stuff is done only in src/input.c and
> > output.c.  The open of device files is done via snd_open_device()
> > defined in include/local.h.  So, checking these entries cover most of
> > open/close operations in alsa-lib.
> 
> How can I build alsa-lib with a non-standard --prefix, but at runtime
> have it look for its config files in the standard location?  IOW how do
> I prevent the --prefix from being prepended?

How about specifying --datadir=/usr/share explicitly?
The default config directory is $DATADIR/alsa/alsa.conf.


Takashi

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Manuel Lauss]

On Tue, Jun 13, 2006 at 11:35:34AM +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> At Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:57:23 -0400,
> Lee Revell wrote:
> > 
> > On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 13:03 +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > > At Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:59:15 -0400,
> > > Lee Revell wrote:
> > > > > > I found the problem by installing strace on the PPC board.  alsa-lib is
> > > > > > looking for its config files using the original path from the build
> > > > > > host.  Either my build environment is still incorrect or it's a bug -
> > > > > > probably the former ;-)
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Once I am done maybe I will write an embedded ALSA HOWTO.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Lee
> > > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
> > > > > the oss emulation
> > > > > 
> > > > > Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to your
> > > > > problem with anticipation...
> > > > > 
> > > > > / # aplay -l
> > > > > **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> > > > > aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument
> > > > 
> > > > I don't know how I ever could have solved this without strace - the ALSA
> > > > library is a twisty maze of function pointers.
> > > 
> > > Yeah, plugins hell.
> > > 
> > > >  Have you looked into
> > > > porting strace to your platform?
> > > 
> > > The open/close of all config stuff is done only in src/input.c and
> > > output.c.  The open of device files is done via snd_open_device()
> > > defined in include/local.h.  So, checking these entries cover most of
> > > open/close operations in alsa-lib.
> > 
> > How can I build alsa-lib with a non-standard --prefix, but at runtime
> > have it look for its config files in the standard location?  IOW how do
> > I prevent the --prefix from being prepended?
> 
> How about specifying --datadir=/usr/share explicitly?
> The default config directory is $DATADIR/alsa/alsa.conf.


I just cross-compiled alsa-lib for SH4 on x86, and
--prefix works without problems:

CFLAGS="-Os -m4 -ml" ./configure --prefix=/usr --host=sh4-unknown-linux-gnu
--target=sh4-unknown-linux-gnu --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu

make DESTDIR=/var/chroot/sh install

/var/chroot/sh is my target's NFSroot.

shlinux # / aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sh7760-ac97 [sh7760-ac97-0], device 0: sh7760-ac97-PCM []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

-- 
 ml.

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Lee Revell]

On Tue, 2006-06-13 at 11:35 +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> At Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:57:23 -0400,
> Lee Revell wrote:
> > How can I build alsa-lib with a non-standard --prefix, but at runtime
> > have it look for its config files in the standard location?  IOW how do
> > I prevent the --prefix from being prepended?
> 
> How about specifying --datadir=/usr/share explicitly?
> The default config directory is $DATADIR/alsa/alsa.conf.
> 

Won't that cause "make install" to install into /usr/share/alsa on the
build host?

Lee

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Takashi Iwai]

At Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:45:14 -0400,
Lee Revell wrote:
> 
> On Tue, 2006-06-13 at 11:35 +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > At Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:57:23 -0400,
> > Lee Revell wrote:
> > > How can I build alsa-lib with a non-standard --prefix, but at runtime
> > > have it look for its config files in the standard location?  IOW how do
> > > I prevent the --prefix from being prepended?
> > 
> > How about specifying --datadir=/usr/share explicitly?
> > The default config directory is $DATADIR/alsa/alsa.conf.
> > 
> 
> Won't that cause "make install" to install into /usr/share/alsa on the
> build host?

The installation root is usually specified via $DESTDIR, such as

	make DESTDIR=/my/root install


Takashi

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Adrian McMenamin]

On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 20:40 -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-06-10 at 11:00 +0100, Adrian McMenamin wrote:
> > I had/have a very similar problem with the Dreamcast - I can only use
> > the oss emulation
> > 
> > Asking about here didn't get me an answer so I await any answers to
> > your
> > problem with anticipation...
> > 
> > / # aplay -l
> > **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> > aplay: device_list:230: control open (0): Invalid argument
> > 
> 
> Adrian,
> 
> I looked at the strace source and it seems that Super-H is supported:
> 
> $ ls packages/strace-4.5.14/linux/sh
> errnoent.h  ioctlent.h  signalent.h  syscallent.h
> 
> Have you tried it?
> 

I haven't actually. Struggling with other SH kernel problems at the
moment, but I'll have a look

> Lee

Re: Problem with ALSA on PPC

[Lee Revell]

On Tue, 2006-06-13 at 12:57 +0200, Manuel Lauss wrote:
> I just cross-compiled alsa-lib for SH4 on x86, and
> --prefix works without problems:
> 
> CFLAGS="-Os -m4 -ml" ./configure --prefix=/usr --host=sh4-unknown-linux-gnu
> --target=sh4-unknown-linux-gnu --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu
> 
> make DESTDIR=/var/chroot/sh install
> 
> /var/chroot/sh is my target's NFSroot.
> 
> shlinux # / aplay -l
> **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
> card 0: sh7760-ac97 [sh7760-ac97-0], device 0: sh7760-ac97-PCM []
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Thanks, it works perfectly.

Lee