Surround Use Cases for Esi GIGAPORT eX

Surround Use Cases for Esi GIGAPORT eX

[GitHub issues - opened]

alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf issue #815 was opened from EngineOfDarkness:

Currently, it seems some default Configurations are generated by ACP. Since I don't know where the correct place for this is, I made a Ticket in the pipewire bugtracker some time ago https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/work_items/5364 (contains some more logs like spa-acp-tool, pw-dump and aplay logs if useful)

According to the Readme https://download.esi-audiotechnik.com/download/ESI/GIGAPORT_eX/GIGAPORT_eX-English.pdf the USB Soundcard should also support 5.1 and other Surround Configurations like 2.1 (see `This device can be used for playback
with any channel count up to 8 channels` in the Readme).

**I can appreciate time is sparse, but even a quick _"won't work, needs Manufacturer or USB Driver changes"_ would suffice if this can be gleaned from the logs (I can still send the card back and get my money returned (probably))**

I tried setting up UCM (for more than 16 hours, the readme and other use cases weren't too helpful for me) but I didn't really get anything working, maybe partially especially because I am "stuck" on `alsaucm: version 1.2.8` for the time being.

The "easy" version with Variants did not work because (at least I didn't get it to work) - it always complained about not being able to set the desired Playback Channels. Working with the SplitPCM Macros didn't work at all, but from the Commit Changelog it seems this was slightly buggy for Surround anyways in my version.

So I assume this is because the Card only explicitly supports either 2 or 8 Channels in Hardware? Not sure if this is "normal" for Surround USB Soundcards or if they should announce all supported configurations.

If it helps here is output of the command

`aplay -D hw:2,0 --dump-hw-params /dev/urandom 2>&1`
```
ACCESS:  MMAP_INTERLEAVED RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE S24_3LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: [16 24]
FRAME_BITS: [32 192]
CHANNELS: [2 8]
RATE: [44100 192000]
PERIOD_TIME: [125 1000000]
PERIOD_SIZE: [6 192000]
PERIOD_BYTES: [64 4608000]
PERIODS: [2 1024]
BUFFER_TIME: (62 2000000]
BUFFER_SIZE: [12 384000]
BUFFER_BYTES: [64 9216000]
TICK_TIME: ALL
--------------------
aplay: set_params:1352: Sample format non available
Available formats:
- S16_LE
- S24_3LE
```

I also cannot run `speaker-test -Dhw:eX -c 3` (should be 2.1 output)

```
speaker-test 1.2.8

Playback device is hw:eX
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 3 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Channels count (3) not available for playbacks: Invalid argument
Setting of hwparams failed: Invalid argument
```

`speaker-test -Dplughw:eX -c 3` works (as does -c 6 for example) and i can see that the Card receives output at the correct Outputs (the Card has a LED Indicator for each output). However as far as I read `plughw` does some conversion "magic" while `hw` is for direct access and most (if not all) Use Cases seem to use hw only.

Thanks.

Issue URL     : https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf/issues/815
Repository URL: https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf

Surround Use Cases for Esi GIGAPORT eX

[GitHub issues - edited]

alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf issue #815 was edited from EngineOfDarkness:

Currently, it seems some default Configurations are generated by ACP. Since I don't know where the correct place for this is, I made a Ticket in the pipewire bugtracker some time ago https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/work_items/5364 (contains some more logs like spa-acp-tool, pw-dump and aplay logs if useful)

According to the Readme https://download.esi-audiotechnik.com/download/ESI/GIGAPORT_eX/GIGAPORT_eX-English.pdf the USB Soundcard should also support 5.1 and other Surround Configurations like 2.1 (see `This device can be used for playback
with any channel count up to 8 channels` in the Readme).

**I can appreciate time is sparse, but even a quick _"won't work, needs Manufacturer or USB Driver changes"_ would suffice if this can be gleaned from the logs (I can still send the card back and get my money returned (probably))**

I tried setting up UCM (for more than 16 hours, the readme and other use cases weren't too helpful for me) but I didn't really get anything working, maybe partially especially because I am "stuck" on `alsaucm: version 1.2.8` for the time being.

The "easy" version with Variants did not work because (at least I didn't get it to work) - it always complained about not being able to set the desired Playback Channels. Working with the SplitPCM Macros didn't work at all, but from the Commit Changelog it seems this was slightly buggy for Surround anyways in my version of alsaucm.

So I assume this is because the Card only explicitly supports either 2 or 8 Channels in Hardware? Not sure if this is "normal" for Surround USB Soundcards or if they should announce all supported configurations.

If it helps here is output of the command

`aplay -D hw:2,0 --dump-hw-params /dev/urandom 2>&1`
```
ACCESS:  MMAP_INTERLEAVED RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE S24_3LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: [16 24]
FRAME_BITS: [32 192]
CHANNELS: [2 8]
RATE: [44100 192000]
PERIOD_TIME: [125 1000000]
PERIOD_SIZE: [6 192000]
PERIOD_BYTES: [64 4608000]
PERIODS: [2 1024]
BUFFER_TIME: (62 2000000]
BUFFER_SIZE: [12 384000]
BUFFER_BYTES: [64 9216000]
TICK_TIME: ALL
--------------------
aplay: set_params:1352: Sample format non available
Available formats:
- S16_LE
- S24_3LE
```

I also cannot run `speaker-test -Dhw:eX -c 3` (should be 2.1 output)

```
speaker-test 1.2.8

Playback device is hw:eX
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 3 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Channels count (3) not available for playbacks: Invalid argument
Setting of hwparams failed: Invalid argument
```

`speaker-test -Dplughw:eX -c 3` works (as does -c 6 for example) and i can see that the Card receives output at the correct Outputs (the Card has a LED Indicator for each output). However as far as I read `plughw` does some conversion "magic" while `hw` is for direct access and most (if not all) Use Cases seem to use hw only.

Thanks.

Issue URL     : https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf/issues/815
Repository URL: https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf

Surround Use Cases for Esi GIGAPORT eX

[GitHub issues - edited]

alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf issue #815 was edited from EngineOfDarkness:

Currently, it seems some default Configurations are generated by ACP. Since I don't know where the correct place for this is, I made a Ticket in the pipewire bugtracker some time ago https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/-/work_items/5364 (contains some more logs like spa-acp-tool, pw-dump and aplay logs if useful)

According to the Readme https://download.esi-audiotechnik.com/download/ESI/GIGAPORT_eX/GIGAPORT_eX-English.pdf the USB Soundcard should also support 5.1 and other Surround Configurations like 2.1 (see `This device can be used for playback
with any channel count up to 8 channels` in the Readme).

**I can appreciate time is sparse, but even a quick _"won't work, needs Manufacturer or USB Driver changes"_ would suffice if this can be gleaned from the logs (I can still send the card back and get my money returned (probably))**

I tried setting up UCM (for more than 16 hours, the readme and other use cases weren't too helpful for me) but I didn't really get anything working, maybe because I am "stuck" on `alsaucm: version 1.2.8` for the time being.

The "easy" version with Variants did not work because (at least I didn't get it to work) - it always complained about not being able to set the desired Playback Channels. Working with the SplitPCM Macros didn't work at all, but from the Commit Changelog it seems this was slightly buggy for Surround anyways in my version of alsaucm.

So I assume this is because the Card only explicitly supports either 2 or 8 Channels in Hardware? Not sure if this is "normal" for Surround USB Soundcards or if they should announce all supported configurations.

If it helps here is output of the command

`aplay -D hw:2,0 --dump-hw-params /dev/urandom 2>&1`
```
ACCESS:  MMAP_INTERLEAVED RW_INTERLEAVED
FORMAT:  S16_LE S24_3LE
SUBFORMAT:  STD
SAMPLE_BITS: [16 24]
FRAME_BITS: [32 192]
CHANNELS: [2 8]
RATE: [44100 192000]
PERIOD_TIME: [125 1000000]
PERIOD_SIZE: [6 192000]
PERIOD_BYTES: [64 4608000]
PERIODS: [2 1024]
BUFFER_TIME: (62 2000000]
BUFFER_SIZE: [12 384000]
BUFFER_BYTES: [64 9216000]
TICK_TIME: ALL
--------------------
aplay: set_params:1352: Sample format non available
Available formats:
- S16_LE
- S24_3LE
```

I also cannot run `speaker-test -Dhw:eX -c 3` (should be 2.1 output)

```
speaker-test 1.2.8

Playback device is hw:eX
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 3 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Channels count (3) not available for playbacks: Invalid argument
Setting of hwparams failed: Invalid argument
```

`speaker-test -Dplughw:eX -c 3` works (as does -c 6 for example) and i can see that the Card receives output at the correct Outputs (the Card has a LED Indicator for each output). However as far as I read `plughw` does some conversion "magic" while `hw` is for direct access and most (if not all) Use Cases seem to use hw only.

Thanks.

Issue URL     : https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf/issues/815
Repository URL: https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf