No mixer elems found

No mixer elems found

[Vincenzo Di Salvo]

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Greetings !

I have a brand new RME-9652 (Hammerfall –HDSP Rev. 1.6)) hooked-up to the 
two RME-AES 8i and 8o brackets which are mounted inside the computer. So, I 
am not using any kind of external D/A converter.

Hardware is: Pentium IV CPU at 1.7 GHz, SCSI HD
Operative System is: LINUX Red Hat 8.0
Driver is: ALSA  (alsa-driver 1.0.0rc2; alsa-lib 1.0.0rc2; alsa-tools
                   1.0.0rc2).

The problem is that I cannot get the mixer to have any "elements" (or 
"elems" as the alsamixer calls them) which thus makes the card un-openable 
even with the alsamixer.

When I type alsamixer at prompt, the message I receive is: NO MIXER ELEMS 
FOUND.

I would greatly appreciate you if you could help me to solve this problem.

Thank you very much
  Vincenzo Di Salvo.

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Re: No mixer elems found

[Paul Davis]

>The problem is that I cannot get the mixer to have any "elements" (or=20
>"elems" as the alsamixer calls them) which thus makes the card un-openable=
>=20
>even with the alsamixer.

thats correct. the hdsp has no mixer that can be represented using
conventional mixer elements. there is nothing corresponding to any of
the controls that other cards tend to have (e.g. PCM volume, main
volume, capture source, etc)

if you want to control the mixer, use thomas charbonnel's hdspmixer,
which is a reimplementation of RME's TotalMix. it provides complete
control over the mixer. it is a standard part of ALSA.

--p


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snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Tom Browne]

Hi all,

I am having serious trouble with ALSA using the poll method as shown in the
pcm.c test app...

Under certain conditions (yet to be established properly - it doesn't happen
every single time) with this ICE1712 card (DSP24), snd_pcm_writei doesn't
just block... it never comes back.  I thought it may be a bug in the old
version of ALSA (0.9.8) so updated the drivers and libs to latest, which had
no effect on the problem at all.

A bit more thorough checking reveals that the problem only happens at 88200
and 96000 sampling rates... not at 22050, 24000, 44100 or 48000.  That's a
bit worrying...

It's only started to happen regularly (used to be _very_ rare) since I
upgraded the development machine from an Intel 815, Celeron 1.0G to a
SiS651, Celeron 2.0G setup.

The kernel is 2.4.22+ll+supermount if that offers any clues... APIC is
turned off, as in the past I couldn't get any sound at all in Linux with it
enabled...

Cheers,

Tom Browne.



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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Tom Browne]

Despite the indifference to this issue, I thought it only fair to say that
switching to mmap seems to have stopped the problem from occuring.

- Tom.


Tom Browne wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I am having serious trouble with ALSA using the poll method as shown
> in the pcm.c test app...
>
> Under certain conditions (yet to be established properly - it doesn't
> happen every single time) with this ICE1712 card (DSP24),
> snd_pcm_writei doesn't just block... it never comes back.  I thought
> it may be a bug in the old version of ALSA (0.9.8) so updated the
> drivers and libs to latest, which had no effect on the problem at all.
>
> A bit more thorough checking reveals that the problem only happens at
> 88200 and 96000 sampling rates... not at 22050, 24000, 44100 or
> 48000.  That's a bit worrying...
>
> It's only started to happen regularly (used to be _very_ rare) since I
> upgraded the development machine from an Intel 815, Celeron 1.0G to a
> SiS651, Celeron 2.0G setup.
>
> The kernel is 2.4.22+ll+supermount if that offers any clues... APIC is
> turned off, as in the past I couldn't get any sound at all in Linux
> with it enabled...
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tom Browne.



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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Clemens Ladisch]

Tom Browne wrote:
> Under certain conditions (yet to be established properly - it doesn't
> happen every single time) with this ICE1712 card (DSP24),
> snd_pcm_writei doesn't just block... it never comes back.

What is the state of the PCM device when this happens?
(see /proc/asound/cardX/pcm0p/*)


Regards,
Clemens




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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Tom Browne]

Clemens Ladisch wrote:
> Tom Browne wrote:
>> Under certain conditions (yet to be established properly - it doesn't
>> happen every single time) with this ICE1712 card (DSP24),
>> snd_pcm_writei doesn't just block... it never comes back.
> 
> What is the state of the PCM device when this happens?
> (see /proc/asound/cardX/pcm0p/*)

state: PREPARED
trigger_time: 1081181127.688456000
tstamp      : 1081181132.845346000
delay       : 0
avail       : 5
avail_max   : 7060
-----
hw_ptr      : 0
appl_ptr    : 6548

- Tom.


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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Clemens Ladisch]

Tom Browne wrote:
> Clemens Ladisch wrote:
> > Tom Browne wrote:
> >> Under certain conditions (yet to be established properly - it doesn't
> >> happen every single time) with this ICE1712 card (DSP24),
> >> snd_pcm_writei doesn't just block... it never comes back.
> >
> > What is the state of the PCM device when this happens?
> > (see /proc/asound/cardX/pcm0p/*)
>
> state: PREPARED

The pcm isn't (yet) running.

> avail       : 5

And the buffer is almost full.  snd_pcm_writei blocks because it
cannot write more data to the buffer, probably because the transfer
threshold is too high.

How do you start the pcm?  If you're using the start threshold, it may
be too big, too.


HTH
Clemens




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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Tom Browne]

Clemens Ladisch wrote:
>> state: PREPARED
> The pcm isn't (yet) running.
>
>> avail       : 5
> And the buffer is almost full.  snd_pcm_writei blocks because it
> cannot write more data to the buffer, probably because the transfer
> threshold is too high.

?!  See below...

> How do you start the pcm?  If you're using the start threshold, it may
> be too big, too.

The code is based on alsa-lib/test/pcm.c using the poll method, so if you
look at that, you'll see how most of the parameters are set in my code.  I
had to change to alsa_buffer_size-1 after upgrading to ALSA 0.9rc6 (I was
using rc2, if memory serves) otherwise it never started playing... it seems
something had changed in alsa-lib around this time.

 alsa_buffer_size = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_buffer_size(params);
 err = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_period_time_near(handle, params,
alsa_period_time, &dir);
 alsa_period_size = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_period_size(params, &dir);
...
 err = snd_pcm_sw_params_set_start_threshold(handle, swparams,
alsa_buffer_size-1)
 err = snd_pcm_sw_params_set_avail_min(handle, swparams, alsa_period_size);

- Tom.



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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Jaroslav Kysela]

On Tue, 6 Apr 2004, Tom Browne wrote:

> Clemens Ladisch wrote:
> >> state: PREPARED
> > The pcm isn't (yet) running.
> >
> >> avail       : 5
> > And the buffer is almost full.  snd_pcm_writei blocks because it
> > cannot write more data to the buffer, probably because the transfer
> > threshold is too high.
> 
> ?!  See below...
> 
> > How do you start the pcm?  If you're using the start threshold, it may
> > be too big, too.
> 
> The code is based on alsa-lib/test/pcm.c using the poll method, so if you
> look at that, you'll see how most of the parameters are set in my code.  I
> had to change to alsa_buffer_size-1 after upgrading to ALSA 0.9rc6 (I was
> using rc2, if memory serves) otherwise it never started playing... it seems
> something had changed in alsa-lib around this time.
> 
>  alsa_buffer_size = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_buffer_size(params);
>  err = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_period_time_near(handle, params,
> alsa_period_time, &dir);
>  alsa_period_size = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_period_size(params, &dir);
> ...
>  err = snd_pcm_sw_params_set_start_threshold(handle, swparams,
> alsa_buffer_size-1)

It's not correct and it was never correct, but the pcm.c was buggy, too.
Look to the latest version.

						Jaroslav

-----
Jaroslav Kysela <perex@suse.cz>
Linux Kernel Sound Maintainer
ALSA Project, SuSE Labs


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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Tom Browne]

Jaroslav Kysela wrote:
>>  alsa_buffer_size = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_buffer_size(params);
>>  err = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_period_time_near(handle, params,
>> alsa_period_time, &dir);
>>  alsa_period_size = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_period_size(params, &dir);
>> ...
>>  err = snd_pcm_sw_params_set_start_threshold(handle, swparams,
>> alsa_buffer_size-1)
> It's not correct and it was never correct, but the pcm.c was buggy,
> too. Look to the latest version.

Running a file compare, I see only one line of significant difference
between the version in 0.9rc2 and 1.0.4 pcm.c...

 err = snd_pcm_sw_params_set_start_threshold(handle, swparams, (buffer_size
/ period_size) * period_size);

Which gives threshold = 6552 from buffer=6553, period=3276... exactly the
same value as the code I was already using gives!  What else am I missing
from the garish red and yellow blocks of WinDiff?

Why does changing to mmap writes make the blocking problem go away?  And as
I said, the problem only has been made to occur at 88.2 and 96K sampling
rates...

- Tom.



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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Jaroslav Kysela]

On Tue, 6 Apr 2004, Tom Browne wrote:

> Jaroslav Kysela wrote:
> >>  alsa_buffer_size = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_buffer_size(params);
> >>  err = snd_pcm_hw_params_set_period_time_near(handle, params,
> >> alsa_period_time, &dir);
> >>  alsa_period_size = snd_pcm_hw_params_get_period_size(params, &dir);
> >> ...
> >>  err = snd_pcm_sw_params_set_start_threshold(handle, swparams,
> >> alsa_buffer_size-1)
> > It's not correct and it was never correct, but the pcm.c was buggy,
> > too. Look to the latest version.
> 
> Running a file compare, I see only one line of significant difference
> between the version in 0.9rc2 and 1.0.4 pcm.c...
> 
>  err = snd_pcm_sw_params_set_start_threshold(handle, swparams, (buffer_size
> / period_size) * period_size);
> 
> Which gives threshold = 6552 from buffer=6553, period=3276... exactly the
> same value as the code I was already using gives!  What else am I missing
> from the garish red and yellow blocks of WinDiff?

Then it really appears like a bug. Could you add snd_pcm_dump() call just 
before the block occurs?

> Why does changing to mmap writes make the blocking problem go away?  And as
> I said, the problem only has been made to occur at 88.2 and 96K sampling
> rates...

mmap does never block

						Jaroslav

-----
Jaroslav Kysela <perex@suse.cz>
Linux Kernel Sound Maintainer
ALSA Project, SuSE Labs


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Re: snd_pcm_writei not returning (?!?)

[Tom Browne]

Jaroslav Kysela wrote:
>> Which gives threshold = 6552 from buffer=6553, period=3276...
>> exactly the same value as the code I was already using gives!  What
>> else am I missing from the garish red and yellow blocks of WinDiff?
> Then it really appears like a bug. Could you add snd_pcm_dump() call
> just before the block occurs?

Sure... but it doesn't seem to show any anomalies... I've also included the
matching status report from /proc...


state: PREPARED
trigger_time: 1081246741.324684000
tstamp      : 1081246792.298694000
delay       : 0
avail       : 8
avail_max   : 7229
-----
hw_ptr      : 0
appl_ptr    : 6545

--------------

Hardware PCM card 0 'Hoontech SoundTrack Audio DSP24' device 0 subdevice 0

Its setup is:
stream       : PLAYBACK
access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
format       : S32_LE
subformat    : STD
channels     : 10
rate         : 88200
exact rate   : 88200 (88200/1)
msbits       : 24
buffer_size  : 6553
period_size  : 3276
period_time  : 37142
tick_time    : 1000
tstamp_mode  : NONE
period_step  : 1
sleep_min    : 0
avail_min    : 3276
xfer_align   : 1
start_threshold  : 6552
stop_threshold   : 6553
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary     : 1717829632


>> Why does changing to mmap writes make the blocking problem go away?
>> And as I said, the problem only has been made to occur at 88.2 and
>> 96K sampling rates...
> mmap does never block

That'd explain why it doesn't halt like snd_pcm_writei, then... :)

... but if it was having to throw away data, surely wouldn't it drop out
when I swap in mmap?  Because it doesn't... snd_pcm_mmap_writei *seems* to
work perfectly...

I'm suspecting an "off by one" calculation error somewhere.

- Tom.



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