ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Paul Davis]

I'm pleased to announce that ALSA now has support for the Hammerfall
DSP audio interface. Details of the Hammerfall DSP are available at
RME's website (www.rme-audio.com). The driver supports:

      * all sample rates
      * both MIDI ports
      * "simple mixer" controls to allow alsamixer to control
           each playback stream's volume. Remember: as usual
	   with ALSA, the initial state is "all output muted".
      * peak meters for input, output and playback, with serial
	  clipping counters.
      * a non-standard control element for the matrix mixer (this
          may change; do not plan long term application support
	  around it)

Things that are not tested but should work:

    * big-endian systems
    * multiface i/o box
    * cardbus interface 
    * different sample clock sync sources
    
Things that don't work:
  
    * RMS meters
    * Flashing the firmware into the I/O box

The driver is similar in some ways the Hammerfall driver. Most
notably, it requires large chunks of physically contiguous
memory. This is best provided for by loading the snd-hammerfall-mem
module early during booting, which provides memory for both Hammerfall
and Hammerfall DSP drivers. The module has a snd-enable option which
takes a comma-separated list of 0's or 1's indicating whether or not
to allocate memory for the n'th Hammerfall or Hammerfall DSP
device. If you have only once such device, then snd-enable=1 will be
sufficient. The module checks for installed devices, so you can always
insert the module and the right thing will happen even if you have
removed your Hammerfall/Hammerfall DSP cards.

I am sure there will be minor glitches along the way. I would really
appreciate feedback from anyone with an H-DSP (marcus - that means
you! :)

A huge thank you to RME for the foresight and sense to make available
sufficient information to make this driver possible. 

--p



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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Marcus Andersson]

Paul Davis wrote:
> I am sure there will be minor glitches along the way. I would really
> appreciate feedback from anyone with an H-DSP (marcus - that means
> you! :)

Everything looks good, I just can't get it to play anything for me.
Probably due to my limited ALSA knowledge.

I have Ardour up and running with the hdsp driver and it lets me choose
between 18 output channels. I choose 'out1' and 'out2' and start
playback. I have set the volume on 'Chn',1 and 'Chn',2 with amixer;
'amixer Chn,1 65535' 'amixer Chn,2 65535'. No sound. What am I missing?

Input is working just fine.

Marcus

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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Paul Davis]

>Paul Davis wrote:
>> I am sure there will be minor glitches along the way. I would really
>> appreciate feedback from anyone with an H-DSP (marcus - that means
>> you! :)
>
>Everything looks good, I just can't get it to play anything for me.
>Probably due to my limited ALSA knowledge.
>
>I have Ardour up and running with the hdsp driver and it lets me choose
>between 18 output channels. I choose 'out1' and 'out2' and start
>playback. I have set the volume on 'Chn',1 and 'Chn',2 with amixer;
>'amixer Chn,1 65535' 'amixer Chn,2 65535'. No sound. What am I missing?

that doesn't look like a real amixer control ID to me. did you try:

     amixer name=Chn,index=1 32768

i have been using alsamixer to control the playback volumes, and it
seems to work fine. amixer reports the values correctly as well, so
try

    amixer cget numid=11  # channel 1 playback volume
    amixer cget numid=17  # channel 2 playback volume

or the more mnemonic:

    amixer cget name=Chn,index=1
    amixer cget name=Chn,index=2

let me know. 

Note, 65536 =approx +2dB. 0dB is at 32768 ...

--p



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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Marcus Andersson]

Paul Davis wrote:
> i have been using alsamixer to control the playback volumes, and it
> seems to work fine. amixer reports the values correctly as well, so
> try
> 
>     amixer cget numid=11  # channel 1 playback volume

numid=11,iface=MIXER,name='Chn',index=1
  ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---,values=1,min=0,max=65536,step=1
  : values=49818

>     amixer cget numid=17  # channel 2 playback volume

numid=17,iface=MIXER,name='Chn',index=2
  ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---,values=1,min=0,max=65536,step=1
  : values=49818

Still no sound.

Could it be that my kernel is too old? 2.4.7.

Could it be that I am using alsa-utils-0.9.0rc1? The one in CVS fails
with:

aclocal: configure.in: 11: macro `AM_PATH_ALSA' not found in library
CFLAGS=-O2 -Wall -pipe -g
./configure 
loading cache ./config.cache
./configure: line 526: syntax error near unexpected token
`AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(alsa-utils,'
./configure: line 526: `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(alsa-utils, 0.9.0rc1)'


Is it possible to route sound to the line out port?

Which channel and card do the OSS layer use? How can I control this?

Marcus

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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Paul Davis]

>Paul Davis wrote:
>> i have been using alsamixer to control the playback volumes, and it
>> seems to work fine. amixer reports the values correctly as well, so
>> try
>> 
>>     amixer cget numid=11  # channel 1 playback volume
>
>numid=11,iface=MIXER,name='Chn',index=1
>  ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---,values=1,min=0,max=65536,step=1
>  : values=49818
>
>>     amixer cget numid=17  # channel 2 playback volume
>
>numid=17,iface=MIXER,name='Chn',index=2
>  ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---,values=1,min=0,max=65536,step=1
>  : values=49818

these values indicate that the playback volumes are set so that you
should be able to hear stuff. unfortunately, there is no way to read
the actual h/w values - these rely on a driver-side cache. but with
this setting, i hear stuff played by aplay and/or ardour.

i know its mundane, but are you sure you have the cables hooked up
correctly? you can set the passthru control 

	   amixer cset name=Passthru 1

and check that passthru is working OK.

>Could it be that my kernel is too old? 2.4.7.
>
>Could it be that I am using alsa-utils-0.9.0rc1? The one in CVS fails
>with:

no, neither of these are likely causes.

>Is it possible to route sound to the line out port?

there are two levels of control. the "line out" control, which is a
boolean, and not represented by the ALSA controls (but the driver
turns it on). then there is the matrix mixer; the line outs are
channels ... hmmm ... on a multiface, i'm not sure if they will be
channels 25+26 or 19+20. 

these aren't represented in the regular PCM interface, because they
are not playback streams per se. Instead, you control what is sent to
them via the matrix mixer. this works, but there aren't any ALSA tools
that can use the matrix mixer control yet. see the discussion about
this over the last few weeks. jaroslav and abramo seem to think its ok
to have thousands of controls; takashi and myself prefer a different
model. its not resolved yet.

>Which channel and card do the OSS layer use? How can I control this?

/dev/dsp0 -> plughw:0,0,0  # card 0, device 0, subdevice 0
/dev/dsp1 -> plughw:1,0,0  # card 1, device 0, subdevice 0
/dev/dsp2 -> plughw:2,0,0  # card 2, device 0, subdevice 0

there are ways to modify this, but this is the basic setup for OSS
emulation under ALSA. the channels used will start at the first one.
i haven't tried OSS emulation on either of my RME cards, but its
reported to work.

--p

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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[sme]

hi
i'm new to this list. i'm writing because i have a hammerfall dsp
multiface soundcard with a pcmcia interface and would like to run it
under linux. is it already possible to test the new drivers? i think i
will need some help to get it to run for i have not so much experience
in solving difficult (for me) problems. maybe you can tell me whether
it's better to wait for a more stable release, or give it a try and tell
me where i can access the drivers.
btw. what does CVS stand for?
thnx. marius.



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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Paul Davis]

>i'm new to this list. i'm writing because i have a hammerfall dsp
>multiface soundcard with a pcmcia interface and would like to run it
>under linux. is it already possible to test the new drivers? i think i
>will need some help to get it to run for i have not so much experience
>in solving difficult (for me) problems. maybe you can tell me whether
>it's better to wait for a more stable release, or give it a try and tell
>me where i can access the drivers.

You are welcome to try it out. it has a few issues still remaining, and
there are no tools to properly control the matrix mixer at this time,
but it works for myself and several other people. 

Oh, I just noticed that you have the cardbus version. I would
appreciate if you would try it. There appear to be possible kernel
problems unrelated to ALSA or the H-DSP driver. I am still trying to
understand what is going on.

>btw. what does CVS stand for?

Concurrent Versions System. It allows multiple developers to be
working on the same source code files at the same term, then "merge"
their changes (perhaps overlapping changes) together. Many open source
and software libre projects use it to allow collaboration over the
internet in an effective and managed way.

--p

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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Marcus Andersson]

Paul Davis wrote:
> 
> i know its mundane, but are you sure you have the cables hooked up
> correctly?

I booted windows to check the setup, and it works.

 you can set the passthru control
> 
>            amixer cset name=Passthru 1
> 
> and check that passthru is working OK.

This doesn't work either.

# alsactl store 1
alsactl: get_control:359: Unknown control type: 6

Is this good or bad?

At some point the 'MIDI STATE out' is lit and stays lit. I don't use
MIDI. (I think, if not aplay tries to play a wav as midi.)

Marcus

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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Paul Davis]

>> i know its mundane, but are you sure you have the cables hooked up
>> correctly?
>
>I booted windows to check the setup, and it works.
>
> you can set the passthru control
>> 
>>            amixer cset name=Passthru 1
>> 
>> and check that passthru is working OK.
>
>This doesn't work either.

OK, thats useful information. I wish I knew what it meant :) My best
guess right now is that its something to do with the channel mapping;
since the i/o configuration on the multiface is different, it may be
that i need to change something about how we address certain channels.

># alsactl store 1
>alsactl: get_control:359: Unknown control type: 6

have you updated your alsa-utils and alsa-lib? there was a new control
type (64 bit integer) introduced for the H-DSP.

>At some point the 'MIDI STATE out' is lit and stays lit. I don't use
>MIDI. (I think, if not aplay tries to play a wav as midi.)

Do you have any idea at what point this happens?

--p

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Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: [linux-audio-announce] ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[drclaw]

Apparently, check out this link:

http://www.mail-archive.com/alsa-devel@lists.sourceforge.net/msg03324.html

By virtue of the way cardbus works, as soon as all of the kernel hooks
are in place it is treated as a pci card, therefore ALSA supports both
the pci and cardbus versions of the hammerfall dsp system equally well.
It seems that the problems people were having regarding the cardbus
interface were due to the kernel's cardbus support and/or configuration.
It isn't clear whether simply finding the right version of cardservices
will make everything work or if some laptop cardbus chipsets aren't
supported as well as they could be supported.  For more information, do
a search of the archive and read the previous posts on the subject.  

784 - Michael C. Piantedosi - drclaw@dogsolitude.org


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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Marcus Andersson]

Paul Davis wrote:
> 
> ># alsactl store 1
> >alsactl: get_control:359: Unknown control type: 6
> 
> have you updated your alsa-utils and alsa-lib? there was a new control
> type (64 bit integer) introduced for the H-DSP.

I removed everything alsa from my machine and reinstalled it. This error
is now gone.

> 
> >At some point the 'MIDI STATE out' is lit and stays lit. I don't use
> >MIDI. (I think, if not aplay tries to play a wav as midi.)
> 
> Do you have any idea at what point this happens?

When I load a session in Ardour.

The first time I start alsa, I get errors from both aplay and jackd.

creating alsa driver ... hdsp|1024|2|44100|swmon
ALSA: no playback configurations available
ALSA: cannot configure capture channel
cannot load driver module alsa

I have to unload and reload alsa to get past this stage.

I wouldn't be too sure that it is something wrong with the hdsp driver.
Too many weird things happen here. It would be interesting to know if
someone else has a Multiface running.

Marcus

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Re: ALSA Hammerfall DSP driver

[Marcus Andersson]

Hi,

my Multiface now works. I am not quite sure exactly what I did right,
but I suspect it is that I now load snd_hammerfall_mem at boot time. I
suspect some kind of faulty state is introduced if snd_hammerfall_mem
isn't loaded in the correct way. This is impossible to correct later by
unloading all the alsa modules and start over. Maybe it can be made a
little more fault tolerant.

By the way, thanks for the driver!

Marcus

Paul Davis wrote:
> 
> >> i know its mundane, but are you sure you have the cables hooked up
> >> correctly?
> >
> >I booted windows to check the setup, and it works.
> >
> > you can set the passthru control
> >>
> >>            amixer cset name=Passthru 1
> >>
> >> and check that passthru is working OK.
> >
> >This doesn't work either.
> 
> OK, thats useful information. I wish I knew what it meant :) My best
> guess right now is that its something to do with the channel mapping;
> since the i/o configuration on the multiface is different, it may be
> that i need to change something about how we address certain channels.
> 
> ># alsactl store 1
> >alsactl: get_control:359: Unknown control type: 6
> 
> have you updated your alsa-utils and alsa-lib? there was a new control
> type (64 bit integer) introduced for the H-DSP.
> 
> >At some point the 'MIDI STATE out' is lit and stays lit. I don't use
> >MIDI. (I think, if not aplay tries to play a wav as midi.)
> 
> Do you have any idea at what point this happens?
> 
> --p

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