assigned EHCI USB headset not working

assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[André Weidemann]

Hi,
I am using latest clone from qemu-kvm git with kernel 2.6.35.7.

Since assigning PCI soundcards, did not yield any usable results, I 
assigned a USB headset to a Windows7 VM.
I used the following two command lines to enable the EHCI controller 
inside the VM and to assign the device to it:

...
-device usb-ehci,id=ehci \
-device usb-host,vendorid=046d,productid=0a01,bus=ehci.0 \
...

Right after starting the VM I see the following output:
...
Booting from Hard Disk...
Booting from 0000:7c00
husb: config #1 need 1
husb: 2 interfaces claimed for configuration 1
husb: config #1 need 1
husb: 2 interfaces claimed for configuration 1
husb: config #1 need 1
husb: 2 interfaces claimed for configuration 1
husb: config #1 need 1
husb: 3 interfaces claimed for configuration 1
husb: config #1 need 1
husb: 3 interfaces claimed for configuration 1
husb: config #1 need 1
husb: 3 interfaces claimed for configuration 1
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
USB stall
husb: config #1 need 1
husb: 2 interfaces claimed for configuration 1


"info usb" on the monitor looks like this:

   Device 0.1, Port 1, Speed 1.5 Mb/s, Product Microsoft Wireless 
Desktop Rece
   Device 1.1, Port 1, Speed 480 Mb/s, Product Logitech USB Headset


The sound device shows up under Windows7 and drivers are installed 
automatically. Unfortunately it does not work. All the players I tried, 
did not even start playing the sound file, although they detected the 
DirectSound Device.

When connected to a "natively" running Windows7, the USB headset works 
the way it's supposed to.


Any help is greatly appreciated.

Regards
  André

Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[Gerd Hoffmann]

   Hi,

> The sound device shows up under Windows7 and drivers are installed
> automatically. Unfortunately it does not work. All the players I tried,
> did not even start playing the sound file, although they detected the
> DirectSound Device.

iso xfer's from usb-linux via ehci are flaky for reasons not yet tracked 
down.

Any reason why you don't just plug in a virtual sound card?  The HDA 
emulation should work fine with win7.

cheers,
   Gerd

Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[André Weidemann]

Hi Gerd,

On 08.06.2011 14:49, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
> Hi,
>
>> The sound device shows up under Windows7 and drivers are installed
>> automatically. Unfortunately it does not work. All the players I tried,
>> did not even start playing the sound file, although they detected the
>> DirectSound Device.
>
> iso xfer's from usb-linux via ehci are flaky for reasons not yet tracked
> down.
>
> Any reason why you don't just plug in a virtual sound card? The HDA
> emulation should work fine with win7.

Using the hda driver was my first attempt. But the result was not very 
convincing. When playing mp3s inside the VM, I could hear music coming 
from the speakers, but the sound was very choppy and too slow. It was no 
joy listening to it.
I assumed that it may be a clocking issue, since the man page for qemu 
lists the module paramter "clocking=48000" for the i810_audio driver. 
The snd_hda_intel module however does not seem to have such a parameter.

I then double checked whether playing an mp3 works on the server, rather 
than from inside the VM. I used mpg123 to test it and mp3s play without 
distortion on the machine.

Regards
  André

Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[Jan Kiszka]

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On 2011-06-09 08:19, André Weidemann wrote:
> Hi Gerd,
> 
> On 08.06.2011 14:49, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>>> The sound device shows up under Windows7 and drivers are installed
>>> automatically. Unfortunately it does not work. All the players I tried,
>>> did not even start playing the sound file, although they detected the
>>> DirectSound Device.
>>
>> iso xfer's from usb-linux via ehci are flaky for reasons not yet tracked
>> down.
>>
>> Any reason why you don't just plug in a virtual sound card? The HDA
>> emulation should work fine with win7.
> 
> Using the hda driver was my first attempt. But the result was not very
> convincing. When playing mp3s inside the VM, I could hear music coming
> from the speakers, but the sound was very choppy and too slow. It was no
> joy listening to it.

Does "export QEMU_AUDIO_DAC_TRY_POLL=0" before invoking qemu helps? It
depends on your host-side interface. Using ALSA here, it is generally
required.

Note that this discussion rather belongs on qemu-devel.

Jan


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Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[André Weidemann]

Hi Jan,

On 09.06.2011 08:53, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> On 2011-06-09 08:19, André Weidemann wrote:
>> Hi Gerd,
>>
>> On 08.06.2011 14:49, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>> The sound device shows up under Windows7 and drivers are installed
>>>> automatically. Unfortunately it does not work. All the players I tried,
>>>> did not even start playing the sound file, although they detected the
>>>> DirectSound Device.
>>>
>>> iso xfer's from usb-linux via ehci are flaky for reasons not yet tracked
>>> down.
>>>
>>> Any reason why you don't just plug in a virtual sound card? The HDA
>>> emulation should work fine with win7.
>>
>> Using the hda driver was my first attempt. But the result was not very
>> convincing. When playing mp3s inside the VM, I could hear music coming
>> from the speakers, but the sound was very choppy and too slow. It was no
>> joy listening to it.
>
> Does "export QEMU_AUDIO_DAC_TRY_POLL=0" before invoking qemu helps? It
> depends on your host-side interface. Using ALSA here, it is generally
> required.
>
> Note that this discussion rather belongs on qemu-devel.

Thank you very much. Setting the variable did the trick.
Could this perhaps be included in the man page? I am sure there will be 
others who will eventually run into the same problem as I did.

Regards
  André

Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[Jan Kiszka]

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On 2011-06-09 09:08, André Weidemann wrote:
> Hi Jan,
> 
> On 09.06.2011 08:53, Jan Kiszka wrote:
>> On 2011-06-09 08:19, André Weidemann wrote:
>>> Hi Gerd,
>>>
>>> On 08.06.2011 14:49, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>>> The sound device shows up under Windows7 and drivers are installed
>>>>> automatically. Unfortunately it does not work. All the players I
>>>>> tried,
>>>>> did not even start playing the sound file, although they detected the
>>>>> DirectSound Device.
>>>>
>>>> iso xfer's from usb-linux via ehci are flaky for reasons not yet
>>>> tracked
>>>> down.
>>>>
>>>> Any reason why you don't just plug in a virtual sound card? The HDA
>>>> emulation should work fine with win7.
>>>
>>> Using the hda driver was my first attempt. But the result was not very
>>> convincing. When playing mp3s inside the VM, I could hear music coming
>>> from the speakers, but the sound was very choppy and too slow. It was no
>>> joy listening to it.
>>
>> Does "export QEMU_AUDIO_DAC_TRY_POLL=0" before invoking qemu helps? It
>> depends on your host-side interface. Using ALSA here, it is generally
>> required.
>>
>> Note that this discussion rather belongs on qemu-devel.
> 
> Thank you very much. Setting the variable did the trick.
> Could this perhaps be included in the man page? I am sure there will be
> others who will eventually run into the same problem as I did.

It is a long-standing issue of QEMU that I always wanted to understand
but never found the time for. CC'ing malc, maybe he has a good idea how
to finally attack this.

Jan


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Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[malc]

On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, Jan Kiszka wrote:

> On 2011-06-09 09:08, Andr? Weidemann wrote:
> > Hi Jan,
> > 
> > On 09.06.2011 08:53, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> >> On 2011-06-09 08:19, Andr? Weidemann wrote:
> >>> Hi Gerd,
> >>>
> >>> On 08.06.2011 14:49, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>>> The sound device shows up under Windows7 and drivers are installed
> >>>>> automatically. Unfortunately it does not work. All the players I
> >>>>> tried,
> >>>>> did not even start playing the sound file, although they detected the
> >>>>> DirectSound Device.
> >>>>
> >>>> iso xfer's from usb-linux via ehci are flaky for reasons not yet
> >>>> tracked
> >>>> down.
> >>>>
> >>>> Any reason why you don't just plug in a virtual sound card? The HDA
> >>>> emulation should work fine with win7.
> >>>
> >>> Using the hda driver was my first attempt. But the result was not very
> >>> convincing. When playing mp3s inside the VM, I could hear music coming
> >>> from the speakers, but the sound was very choppy and too slow. It was no
> >>> joy listening to it.
> >>
> >> Does "export QEMU_AUDIO_DAC_TRY_POLL=0" before invoking qemu helps? It
> >> depends on your host-side interface. Using ALSA here, it is generally
> >> required.
> >>
> >> Note that this discussion rather belongs on qemu-devel.
> > 
> > Thank you very much. Setting the variable did the trick.
> > Could this perhaps be included in the man page? I am sure there will be
> > others who will eventually run into the same problem as I did.
> 
> It is a long-standing issue of QEMU that I always wanted to understand
> but never found the time for. CC'ing malc, maybe he has a good idea how
> to finally attack this.
> 

Attack what exactly?

-- 
mailto:av1474@comtv.ru

Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[Jan Kiszka]

On 2011-06-09 17:13, malc wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> 
>> On 2011-06-09 09:08, Andr? Weidemann wrote:
>>> Hi Jan,
>>>
>>> On 09.06.2011 08:53, Jan Kiszka wrote:
>>>> On 2011-06-09 08:19, Andr? Weidemann wrote:
>>>>> Hi Gerd,
>>>>>
>>>>> On 08.06.2011 14:49, Gerd Hoffmann wrote:
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The sound device shows up under Windows7 and drivers are installed
>>>>>>> automatically. Unfortunately it does not work. All the players I
>>>>>>> tried,
>>>>>>> did not even start playing the sound file, although they detected the
>>>>>>> DirectSound Device.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> iso xfer's from usb-linux via ehci are flaky for reasons not yet
>>>>>> tracked
>>>>>> down.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Any reason why you don't just plug in a virtual sound card? The HDA
>>>>>> emulation should work fine with win7.
>>>>>
>>>>> Using the hda driver was my first attempt. But the result was not very
>>>>> convincing. When playing mp3s inside the VM, I could hear music coming
>>>>> from the speakers, but the sound was very choppy and too slow. It was no
>>>>> joy listening to it.
>>>>
>>>> Does "export QEMU_AUDIO_DAC_TRY_POLL=0" before invoking qemu helps? It
>>>> depends on your host-side interface. Using ALSA here, it is generally
>>>> required.
>>>>
>>>> Note that this discussion rather belongs on qemu-devel.
>>>
>>> Thank you very much. Setting the variable did the trick.
>>> Could this perhaps be included in the man page? I am sure there will be
>>> others who will eventually run into the same problem as I did.
>>
>> It is a long-standing issue of QEMU that I always wanted to understand
>> but never found the time for. CC'ing malc, maybe he has a good idea how
>> to finally attack this.
>>
> 
> Attack what exactly?

Sound output over (at least) ALSA is not smoothly working in polled
mode. It's similar to [1], which is yet unsolved.

Jan

[1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.qemu/52365

-- 
Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, CT T DE IT 1
Corporate Competence Center Embedded Linux

Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[malc]

On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, Jan Kiszka wrote:

> On 2011-06-09 17:13, malc wrote:
> > On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> > 

[..snip..]

> 
> Sound output over (at least) ALSA is not smoothly working in polled
> mode. It's similar to [1], which is yet unsolved.
> 
> Jan
> 
> [1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.qemu/52365
> 

I've lost the mail from that period, have you sent me the info i've 
requested? In any case, please  do provide detailed information on how
to reproduce this (not involving windows guests though, i don't have
those)

-- 
mailto:av1474@comtv.ru

Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[Jan Kiszka]

On 2011-06-09 18:09, malc wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> 
>> On 2011-06-09 17:13, malc wrote:
>>> On Thu, 9 Jun 2011, Jan Kiszka wrote:
>>>
> 
> [..snip..]
> 
>>
>> Sound output over (at least) ALSA is not smoothly working in polled
>> mode. It's similar to [1], which is yet unsolved.
>>
>> Jan
>>
>> [1] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.emulators.qemu/52365
>>
> 
> I've lost the mail from that period, have you sent me the info i've 
> requested?

Just reposted it privately.

> In any case, please  do provide detailed information on how
> to reproduce this (not involving windows guests though, i don't have
> those)

I've two scenarios at hand now: one involves a Windows 7 guest with
-soundhw hda, the other is my Musicpal (do you still have a firmware
image at hand?). Some Linux guest here with identical configuration like
Win7 does not show any problems in polling mode.

Jan

-- 
Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, CT T DE IT 1
Corporate Competence Center Embedded Linux

Re: assigned EHCI USB headset not working

[Gerd Hoffmann]

   Hi,

> I've two scenarios at hand now: one involves a Windows 7 guest with
> -soundhw hda, the other is my Musicpal (do you still have a firmware
> image at hand?). Some Linux guest here with identical configuration like
> Win7 does not show any problems in polling mode.

Noteworthy difference between linux and windows 7:  Windows 7 uses a 
pretty small ring buffer (~ one page, where 20ms sound data fit in) 
whereas linux uses *alot* more, 128k or so.

That makes win7 guests quite sensitive to latency issues, be it in the 
audio subsystem or elsewhere.  For example bulky screen updates with the 
non-threaded vnc server are enougth to cause audible glitches in audio 
playback.

HTH,
   Gerd