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jaj99
n00b
Joined: 04 Aug 2004
Posts: 2
Location: London, UK
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 Posted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 5:27 pm Post subject: Terratec EWS88MT, ALSA and kernel-2.6.7-gentoo-r11 |
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Hi all,
Firstly apologies if I'm asking a question that's already been covered but I can't find anything that specifically covers my questions.
Anyways, I've got a shuttle ss51g with a terratec ews88mt. Compiled everything from stage one a few days ago, and it all works nicely, but... running kde 3.2.3 and xmms is a bit of a puzzle - when i'm in windows i normally have the audio routed to outputs 1&2 on the breakout box of the ews, but i can't work out for the life of me how to do that with alsa and xmms (I assume i should be able to select the output in the xmms preferences, but the terratec options mostly complain that my soundcard isn't configured properly). Is there a way of setting up alsa to group the output channels in pairs so i can select the one i want to use in xmms? or am i just being naive?
That leaves three things:
1) Alsa was originally integrated into the kernel but i switched to loading as modules - no probs either way. All of the config files / devices appear to be okay (believe me, i've played with them).
2) The output from the motherboard's integrated sound chip works fine in xmms (although that ain't surprising seeing that alsa seems to know what i've got and it's only a stereo output).
3) The lower-spec output on the terratec pci card itself works as well, but the sound is a bit garbled.
Cheers, Jxj. |
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jaj99
n00b
Joined: 04 Aug 2004
Posts: 2
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 11:08 pm Post subject: sorted |
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k, i'm gonna answer myself in case any other newbs get puzzled like i did. a few things i wasn't clear on when i started using gentoo:
1) alsa looks for a file called /etc/.asoundrc which you can use to remap the outputs.
2) the alsa homepage doesn't tell you how to create a sensible mapping for the terratec ews88mt. It depends on the particular card you have (the ews88mt is never mentioned directly).
i'm being stupid here but the reason i got confused is that i thought xmms would give you all possible alsa output options in the preferences section. not true of course (obvious for anyone who knows what they're doing i'm sure  ) . Here's an example .asoundrc file (put this in /etc)
| Code: |
pcm.intel8x0 {
type hw
card 0
}
ctl.intel8x0 {
type hw
card 0
}
pcm.ice1712 {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:1,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096 # buffer size < 6653, but pow(x, 2)
rate 44100 # we want to play CDs only
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}
# adcdac 1&2
pcm.channel1 {
type plug
slave.pcm "ice1712"
}
# adcdac 3&4
pcm.channel2 {
type plug
ttable.0.2 1
ttable.0.3 1
slave.pcm ice1712
}
# adcdac 5&6
pcm.channel3 {
type plug
ttable.0.4 1
ttable.0.5 1
slave.pcm ice1712
}
# adcdac 7&8
pcm.channel4 {
type plug
ttable.0.6 1
ttable.0.7 1
}
# SPDIF
pcm.ice1712_spdif {
type plug
ttable.0.8 1
ttable.1.9 1
slave.pcm ice1712
}
# All HW outs set to PCM OUT in envy24
pcm.hwout {
type plug
slave.pcm ice1712
}
ctl.channel1 {
type hw
card 1
}
ctl.channel2 {
type hw
card 1
}
ctl.channel3 {
type hw
card 1
}
ctl.channel4 {
type hw
card 1
}
ctl.ice1712_spdif {
type hw
card 1
}
ctl.ice1712 {
type hw
card 1
}
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i'm not suggesting this is fully correct (i'm rewriting it atm, but i haven't found a multichannel sequencer to test it in yet...  ). Anyway, here's a walk-through (you can work out the details using the alsa walk-throughs):
The intel8x0 stuff is for the internal sis chipset. It just maps the standard jack on the back of the shuttle. The fun starts with the ice1712 stuff (aka the envy24 chip, which is in the terratec ews88mt). Now:
| Code: |
pcm.ice1712 {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
slave {
pcm "hw:1,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096 # buffer size < 6653, but pow(x, 2)
rate 44100 # we want to play CDs only
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}
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creates a dmixer object for the first two mono outputs (first stereo jack on the breakout box) on card 1, device 0 (note this isn't card 0 because we also have the sis sound driver, which is card 0). Now if you look through various examples of the config file for different cards you'll find two versions.. The difference is in the use of bindings. Compare:
| Code: |
pcm.channel1 {
type plug
slave.pcm "ice1712"
}
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with
| Code: |
pcm.channel1 {
type plug
ttable.0.0 1
ttable.0.1 1
slave.pcm ice1712
}
[ |
Now if you use the bottom one, you'll get sound in xmms (IF YOU SET THE OUTPUT TO "channel1", note it isn't listed in the combo box), but ONLY ON THE LEFT CHANNEL. If you try it in noatun it comes out of both speakers but only plays the left channel of the track. On the other hand, if you just bind the first two channels and don't use ttable, it works great. grr...
By the way, i'm using the first steero pair on the ews88mt breakout to play music here (in case that wasn't obvious). So i'm guessing the trick here is to split the bindings into separate mixers, and create a plug for each one without using ttable...??? (anyone who knows better feel free to explain why i got it working one way but not the other). |
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