[ardour-users] Newbie defeated by OSS!

[Nate Monroe]

On 7/14/05, Steve D <groups at xscd.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> ALSA *does* support the ice1724 chipset in your soundcard:
> 
> http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/template.php?module=ice1724
> 
> I have an M-Audio Delta 1010 (ice1712 chipset) and it works perfectly
> with ALSA, Jack, and the AGNULA DeMuDi Linux distribution:


My research and experience bears out my initial statement. The current 
ice1724HT driver used with the Audiophile 192 results in an "overdriven" and 
"distorted" sound output (the ice1724 does'nt work at all). This was 
reported to the ALSA Team. The ALSA Team responded with a request for 
someone to send them detailed photos of the chipset on the 192 card. I guess 
there is some hardware on the 192 card that is different than any of the 
other Delta or Audiophile cards.

http://demudi.agnula.org/
> 
> I'm not sure if it matters, but I would be worried myself if I tried to
> use *both* OSS and ALSA at the same time. I have no idea what the
> interactions are--maybe none, maybe a lot. There is probably no need for
> OSS in your case, if the ice1724 is anything like the ice1712 (which are
> also known as envy24 chipsets).


When I enter the OSS command "./soundon," ALSA is shutdown and gone! When I 
look at the mixer "device" options, the only choices are "0: Realtek ALC850 
rev 0 (OSS Mixer)" & "1: ICE1724 - multitrack (OSS Mixer)." This is why when 
I issue the command "./osstest," I get good clean sound out of the 
Audiophile 192 (see previous paragraph on the ice1724HT driver)

>
> > I did not bother with the realtime-lsm work-around for non-root
> > privileges.
> 
> Realtime-LSM is installed by default by the DeMuDi distribution, and it
> works very well.
> 
> > From the info I read on the work-around, the user is still opening up
> > holes that can be exploited by hackers.
> 
> If you come from a Microsoft Windows background, it's understandable if
> you have that level of caution or paranoia about such things. But in
> Linux such security risks are greatly subdued and rare. You might do
> some more research, but you may not need to worry too much about the
> "exploited by hackers" thing-- ;-) Others may give you more specific
> information about this subject.


Did'nt we all come from the Microsoft camp? ;-) For in the beginning, there 
was only Unix. Unix was too expensive to own for home users, and there was 
no such thing as a Gnome or KDE GUI! Personally, I started Linux about 13+ 
years ago, when it was still all done from the dot prompt, and Red Hat 
ruled!

> So, logging in as root, I went
> > to "/usr/lib/oss/bin/", execute the command "./soundon", then pull up
> > QJackCTL and hit <START>. Jack starts. However, when I pull up Ardour
> > I am unable to set any connections using the QJackCTL interface
> > <Connect> or <Patchbay>interface (I'm assuming this must be done to
> > enable Ardour to work with the Audiophile 192 ports). It is as if I
> > had no sound card!
> 
> Maybe OSS has taken control of your sound system, locking out everything
> else?


This was my initial guess. I am thinking OSS does not really play well with 
GUIs and hickups on Jack. I'm thinking 4Front Technologies meant for the 
sound card to be controlled from the dot prompt. I'm wondering if this is a 
major reason why most of anything I read or hear about Ardour (or any other 
sound app), it is running with ALSA!

>
> > Side Note: For what ever reason, starting Jack also somehow corrupts
> > the .mozilla directory where my Firefox profile resides. This results
> > in my not being able to open up Firefox at all. I have to delete the
> > entire .mozilla directory and build a new one (error message tells me
> > I have a segmentation problem)!
> 
> That sounds very strange. I use Jack and Mozilla Firefox all the time
> and have never had that problem.


Are you running a 64-bit system? Maybe this has something to do with my 
segmentation issue.

>
> > The sound mixer in use is Aumix. When ALSA is running I can see four
> > choices under Aumix, <File>, <Change Device>: 0: Realtek ALC850 rev 0
> > (OSS Mixer) 1: ICE1724 - multitrack (OSS Mixer) 2: Nvidia CK8S (Alsa
> > Mixer) 3: ICEnsemble ICE1724 (Alsa Mixer)
> 
> The ICE1724 is probably your M-Audio soundcard. Instead of trying to
> research the 'net for ALSA's support for your specific model of M-Audio
> soundcard, you might want to "google" for "alsa ice1724"


You're right. The ice1724 - multitrack device is the Audiophile 192. As I 
mentioned in the previous paragraphs, running the osstest command under 
usr/lib/oss/bin plays a test audio file that is directed to all the outputs 
it finds. The test shows it is accessing the Audiophile 192. The test runs 
great! But when I turn on Jack and look for ports or patches to connect, 
there are none!

> [...]
> > Messages I read from
> > ardour-users-ardour.org <http://ardour-users-ardour.org><
> http://ardour-users-ardour.org>so far, are
> > from people using ALSA. Is OSS a bad choice for working with Ardour?
> > Should I get rid of the 192 and get an RME Hammerfield (my research
> > says this card IS ALSA compatible)?
> 
> 
> --you mean one of the RME HammerFall series? They are well liked in the
> Linux Community, but I wouldn't abandon your M-Audio card yet. They are
> well like in the Linux community as well. I personally get very high
> sound quality and complete ease of use from my M-Audio Delta 1010, and a
> lot of people use the Delta 1010LT or other M-Audio cards with Jack and
> ALSA.
> 
> One thing that you DO want to get is the Envy24Control software that
> provides a very nice graphical interface to control the M-Audio's
> hardware mixer as well as its other features (sampling rate, bit depth,
> etc.) Envy24Control is included in ALSA's alsa-tools package, or in
> DeMuDi (which is based on Debian Linux), it is included in the
> alsa-tools-gui package, installable using the program synaptic (which is
> every bit as nice as SuSE's YaST software installer).
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Steve D
> New Mexico US
> 

Hey Steve! I'm in NM as well! Let me know if you are near the East Mtns. If 
so, you can come over and take a look at the setup yourself!

Neckbone
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