[linux-audio-user] rme9632 status?

[Mark Knecht]

WR,
   You may want to ask fewer questions in each email. ;-) I'm just a bit
lost right now about exactly where your configuration is at the moment!
;-)

On Mon, 2003-12-22 at 08:47, WR wrote:
> Mark, you are exactly right. I got a little baffled by the rme naming
> scheme. Seems like it would've been easy enough to avoid the #'s 9652 in
> subsequent non-compatible models...</microrant>

Yep. A number of us have made this observation. Unfortunately, what's
done is done...
> 
> Ive been trying to collect the fragments of info from all the pertinent
> lists, and here's where I'm stuck this time(!)
> 
> going out on a limb and using 2.4.22-ck2 instead of a patched vanilla
> kernel (bad idea?), bumped down to alsa-driver/lib/tools 0.9.2 and now
> there's a successful module load of rme9652.

I don't think the kernel you choose right now is as important as getting
the sound drivers working well. I use 2.4.20 still on Gentoo, and a
newer 2.4.23 on Redhat. They both work fine.

I think you should get moved up to Alsa-1.0.0rcxxx as soon as is
practical. There have been changes to APIs and lots of fixes to things.
It's what you want to run. 

> 
>  Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: P
> snd-mixer-oss          13592   0  (autoclean)
> snd-rme9652            18660   3
> snd-pcm                66400   2  [snd-rme9652]
> snd-timer              16520   0  [snd-pcm]
> snd                    34148   1  [snd-mixer-oss snd-rme9652 snd-pcm
> snd-timer]
> snd-page-alloc          5456   0  [snd-pcm]
> snd-hammerfall-mem      1888   0  [snd-rme9652]
> rtc                     8200   0  (autoclean)
> nvidia               1628128   8

Looks good I think.

> 
> also, I can see signal on xmms, it plays, but no sound, so I guess the
> stream is flowing. I'm confused about alsamixer, though, cause it says
> "No mixer elems found" and fails.

xmms is an OSS application, so you must have OSS emulation loaded
correctly. I run xmms all the time, so it will work. I can see some of
it above, but it would be helpful if you provided your modules.conf file
contents. (For me anyway...) ;-)

> 
> To further complicate my situation, I HAVE to be able to use the spdif out
> because there's limited access to any ADAT optical devices (for now).

I guess we'll deal with this very soon then. I haven't checked spdif out
on my Hammerfall light in a long time, but last time I tried it didn't
work. Is there still a note about this on the Hammerfall Alsa page?

> A few questions if I may:
> 
> What is the ideal perfect best configuration (kernel/alsa/etc) for this card?

Depends on what you want to do.
> 
> Are there limitations with any of the IO (duplex spdif working?)

I think possibly yes, but we need to check.
> 
> Should I worry about firmware or rev or eprom?

Not on this card.
> 
> Is it true that I can forget about the numbers 9636, cause every digi9636
> is really a digi9652 as far as drivers are concerned(?)

Yes, that is correct as far as I know.
> 
> I saw an rme9652 control-panel GUI and (of course) failed to bookmark it
> and now cant relocate it. Is there such a thing? Is it "good"?

Not under Linux. (I think.) There is for the HDSP cards thanks to Thomas
Charbonnel. 
> 
> Some postings seem to suggest that .asoundrc file is not needed, but that
> sounds very strange. True? 

I don't remember. I don't think I use one, but I'm sure that you could
use one at times.

> btw, if anyone cares to throw a
> working-with-spdif rme9652 .asoundrc at me, id be a happy camper, and yes,
> i know they're out there, but I want YOURS cause you're a part of this
> list of brainiacs...

We'll have to see. I can possibly try out my spdif out this evening, but
I'm traveling tomorrow on holiday and if it doesn't happen easily it
won't happen for a week. (Sorry!) 
> 

Cheers,
MArk