Re: [LAU] Pulseaudio Rants [WAS: Migrating to Linux - need help]

This seems to be a FAQ item. See http://lalists.stanford.edu/lau/2010/09/0116.html Summary: I believe pulseaudio should work by default with ice1712 cards and recent versions of ALSA if you ensure your ALSA definitions (perhaps from an old ~/.asoundrc containing bad !default definitions found on the net) aren't interfering with built-in support for this soundcard. In order for things to work /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf has to load, as does /usr/share/alsa/cards/ICE1712.conf and the definitions setup can't be interfered-with or bad things will happen across the board, including a nonfunctioning pulseaudio -- which expects all these default names defined for all cards.... With these setup (as happens by default in recent ALSA versions) correctly -- have pulseaudio talk to the /usr/share/alsa/cards/ICE1712.conf defined "default" or "iec958" pseudo-devices. If "aplay -L" doesn't list the full expected set, then somethings wrong. For a Delta66, for example you see: default:CARD=M66 M Audio Delta 66, ICE1712 multi Default Audio Device front:CARD=M66,DEV=0 M Audio Delta 66, ICE1712 multi Front speakers surround40:CARD=M66,DEV=0 M Audio Delta 66, ICE1712 multi 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=M66,DEV=0 M Audio Delta 66, ICE1712 multi 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=M66,DEV=0 M Audio Delta 66, ICE1712 multi 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=M66,DEV=0 M Audio Delta 66, ICE1712 multi 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers iec958:CARD=M66,DEV=0 M Audio Delta 66, ICE1712 multi IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output http://lalists.stanford.edu/lau/2010/09/0116.html goes into detail on the "default" and "iec958" devices defined in /usr/share/alsa/cards/ICE1712.conf . These ensure correct bit-alignment and channel mapping from a world that normally talks to 16 bit soundcards with fewer than 8 channels. The envy24 uses oddball S32_LE alignment as it's designed for 24 bit use and efficient PCI transfers of that data; adding to the confusion, it presetns a card with 10 output channels and 12 capture channels. That is what tends to send misconfigured systems and pulseaudio into failure. Niels http://nielsmayer.com PS: this is all in theory, since I have deinstalled pulseaudio on my system. However, I've experienced similar issues in configuring an ICE1712-based card for "consumer" usage -- e.g. using a Terratec DMX6Fire's breakout box headphone/mic connections for google talk voice (works beautifully -- use the digital mixer to pipe-in your own "on hold" music.).