[PlanetCCRMA] Planet CCRMA and (new) Gadget Labs driver questions...

Mike Mazarick mazarick at bellsouth.net
Mon May 5 05:33:57 PDT 2008


Greetings, list!!!

 

I'm testing out a new (unreleased to alsa) driver, and am unsure of whether
I'm running into driver issues, FC8 issues, or something else (most likely,
"the 'nut' behind the wheel").

 

Here are the issues:

 

1.         When the driver is loaded into a FC8 CCRMA setup (by directly
inserting the module with the command 'insmod ./gl824.ko'), the /dev/snd
directory looks like this:

(before the driver is loaded, because there is an on-board via soundcard)

crw-rw----  1 root root 116, 8 2008-05-04 18:25 controlC2

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 7 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D0c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 6 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D0p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 5 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D1c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 4 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D1p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 3 2008-05-04 18:25 seq

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 2 2008-05-04 18:25 timer

 

(after the Gadget Labs driver is loaded)

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 18 2008-05-04 18:28 controlC0

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 28 2008-05-04 18:28 controlC1

crw-rw----  1 root root 116,  8 2008-05-04 18:25 controlC2

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 17 2008-05-04 18:28 midiC0D0

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 27 2008-05-04 18:28 midiC1D1

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 16 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D0c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 15 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D0p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 14 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D1c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 13 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D1p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 12 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D2c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 11 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D2p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 10 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D3c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  9 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D3p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 26 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D0c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 25 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D0p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 24 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D1c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 23 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D1p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 22 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D2c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 21 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D2p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 20 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D3c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 19 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D3p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  7 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D0c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  6 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D0p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  5 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D1c

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  4 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D1p

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  3 2008-05-04 18:25 seq

crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  2 2008-05-04 18:25 timer

 

Now, on Debian/Ubunto distributions, the permissions look like this:

 

[root at localhost snd]# ls -l

total 0

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 18 2008-05-04 18:28 controlC0

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 28 2008-05-04 18:28 controlC1

crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  8 2008-05-04 18:25 controlC2

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 17 2008-05-04 18:28 midiC0D0

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 27 2008-05-04 18:28 midiC1D1

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 16 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D0c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 15 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D0p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 14 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D1c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 13 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D1p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 12 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D2c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 11 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D2p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 10 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D3c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  9 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC0D3p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 26 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D0c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 25 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D0p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 24 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D1c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 23 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D1p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 22 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D2c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 21 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D2p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 20 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D3c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 19 2008-05-04 18:28 pcmC1D3p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  7 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D0c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  6 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D0p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  5 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D1c

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  4 2008-05-04 18:25 pcmC2D1p

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  3 2008-05-04 18:25 seq

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  2 2008-05-04 18:25 timer

 

Notice the group is 'audio'.  

 

Now, we can work around this small issue by putting the user account in the
'audio' group.  However, I don't think that is normally done, so I'd be
interested in hearing what the normal group id is for the devices in
/dev/snd for a PlanetCCRMA/FC8 distribution.   It's probably not a big deal
one way or the other, but we would prefer to do something consistent with
what normally occurs as far as permissions in multiple distributions.   I'm
pushing for Planet CCRMA testing, but several of the folks seem to prefer
Ubunto over Fedora (and it would be good if it worked in both).

 

Please let me know the normal user permissions and ownership structure of
the /dev/snd devices.   If they are all 'user-root, group-root, no world
read/write permission' how are they accessed?

 

 

2.        What are the best applications to test out the linux driver after
you fire up qjackctl?   Is it important to hook up a keyboard or microphone
preamp first, or is there enough things to check out the basic functions
(outputs) of the sound card without it?   There is such a daunting list of
applications in the PlanetCCRMA menu item, it would be easy to get
discouraged from not knowing what to do first.  Ideally, it appears to me
that a casual user of this soundcard would want to do the basic system test
first (/usr/bin/system-config-soundcard), followed by qjackctl, followed by
some applications that would allow them to get sound out (like hydrogen drum
machine).    The next step may be some apps which allow (computer)
keyboard/mouse input, followed by an excursion into the difficult world of
midi and softsynths (and midi channels/setups/sysex, etc),  followed by
keyboard/mic/mixer analog inputs and the world of Ardour/Audacity, etc.
Like most soundcards, it requires a preamp per channel, so I believe a lot
of folks will use something like a Mackie mixer as a front end and tap in
with the insert jacks to get preamp out to the soundcard).   I'm inclined to
believe most of the 'pro' level stuff is used with Jack, and there is some
internal discussion about making the card 'Jack' only.

 

What would be your best recommendation of the set of apps that should be
used for testing?   Do all of them have a 'Jack' frontend?   It would be of
interest to us to have an app that enabled multiple inputs/outputs since the
card has 8 in/outs, and can be slaved together for 16, 24, or 32 channels
(the latter two numbers being very optimistic about driver performance).

 

TIA,

 

Mike

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ccrma-mail.stanford.edu/pipermail/planetccrma/attachments/20080505/21d105ab/attachment-0001.html 


More information about the PlanetCCRMA mailing list