My Allegro does not sing

Hi,
I have a Problem with the Allegro-Soundchip Ess1988:

I use the deva-ctrl-allegro.so from Igor, I start it as described on
Igor’s home-page, I use the program example ‘wave.c’ of the QNX-Help,
but I hear no sound.

So I have added some printf into the wave.c-file. These show me, that
the output of the sound-buffer seems to work i.e. it cycles through the
output-loop, increasing the block-number.

I then checked the log-file written by slogger. There is a line
‘m3_mixer: Codec ID: 45838308 loading mixer DLL’.

(45838308 = “ESS revision 08” that is what the Allegro manual says)

Some times later mixer DLL starts, and makes the output-line
‘AC97 DLL:: codec id Unknown - 0x45838308’


My Question: Is there a problem that the AC97-Dll does not recognize
that chip?


Regards Norbert

That just means AC97 DLL has no knowledge of that ID, which does not
surprize me since Allegro has built-in codec (which is still
AC97-compatible). It should not prevent it from working, as far as I know.
QNX audio gurus should know better on this.

First line is printed by me, second is printed by AC97 DLL.

– igor

“Norbert Feulner” <nf@am3.com> wrote in message
news:3C98CF32.60604@am3.com

Hi,
I have a Problem with the Allegro-Soundchip Ess1988:

I use the deva-ctrl-allegro.so from Igor, I start it as described on
Igor’s home-page, I use the program example ‘wave.c’ of the QNX-Help,
but I hear no sound.

So I have added some printf into the wave.c-file. These show me, that
the output of the sound-buffer seems to work i.e. it cycles through the
output-loop, increasing the block-number.

I then checked the log-file written by slogger. There is a line
‘m3_mixer: Codec ID: 45838308 loading mixer DLL’.

(45838308 = “ESS revision 08” that is what the Allegro manual says)

Some times later mixer DLL starts, and makes the output-line
‘AC97 DLL:: codec id Unknown - 0x45838308’


My Question: Is there a problem that the AC97-Dll does not recognize
that chip?


Regards Norbert

No, there should be no problems directly resulting from that
output-line. It is a warning, not an error. The AC’97
mixer DLL should still function, but it will only use the
default capabilities of the AC’97 version that was detected.
By definition, it won’t enable any vendor specific extensions
or workarounds.

Does the mixer application work in Photon?

If you run two copies of mixer that are both watching the Allegro, does
moving a slider in one cause a corresponding effect in the other?

Can you control the volume of a CD using the mixer app?

“Norbert Feulner” <> nf@am3.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3C98CF32.60604@am3.com> …

Some times later mixer DLL starts, and makes the output-line
‘AC97 DLL:: codec id Unknown - 0x45838308’


My Question: Is there a problem that the AC97-Dll does not recognize
that chip?

Hi James,

I did try the Mixer Application in Photon, and it works fine,
actualy phplay and mixer react quite the same way as they do on a
Notebook with an ESS-SOLO chip, that I used as a reference.

When I run two copies of mixer the sliders correspond to each other.

The player seems to play, I do get messages of the interrupt handler in
the log-file, but there is still no sound.
But clicking the mute-buttons in the mixer application makes some
cracking niose in the speaker.

Playing a CD, I did not try, since I have no working CD-Rom right now.

Just another question: Which boards did you (or Igor) use for testing
the Allegro driver?


No, there should be no problems directly resulting from that
output-line. It is a warning, not an error. The AC’97
mixer DLL should still function, but it will only use the
default capabilities of the AC’97 version that was detected.
By definition, it won’t enable any vendor specific extensions
or workarounds.

Does the mixer application work in Photon?

If you run two copies of mixer that are both watching the Allegro, does
moving a slider in one cause a corresponding effect in the other?

Can you control the volume of a CD using the mixer app?

“Norbert Feulner” <> nf@am3.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3C98CF32.60604@am3.com> …


Some times later mixer DLL starts, and makes the output-line
‘AC97 DLL:: codec id Unknown - 0x45838308’


My Question: Is there a problem that the AC97-Dll does not recognize
that chip?

It seems as though the mixer portion is working correctly.
I would be more confident of that, if we were able to confirm
with the CD playback test.

I don’t know what boards Igor has tested on. Personally, I have
never run this driver, as I do not have an Allegro card.

Norbert Feulner wrote:

Hi James,

I did try the Mixer Application in Photon, and it works fine,
actualy phplay and mixer react quite the same way as they do on a
Notebook with an ESS-SOLO chip, that I used as a reference.

When I run two copies of mixer the sliders correspond to each other.

The player seems to play, I do get messages of the interrupt handler in
the log-file, but there is still no sound.
But clicking the mute-buttons in the mixer application makes some
cracking niose in the speaker.

Playing a CD, I did not try, since I have no working CD-Rom right now.

Just another question: Which boards did you (or Igor) use for testing
the Allegro driver?



No, there should be no problems directly resulting from that
output-line. It is a warning, not an error. The AC’97
mixer DLL should still function, but it will only use the
default capabilities of the AC’97 version that was detected.
By definition, it won’t enable any vendor specific extensions
or workarounds.

Does the mixer application work in Photon?

If you run two copies of mixer that are both watching the Allegro, does
moving a slider in one cause a corresponding effect in the other?

Can you control the volume of a CD using the mixer app?

“Norbert Feulner” <> nf@am3.com> > wrote in message
news:> 3C98CF32.60604@am3.com> …



Some times later mixer DLL starts, and makes the output-line
‘AC97 DLL:: codec id Unknown - 0x45838308’


My Question: Is there a problem that the AC97-Dll does not recognize
that chip?

\

James MacMillan wrote:

It seems as though the mixer portion is working correctly.
I would be more confident of that, if we were able to confirm
with the CD playback test.

If volume control does not work for playing audio CD, check if have
sharp spikes of CPU usage (and apparent slowness of system) when you try
to use volume control. If that is the case, I have some idea what is
happening.

I don’t know what boards Igor has tested on. Personally, I have
never run this driver, as I do not have an Allegro card.

Neither do I :wink:
This driver was written remotely, on Camz’s hardware. It was tested on
Maestro-3 (built into laptops and standalone PCI card) and should work
with Allegro. But I would not be too surprized if integrated mixer in
Allegro chip is phucked up.

– igor

Hi,
I have made some further checks:

It seems as though the mixer portion is working correctly.
I would be more confident of that, if we were able to confirm
with the CD playback test.

I still have no real CD connected to the system, but I have fead a audio
signal into the line input.
With that, I could get a sound output, but it has some strage effects:

  1. The first click in the mute-box of the line settings after moving the
    volume slider has no effect on the sound output, until I move the
    slider again; i.e. moving the slider seems to update the output.

  2. Clicking mute several times: first click is ignored, further clicks
    toggle the sound output, but it’s twisted, mute on → output on, mute
    off → output off.

  3. Clicking the CD mute box while the CD volume slider is in max.
    position (or close to max) toggels the line mute as well. With the
    volume slider in min position there is no such effect.

  4. Video and Aux settings: Clicking the mute box moves the corresponding
    volume slider to a max position without x-ing the box.

  5. Changing the PCM settings makes a crack in the speaker but there is
    no sound output.



If volume control does not work for playing audio CD, check if have
sharp spikes of CPU usage (and apparent slowness of system) when you try
to use volume control. If that is the case, I have some idea what is
happening.


I don’t know what boards Igor has tested on. Personally, I have
never run this driver, as I do not have an Allegro card.

Is there anybody out there that has uesed that driver before
successfully or unsuccessfully?

What documentation did you have for develloping?
I also downloaded the source of igor’s home page, I managed to translate
and run it, but seems to be hard to locate the problem (maybe it’s in
the AC’97 lib ?? )


Neither do I > :wink:
This driver was written remotely, on Camz’s hardware. It was tested on
Maestro-3 (built into laptops and standalone PCI card) and should work
with Allegro. But I would not be too surprized if integrated mixer in
Allegro chip is phucked up.

– igor


Regards Norbert

“Norbert Feulner” <nf@am3.com> wrote in message
news:3CA07AC1.1040004@am3.com

  1. The first click in the mute-box of the line settings after moving the
    volume slider has no effect on the sound output, until I move the
    slider again; i.e. moving the slider seems to update the output.

  2. Clicking mute several times: first click is ignored, further clicks
    toggle the sound output, but it’s twisted, mute on → output on, mute
    off → output off.

  3. Clicking the CD mute box while the CD volume slider is in max.
    position (or close to max) toggels the line mute as well. With the
    volume slider in min position there is no such effect.

  4. Video and Aux settings: Clicking the mute box moves the corresponding
    volume slider to a max position without x-ing the box.

That sounds like there’s problem communicating to mixer, or mixer control
code is not right. The mute/volume is controlled by callbacks supplied by
driver (the AC97 dll does not do it by itself).

  1. Changing the PCM settings makes a crack in the speaker but there is
    no sound output.

Did you try to play with mute/volume while playing digital audio? From what
you’re saying it sounds like output might be just muted improperly.

If volume control does not work for playing audio CD, check if have
sharp spikes of CPU usage (and apparent slowness of system) when you try
to use volume control. If that is the case, I have some idea what is
happening.

Did you see such CPU load spikes or not?

Is there anybody out there that has uesed that driver before
successfully or unsuccessfully?

Yes, I use it myself and several other people use it with Maestro-3 chips.

What documentation did you have for develloping?

ALSA-0.5 code. There is no public documentation beyond that.
One likely source of problem might be subchannel mixer implementation. ALSA
does not have that feature, so I had no documentation at all. However, some
QNX applications only work properly when subchannel mixers are provided. I
tried to ‘guess’ how to do it just by looking at registers and it seemed to
work for Maestro-3. It might be quite different story for Allegro since they
have built-in mixers. You might want to experiment, or to disable subchannel
mixers completely.

I also downloaded the source of igor’s home page, I managed to translate
and run it, but seems to be hard to locate the problem (maybe it’s in
the AC’97 lib ?? )

It was harder to figure original ALSA code :wink:
Take a look at the source, there are #ifdefs with proper manifests to
enable/disable subchannel mixers.

– igor