Help requested to enable Audigy 4 Pro breakout box

[EssCee]

Hi folks,

Mint Cinnamon 19
ASUS P5Q-EM
Intel Core 2 Quad
GeForce GTX745
6GB RAM

I've just added an Audigy 4 Pro with LiveDrive external hub. The hub does not respond to anything, just showing power LED.
Soundcard is working.

I went to the ALSA page, and there's a workaround for getting it working, which requires that I add two lines to /etc/modules.conf - except I don't seem to have that file.

Here's the text:

There is an issue with the Audigy 2 Platinum Ex soundcard and the Audigy 4 pro (and probably some other Audigy 2 cards as well), whereas the IR sensor, MIDI and the buttons on the LiveDrive do NOT work at all until the LiveDrive is initialized by sending the sequence of '0xf0, 0x00, 0x20, 0x21, 0x61, 0x0, 0x00, 0x00, 0x7f, 0x0, 0xf7' to the MIDI port. Before doing this, even the LED on the LiveDrive won't blink, as it usually does when a button on the remote is pressed. As far as I know, this behaviour is different than with most LiveDrives manufactured by Creative. For more information see this link. The easiest workaround to this is to add the following line to /etc/modules.conf

post-install snd-emu10k1

echo -e '\360\000\040\041\141\000\000\000\177\000\367' > /dev/snd/midiC0D1

If it doesn't work, try

echo -en "\xf0\x00\x20\x21\x61\x00\x00\x00\x7f\x00\xf7" > /dev/snd/midiC0D1

It works for me and it should be distribution-independent (with exception to Debian, where you change /etc/modutils/alsa and run update-modules afterwards, Debian users will know anyway).

Here's the link:
http://alsa-project.org/main/index.php/ ... le-emu10k1

I know no programming (three lines of BASIC is my limit) but can happily follow step-by-step instructions.

All help appreciated.

[ajgringo619]

modules.conf is now located in /etc/modules-load.d. It's actually a symlink to /etc/modules, so you can just edit that file directly.

[MrEen]

Hi EssCee.

In addition to what @ajgringo619 said, and there's a chance I am wrong about this, but you will almost certainly need to change the echo output also. You can look in your /dev/snd/ folder to see what the the card and device numbers are in your case. I am pretty sure yours wont be card 0 (C0) unless you've disabled both on board sound and HDMI sound in your BIOS.

In my case, echo -e '\360\000\040\041\141\000\000\000\177\000\367' > /dev/snd/midiC3D0 would be the only option, but you'll probably have a D0 and D1 I'm guessing.

Just a note. You're only adding one line, not two. If the first doesn't work, change it to the second.

Like I said, it's possible I'm wrong on this, so if you try the steps in that link and neither work, change the C and D numbers as appropriate.

EDIT: To see what's already there, you can run ls /dev/snd | grep midi in the terminal.

[EssCee]

Thanks folks.

MrEn: 'ls /dev/snd | grep midi' gives me 4 MIDI devices, C1D0 to C1D3

~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
HDA NVidia at 0xfe9fc000 irq 17
1 [Audigy2 ]: Audigy2 - SB Audigy 4 PRO [SB0380]

I have disabled the HD Audio Controller in the BIOS.

I set '/dev/snd/midiC3D0' to '/dev/snd/midiC1D1'
Boot scroll shows '[FAILED] Failed to start load Kernel Modules', as it has in all previous attempts.

[ajgringo619]

I think you may want to find another solution. The link you posted hasn't been updated since 2006!

[EssCee]

I think you may want to find another solution. The link you posted hasn't been updated since 2006!

Yeah, but the card's nearly that old too. Haven't found anything so far.

I've tried this:

post-install snd-emu10k1
echo -e '\360\000\040\041\141\000\000\000\177\000\367' > /dev/snd/midiC1D0

And the alternative line also.

The /modules file is blank apart from that line and some remarked-out text.
Am I missing something else, perhaps?
Would the FAILED error be linked to something missing, or to the line not being formatted correctly?

[MrEen]

Remove the post-install snd-emu10k1. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be there and may be why it's failing.

[thx-1138]

...to (hopefully not) add to the confusion...

locate snd-emu10k1
/lib/modules/4.19.0-9-generic/kernel/sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1-synth.ko
/lib/modules/4.19.0-9-generic/kernel/sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1.ko
/lib/modules/4.19.0-9-generic/kernel/sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1x.ko
-> This lists the snd-emu10k1 related modules...

sudo modprobe snd-emu10k1 -> this will add the module (and it's dependencies) temporarily in memory until reboot...

xed admin:///etc/modules -> if you edit it & simply add snd-emu10k1 there,
the module will always be loaded (after restarting the system).
You might have to further run sudo update-initramfs -uk all for such to take effect.

The 'post-install' thingy i believe it's an alsa module specific extra parameter:
xed admin:///etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
You'll have to research / verify that part - but my loose understanding is that you should further add there:
post-install snd-emu10k1 echo -e '\360\000\040\041\141\000\000\000\177\000\367' > /dev/snd/midiC0D1
Now whether 'midiC0D1' should instead be C1D0, C1D3 etc - absolutely no idea,
as linux audio configuring is not an area i really understand well.

Hope that somewhat 'translates' the above from...2006 to 2019.

[Hoser Rob]

I think you may want to find another solution. The link you posted hasn't been updated since 2006!

+1. There is actually ver little backwards compatibility in Linux so you can't really trust a 2-3year old at face value, let alone 13 years old.

ANother big red flag in that quoted test is this: "it should be distribution-independent (with exception to Debian, where you change /etc/modutils/alsa and run update-modules afterwards, Debian users will know anyway)".

Mint is Ubuntu based and Ubuntu is Debian based, so Mint is in the huge Debian base. ANd yes, you can expect Debian users to uinderstand this, but that's not a distro suitable for Linux novices. In fact if you ask the typical sorft of newbie question here on the Debian user forum, they're just going to suggest you install Ubuntu or Mint instead. You can't expect a typical Mint user to know that.

I'd search "Ubuntu 18.04 <name of the sound card>" because Mint 19 is based on that, and you just can't dispute the size of the UBuntu user base.

ANd BTW what happens if you try this device WITHOUT the power hub?

[pbear]

Hey EssCee. I don't have any experience with sound cards, but this smells like a problem that should be solvable. A few suggestions.

1. Your original question has been answered, but it doesn't solve the problem. I suggest you go back to the first post and edit the thread title to say something like "Need help setting up an Audigy 4 Pro sound card." That's much more likely to bring in someone with relevant experience.

2. You're going to be doing some trial-and-error work here. It's important you be able to undo each thing you try or you end up with a tangled ball of yarn. Simplest way to do that is Timeshift. I assume you set it up at installation. Open now and create a manual snapshot. Daily snapshots don't do the same thing, as they roll off as replaced. When you're done with this project, you can delete the manual snapshot to release the space.

3. Further to Hoser Rob's suggestion, do a Forum Search for "Audigy." Don't limit to your particular sound card, but don't bother going back more than two years. I ran that search and skimming quickly noticed this post with a potential solution. Worth a shot.

4. If that works, report back and edit the thread title to add [Solved]. If not, keep searching and/or maybe someone will have a better idea.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

[EssCee]

First, thanks all for replying.
And apologies for the massive reply - if you're gonna read it, then I recommend a cup of tea (or wine, or kava, etc).

Only wanted to pop up with a general tip you will find useful in situations like this in the future. There's a command "locate", it's provided by the mlocate package which is already installed out-of-box on Linux Mint. So open terminal and do something along these lines to try to find a particular file or search term etc you're looking for.

ie:

Code: Select all

locate modules.conf

This will search far and wide on your gnu/Linux Os for instances of that and this is seen in the output of running the above.

/etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf

Something related, believe often the database that indexes this stuff usually runs daily as a part of cron.daily, so you may install new software/packages and this won't show up using "locate" until that's updated for the system, you can also do it manually at any time with "sudo updatedb" which is what will happen the database will update to include those new files also. Can't hurt to google-etc "using the locate command" +linux and so forth. A bunch of useful stuff you can do with it.

Thanks LuvNix

Remove the post-install snd-emu10k1. I'm pretty sure that's not supposed to be there and may be why it's failing.

Thanks MrEen

...to (hopefully not) add to the confusion...

locate snd-emu10k1
/lib/modules/4.19.0-9-generic/kernel/sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1-synth.ko
/lib/modules/4.19.0-9-generic/kernel/sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1.ko
/lib/modules/4.19.0-9-generic/kernel/sound/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1x.ko
-> This lists the snd-emu10k1 related modules...

sudo modprobe snd-emu10k1 -> this will add the module (and it's dependencies) temporarily in memory until reboot...

xed admin:///etc/modules -> if you edit it & simply add snd-emu10k1 there,
the module will always be loaded (after restarting the system).
You might have to further run sudo update-initramfs -uk all for such to take effect.

The 'post-install' thingy i believe it's an alsa module specific extra parameter:
xed admin:///etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
You'll have to research / verify that part - but my loose understanding is that you should further add there:
post-install snd-emu10k1 echo -e '\360\000\040\041\141\000\000\000\177\000\367' > /dev/snd/midiC0D1
Now whether 'midiC0D1' should instead be C1D0, C1D3 etc - absolutely no idea,
as linux audio configuring is not an area i really understand well.

Hope that somewhat 'translates' the above from...2006 to 2019.

Hi thx-118.
Thanks.

Your recommendation is:
- add snd-emu10k1 to 'modules'
- Add 'post-install...' and the midi line to 'alsa-base.conf'
Is that correct? (I will research that, nothing found so far)

I think you may want to find another solution. The link you posted hasn't been updated since 2006!

+1. There is actually very little backwards compatibility in Linux so you can't really trust a 2-3year old at face value, let alone 13 years old.

ANother big red flag in that quoted test is this: "it should be distribution-independent (with exception to Debian, where you change /etc/modutils/alsa and run update-modules afterwards, Debian users will know anyway)".

Mint is Ubuntu based and Ubuntu is Debian based, so Mint is in the huge Debian base. ANd yes, you can expect Debian users to uinderstand this, but that's not a distro suitable for Linux novices. In fact if you ask the typical sort of newbie question here on the Debian user forum, they're just going to suggest you install Ubuntu or Mint instead. You can't expect a typical Mint user to know that.

I'd search "Ubuntu 18.04 <name of the sound card>" because Mint 19 is based on that, and you just can't dispute the size of the UBuntu user base.

ANd BTW what happens if you try this device WITHOUT the power hub?

Hi Hoser Rob.
Thanks.
I've had a look, nothing found yet.
The sound card itself works, and sounds good. The issue is specific to the breakout box. The 2006 article on enabling the breakout box is what I'm trying to adapt and use. Not found anything more recent yet.

Hey EssCee. I don't have any experience with sound cards, but this smells like a problem that should be solvable. A few suggestions.

1. Your original question has been answered, but it doesn't solve the problem. I suggest you go back to the first post and edit the thread title to say something like "Need help setting up an Audigy 4 Pro sound card." That's much more likely to bring in someone with relevant experience.

2. You're going to be doing some trial-and-error work here. It's important you be able to undo each thing you try or you end up with a tangled ball of yarn. Simplest way to do that is Timeshift. I assume you set it up at installation. Open now and create a manual snapshot. Daily snapshots don't do the same thing, as they roll off as replaced. When you're done with this project, you can delete the manual snapshot to release the space.

3. Further to Hoser Rob's suggestion, do a Forum Search for "Audigy." Don't limit to your particular sound card, but don't bother going back more than two years. I ran that search and skimming quickly noticed this post with a potential solution. Worth a shot.

4. If that works, report back and edit the thread title to add [Solved]. If not, keep searching and/or maybe someone will have a better idea.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

Hi pbear.
Thanks.
Can't see anything that's specific to the breakout box there. The soundcard itself works.
Haven't yet enabled TimeShift as I'm slightly pressed for space (at the moment). Would appreciate any tips on how to restore backups of any files I've altered via command line from a bootable OS, if that's workable.


I've run 'cat /proc/asound/cards' and got the following:

0 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
HDA NVidia at 0xfe9fc000 irq 17
1 [Audigy2 ]: Audigy2 - SB Audigy 4 PRO [SB0380]
SB Audigy 4 PRO [SB0380] (rev.4, serial:0x20071102) at 0xec00, irq 16

I've set the onboard HD Audio Controller to disabled. This seems to reference the nVidia GeForce GTX745 that I've got installed, which I don't understand, as that's a GFX card. Don't know if that matters.

[thx-1138]

..................................
Hi thx-118.
Thanks.

Your recommendation is:
- add snd-emu10k1 to 'modules'
- Add 'post-install...' and the midi line to 'alsa-base.conf'
Is that correct? (I will research that, nothing found so far)

Hi EssCee - all of this is just a very direct, on a 'one-to-one' basis if you will,
adjustment of what the actual paths / files & commands mentioned in Alsa's wiki,
would currently be after so many years & underlying changes.

...Yes, theoritically, i do believe that the 'post-install' part should go over to alsa-base.conf
A bit of googling came up with those older instructions for Gentoo, which suggested something similar.

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa
options snd-emu10k1 enable_ir=1
post-install snd-emu10k1 echo -e '\360\000\040\041\141\000\000\000\177\000\367' > /dev/dmmidi

There's no /etc/modprobe.d/alsa nowadays here, but /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf instead.
options snd-emu10k1 enable_ir=1 is meant to enable the infrared port...that's also mentioned in the Alsa page that you linked above.
Does this device come with such & should be explicitly enabled? You probably know better than me, heh.
The /dev/dmmidi part i'm uncertain, chances are it should be /dev/snd/midi* something instead,
hopefully someone here who is familiar with audio devices will point you to what should be the current & correct equivalent.

I do repeat though that's just a 'translation' of older tweaks to their assumed current equivalents:
if there currently exists an altogether different & way simpler method developed in the meantime, i really wouldn't know.

[pbear]

Haven't yet enabled TimeShift as I'm slightly pressed for space (at the moment). Would appreciate any tips on how to restore backups of any files I've altered via command line from a bootable OS, if that's workable.

I see you took the suggestion about modifying the thread title. Hopefully that will help. As for your question, I don't think there's any way to do this by restoring from the installation ISO. That's why we have Timeshift. Would you perhaps have a good sized flash drive handy? 16 GB will be enough, unless you've installed a crazy amount of stuff, though larger will enable you to maintain a larger snapshot archive. If so, plug that in, open Timeshift, then click Settings: Location. That's where you can select the USB drive as the snapshot target.

As for the actual problem, alas, not something I've had occasion to learn. Fingers crossed, though, that someone who can help drops in.

[EssCee]

Can someone confirm the following please:

~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
HDA NVidia at 0xfe9fc000 irq 17
1 [Audigy2 ]: Audigy2 - SB Audigy 4 PRO [SB0380]

If I do this:

~$ xed admin:///etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

And then add this:

blacklist snd_hda_intel

Save, then upon reboot, ~$ cat /proc/asound/cards will give me '0 [Audigy2 ]: Aud...' and no HDA Intel driver?

[MrEen]

I can't say for sure that will happen but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. The blacklist is blaclisting the module, but I'm not sure how that would affect the card being listed.

One possible alternative is maybe your BIOS will let you disable the onboard sound, which should accomplish the same thing.

If all you're trying to do is get the Audigy to have the zero index, that can be done another way. See the long answer here: https://superuser.com/questions/626606/ ... omatically

[EssCee]

I can't say for sure that will happen but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. The blacklist is blaclisting the module, but I'm not sure how that would affect the card being listed.

One possible alternative is maybe your BIOS will let you disable the onboard sound, which should accomplish the same thing.

If all you're trying to do is get the Audigy to have the zero index, that can be done another way. See the long answer here: https://superuser.com/questions/626606/ ... omatically

OK, that link's awesome, and I've bookmarked it, along with the link within to the ArchLinux wiki for setting the default card.

I went with the blacklist method.
Now:

~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [Audigy2 ]: Audigy2 - SB Audigy 4 PRO [SB0380]
SB Audigy 4 PRO [SB0380] (rev.4, serial:0x20071102) at 0xec00, irq 16

So far so good.

~$ sudo lspci -v
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0fbc (rev a1)
Subsystem: PC Partner Limited / Sapphire Technology Device 249a
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at fe9fc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [68] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

Driver module no longer loaded.

Lines added to '/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf' using xed:

options snd-emu10k1 enable_ir=1
# post-install snd-emu10k1 echo -en "\xf0\x00\x20\x21\x61\x00\x00\x00\x7f\x00\xf7" > /dev/snd/midiC0D1
post-install snd-emu10k1 echo -en '\360\000\040\041\141\000\000\000\177\000\367' > /dev/snd/midiC0D1

I tried the first post-install line and rebooted, then the second one, and rebooted.
No change.
Card still works and sounds good, plus the hardware connectors on the breakout box (at least, the Line 1/Mic socket and its volume control) works, just not the master volume or button on the box.

[EssCee]

An update:

While trying to get HardInfo to show memory SPD for a separate reason (gives 'please load eeprom module' error, i2c tools then installed), I run 'sudo modprobe eeprom' and the following message appears:

libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-config.c:656 kmod_config_parse: /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf line 25: ignoring bad line starting with 'post-install'

[thx-1138]

Hmmm, if the post-install part has been deprecated, then i'm really not sure :-/
In my system here, i already see snd-emu10k1 existing / enabled by default on alsa-base.conf

install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 $CMDLINE_OPTS && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet --use-blacklist snd-emu10k1-synth ; }

You'd probably have to figure out the alsa's $CMDLINE_OPTS part & also how it interacts with files residing in the modprobe.d/ folder...
Maybe make a simple audigytest.conf file under that folder, and add those parameters there (without the post-install part).
Note that you don't necessarily have to reboot continuously - for quick testing, sudo modprobe -r snd-emu10k1 will remove it from memory...

[thx-1138]

...i think we might be thinking it very very wrong from the beginning,
and the fact that most of us around aren't really familiar with either audio debugging under Linux,
or even more this specific device doesn't help.

Besides the super old alsa instructions, some googling suggests lirc for (remote) controlling that device.
Digging lirc's site, i spotted this, referring to 'livedrive' & 'breakout box' (whatever those features are).
The alsa-base.conf seems valid, however without any 'post-install' parts needed, see here.
Certainly have a look here as well for a sample configuration.

lirc isn't installed by default by the way, you'd have to install it from Software Manager or Synaptic.

Is that what you mean by 'enabling' it / trying to achieve?