ASUS Xonar Phoebus

[PsychedelicHell]

I have a Xonar Phoebus in my HTPC, it uses the C-Media CMI8888 chip, I do not get any sound out of it. ALSA sees it, all the channels are there but it doesn't produce any sound.

It is my understanding (from a quick search) that the CMI8888 chip does not work under Linux, however those posts were 5+ years old and so I was wondering that maybe there is support now?

Here is my termbin report: https://termbin.com/8u3o

[MrEen]

Hi again PsychedelicHell,

So far so good with that output. The script usually adds the alsa-info script output, but in your case that part failed, so please run this and choose upload when it asks, then paste the URL it'll provide at the end:

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wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

[PsychedelicHell]

Hey MrEen,

Here's the new link: http://alsa-project.org/db/?f=9803519b0 ... baa3d7eeb7

[MrEen]

Thanks, looking through it now.

[MrEen]

How are you connecting this card to something for output, speakers I assume? Is it a 3.5mm jack(s), or a S/PDIF connector?

There's a bit of weirdness in your outputs I'm hoping we can overcome, I'll explain after I get the answer to the above.

[PsychedelicHell]

The output I'm using from the card is 3 x 3.5mm jacks for front, rear and center/sub into a Logitec z5500 system.

[MrEen]

Okay, that's what I had suspected, but just wanted to be sure.

Here's the weird thing. Your aplay shows this:

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APLAY

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CMedia [HDA C-Media], device 0: CMI8888 Analog [CMI8888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CMedia [HDA C-Media], device 1: CMI8888 Digital [CMI8888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

And here's your dmesg showing the original config for the card:

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[    4.440172] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1: autoconfig for CMI8888: line_outs=4 (0xc/0xe/0xd/0xf/0x0) type:line
[    4.440174] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1:    speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    4.440175] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1:    hp_outs=1 (0x10/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[    4.440175] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1:    mono: mono_out=0x0
[    4.440176] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1:    dig-out=0x14/0x0
[    4.440176] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1:    inputs:
[    4.440177] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1:      Mic=0x12
[    4.440178] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1:      Line=0x15
[    4.440178] snd_hda_codec_cmedia hdaudioC1D1:      Aux=0x13

The issue is that the Analog device according to aplay is C1D0, yet the dmesg part shows C1D1. This is a little baffling, and I may need to do some research here, but see if this produces any output:

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aplay -D hw:1,1 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

And if nothing from that, try this one:

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aplay -D hw:1,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

[PsychedelicHell]

Here's the results from the commands you gave me, I didn't hear anything besides the hum from the amp.

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media@Media-Linux:~$ aplay -D hw:1,1 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
aplay: set_params:1349: Channels count not available

media@Media-Linux:~$ aplay -D hw:1,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
aplay: set_params:1349: Channels count not available

[MrEen]

Dammit I hate when it does that! Try these:

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aplay -D hw:1,1 --channels=6 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

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aplay -D hw:1,0 --channels=6 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

[PsychedelicHell]

Still nothing

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media@Media-Linux:~$ aplay -D hw:1,1 --channels=6 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
aplay: set_params:1349: Channels count not available

media@Media-Linux:~$ aplay -D hw:1,0 --channels=6 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
aplay: set_params:1349: Channels count not available

Also here are my options selected as per the sound settings GUI in case you were interested https://imgur.com/a/GSLbpQd

[MrEen]

One more thing to try. Run alsamixer -c1 in the terminal and raise the Headphone Amp volume level. That should be the second column with Headphone in the name, probably the third column overall.

[MrEen]

I've found a number of posts about the 8888 with varying degrees of success getting sound output. One thread was about the volume being way too low. This makes me want to try raising everything in alsamixer to 100%, then use PulseAudio Volume Control to raise the Line Out volume on the Output Devices tab to 153% and see if any sound comes out with that.

That must be done in that order. Once you play with alsamixer settings again, pavucontrol drops back down to 100%.

[PsychedelicHell]

So turning everything up in AlsaMixer has some effect.

https://imgur.com/a/POc9e2Z

I can hear something, it's faint from the center speaker, barely audible over the sound of the amp humming.

Progress at the very least!

[MrEen]

Do you have any headphones you can test with? I just want to see what it's like on that port, as all the thread I've found so far make no mention of headphones. Might want to turn the volume down a bit before trying though!

[PsychedelicHell]

I plugged headphones into the headphone out on the soundcard, there was sound but it is the same as the faint center speaker, no hum in the headphones though.

[MrEen]

Okay, that helps a wee bit.

I just found this thread where the users has it working. I'm comparing outputs with yours to see if I can find anything we should change.

[MrEen]

Damn! That user has a different susbystem ID and the pins are very different after the 4 line pins (0x02-0x05)

I don't think we're going to have much success here I'm afraid. It's all going to be guesswork.

The next thing I'd try in your situation is to install alsa-tools-gui so you can run HDAJackRetask. When it opens, select the CM8888 in the upper left, then check the box for Parser hints. Try double clicking on pin_amp-workaround until it says yes then click on Apply now and see if there's any improvement. If that doesn't help, revert the change and do the same with need_dac_fix. Again, click on Apply now and test the sound. Play around with this. Any screwups can be fixed by rebooting. If you find the magic formula, click on Install boot override

We might want to try changing some pins next that I'll explain after you've tried this.

[MrEen]

Do you still have Windows on this machine?

[PsychedelicHell]

Yes, but I've taken a short break from this project due to my problem in the other thread regarding getting the TV to turn on/turn off with boot/shutdown. If I can't get that working, then there's no real reason to pursue this either.

[MrEen]

Yes, but I've taken a short break from this project due to my problem in the other thread regarding getting the TV to turn on/turn off with boot/shutdown. If I can't get that working, then there's no real reason to pursue this either.

No worries. If that one gets solved, we can resume here at your leisure.