Xonar DX/DGX audio not working since Mint 14 - IOMMU bug?

Questions about hardware, drivers and peripherals
Forum rules
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
quaid

Xonar DX/DGX audio not working since Mint 14 - IOMMU bug?

Post by quaid »

[UPDATE Jan 28, 2014] This problem has been traced to the BIOS implementation of IOMMU on my Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4 motherboard, BIOS ver. F4
Disabling the IOMMU BIOS setting allows the Xonar to function, although I am still experiencing audio bugs. It is also not clear if the IOMMU bug is a problem with Mint or a problem with the BIOS.
See my most recent post, here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 20#p815650




Hello all,

My sound card is not working.

I introduced myself to linux through mint 13 maya, so I am still fairly new to linux. Recently I upgraded my MoBo, CPU, RAM from an old Athlon AM2 system to a new FM2 system. Compounding that change I also upgraded to mint 14 at the same time.

Two major hardware-software interactions changed. The first is that my PCI wifi card now works (yay, it didn't with 13 & old system). The second is that my dedicated sound card now does not work (darn, it did with 13 & old system).

Here is my dilemma, expressed pictorally:

My sound output device management:
Image

Nothing there!

But my hardware lists shows the card:
Image


The card is an ASUS Xonar DX. Google reveals that there have been historical problems with the ASLO drivers and the Xonar cards, but they should have been long-since dealt with. There were also recommendations from the googlemachine to try Pulseaudio as a solution. This did not work, presumably for the same reason (no hardware output devices listed).

Please help! If further information is required then please be specific on how to attain it.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 5 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
HumbleUser

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14

Post by HumbleUser »

Hello,

Are you sure about your hardware model? I looked on the alsa-project website and it lists the Xonar DX as having the AV100 chipset. The Xonar DGX has the CMI8788 chipset. It could of course be wrong. I am using an Xonar DG ing Mint13 which has the same chipset as the DGX. I know you said it works fine in mint 13 for you, but I am, as I type this, upgrading to mint 14.1... So we'll see how it continues to work. I'll update if I have issues.

At any rate what did you do to install it? I followed the instructions here http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. ... ule-oxygen. When I run alsamixer it shows the sound card, but there are no volume controls. To adjust sound I just use the volume controls inside the GNOME desktop. When I initially installed it I had to also install pavucontrol to make sure nothing was muted, despite being told it would be muted, nothing was. The only issue for me is that the onboard HDA connector doesn't work for my front mic/headphone jack, as the alsa website said.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14

Post by quaid »

Hello HumbleUser,

I double checked since there are so many versions of the Asus Xonar, and yes, I do have the "Xonar DX".

I also remember that Mint 13 recognized this card as the same chipset, the Oxygen HD CMI8788.

The only installation I did was the installation of Mint. This worked for Mint 13 but not for Mint 14. I am reading and pursuing the link you suggested, although kernel compiling, etc. are somewhat out of my league. It isn't clear to me that the driver installation is needed since the hardware is properly detected in the Mint 14 System Information (hardware manager). This suggests to me that drivers were installed, but maybe that is just my ignorance.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14

Post by quaid »

HumbleUser wrote:At any rate what did you do to install it? I followed the instructions here http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. ... ule-oxygen. When I run alsamixer it shows the sound card, but there are no volume controls. To adjust sound I just use the volume controls inside the GNOME desktop. When I initially installed it I had to also install pavucontrol to make sure nothing was muted, despite being told it would be muted, nothing was. The only issue for me is that the onboard HDA connector doesn't work for my front mic/headphone jack, as the alsa website said.
I was not able to follow the instructions. I didn't find "See GIT_Server for instructions on getting and using the latest source from git repositories." to be helpful, or achievable.

I also had problems when in the terminal running their example code:

cd /usr/src
mkdir alsa
cd alsa
cp /downloads/alsa-* .

"mkdir" only functioned when I used "sudo" first. Fine. Done.

"cp/downloads/alsa-* ." didn't work at all. The cp code implies that I'm copying something, and I assume that the "See GIT_Server..." was probably supposed to help me get the files to copy. So you can see that I didn't get very far with that.


However, a linuxmint auto-update did something interesting somewhere along the way. I don't know which update it was specifically, but the hardware now shows up in my sound mixers.

This is an encouraging development, but sadly the device is still silent.
Any ideas?

Image

Image
Last edited by quaid on Wed Dec 11, 2013 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14

Post by quaid »

HumbleUser wrote:Hello,

Are you sure about your hardware model? I looked on the alsa-project website and it lists the Xonar DX as having the AV100 chipset. The Xonar DGX has the CMI8788 chipset.
I have confirmed through web sources that the AV100 on the DX is a rebranded CMI8788. The Xonar DGX is listed on ALSA with the CMI8786 chipset, with the last digit on the CMI chip being a 6 rather than an 8.

ALSA list of ASUS cards and chipsets:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. ... endor-Asus

Some online sources supporting AV100 being CMI8788:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/soundc ... -reviews/3
http://whrl.pl/RcGC1r
http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/SND_VIRTUOSO.html
User avatar
beachgardener
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 160
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2010 10:22 pm
Location: Australia

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14

Post by beachgardener »

possible solution: sometimes it is just that the 4 pin floppy plug isn't pushed home all the way, sometimes the plastic seat on the 4 pins where the plug pushes up to comes forward a bit, and when the plug is pushed on it doesn't have the pins fully in side itself, as such, that plastic seat needs to be pulled back a bit so that the 4 pin plug can be fully pushed onto the pins, this can happen if you unplug it and re-do the plug when doing maintenance etc.
Linux Mint 20.0 Cinnamon - 64bit
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14

Post by quaid »

A fair proposition. Will try when I get home.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14

Post by quaid »

No luck to-date. I have confirmed that the power cable is correctly attached but I have been unable to follow the instructions from the ASLA website.

The instructions "See GIT_Server for instructions on getting and using the latest source from git repositories." links to an unintuitive site that leaves me scratching my head. I have googled this heavily but have not been able to find help. Since that instruction is among the first on the ASLA site, I am not able to proceed with their instructions.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14

Post by quaid »

No luck with Mint 14, Mint 15, and now Mint 16.

Mint 16 identifies the Xonar DX as "Virtuoso 100 (Xonar DX) Analogue Stereo". I have tried all of the output ports in case the sound is accidentally being redirected to the wrong port, but I do not have a spdif -> analogue converter like was included with the card. I appear to have lost the converter. Additionally, I can see the red SPDIF light blinking from that port. This might indicate that the sound is being incorrectly directed to the digital output rather than the analogue output.

Truly frustrating.

[EDIT] EMI, static noise was a result of not removing the mic line-in from the motherboard's onboard soundcard. Unplugging stopped the EMI.
Last edited by quaid on Wed Dec 11, 2013 4:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by quaid »

The Xonar DX functions properly when booting from a live-USB of Mint 13 Cinnamon 64-bit. This suggests to me that something in the kernel updates since Mint 13 has borked the compatibility.

While under Mint 13 there is no red light emitted from the SPDIF port. Also, there is no digital output option in the sound hardware window. This seems to be an important clue as to what got borked.
Last edited by quaid on Wed Dec 11, 2013 4:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by quaid »

For reference, here is the sound>hardware window from Mint 13

Status: working

[rimg]http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/1556/od78.jpg[/rimg]
Last edited by quaid on Wed Dec 11, 2013 4:57 pm, edited 3 times in total.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by quaid »

For reference, here is the sound>hardware window from Mint 15

Status: not working

[rimg]http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/5147/zubh.png[/rimg]
Last edited by quaid on Wed Dec 11, 2013 4:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by quaid »

For reference, here is the sound>hardware window from Mint 16

Status: not working

[rimg]http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/9014/r94d.png[/rimg]
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by quaid »

bump for your thoughts
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by quaid »

bump
yaye

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by yaye »

I'm still on Mint 13, so I may not be able to help you very much. What does the input tab look like? What happens when you click the "Switch to Normal Mode" link at the bottom left?
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by quaid »

Hello yaye, thank you for your assistance.

Under my current install (Mint 16), the input tab shows 1 input for built-in audio (Rear Microphone) and four inputs for Virtuoso 100 (Xonar DX) (Digital Input(S/PDIF); Analogue Input; Line In; Microphone). There is an audible 'click' when I select to, or from, "Line In".

"Switch to Normal/Advanced Mode" appears to do nothing.
yaye

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by yaye »

Whenever I have problems with audio, I use Synaptic to install the gnome-alsamixer package and check to see what channels are muted or have their volumes set low. You might try that.
quaid

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by quaid »

That was serendipitous advice, since I discovered alsamixer yesterday. Sadly, it did not offer any solutions.

Another observation I have is that youtube videos are choppy and unwatchable when the xonar is set as the active sound device. Switch back to onboard, and everything works are normal. With a little digging, I see that one of the major changes since Mint 13 is the ALSA driver (module) used for the xonar. In Mint 13 it was the Oxygen module for the C-Media CMI8788 (http://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/main/i ... ule-oxygen ). Mint 14 and onward uses the Virtuoso module (http://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/main/i ... e-virtuoso).

Based on the module descriptions, the Virtuoso module should be the correct choice. However, the evidence from my experiences suggests that there is something wrong with Virtuoso. Does anyone know how to switch from one module to another? I would like to try the oxygen module in Mint 16, to eliminate Mint, itself, as a factor.
yaye

Re: Xonar DX CMI8788 worked in Mint 13 but not in Mint 14,15

Post by yaye »

To remove the virtuoso module, try:

sudo modprobe -r snd-virtuoso

To load the oxygen module, try:

sudo modprobe snd-oxygen

When you said you tried alsa-mixer, did you mean you installed the gnome-alsamixer package or just alsamixer? If you haven't installed gnome-alsamixer, I would install it.
Locked

Return to “Hardware Support”