Envy24, major sound problems!

[Ribs]

Hi,

After getting Gentoo running on my new system, I'm very impressed, 64-bit is certinally a massive speed boost. However, games performance suffers;

UT2004:
Very low pitch, delayed sound from the outset. When I set up ~/.openalrc to use alsa, I get no sound and about 3fps from UT2004. When the file is deleted, I get the low pitched sound again.

Enemy Territory:
Sound simply doesn't work at all. Seems to be that dreaded mmap problem. None of the 'fixes' I've seen actually have an affect thus far.

Cedega:
Sound on OSS behaves, but the ALSA 'test' in Point2Play fails with 'Unable to complete sound test: /usr/lib/transgaming_point2play/tests/aplay: err[cut off] shared libraries: libasound.so.2: cannot open sha [cut off] No such file or directory.'

It's worth noting here that xmms works *perfectly*. Doesn't complain, just works on both OSS and ALSA.

Also, esd doesn't like my soundcard:

Code: Select all

ribs@zeus System $ esd
Audio device open for 44.1Khz, stereo, 16bit failed
Trying 44.1Khz, 8bit stereo.
Audio device open for 44.1Khz, stereo, 8bit failed
Trying 48Khz, 16bit stereo.
Audio device open for 48Khz, stereo,16bit failed
Trying 22.05Khz, 8bit stereo.
Audio device open for 22.05Khz, stereo, 8bit failed
Trying 44.1Khz, 16bit mono.
Audio device open for 44.1Khz, mono, 8bit failed
Trying 22.05Khz, 8bit mono.
Audio device open for 22.05Khz, mono, 8bit failed
Trying 11.025Khz, 8bit stereo.
Audio device open for 11.025Khz, stereo, 8bit failed
Trying 11.025Khz, 8bit mono.
Audio device open for 11.025Khz, mono, 8bit failed
Trying 8.192Khz, 8bit mono.
Audio device open for 8.192Khz, mono, 8bit failed
Trying 8Khz, 8bit mono.
Sound device inadequate for Esound. Fatal.

System information:
Kernel config:

Code: Select all

<*> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
< > Sequencer support
<*> OSS Mixer API
<*> OSS PCM (digital audio) API
<*> Emulation for 32-bit applications
<*> RTC Timer support              
Within PCI Devices:
< > ICEnsemble ICE1712 (Envy24) 
<*> ICE/VT1724/1720 (Envy24HT/PT)      

lspci output:

Code: Select all

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 00e1 (rev a1)
0000:00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 00e0 (rev a2)
0000:00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation nForce 250Gb PCI System Management (rev a1)
0000:00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK8S USB Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK8S USB Controller (rev a1)
0000:00:02.2 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation CK8S USB Controller (rev a2)
0000:00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation CK8S Parallel ATA Controller (v2.5) (rev a2)
0000:00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb AGP Host to PCI Bridge (rev a2)
0000:00:0e.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb PCI-to-PCI Bridge (rev a2)
0000:00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
0000:00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
0000:00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
0000:00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV38 [GeForce FX 5950 Ultra] (rev a1)
0000:02:0b.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 46)
0000:02:0c.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. (formerly CMD Technology Inc) SiI 3114 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
0000:02:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5788 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 03)
0000:02:0f.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller (rev 01)

I'm totally stumped here. I have no idea why this is so fucked up . I'm used to things just working in Linux when it comes to sound, as I had a CMedia (built in thing) which was well supported before. This is unlike anything I've seen.

*any* help would be good right now

-Ribs.

[Ribs]

Update:

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City:
Also low pitched, delayed sound. Sometimes, the game will actually play things really quickly, at high pitch, it sounds like I'm playing a game made by the chipmunks...

UT2004:
Sometimes works, seems to be random when it does...

Day of Defeat and Max Payne 2:
Work perfectly.

XMMS continues to work perfectly
I'm at a total loss here

-Ribs.

[sven-tek]

i've got a 32bit system still, you're soundproblems seem to behave to the ice 1712.

I have such a nice card too, but not inside the computer anymore. I hope that ice1712 will be supported fully someday ( or someone tells me the trick )

let me guess, dmesg shows you that ac97 could not be started and esd can not work properly. Thats what my problems are with the ice1712.

[Ribs]

let me guess, dmesg shows you that ac97 could not be started and esd can not work properly. Thats what my problems are with the ice1712.

No, AC97 isn't mentioned:

Code: Select all

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.6 (Sun Aug 15 07:17:53 2004 UTC).
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:02:0f.0[A] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5
ALSA device list:
  #0: Chaintech ZNF3-250 at 0xc800, irq 5

That's it. Plus I'm actually using the ice1724 card and driver, not the 1712 one..

Now here is the real stinker. With my various testing etc. I've found that, comepltely randomly, sound will just work properly... Very strange.

-Ribs.

[LaNcom]

Well, I also use an ice1712 based card (Terratec EWX24/96), and it works almost perfectly. ALSA support for 32bit apps (like Cedega and such) never worked for me, but with OSS emulation everything but Doom³ is fine (Doom³ needs MMAP). The pitch problem is very odd, it may have to do with ice1712 cards using a very strange rate select. Open envy24control and check what sample rate is selected and if rate lock is active. If it is, disable rate lock. If that won't help, switch the sample rate to 44100 or 48000 and reactivate rate lock.

[Ribs]

Hi,

I'm not using ice1712, I'm using ice1724.

I have been able to re-produce the bug in ALSA, once. I went into alsa volume control and ticked Multi Track Rate Locking. This seemed to make XMMS play songs slower. Turning this back off fixed it. I was only able to re-produce this once, and haven't been able to since.

This almost certinally appears to be an issue of the driver selecting the wrong rate. Or maybe that rate being unavaible for whatever reason.

envy24control doesn't compile here. During configure, I get:

Code: Select all

checking for ALSA CFLAGS...
checking for ALSA LDFLAGS...  -lasound
checking for libasound headers version >= 0.5.5... found.
checking for snd_cards in -lasound... no
configure: error: No linkable libasound was found.

-Ribs.

[LaNcom]

This is very strange - to get envy24control, you only need to install alsa-utils...

Anyway, I found that the rate lock is usually causing trouble (for games, the Envy24 chips were developed with music production in mind, not gaming). For games, the best way seems to be: set the rate to 44100 and lock it...

[Ribs]

This is very strange - to get envy24control, you only need to install alsa-utils...

Already installed... :/

-Ribs.

[LaNcom]

Sorry, it's in alsa-tools, not alsa-utils... If you want, I could also provide a patched version with GTK 2 support (GTK 1 is so damn ugly...).

[Ribs]

Sorry, it's in alsa-tools, not alsa-utils... If you want, I could also provide a patched version with GTK 2 support (GTK 1 is so damn ugly...).

merged alsa-tools. Same problem:

Code: Select all

checking for ALSA CFLAGS...
checking for ALSA LDFLAGS...  -lasound
checking for libasound headers version >= 0.5.5... found.
checking for snd_cards in -lasound... no
configure: error: No linkable libasound was found.

-Ribs.

[LaNcom]

Something is very wrong here... I don't understand why it's even checking for ALSA 0.5.5, as it's completely outdated and not really compatible.

Anyway, grab my patched version at:
http://217.17.194.19/gentoo/envy24control.tar.bz2
Hope that works...

[Ribs]

Thanks, that version compiles, but I'm still making very little progress:

Code: Select all

ribs@zeus envy24control $ envy24control
invalid card type (driver is ICE1724)
ribs@zeus envy24control $ envy24control --help
Segmentation fault

-Ribs.

[LaNcom]

Oh shit. It seems envy24control works only for ice1712, not ice1724 cards (and I thought they were both called envy24 by IC Ensemble).

Anyway, I have to admit that esd gives me the same error message on my ice1712 card, using a dmix setup made it work. Could you post your ~/.asoundrc?

[toofastforyahuh]

Don't hold your breath waiting for envy24control on ice1724.
In fact, I hate to sound so pessimistic, but don't hold your breath on much of anything alsa. Check out this link and search for ice1724
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa- ... g_page.php
envy24control was requested 7 months ago and still has not been assigned to anyone.
My bug, the left channel muted on boot, has not been assigned after over 6 months.
(Now, now, I know sound card support is a huge field and there's tons of work involved. I don't mean to sound unfair. I'm just calling it like it is.)

------------
That said, I concur with your observations.
I have the M-Audio Revolution 7.1 (ice1724), and have never gotten esd working.

1. I get the same esd errors when using esdplay.

2. xine used to be muted with esd driver, but it appears to work now (was this a xine bug?)

3. xine's volume control doesn't change the volume

4. the front left channel is always muted on boot. The solution is to call alsamixer and actually change the volume level there. I tried to hack this into boot time at the end of init by calling alsactl but it doesn't work. I have to set it manually every time. It doesn't matter what level you set it to. Restoring the sound levels during boot does not enable the left channel.

5. very recently xmms can't play 22 KHz files correcty even though I haven't touched the rate locking controls in alsamixer. (is this a xmms bug?)