USB audio non-functional.

[leyvi]

I've got a USB audio adapter built-in to my motherboard, but it isn't working for some reason. The headphones work fine, and I confirmed thoroughly with the manuals that I was using the hardware correctly, meaning I must have messed something up in software. Where do I start looking for the problem? (Please excuse my lack of experience with multimedia.)

[garrison]

if you configured your own kernel, start with trying distribution kernel - usually USB audio works out of the box and most frequent issue is missing kernel modules in custom configurations

[Banana]

I've got a USB audio adapter built-in to my motherboard,

Maybe I'm out of date, but what is this exactly?

[leyvi]

if you configured your own kernel, start with trying distribution kernel - usually USB audio works out of the box and most frequent issue is missing kernel modules in custom configurations

That is the obvious solution

But I don't want to do that, I have a very custom configuration that I don't want to throw out. I'd rather modify it. So how do I figure out what device is not working, which firmware and drivers it needs (and presumably doesn't have), etc? I know how to do this with other kinds of devices, but when it comes to audio, I mostly don't know what I'm doing yet.

[Hu]

I believe garrison's point was that you should start with the approach that is likely to see it work end-to-end, to prove that it does work properly under Linux. Once you know Linux can drive the device, then you can inspect the working kernel to figure out why it works, and check that against the custom kernel that fails.

[leyvi]

I have virtualization with USB-passthrough, so I'll fire up a different distribution in a VM and see if it works.

[Ralphred]

Maybe I'm out of date, but what is this exactly?

I thought the same thing when I first came across it, then realised "all the things I didn't have to do*" to make the audio on my new MB bend to my will.
*like hdajackretask scripts in local.d, splitting the "combined 10 channels" up into discrete virtual devices etc.

The headphones work fine

Through the MB audio system or you have USB headphones?

[leyvi]

The headphones work fine

Through the MB audio system or you have USB headphones?

My headphones are connected to the case's front 3.5 mm port, which has a connection to the motherboard's front audio header, which runs out of the audio controller (in this case ROG SupremeFX 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio CODEC ALC4080 [Realtek ALC4080]).

[Ralphred]

ROG SupremeFX 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio CODEC ALC4080 [Realtek ALC4080]

That's the same as mine. If your headphone jack is working then the card is "working".
I have two gfx cards using card slots 0 & 1 so the motherboard audio is card 2. The card presents 7 devices, I'll map the ones I know for mine:
For the output devices:

• hw:2,0 is the 3 rear 5.1 jacks*
• hw:2,1 is the front panel HP jack
• hw:2,2 and hw:2,3 I don't use or know, but they have 2 channels each

For the inputs:

• hw:2,0 is the rear mic jack (assumed)
• hw:2,1 is the rear line in jack
• hw:2,2 is the front mic jack

I'm mindful of "not trying to teach grandma to suck eggs" here, so if you want aplay/arecord diagnostic commands etc just ask; they are what I defaulted to when trying to set this machine up for the first time.


*I have no idea where channels 7 & 8 map to physically (maybe they only exist in the SPDIF?), YMMV with a different MB though...

[Banana]

The headphones work fine

Through the MB audio system or you have USB headphones?

My headphones are connected to the case's front 3.5 mm port, which has a connection to the motherboard's front audio header, which runs out of the audio controller (in this case ROG SupremeFX 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio CODEC ALC4080 [Realtek ALC4080]).

So headphones plugged in the front IO (3,5mm port) work correct, but you want audio over USB for a connected device?

[leyvi]

Never mind, an update fixed the issue