On Wed, 09 May 2007 15:03:32 +0200 "Takashi Iwai" tiwai@suse.de wrote:
At Mon, 7 May 2007 14:10:18 -0700, John L. Utz III wrote:
Hello;
the CMI8738 allows for 4 channel output by providing a second DAC, but sadly the hardware has no volume control for said second DAC.
A review of /usr/share/alsa/cards/CMI8738-MC6.conf shows that the implementor of said file was aware of the need to fix the problem:
# 2nd DAC # FIXME: we need a volume attenuator for rear channel. CMI8738-MC6.pcm.rear.0 { @args [ CARD ] @args.CARD { type string } type hw card $CARD device 1 }
I'd really like to fix this!
Is it fixable by creating a softvol plugin?
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html#pcm_plugins
so, if i have to invoke speaker test with -Dhw:0,1 to get 4 channel out, what does that tell me about how i need to configure a softvol for this item?
Or am i missing the point and it's actually the *driver* that needs to be doctored up to provide a softvol implementation. If so, how?
For using the rear PCM defined in the above, you must use "rear" PCM as it's named, not hw:0,1, such as % aplay -Drear foo.wav
thankyou for pointing that out!
however, i wasnt planning on using -Drear, i included the snippet to provide context concerning the fact that a set of folks larger than me agree that the problem needs fixin! :-)
i need to have four channel output, thus my use of hw:0,1.
So, fixing rear volume via softvol or something else has to work in the context of four channel output.
if there is a way to get 4 channel output (as defined as successful use of 'speaker-test -t sin -c 4 -Dhw:0,1) *besides* using hw:0.1, i would be interested to learn of it.
The softvol implementation is easy. See CMI8738-MC8.conf as a reference. Note that you should use a different mixer name instead of "PCM Playback Volume". If an existing control name is specified, softvol will be skipped automatically. Use "Rear Playback Volume" instead, for example.
I will absolutely use Rear Playback Volume! :-)
Takashi
tnx for your help!
johnu
(ps: it's so nice to be able to use a proper email client again! i am really grateful that our windows centric admins where willing to make a special exception and turn on IMAP for me!)