[alsa-devel] usb-audio: Reloop Play support (TI TUSB3200AC)

[Daniel Mack]

[Please do not drop the mailing list address]

On 19.10.2012 15:45, Didier 'Ptitjes' Villevalois wrote:
> On ven., 2012-10-19 at 15:20 +0200, Daniel Mack wrote:
>> On 19.10.2012 15:09, Didier 'Ptitjes' Villevalois wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I've bought a Reloop Play usb soundcard and I'd like to make it work
>>> with ALSA.
>>>
>>> It is a 4-channels USB soundcard. It is currently correctly recognized
>>> by ALSA as a 4-channels soundcard and I can correctly open the channels
>>> and feed them with audio. However, no audio is output by the box.
>>
>> You're most probably affected by a regression in the driver that was
>> fixes in 3.6.0 and 3.5.5 (and all later kernels). Could you please try
>> one of these and tell us if that works?
> 
> Sure, I'll do that now (I'm currently using 3.5.4 + mbp8,3 patches).
> I guess 3.5.7 is OK ? I'm building it now and will reboot on that.

Any kernel >= 3.6.0 and 3.5.5 should be ok.

>>> It seems to contain a Texas Instrument TUSB3200AC chipset (same chipset
>>> as the Maya44 USB and Hercules DJ console). I guess the problem is a
>>> firmware problem but I don't know what to do about it.
>>>
>>> I've got a MacOS X driver that works correctly, if that of any help. (I
>>> suppose the Windows driver works too but I don't have any Windows at
>>> hand.)
>>
>> Did you install any vendor driver on OS X or does it just work with the
>> one that ships with the OS?
> 
> Yep, I had to install the Vendor-provided driver.

What was the effect without that special driver? Could you see the
device listed in the AudioMIDISetup? Could you stream audio? IOW, is the
effect you see there comparable to how your Linux box behaves? You could
try and remove that driver again and see what happens.

> But it seems the
> built-in USB soundcard support on MacOS is very poor.

No it's not. In fact, it's actually very good. Vendors who keep their
hardware compliant to the USB audio spec don't have to ship any driver
at all. And this is how it should be on Linux, too.

> Also the mpkg install file (inside the provided install dmg file) was
> called something like "firmware0_and_driver.mpkg". This is why I
> suspected a firmware problem. However I tried to look at the package
> content and did not find any .bin file or whatever could be a standalone
> firmware file. Maybe it is embedded in the driver install executable.

Maybe, but they could also write the firmware permanently to the device
once with that tool. That would be perfect for Linux users.


Daniel