[arch-general] Multiple sound cards

[Stephen Wilkinson]

Hello All,

I use two sound cards in my computer:
* the on-board card (VIA 8237 chipset)
* a SBLive! PCI card

Until Kernel 2.6.23-ARCH I was able to use either card, in KMix and
Skype for instance. But from Kernel 2.6.24-ARCH, only one card appears
in KMix and Skype.

Back when the two cards worked, I loaded the modules in rc.conf with:
MODULES=(snd_emu10k1 snd_via82xx)
to ensure that SBLive! (which uses snd_emu10k1) would be the default
card, while the on-board card could be used for Skype. Now, even when
snd_via82xx is first, only the SBLive! card is detected.

I checked what cards were being detected with lspci:
* with Kernel 2.6.23-ARCH I get:
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08)
00:06.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 08)
and
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)

* but with Kernel 2.6.24-ARCH I get:
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08)
00:06.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 08)

(The full output of lspci is at the bottom of the e-mail)

I checked that snd_via82xx module is loaded with lsmod. But in Kernel
2.6.24-ARCH there is only one dsp in /dev.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this may have stopped
working in moving from 2.6.23 to 2.6.24? Is it no longer possible to
run two sound cards together?

I have put the full output of:
lspci
ls /dev/dsp*
ls /proc/asound
at the bottom of this e-mail for information.

Thanks,
Steve

To try and understand what's changed, I compared the output of lspci,
ls /dev/dsp* and ls /proc/asound when running each kernel. The results
are below:

* I rolled back to 2.6.23-ARCH, rebooted and checked the following:
- ls /dev/dsp* outputs: dsp and dsp1 (symlinks to /dev/sound/dsp and dsp1)
- ls /proc/asound outputs: VIA 8237 (symlinked to card1) and Live
(symlinked to card0)
- lspci outputs:
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8385 [K8T800 AGP] Host
Bridge (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge
[K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08)
00:06.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 08)
00:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host
Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge
[KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8
[Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8
[Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8
[Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8
[Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25 [GeForce4
Ti 4200] (rev a3)

* I upgraded back to the latest kernel 2.6.24-ARCH, and checked the same:
- ls /dev/dsp*: /dev/dsp
- ls /proc/asound: Live (card0)
- lspci outputs:
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8385 [K8T800 AGP] Host
Bridge (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge
[K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 08)
00:06.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! Game Port (rev 08)
00:0e.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host
Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge
[KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8
[Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8
[Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8
[Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8
[Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25 [GeForce4
Ti 4200] (rev a3)

The difference in the lspci outputs is:
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)

I checked /boot/kconfig26 and the via82cXX module is compiled in (m)
for both kernels.

I don't think it's relevant, but I use the same mkinitcpio.conf for
creating the kernel images in both cases.