No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

[Barf]

OK. My main use of computer is signals analysis, so as you can imaging i need input channels from the radios. In windows i used two PCI soundcards with great success

Ive now moved these two soundcards into this machine under Kubuntu/KDE. They are soundblaster compatible PCI cards. Both are listed in the PCI devices, and both show as capture and playback devices in Kmix, as 5880B PCI cards. I also at present have the mobos internal onboard sound active.

I can only get playback via the internal card. I cannot get anything on line input from any of them. I have no method of visualising the input signal on the machine, but cannot hear from the speakers the signal i am feeding into the cards

Ive been looking all over the web for ideas on this, and the only thing i found - using
sudo asoundconf list
to list the cards gave the error that asoundconf is not found as a command!

Kmix shows nothing under playback or capture streams.

Can anyone give advice how, at first, i can check the cards, and route the line input signal to the speakers? That at least will show that the signal is getting through into the machine

Im willing to disable internal audio (had to do that on the old machine under windoes)

[dibl]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

Yep -- fiddling with non-standard audio setups on a Linux platform can make you old before your time -- just look at my avatar!

Yes, you might as well disable the onboard sound chip -- it will remove that bit of complexity from an already-complex challenge.

I assume you have checked your sound cards here and found that they have a Linux driver: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page

So, make sure the driver module is loaded (check "lsmod" output). If it is, then the problem should resolve down to settings in the user interfaces.

You really have 3 different user interfaces: Kmix, phonon, and alsa. In Kmix, open the channel settings dialogue (a pair of window panes, one has "all" devices, and one has "the ones you see in the mixer") and drag your line-in icons across the dividing bar so they show up in the mixer.

For phonon/pulseaudio (which you may or may not ultimately decide to remove), you need to install the "pavucontrol" and the "padevchooser" packages. Use padevchooser to make sure you have selected the line-in devices, and use pavucontrol to configure volume, stereo/mono, etc.

For ALSA, you should install the alsamixergui package. It is an older mixer GUI, but lets you visualize the same settings that you have in Kmix.

That's pretty general advice, but playing around with them is the best teacher that you'll have. I used audacity for my recording old vinyl project, but I would suppose you have a signal analysis package so you might not need audacity.

[Barf]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

Thanks for the reply,

hmm, is it supported - er, not sure! i'd been making the assumption that since the machine and KMix could see it, and since i can get audio out of them (ive disabled the onboard sound and the monitor speakers are off one of the two PCI cards now) that meant it was supported and had a driver installed.

Looks like i'll have to open the machine up again. These are generic cards, not sure if what the machine reports them as is what they really are! (Ensoniq 5880B). I'll check that out

In KMix, all i get are the two cards 'as a whole', i dont get seperate controls for line in, mic etc etc?

The results of lsmod are below - (dont make much sense to me im afraid!)

Module Size Used by
dm_crypt 11385 0
binfmt_misc 6599 1
snd_ens1371 18782 4
gameport 9327 1 snd_ens1371
snd_ac97_codec 99227 1 snd_ens1371
ac97_bus 1014 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_midi 4588 0
snd_pcm 71475 2 snd_ens1371,snd_ac97_codec
snd_rawmidi 17783 2 snd_ens1371,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 6047 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 47174 2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer 19067 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
ppdev 5556 0
snd_seq_device 5744 3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
parport_pc 26058 1
snd 49038 15 snd_ens1371,snd_ac97_codec,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm,snd _seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
psmouse 59033 0
soundcore 880 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7120 1 snd_pcm
led_class 2633 0
serio_raw 4022 0
lp 7342 0
parport 31492 3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
dm_raid45 81721 0
xor 15136 1 dm_raid45
i915 295435 4
drm_kms_helper 30200 1 i915
drm 168060 4 i915,drm_kms_helper
e1000e 132956 0
intel_agp 26566 2 i915
i2c_algo_bit 5168 1 i915
video 18712 1 i915
floppy 54311 0
agpgart 32011 2 drm,intel_agp
output 1883 1 video

[dibl]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

Sorry, I had not understood that you tested them with audio and they played it correctly. If that is the case, then you can skip worry about a driver. When you run "lsmod", most of the audio driver modules are in a 3-part form that looks like "snd-usb-intel", so you should be able to figure out which one is for your chip.

I have not had the joy of using two sound cards simultaneously, so I can't advise on that. On Kmix, I would suppose that it would want two different line-in channels active, if you are intending to bring in two separate signals.

EDIT: Yes, it's obviously the snd_ens1371 module. So, you might want to try a few googles to see if there is anything special needed to use "line-in" with that driver. Some modules have "options" that you can activate.

[Barf]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

no worries, im in the process of working on them now, it was only after the first post that i disabled the onboard sound and moved the speaker jack to one of the two PCI cards.

Ive installed the alsa mixer you suggested. Its not showing me many controls, but in its Proc Info its showing two PCI cards, as Ensoniq ENS1371 chipset, one on IRQ 21 and the other IRQ 22. It all looks alright to me.

Im of the opinion the cards both work fine, its just the system setup. But im so new to this OS im having real trouble working it all out!

If i could just discover how to select line-in and feed it to the speakers, i'd have a jumping off point to work the rest out!

I could do with a way of changing the names of the cards as well, as they are both called 5880B PCI, which is a bit confusing as to which is which! (no way to tell between them in lists!)

[Barf]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

theres an oscilloscope program for soundcard input ive downloaded, if i can get that to work it will at least let me see the signal coming in

Update - this doesnt work either (Xoscope), it reports 'opening /dev/dsp no such file or directory

now, this is similar to what other programs have reported that should use soundcard input (gMFSK is another program ive tried that reports the same)

this means little to me, but i remember reading that Linux treats everything as a file, i wonder if for some reason the line input hasnt been created in some way?

[dibl]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

audacity will let you see and recording available signals on the line-in channel(s), once you twiddle it into compliance. It's fairly complex, but is a current maintained package and fully capable. It can also drive a little crazy.

With dual cards, it also occurs to me you might want to look into jack. I never needed to master it, for my project, but your setup may require it.

[Barf]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

audacity will let you see and recording available signals on the line-in channel(s), once you twiddle it into compliance. It's fairly complex, but is a current maintained package and fully capable. It can also drive a little crazy.

With dual cards, it also occurs to me you might want to look into jack. I never needed to master it, for my project, but your setup may require it.

That might be worth a go. I'll install that later and see what it reports.

Jack? not familiar im afraid. Can you clarify please?

Another thought that occured to me is, everything audio wise was already installed/loaded before i physically installed the cards. Perhaps a clean install of the sound software might pick up the missing controls/inputs?

I do feel a bit like im out of my depth here, the worry is that at any moment i'll have to start doing command line work!!!

For info - The two cards are used thus - Card A (my labelling) is a feed from my HF radio equipment, used for decoding and analysing fax, teletype, MFSK and PSK signals. Card B is a feed from my VHF/UHF and VLF equipment, used for weather satellites, ACARS, DTMF, DSC etc signals. (to the layman, basically one card goes to a shortwave set, the other to a scanner!!!)

[dibl]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

These should get you started with jack:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ho...KConfiguration

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=806730


The Ubuntu multimedia forum is a better place to search for audio help, and also to post questions, due to the higher population:

http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=334

[rfakhrai]

Re: No line in audio on any soundcard, output only on one

In KMix, all i get are the two cards 'as a whole', i dont get seperate controls for line in, mic etc etc?

Under settings, you can configure the channels and select which ones are shown in KMix. If it's not recognized, it will be greyed out.

I'm sure this isn't a total solution to your problem because I think you need to configure JACK for this setup. But it is a helpful thing to know when you're using KMix.