vbplayer no sound through USB

[Christian Look]

Hi Ron, hi experts,
after fiddling with the wordlengthsettings in vplayer mpd0.conf I am not getting any sound through usb anymore, no matter which hw:0,0 setting (to 0,1 1,0 1,1) I choose. I have reinstalled VB 2.0 with no problem. But still no sound on usb. During the installation process and also through the reboots I do get electric popping sounds out of the speakers, so there is a working connection between the usb port (the one directly under the LAN socket on the VBA) and the USB port of the DAC.
Can anyone help?

[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# cat /etc/vortexbox-player/mpd0.conf
# Created by Configure VortexBox Player on March 11, 2012, 3:54 pm
# If you edit this file it will be over written the next time you make
# changes in the Configure VortexBox Player GUI.
#
music_directory "/storage/music/flac"
playlist_directory "/var/lib/mpd/playlists"
db_file "/var/lib/mpd/database"
log_file "/var/log/mpd.log"
pid_file "/var/lib/mpd/pid"
state_file "/var/lib/mpd/state"
sticker_file "/var/lib/mpd/sticker.sql"
auto_update "yes"
port "6600"
zeroconf_enabled "yes"
zeroconf_name "VortexBox Player"

audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "VortexBox Player-1"
device "hw:0,0"
}



null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=Audio
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Audio
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
DigiHug USB Audio, USB Audio
IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
default:CARD=Intel
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Intel
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
HDA Intel, ALC888 Analog
7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]#

[Macross]

change the Vortexbox Player from hw:0,0 to front:CARD=Audio,DEV=0 to use the analog output from your usb dac. Or you can use iec958:CARD=Audio,DEV=0 for the digital output. I would suggest turning off the onboard soundcard on your motherboard if you are not going to use it. This solves most the issues with the external usb dac's

[Christian Look]

Hi Macross
Thank you for the reply, could you give me a step by step guide on how to set the digital output. Also how do I turn off the others?
Thanks and kind regards
Christian

[Macross]

Setting the output is easy. Go to the Vortexbox Player configuration page http://vortexbox/vortexbox-player.php and change the settings from hw:0,0 to iec958:CARD=Audio,DEV=0 Also make sure you have checked the alsamixer settings using putty or Cryptoterm to be sure that your digital output on your usb dac is not muted.
Save the settings after you exit with a alsactl -store 0 or alsactl -store 1 depending on which hardware id your dac is assigned by alsa. It sounds like you are not that familiar with bios settings, so I will not have you go there. You should have this problem fixed, if you follow the directions above.

[Christian Look]

Hi Macross,
sorry it has not worked; I changed the player configuration, but I don´t understand how to "check" the alsamixer settings in putty (which I have and know how to operate), I just don´t know the exact commands to do that. So far I have no sound. Can you please write your instructions word by word for putty, please.

thanks and kind regards
Christian

[hitechnology]

Go to the command line using PUTTY or similar and enter

alsamixer

This will bring you to a GUI that has the volumes for all the channels. Make sure you select the sound card and save the config after exiting using

alsactl store

[Christian Look]

Hi
thanks for your advice, however it is not working: I am getting this in putty, and no GUI


login as: root
root@vortexbox's password:
Last login: Mon Mar 12 15:48:38 2012 from 192.168.2.104
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# "alsamixer"
cannot load mixer controls: Invalid argument
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# alsamixer
cannot load mixer controls: Invalid argument
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]#

what to do?
Christian

[Macross]

You may need to reinstall alsa. Use this command to accomplish this. yum -y reinstall alsa*

[Christian Look]

I have tried that already many times with differing commands, it does not work :-( I have also reinstalled VB2.0 about 3x, but it all does not bring the ALSA mixer to life.

login as: root
root@vortexbox's password:
Last login: Mon Mar 12 17:24:36 2012 from 192.168.2.104
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# alsamixer
cannot load mixer controls: Invalid argument
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# "alsamixer"
cannot load mixer controls: Invalid argument
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# yum -y reinstall alsa*
Loaded plugins: langpacks, presto, refresh-packagekit
Setting up Reinstall Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package alsa-lib.i686 0:1.0.25-1.fc16 will be reinstalled
---> Package alsa-utils.i686 0:1.0.25-7.fc16 will be reinstalled
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

================================================== ==============================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
================================================== ==============================
Reinstalling:
alsa-lib i686 1.0.25-1.fc16 updates 385 k
alsa-utils i686 1.0.25-7.fc16 updates 1.0 M

Transaction Summary
================================================== ==============================
Reinstall 2 Packages

Total download size: 1.4 M
Installed size: 3.0 M
Downloading Packages:
(1/2): alsa-lib-1.0.25-1.fc16.i686.rpm | 385 kB 00:01
(2/2): alsa-utils-1.0.25-7.fc16.i686.rpm | 1.0 MB 00:04
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 212 kB/s | 1.4 MB 00:06
Running Transaction Check
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
Installing : alsa-lib-1.0.25-1.fc16.i686 1/2
Installing : alsa-utils-1.0.25-7.fc16.i686 2/2

Installed:
alsa-lib.i686 0:1.0.25-1.fc16 alsa-utils.i686 0:1.0.25-7.fc16

Complete!
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# alsamixer
cannot load mixer controls: Invalid argument
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]# "alsamixer"
cannot load mixer controls: Invalid argument
[vortexbox.localdomain ~]#

[Macross]

What does the output of aplay -L show? From what I can see, your vortexbox does not have any audio outputs.