Crash loading alsa.tcz on model B+

[Wazner]

Hello,

I would like to report a problem with the alsa.tcz extension when loaded on the Raspberry PI Model B+.
After loading the extension the system disconnects any USB devices and closes the ethernet port.

To reproduce:
1. Copy a fresh image of piCore-5.3.1 to your micro SD card.
2. Insert the SD card into your pi.
3. Insert an ethernet cable.
4. Boot up your pi.
5. Install alsa.tcz and it's dependencies by using the `tce` application.

Expected result:
Alsa.tcz is installed and can be used by other extensions (for example: SDL.tcz)

Actual result:
Alsa causes all USB devices to disconnect and the Ethernet connection to close.

The kmsg output:

Code: (output) [Select]

<4> [  200.598930] pcm512x 1-004c: Failed to reset device: -5
<4> [  200.599069] pcm512x: probe of 1-004c failed with error -5
<4> [  200.605510] bcm2708-i2s bcm2708-i2s.0: Failed to create debugfs directory
<4> [  200.605836] ERROR: :dwc_otg_hcd_urb_enqueue:505: Not connected
<4> [  200.605836]
<6> [  200.797124] usb 1-1: USB disconnect, device number 2
<6> [  200.797162] usb 1-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 3
<6> [  200.797362] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: unregister 'smsc95xx' usb-bcm2708_usb-1.1, smsc95xx USB 2.0
<6> [  200.797436] smsc95xx 1-1.1:1.0 eth0: hardware isn't capable of remote wakeup
<6> [  200.827587] usb 1-1.4: USB disconnect, device number 4

Could this be because they changed the audio output ports on the B+ model?
Some help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Greetings,
  Wazner

[bmarkus]

What happenes when you boot system with already installed ALSA?

[Wazner]

Thank you for your reply.

I'm not completely sure what you mean with: boot system with already installed ALSA.
After installing it with 'tce' none of my devices work (keyboard, mouse) anymore, so I can't gracefully shut it down or make a backup.
Closest I could get to what you asked for was to only download the tcz files, and then mark them as OnBoot.

When I boot with alsa already installed, the boot process continues without hassle.
But it still disconnects all USB ports and closes the ethernet connection.
Which basically makes the PC unusable.

Greetings,
  Wazner

EDIT
I've found out the ethernet port and all USB ports (and possibly the sound?) are connected through a single USB port.
Installing the alsa.tcz extension disconnects this port.

Correct me if i'm wrong.

[bmarkus]

Hi Wazner

thanks for testing, you did what I mean. Sounds a firmware issue. I don't have B+ yet, can't try. Please download the latest firmware pack from

http://www.tinycorelinux.net/5.x/armv6/releases/fwupdate/rpifw140806.tar.xz

and overwrite existing files on /mnt/mmcblk0p1 with new files. Let me know the result.

Bela

[Wazner]

I unzipped the specified file, and copied the contents over to the SD card.
The pi booted as usual and I followed the steps I specified in my first post.
But without luck, it disconnects the USB connection again.
The LED lights on the Ethernet port also turn off (and stop blinking).

I'm going to try and install ALSA on a diffrent distro and see what happends (to rule out hardware failure).
I'll edit this post once I got results. (EDIT: Posted as a new post so anyone following this thread gets notified)

Thank you.

Greetings,
  Wazner

[Rich]

Hi Wazner

I'll edit this post once I got results.

If you do that, anyone following this thread won't be alerted because it doesn't show up under unread posts. Just add a new post
with your results.

[Wazner]

Thanks for the heads-up Rich.

My results
I've got sound working through ALSA on the raspbian wheezy distro.
I had to remove the pulseaudio package to get it working though. (But no crashes even with the pulseaudio installed).
This means we can rule out hardware failure.

Thoughts:
I see that the alsa-plugins.tcz extensions depends on pulseaudio, maybe this is causing the same bug as on the raspbian distro.

Greetings,
  Wazner

[bmarkus]

For testing edit /mnt/mmcbl0p2/tce/optional/alsa-plugins.tcz.dep and delete line with pulseaudio.tcz Additionally you can delete pulseaudio.tcz* files also. Reboot and try it.

[Wazner]

I've tried your suggestion, it still didn't work.
This brought me on an idea: I'll install all dependencies one-by-one and see at what extension it crashes (if at any).

Results
Yes, I was able to narrow it down to the 'alsa-modules-3.14.4-piCore+.tcz' extension.

I assume ALSA can't run without this extension?

Greetings,
  Wazner

[bmarkus]

Yes you need modules. The good question which module is causing the crash. Based on lsmod from old B modules can be blacklisted one by one.

[Wazner]

I loaded the modules one-by-one and it disconnected all USB devices right after I loaded the following module:

Code: (Path) [Select]

kernel/sound/soc/bcm/snd-soc-bcm2708-i2s.ko.gz
Error from the kernel module:

Code: (Error) [Select]

bcm2708-i2s.0: Failed to create debugfs directory.

I'm going to try and blacklist this module and install ALSA and see how it goes.

Thank you Béla

Greetings,
  Wazner

EDIT:
I blacklisted the module by adding the following lines to /etc/modprobe.conf:

Code: [Select]

blacklist snd-soc-bcm2708-i2s
install snd-soc-bcm2708-i2s /bin/true
Not sure if the 2nd line is required; but I added it just in case.

Now ALSA is installing correctly, without causing any weird scenarios.
But ALSA is unable to detect any sound cards now.
So I'm guessing the module I blacklisted is required, bummer.

I found out that my pi requires the bcm_2835 module, which isn't loaded by default.
After loading the module using modprobe, it found my pi's sound card.
It's making sound, hooray!

Thank you for your help!