picore 5.3.1 and alsa

[Mucke]

Hello,

I need some help to get ALSA started.
With picore 5.3.1 I have found the statement

Please note, alsa-modules-3.14.4-piCore+.tcz has no startup script to avoid conflicts with DACS, necessary modules must be loaded by user, including on-chip sound device.

As I do not need pulseaudio, jack and other stuff I have not installed alsa.tcz but just alsa-modules -3.14.4-piCore+.tcz and alsa-utils.tcz.

amixer does not run, it misses /usr/local/share/alsa/alsa.conf
alsaconf reports : not found. But alsaconf is listed as command.
alsactl init reports: no soundcard found

So obviously just installing the tcz is not sufficient.
Is there a guide on how to get e.g. the PI onboard sound device or a Wolfson audio card running?

Thanks for any assistance.

[bmarkus]

Activate onboard sound device with

Code: [Select]

sudo modprobe snd-bcm2835
in a terminal window. For Wolfson wait a bit for piCore 6.0 with 3.16.3 kernel with Wolfson support.

[Mucke]

A next step:

With installed extensions alsa-modules -3.14.4-piCore+.tcz and alsa-utils.tcz the command lsmod did not show up the onboard sound device.
So according to http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,16907.msg101304.html#msg101304 I have run

# sudo modprobe snd-bcm2835.ko.gz
# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
snd_bcm2835            18203  0
snd_soc_pcm512x         8972  0
...

Now lsmod properly displays snd_bcm2835.
Also I get

# cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [ALSA           ]: bcm2835 - bcm2835 ALSA
                      bcm2835 ALSA

So this looks ok.

But I still get

# amixer
ALSA lib conf.c:3718:(snd_config_update_r) Cannot access file /usr/local/share/alsa/alsa.conf
ALSA lib control.c:953:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL default
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory

So there is still something wrong. Any idea?

[bmarkus]

Is libasound.tcz installed?

[Mucke]

Is libasound.tcz installed?

yes, it is installed together with alsa-utils.tcz

[Mucke]

ALSA is working now. 

There are two points to be considered:
1. it is necessary to load a soundcard driver by [sudo] modprobe snd-xxx
2. it is necessary to load alsa.tcz by tce

1. without modprobe there is no soundcard active. With loaded soundcard driver cat /proc/asound/cards reports it correctly. It makes sense to add modprobe snd-xxx to /opt/bootlocal.sh of course. Next step is 2.
2. I have tried to run without alsa.tcz because I do not need pulseaudio. But right now alsa.tcz is mandatory. So I have installed it. Then I have deleted the line alsa-plugins.tcz in alsa.tcz.dep and deleted all unnecessary or undesired depending tcz files in /mnt/mmcblk0p2/tce/optional/ which are installed by alsa-plugins.
This keeps the system small.

[bmarkus]

Thanks for the feedback.

1) Will add how to activate onboard sound mor detailed in .info file

2) You are right, current alsa.tcz is a bit heavy, it will be different in piCore 6.x What is imprtant is the /usr/local/tce.installed/alsa startup script which creates the working environment for alsa. You may study it

[jgrulich]

To make ALSA working it's needed the following installation:

tce-load -wi alsa-modules-3.14.4-piCore+ alsa-utils libasound-bin
echo "/sbin/modprobe snd_bcm2835" >> /opt/bootlocal.sh
sudo filetool.sh -b
sudo reboot