[AG-TECH] 4Front audio driver/spdif question

[Leslie Arvin]

I just installed the 4Front oss audio driver on our portable AG audio machine.
I am able to record audio from spdif-in using gnome-sound-recorder, but I am
unable to record and play sound from the microphone input.  osstest works just
fine.  Soundcard Detection detects my Intel 82801DB AC chip and reports Module
i810_audio and plays the sound test fine.    This chip requires the additional
oss Intelpci driver.

When I try to start rat using a CD to provide constant audio input to the
microphone set as input (CD playing on control machine, output to mic in on
audio machine), rat sometimes doesn't start, and sometimes crashes.

When I try to start rat with spdif enabled (preferred source of audio),
I get "Application caused too much recording underrun errors" and
rat-debug reports "WE ARE NOT KEEPING UP IN REAL-TIME".  I tried setting
intelpci_rate_tuning=240 in options.cfg but it didn't help.  Again
sometimes after a looooong wait rat will start, but it crashes if I change
any settings.  Sometimes it dies before displaying.  rat identifies the
audio device as "OSS: AC97 Mixer (ALC650)".  I believe this is correct.

README.performance reports these messages are caused by "the application
you are trying to use does not work correctly. In some cases this happens
because the application is buggy and sometimes your system/environment just
doesn't meet the requirements of this particular application."

The audio machine is a Shuttle X SB51G with a Pentium 4 running RedHat 8.0,
Memory: 504196k/516032k available, with kernel 2.4.18-27.8.0 recompiled.
OSS has disabled all sound modules in modules.conf.

Do I need to throttle down the spdif input?  (Can I do that?)  I assume
my mixer settings are somewhere, somehow, not right for the microphone input,
but then why do the tests work?

I've been fighting with audio on this machine for a few weeks now.  Any
suggestions?

Thanks for any help!

-- Leslie Arvin
   arvin at purdue.edu
   Programmer
   Purdue University Access Grid

[root at oiell-a-096 oss]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Tainted: PF
uart401                 9248   2
intelpci               11904   2
pnp                    53056   2  [intelpci]
ac97                   18816   2  [intelpci]
soundbase             591648   2  [uart401 intelpci pnp ac97]
sndshield              14476   0  [uart401 intelpci pnp ac97 soundbase]
ipt_REJECT              3672   6  (autoclean)
iptable_filter          2412   1  (autoclean)
ip_tables              17912   2  [ipt_REJECT iptable_filter]
ohci1394               24940   0  (unused)
ieee1394               48492   0  [ohci1394]
mousedev                5524   1
keybdev                 2976   0  (unused)
hid                    16232   0  (unused)
input                   5920   0  [mousedev keybdev hid]
usb-uhci               26188   0  (unused)
ehci-hcd               23784   0  (unused)
usbcore                84256   1  [hid usb-uhci ehci-hcd]
unix                   17768 119  (autoclean)
[root at oiell-a-096 oss]# cat /dev/sndstat
OSS/Linux 3.9.7h (C) 4Front Technologies 1996-2002

License serial number: E00000008
This Open Sound System copy is licensed for limited evaluation use only.
You can order the permanent OSS license using the 'Order permanent OSS license'
function of soundconf command. Alternatively use our ordering page at
http://www.opensound.com/order.html.
License will expire after: 06/2003
Drivers: ALL


*** Activity time of this evaluation version is limited ***

Build: 2.4.18-3

Card config:
Intel ICH AC97 audio controller at 0xe400 irq 5
MPU-401 (UART) at 0x330 irq 5
OSS Virtual Mixer Pro

Audio devices:
0: Intel ICH4 (24C5) (DUPLEX)
   Open by 10897/rat-4.2.16-medi
1: Intel ICH4 (24C5) (playback only)
2: OSS Virtual Mixer v2.5 Playback CH #0 (GRC2)
3: OSS Virtual Mixer v2.5 Playback CH #1 (GRC2)
4: OSS Virtual Mixer v2.5 Playback CH #2 (GRC2)
5: OSS Virtual Mixer v2.5 Playback CH #3 (GRC2)

Synth devices:
0: OSS Virtual Synth v2.5

Midi devices:
0: MPU-401 (UART)

Timers:
0: System clock
1: SoftOSS

Mixers:
0: AC97 Mixer (ALC650)
1: Virtual Mixer