This whole entire issue simply turned out to be a permissions issue. Even a permissions issue while attempting to run pulseaudio as root. It turns out that I need to chmod 666 /dev/snd/* for this to work. chmod 660 /dev/snd/* causes pulseaudio to not be able to open the alsa device. I don't quite understand why, but this issue is now resolved for me. Jim "Jim Duda" <jim at duda.tzo.com> wrote in message news:47EC5B46.9060103 at duda.tzo.com... > Lennart, > > aplay -c 6 -f S16_LE -r 44100 -v -D a52encode < /dev/urandom > > works great, I get noise out of all 6 speakers via spdif and my AC3/DTS > audio decoder. Also, in this case, I didn't have to throw any switches > in alsamixer to get the sound out. > > It would be wonderful if I could get pulseaudio attached to a52encode. > This way, I wouldn't need ac3 passthrough, I would just convert ac3 to 6 > channel through pulse and route back through a52 to my external decoder. > > However, device=a52encode in default.pa results in: > > lroom# pulseaudio --system -v > I: core-util.c: Successfully gained nice level -11. > I: main.c: Found user 'pulse' (UID 499) and group 'pulse' (GID 499). > I: main.c: Successfully dropped root privileges. > W: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not permitted > W: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not permitted > I: main.c: Page size is 4096 bytes > I: main.c: Dude, your kernel stinks! The chef's recommendation today is > Linux with high-resolution timers enabled! > ALSA lib conf.c:3949:(snd_config_expand) Unknown parameters {AES0 0x6 > AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2 } > ALSA lib pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM iec958:{AES0 0x6 > AES1 0x82 AES2 0x0 AES3 0x2 } > E: alsa-util.c: Error opening PCM device a52encode: Invalid argument > E: module.c: Failed to load module "module-alsa-sink" (argument: > "device=a52encode"): initialization failed. > E: main.c: Module load failed. > E: main.c: failed to initialize daemon. > I: main.c: Daemon terminated. > > I upgraded to 0.9.8 via an upgrade to fedora 8. WHich uses alsa-lib 1.0.15 > > alsa-lib.i386 1.0.15-1.fc8 > installed > alsa-lib-devel.i386 1.0.15-1.fc8 > installed > alsa-oss.i386 1.0.14-3.fc8 > installed > alsa-oss-devel.i386 1.0.14-3.fc8 > installed > alsa-oss-libs.i386 1.0.14-3.fc8 > installed > alsa-plugins-jack.i386 1.0.15-2.fc8 > installed > alsa-plugins-oss.i386 1.0.15-2.fc8 > installed > alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i386 1.0.15-2.fc8 > installed > alsa-plugins-samplerate.i386 1.0.15-2.fc8 > installed > alsa-plugins-upmix.i386 1.0.15-2.fc8 > installed > alsa-plugins-vdownmix.i386 1.0.15-2.fc8 > installed > alsa-tools.i386 1.0.12-4.fc7 > installed > alsa-utils.i386 1.0.15-1.fc8 > installed > a > > > Jim > > Lennart Poettering wrote: >> On Thu, 27.03.08 13:27, Jim Duda (jim at duda.tzo.com) wrote: >> >>> Yes, I do understand that I can only get PCM stereo through the spdif using pulseaudio at this time (no AC3/DTS). >>> >>> My understanding (from reading all the posts) is that it's really a flaw with ALSA, which pulseaudio doesn't have a >>> means to resolve (poor API with alsa spdif support). >>> >>> I really would love pulseaudio with AC3/DTS passthrough, but I understand we don't have it yet. >>> >>> I'm really just playing with stereo support through spdif at this time. >>> >>> What might be a useful interim solution is to use the alsa a52 encoder. >>> >>> >>> The alsa a52 encoder will take a 6 channel "analog" audio source and encode it to a52 digital and then route out the >>> spdif port. It has worked very well for me to upmix 2 channel stereo to 6 channel a52. >>> >>> In .asoundrc, I have: >>> >>> pcm.a52encode { >>> type a52 >>> } >> >> My recommendation: first try to get alsa to work, than make PA work on >> top of it. Try testing your a52 device with aplay first: >> >> aplay -c 6 -f S16_LE -r 44100 -v -D a52encode < /dev/urandom >> >> If this doesn't work, then please contact the ALSA guys. >> >> Lennart >>
