New Audio Hardware Supported By The Linux 4.13 Kernel

[phoronix]

Phoronix: New Audio Hardware Supported By The Linux 4.13 Kernel

Takashi Iwai's sound updates is the latest pull request worth mentioning on Phoronix as part of the two-week merge window for Linux 4.13...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Sound-Changes-Linux-4.13

[tildearrow]

Typo, I think:

Ensonic ES8316 codec

(the brand is called Ensoniq... don't copy things too literally :P)

[RussianNeuroMancer]

ES8316 is actually by Everest Semiconductor: http://www.everest-semi.com/pdf/ES8316%20PB.pdf

Unfortunately, many modern audio codecs is useless without UCM configuration. And I can't find manual that describe UCM in more details anywhere. As result, you could have:
Audio to headphones, but not to speaker: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=189261#c80 (or no audio at all, like in my case with ES8316, but that could be because of ssp0/ssp2 difference between current implementation and my hardware).
Semi-working (buggy) audio: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195195#c1

Anyone have any idea what regular user could do in such situation?

[starshipeleven]

Anyone have any idea what regular user could do in such situation?

Getting a USB audio device that is supported and works well?
Most random chinese usb audio "soundcards" work fine with Linux. Also Asus's USB soundcards, see ALSA's site for a list of well-supported usb cards.

And note that this is the answer I give also to people with audio issues on Windows too.

[caligula]

Getting a USB audio device that is supported and works well?
Most random chinese usb audio "soundcards" work fine with Linux. Also Asus's USB soundcards, see ALSA's site for a list of well-supported usb cards.

And note that this is the answer I give also to people with audio issues on Windows too.

What if they want ASIO support and low latency, what would be the best choice? I've tried few USB sound cards and they're usually pretty weak. Mostly ok for playing mp3s.

[starshipeleven]

What if they want ASIO support and low latency, what would be the best choice?

I don't know what that is, ask in a audiophile forum and see what they tell you.

Google for example turns up https://www.head-fi.org/f/threads/us...upport.410821/ where they say E-MU 0404USB and this card seems to work fine on Linux https://www.ap-linux.com/forums/topi...n-emu0404-usb/

but I don't know on what scale and how good it is or whatever.

Really, there are quite fucking powerful USB sound cards around, and audiophile-on-linux forums too.

For low latency you probably want Jack instead of Pulse audio, and a low-latency or RT kernel (needed by Jack to work at low latency)

[NomadDemon]

Sorry to say but.. Jack is not working as good as asio. cannot compare them. iam musician also and i feel the difference

jack is useless for me

if want low latency i got drops and 100 ms is unacceptable for realtime processing guitar/midi drums

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Getting a USB audio device that is supported and works well?

Not an option for tablets where is most of this audio codecs can be found.
Not an option if you want to get audio to integrated speaker.

Like, can you image usage of 8 inch Dell 5855 with external audio card? And external speaker too?

[starshipeleven]

Not an option for tablets where is most of this audio codecs can be found.
Not an option if you want to get audio to integrated speaker.

Like, can you image usage of 8 inch Dell 5855 with external audio card? And external speaker too?

How about bluetooth audio? You can get bluetooth receivers that have headphone jacks too (also bluetooth headsets too).

Really I'm not saying that mine is "the answer" to the issue, I'm just offering plausible workarounds.

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Really I'm not saying that mine is "the answer" to the issue, I'm just offering plausible workarounds.

I know about this workarounds and this is what I have to use in case of Irbis NB41 (laptop with ES8316) however for <10 inch tablet like Dell 5855 this is still not an option.

Actually I talking not about particular cases (that was just examples that let people who hasn't touched this devices yet get idea about audio in Linux) but about overall situation with this audio codecs.