M2Tech HiFace Evo driver for BeagleBone Black (ARM) Debian Wheezy Distro

[mredel]

Following the excellent article on how to build an MPD based music Server on the BeagleBone Black board:

 

Computer Audiophile - Geek Speak: How To Build A BeagleBone Black MPD Music Server

 

I've gotten the basics down, but unfortunately it doesn't appear there is a driver specific to the BeagleBone black ARM platform with the currently available Linux Kernel version using Debian Wheezy, 3.8.13 for my DAC which uses the M2Tech HiFace Evo USB Interface.

 

The "generic" Linux driver for the HiFace Evo is available for download on the M2Tech Site:

 

snd-usb-asyncaudio Linux compliant - https://github.com/panicking/snd-usb-asyncaudio/wiki

but I need to build this driver for the BeagleBone Black ARM platform.

 

Does anyone have advice as to how to go about this?

[iago]

I need to build this driver for the BeagleBone Black ARM platform.

 

There is a very straightforward description on this site, it should also work on the BeagleBone.

 

From what I have seen on some forum entries, the kernel header installation may fail with some BeagleBone installations, so try this first. In case you need additional software apart from build-essential and git, the build script will tell you as you go along :-)

 

From what I have read on the Voyage mailing list, the Voyage distributions include the snd-usb-asyncaudio driver.

[mredel]

I was able to build the M2Tech driver by installing the Kernel headers and fixing the "Timex" issue using Steps #3 - #8 here:

 

BeagleBone Black AP - Hacking Notes - WiESEL

 

replacing the Distro name with my version of Wheezy: linux-headers-3.8.13-bone40

 

I then followed the Steps to install the snd-usb-asyncaudio driver as per here:

 

https://github.com/panicking/snd-usb-asyncaudio/wiki

 

Skipping Step #9 and using steps #10 and #11 I was able to permanently install and register the new Module and I now have sound!

 

However, I now have a separate issue.

 

It seems that whenever I switch between Tracks of different Resolution MPD fails to play and must be restarted.

 

It seems to not matter which File Type (AIFF, FLAC, etc.) I switch between, just the Resolution. For instance, listening first to a 24/96 and then to a 24/192 file causes the problem.

 

Some ALSA specific messages from my MPD Log:

 

Mar 01 04:05 : Failed to open mixer for 'M2Tech': no such mixer control: PCM

 

Audio File Library: unrecognized audio file format [error 0]

Mar 01 04:10 : audiofile: failed to input stream

 

Audio File Library: unrecognized audio file format [error 0]

Mar 01 04:16 : audiofile: failed to input stream

 

Mar 01 04:31 : player_thread: problems opening audio device while playing "John Coltrane/Blue Train/01 Blue Train.aif"

 

Mar 01 04:31 : output: Failed to open "M2Tech" [alsa]: Error opening ALSA device "hw:1,0" (snd_pcm_hw_params): Connection timed out

[iago]

Nice to hear that you managed to get the driver to work!

 

Mar 01 04:05 : Failed to open mixer for 'M2Tech': no such mixer control: PCM

 

You can stop this error by changig mpd.conf to mixer_type "none"

 

Audio File Library: unrecognized audio file format [error 0]

Mar 01 04:10 : audiofile: failed to input stream

 

This one looks more like a mpd problem. Which version of mpd are you using? And could you post a complete extract of the mpd log around one of these hang-ups? Stop mpd and run it from the command line to get more detailed output:

 

mpd --stderr --no-daemon --verbose 2>&1