Can aswitch.exe be used for always connected/attached usb speakers?

[Pete]

Hi All

Probably a question for Rick to answer but if anyone else knows...

I have Dell SB521A soundbar - https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-slim-soundbar-sb521a/apd/520-aasi/pc-accessories - on order which has a usb power and audio connector, no separate audio lead.

Will aswitch.exe recognise already attached usb speakers at boot and do it's thing to output audio via usb or will I have to faff around unplugging/replugging usb speaker lead to get it to work?


Regards

Pete

[Rich Walsh]

Will aswitch.exe recognise already attached usb speakers at boot and do it's thing to output audio via usb

It _should_ work as described, but...

If the soundbar is the only speaker you'll ever use, why not open 'Multimedia Setup' to the "USB Adapter Wave" page and make that the default audio device? If this is AOS 5.0.3(?) or later, this will work as expected. On eCS, MCP, etc, the checkbox is broken so 'aswitch.exe' is needed.

[Pete]

Hi Rich

Hmmmm.... What "USB Adapter Wave" page? - I suspect that page only appears if a USB Audio Device is installed.


Regards

Pete

[Lars]

Hi Rich

Hmmmm.... What "USB Adapter Wave" page? - I suspect that page only appears if a USB Audio Device is installed.


Regards

Pete

No, it appears if the USB Audio Driver is properly installed (including the necessary updates to MMPM2.INI). The MMOS2 subsystem has no way of knowing if a USB audio device is inserted or not.
But you need to activate a certain sound driver (UNIAUD or USBAUD) in order to support streaming of data to/from the devices that are attached to that driver.

[Pete]

Hi Lars

Thanks, that has "muddied the water" very well  :-)

The situation is fairly simple: On an existing working system I am replacing a pair of desktop speakers with a soundbar.

The desktop speakers have a power connector and (standard) stereo mini-jack audio connector.

The soundbar has only 1 usb connector for power and audio.

So, I need a way to route the audio output from existing soundchip (using uniaud) to the usb connected soundbar.

Do I need the USB Audio Driver installed as well?


Regards

Pete

[David McKenna]

Pete,

  Yes, you need to install the USB audio driver using Minstall. Once installed, after rebooting you should have a tab in the 'Multimedia Setup' app (in the System Setup folder) called 'USB Adapter Wave'. Make that the default Waveaudio device and sounds should come through your soundbar.

Regards,

[Rich Walsh]

> you need to install the USB audio driver using Minstall.

Easier:
- mount your AOS ISO
- open 'Programs\Multimedia\Multimedia Installer'
- click on "Audio Drivers on your ArcaOS DVD/ISO"
- on the dropdown list that appears, install both:
  * Enhanced USB Audio - device support
  * Enhanced USB Audio - sample rate support
  (these are from Lars' USB Audio package)

Bonus: this will also clean 'mmpm2.ini' after installation is done.

For those who want to do a cleanup without actually installing anything, select a sound driver you DO NOT have installed, then press "Install/Remove". On the next popup screen select "Remove", then OK.  It won't complain if the driver can't be found and will proceed to do cleanup, then tell you it's done.

[David McKenna]

 Hey Rich,

  That's good to know - thanks for the tip!

Regards,

[Pete]

Hi All

Thanks for all suggestions. Sadly neither setting USB Adapter Wave as Default or using aswitch.exe work...

Yes, the soundbar works in Windows - recognised on boot without user interference.

Any other tweaks/tricks I can try?


Regards

Pete

[Pete]

Hi All

I may have found the cause of no sound with this usb soundbar.

I'm guessing but think the following applies:-

     usbaudio.sys supports usb1
     usbaud2.sys supports usb2
  There is no "usbaud3.sys" ie a driver to support usb3 - this is a usb3 only system, no uhci, ohci or ehci controllers.

Is the above the cause of no sound output using USB Adapter Wave as Default?


Also a guess but think that aswitch.exe only works with usb1 and usb2 as it does not work here.


Regards

Pete

[Rich Walsh]

I may have found the cause of no sound with this usb soundbar.
I'm guessing but think the following applies:-

Too much speculation...

'usbaudio.sys' supports the USB Audio Standard v1.0 which is implemented by nearly all USB audio devices. 'usbaud2.sys' supports the USB Audio Standard v2.0 and is only implemented by a few newer, high-end devices. The standard operates independently of the transport, so whether you have USB2 or USB3 is irrelevant. (Also, it's highly unlikely you have a "USB3-only" system. Rather, you only have xHCI controllers which typically support both USB2 and USB3.)

Since the datasheet for the soundbar makes no mention of which standard it uses (and it connects to your USB ports using a USB-A connector), it's almost certainly a USB Audio v1.0 device.

Some of the more likely causes of the problem are:
* some machines have USB3-only ports as well as USB2/3 ports: maybe your device is plugged into the wrong one.
* your USB stack is back-level: IIRC, AN's drivers had problems (now fixed) with isochronous connections which are used for audio.
* you have garden-variety settings issues in uniaud: use PMUnimix to set all available input volumes to max
* perhaps your driver installation failed (though I doubt it): confirm both driver lines appear in config.sys and aren't duplicated; open 'mmpm2.ini' and confirm you have sections for "WMBWAVEUSB01" and "WMBWAVE2USB01".

FWIW... I have an xHCI-only system and it all WFM.

[Pete]

Hi Rich

Glad your setup works for you - gives me hope  :-)

The soundbar is made as an accessory for my monitor and is supplied with a very short captive usb(3? - internal colour is blue) lead which plugs into any of the 4 usb3 ports built into the monitor. The monitor's usb3 hub is connected to the system box using a usb3 lead into a usb3 port.

I tried plugging the soundbar into the system box usb2 ports, doublechecked USB Adapter Wave was set as Default Waveaudio device and Rebooted - no sound. Yes, the usb2 ports are known to work as they are located at front of box and get used for flash drive access frequently.

As the driver level could be the problem, I updated to 12.16 (was using AN 12.14)
Following a reboot there was still no sound

I also downloaded USBAUDIO-12.16.exe which unpackaged itself into \MMOS2\INSTALL\usbaudio but did not install any files anywhere.
I replaced the usbaudio.sys/sym files in \mmos2 with the files from \MMOS2\INSTALL\usbaudio and rebooted.

The Desktop Startup sound almost played - started but cut off about 66% of the way through.

Opening Sound I see the Current scheme has gone missing (shows <none>) but selecting a selecting a sound always ends up with a \desktop\ sound.

Sadly the sound produced when Play is clicked on any selected sound is definitely not the noise intended.

Do I need to "clean up" the mmos2 setup? - I have the files from the Enhanced USB audio packages installed although I am not using the drivers from the package.

Should I MInstall the USBAUDIO-12.16 files?

Or is this a case of opening a ticket an AN?


Thanks for your thoughts

Pete

[Rich Walsh]

As the driver level could be the problem, I updated to 12.16 (was using AN 12.14)
Following a reboot there was still no sound

I also downloaded USBAUDIO-12.16.exe which unpackaged itself into \MMOS2\INSTALL\usbaudio but did not install any files anywhere. I replaced the usbaudio.sys/sym files in \mmos2 with the files from \MMOS2\INSTALL\usbaudio and rebooted.

'USBAUDIO-12.16.exe' is the old IBM driver that lacks Lars' additional features. Do not intall it. Also, *.sym exist solely to make debug reports more intelligible. They are completely passive (and generally unused), so copying in the wrong ones isn't helping anything.

The Desktop Startup sound almost played - started but cut off about 66% of the way through.

So, you rebooted and got no sound, then did something that had no effect and rebooted. Voila, sound! Are you sure you didn't do anything else?

Do I need to "clean up" the mmos2 setup?

Messing-around when you don't know the correct configuration is seldom helpful.

I have the files from the Enhanced USB audio packages installed although I am not using the drivers from the package.

What does this mean? If the Enhanced USB audio packages are installed, how can you not be using its drivers?

At this point, I can only think of two possibilities:

* unlikely: maybe this is a USB Audio v2 device. With no audio streams open, set "UAC2 Adapter Wave" as the default in MM Setup, close it, then play a sound. If this fails, go back to "USB Adapter Wave".

* likely: perhaps there are still problems with xHCI isochronous transfers. File a bug report.

[Lars]

If you have lsusb.exe installed, have it dump the descriptor info (with the audio device inserted of course). That will allow to check if it is a class 1 or class 2 device.

[Lars]

plus, if you want, post your MMPM2.INI file.
By the way, did you regularly install the sound drivers (not just copying the driver file)? The package that I provided also installs a replacement for AUDIOIF.DLL (called USBAUDIF.DLL) and an SPI update that is matched to USBAUDIF.DLL.
Your MMPM2.INI will tell.