• Registered: 2010-08-26
  • Posts: 13

Topic: HDSP Expresscard (+Multiface I): system hangs!!!

Hi,
I have big troubles with this: On 10 boots, 5 freezes the system on boot, 4 doesn't recognize the card, 1 is ok...
The good news is when it works, it works pretty good! (Jack, Ardour, PD... low latency at 96000)... But I can't boot 10 time in working situation (theatres, live perf...).

So here are some infos:
I'm on Ubuntu Studio Lucid (2.6.32-RT, but tried with generic, 2.6.33-realtime from Abogani's PPA, and generic from Ubuntu Regular).
Here's my lspci with card loaded:

 sudo lspci 
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub (rev 0c)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 PCI Express Root Port (rev 0c)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev f3)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801HEM (ICH8M) LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G84 [GeForce 8600M GT] (rev a1)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5787M Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
06:00.0 Multimedia audio controller: Xilinx Corporation RME Hammerfall DSP (rev ff)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 4965 AG or AGN [Kedron] Network Connection (rev 61)
0e:06.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 05)
0e:06.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
0e:06.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
0e:06.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev ff)

It may be related to this problem, but I don't think I can disable pcie power management...
and this one

Is there a way to flash the Expresscard on linux? I tried with the updater from this site and Wine, but doesn't load (no output message in shell)

Thank you for helping me...

  • Registered: 2010-08-26
  • Posts: 13

Re: HDSP Expresscard (+Multiface I): system hangs!!!

Any technician over there to help me? :-)

  • Registered: 2010-08-26
  • Posts: 13

Re: HDSP Expresscard (+Multiface I): system hangs!!!

I've just found a Mac with e-card slot (rare ;-) ), and I flashed the card (rev 7 => rev8)... but no changes, still freezes...
I noticed on the Mac, Multiface host error led stays always off. On my PC, it's red until  firmware is loaded. Normal?

  • Registered: 2010-08-26
  • Posts: 13

Re: HDSP Expresscard (+Multiface I): system hangs!!!

I'm still waiting a signal somebody from RME is interested about that issue...
Some infos:


When system doesn't freeze but card is not recognized, I get that in dmesg:

[ 16.219811] RME Hammerfall DSP 0000:06:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
[ 16.219865] RME Hammerfall DSP 0000:06:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
[ 16.224867] Hammerfall-DSP: wait for FIFO status <= 0 failed after 30 iterations
[ 16.314641] Hammerfall-DSP: loading firmware
[ 17.012857] Hammerfall-DSP: wait for FIFO status <= 127 failed after 5000 iterations
[ 17.012859] Hammerfall-DSP: timeout during firmware loading
[ 17.012861] Hammerfall-DSP: couldn't get firmware from userspace. try using hdsploader
[ 17.012978] Hammerfall-DSP: card initialization pending : waiting for firmware

and:
#lspci -v
...
06:00.0 Multimedia audio controller: Xilinx Corporation RME Hammerfall DSP (rev ff) (prog-if ff)
!!! Unknown header type 7f
Kernel driver in use: RME Hammerfall DSP
Kernel modules: snd-hdsp
...

  • Registered: 2010-08-26
  • Posts: 13

Re: HDSP Expresscard (+Multiface I): system hangs!!!

It works if I plug HDSP Expresscard after Grub menu is loaded...
Hardware issue?
Well, I can live with that...
Anyway thanks for your help

  • Registered: 2008-01-01
  • Posts: 3,025

Re: HDSP Expresscard (+Multiface I): system hangs!!!

Did you try to contact support via the official e-mail address instead of only posting on the forum? Linux is surely not very much focused on anyway though. But thanks for sharing your final solution. smile

  • Registered: 2010-08-26
  • Posts: 13

Re: HDSP Expresscard (+Multiface I): system hangs!!!

yes, we had some mails but then they stopped responding... I know linux is not a priority, but RME is one of the most 'linux-friendly' sound hardware, what is a good thing... As I posted many bugs reports and questions on many forums, I was a bit angry not getting any response, after buying a 500$ expresscard for my xxx$ Multiface. Sorry for that.
Now it works good with this hack, and I can work with really good performances on my favourite OS! :-)