There have been a few tantalizing posts, both here and I think on the Mixbus Linux forums, about improving latency figures on some firewire interfaces by removing firewire support under ALSA that's built into recent kernel modules. My hardware interface is a Focusrite Saffie Pro 24 DSP. I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 with a low latency kernel, 4.15.0-43-lowlatency. I checked my hardware controller over at ffado.org and it's one of the TI X10.... flavors that's supposed to do well. But, for the life of me, I can't seem to get ffado without ALSA!
My process has gone something like this:
blacklist snd-dice
reboot
select Firewire drive in my JACK configuration.
Voila!
I spent a day on various attempts to do this. My question is, if you've done this successfully, what's your setup and how, exactly, did you do it?
ffado without ALSA
Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz
ffado without ALSA
Ubuntu 18.04 low-latency kernel.
Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP Firewire interface
Mixbus 5
Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP Firewire interface
Mixbus 5
Re: ffado without ALSA
To blacklist ALSA firewire so you can run FFADO do this:
- Add line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:
blacklist snd_dice
- update initramfs and reboot your system:
$ update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.30-rt41-avl2
The "update-initramfs -u" command regenerates /boot/initrd.img-XXX which is used in booting to tell which modules to load. You do not want snd_dice to load. If "lsmod | grep snd_dice" still shows something then you have not blacklist snd_dice. After snd_dice is disabled you can select the "firewire" driver in qjackctl to use FFADO.
- Add line to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:
blacklist snd_dice
- update initramfs and reboot your system:
$ update-initramfs -u
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.30-rt41-avl2
The "update-initramfs -u" command regenerates /boot/initrd.img-XXX which is used in booting to tell which modules to load. You do not want snd_dice to load. If "lsmod | grep snd_dice" still shows something then you have not blacklist snd_dice. After snd_dice is disabled you can select the "firewire" driver in qjackctl to use FFADO.
Re: ffado without ALSA
Hi @varpa, thanks, but I've tried that. I tried blacklisting by putting "blacklist snd_dice" in the file you mentioned. I also tried it in its own .conf file in /etc/modules.d. I also tried variations such as seeing what modules depend on snd-dice and blacklisting all of them. I put the blacklist line in /lib/modprobe.d/blacklist_linux_<my kernel here>.conf. In each case I was able to remove snd-dice, which I checked by running "lsmod | grep snd-dice". But, in each case I was unable to start JACK. And yes, I ran "update-initramfs -u". I did this a lot, with variations. Yet, every time I tried to start JACK with firewire it immediately errored out.
So far, the ONLY path to configuring audio that has been successful is running JACK with snd_dice NOT blacklisted, and setting up QjackCtl (or Cadence for that matter), with
driver: alsa
interface: hw:Pro24DSP001777
rate: 48000
frames/pd: 256
buffers: 2 (or3)
Absolutely anything else I've tried does not work. This is on a plain Ubuntu 18.04 system that I have, so far, manually tweaked with a low latency kernel. I've added myself to the audio group, tweaked the audio.conf file in /etc/security/limits.d, prioritized "firewire" in /etc/default/rtirq, added the KXStudio repos to see if configuring thru Cadence might be more insightful. . . .
I'm not sure what to try next. I'm assuming that there are other hardware/software differences between me and others who are able to run ffado with the Pro24. I consider just jumping over to KXStudio or AVLinux. Two things stop me:
1. I want to understand what's going on.
2. Both audio distros are maintained by one person. That is not a long-term solution.
So, my question stands:
Those who are running a Saffire Pro 24 successfully, what distro do you run and how did you tweak it?
Update:
I just remembered you had posted in another one of my topics that you used AVLinux. That may be the trick for me.
So far, the ONLY path to configuring audio that has been successful is running JACK with snd_dice NOT blacklisted, and setting up QjackCtl (or Cadence for that matter), with
driver: alsa
interface: hw:Pro24DSP001777
rate: 48000
frames/pd: 256
buffers: 2 (or3)
Absolutely anything else I've tried does not work. This is on a plain Ubuntu 18.04 system that I have, so far, manually tweaked with a low latency kernel. I've added myself to the audio group, tweaked the audio.conf file in /etc/security/limits.d, prioritized "firewire" in /etc/default/rtirq, added the KXStudio repos to see if configuring thru Cadence might be more insightful. . . .
I'm not sure what to try next. I'm assuming that there are other hardware/software differences between me and others who are able to run ffado with the Pro24. I consider just jumping over to KXStudio or AVLinux. Two things stop me:
1. I want to understand what's going on.
2. Both audio distros are maintained by one person. That is not a long-term solution.
So, my question stands:
Those who are running a Saffire Pro 24 successfully, what distro do you run and how did you tweak it?
Update:
I just remembered you had posted in another one of my topics that you used AVLinux. That may be the trick for me.
Ubuntu 18.04 low-latency kernel.
Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP Firewire interface
Mixbus 5
Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP Firewire interface
Mixbus 5
Re: ffado without ALSA
I think you can remove snd_dice from the current session by doing as root "rmmod snd_dice". This should allow you to use ffado in the current session.
I don't understand why you are unable to blacklist snd_dice but maybe google can help. You might also try sending an email to ffado-user email list (see http://www.ffado.org/?q=contact)
I don't understand why you are unable to blacklist snd_dice but maybe google can help. You might also try sending an email to ffado-user email list (see http://www.ffado.org/?q=contact)