A light in the USB darkness

[mike_nl]

Hello,

on an accident i have connect an old USB Lego Cam to the bubba two. Then i have checked some things. At first i have installed the usbutills. Then i have checked /proc/bus/usb/devices and i was surprised about the output.

http://home.kpn.nl/faba00px/bubba/images/usb_cam.png

Ahh, there is no driver installed for the video function. Ok that's clear. I have read more information about usb cam and bubba. But what more interesting is, is the snd-usb-audio driver, aha (tick, tick, ticker, the gear wheels in my haed begun to rotate).

The next idea was to see is the cam listed via the standard lsusb command.

http://home.kpn.nl/faba00px/bubba/images/lsusb_cam.png

Ok, so far so good. My next idea was to install alsa. Ok apt-get -d install alsa. Only donwload the package and check some things. I have learned so many things from gentoo . Ok check was 100% ok. Do the same with apt-get insatll alsa. The installation was running well. But now...

Ahh i need the alsa-utils package for the mixer. Ok install it and test. Yes, take a look:

http://home.kpn.nl/faba00px/bubba/images/alsa_mixer.png

The next toughts going into the direction for an usb sound stick. What i need more?
Yes a simple audio player with the possibillity to use it via a webinterface. The player is
very simple. MPD player is the answer. Installation was running well. The answer for the
webinterface i have found at http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Clients. phpMP is my
favorite, simple and clear. But there are also the concole client mpc and the
other favorite Ampache.

http://home.kpn.nl/faba00px/bubba/images/mpd_setup.png

OK, the sound can't work, because there is only an input (microphone) and no output device.
Now my next idea is to get an USB sound stick. A very nice gadget to test the whole story again.
I will post my experience with sound via usb.

[mike_nl]

Second step:

On saturday i have found an USB sound dongle by http://www.conrad.nl/goto.php?artikel=870832.
It is the Terratec Aureon Dual USB sound dongle for 19,90 Euro.

Highlights
• Ultra compact USB sound dongle
• USB 2.0 / USB 1.1 compatible
• Optical digital output
• Stereo audio - output
• Microfone input
• Resolution: 16 Bit / 48 kHz

Will be delivered with:
• Aureon Dual USB dongle
• Adapter for an optical digital output (yes)
• user doc's

Support under the follwing OS systems:
• Microsoft® Windows® 98 SE and higher
• MAC OS 9, OS X
• Linux

That sounds good. I have to wait now. I hope the USB dongle will
be delivered on wednesday . Then i can start my next tests.

[mike_nl]

And the last part of the light in the darkness of USB sound....

after i had contacted my new USB sound dongle to bubba i have made a
screenshot from /proc/bus/usb/devices:

http://home.kpn.nl/faba00px/bubba/images/usb_device.png

As you can see the driver for audio in and output is installed. Ok check
now the alsamixer. If there any device that i cann control?

http://home.kpn.nl/faba00px/bubba/image ... amixer.png

And yes, microfone input and audio output are possible. Very good. The
next test i have done was to use the simple console client ncmpc.
That test was positive. Oh then i gone the next and for this time the last
step. I will select and play the audio files via the webinterface. For that
i have used now the phpMP. A webinterface written in php.

http://home.kpn.nl/faba00px/bubba/image ... _phpmp.png

So far so good. Now i can listen the music via the stereo system in my house.
Controlled from every PC and the internet console in the hall. Crazy stuff. The
next step is to test some webinterfaces to find the best one. With or without
SQL functionallity.

If someone have questions about the way of working? Please ask me...

Mike

[Fourwinds]

After looking at this, I went to Deal Extreme and found this Sound Dongle that also works:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.5831

The downside is that it is a fat dongle so you either need a USB extender (male to female) to move the Sound dongle away from the Bubba Two or you dont use the other USB slot.

It worked perfectly just Plug and Play into the USB for the root user and to enable all the other users I just did:

Code: Select all

# chmod o+rw /dev/mixer*
# chmod o+rw /dev/dsp*

[mike_nl]

Hi Fourwinds,

that dongle is working on my bubba too. That was mty second
test with the dongle from a friend. Yes the little bubba stays
open for such like things .

For me it is important to have the digital output for my
cinema/stereo system.

[Fourwinds]

Cool ... Glad to see we both got it working then, would suggest others could also. I'm no audio-phile and I just stream internet radio whilst working at home so don't need high quality output.

[mike_nl]

Possible one of the board admins can change the topic
for an howto for audio on bubba. Then i will rewrite the
part of the howto.

I think that is a solution also for others who has no experience
with linux systems, but they will listen to streams and/or music.

I have done also a test with my olc XBOX. There ruinning the
system from XBMC.org. Really cool. I stream the movies from
the box via upnp to the TV. Bubba is cool

[acidtv]

Thanks for the info!

I also installed mpd now, and it works like a charm. I use the Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Go! and it worked right out of the box. After installing alsa and settings perms on /dev/mixer and /dev/dsp I was good to go

[mike_nl]

Hi acidtv,

nice to hear that our ideas and help are working on your system.
Hopefully more people will doing this

[Fourwinds]

A follow up note on my previous comment ...

You don't need to chmod /dev/dsp and /dev/mixer if you add the user to the group 'audio' in which case they can then send information to the correct device.

[johannes]

mike_nl, fourwinds,

If you feel you have the time and energy, please post this also in the wiki howto section:
http://wiki.excito.org/wiki/index.php/T ... nd_How-tos

(Also don't miss the B3-contest going on..):
http://forum.excito.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2529

[mike_nl]

Hi Johannes,

that sound cool. I will do this in the wiki in next few weeks. Hopefully someone will use it .
I hope i can use the Lego Webcam in the next steps...

[mike_nl]

Hi Johannes,
after a longer time i am back but never gave away my holy bubba .
He was with me in africa and brasil for my work.

I have installed now the mpd again on my b2 with the latest B2&B3 os.
Three wonth ago i had spend a new SSD hdd to have a more quiet
system running.

It is running well and now i have time todo things, because my day
job gives me more free time now.

I am happy to be back...

[johannes]

Very happy to hear this! Welcome back!