Re: [LAU] Phonic Helix Board 12 FireWireMKIIcompatibility(linux/ffado)

From: pete shorthose <zenadsl6252@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Sun Feb 15 2009 - 03:09:49 EET

On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:21:44 -0800
Mark Knecht <markknecht@email-addr-hidden> wrote:

> On Sat, Feb 14, 2009 at 12:20 PM, pete shorthose <zenadsl6252@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> > On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:19:53 +0000
> > pete shorthose <zenadsl6252@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:26:03 -0000
> >> "Simon W. Fielding" <s.fielding@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> >>
> >> > >All of which indicates that I would see similar results on my system unless there is some kind of
> >> > >bug or problem that only affects you. In effect, you are seeing >1000% penalty for the use of firewire.
> >> > >Which is pretty horrific.
> >>
> >> > I guess that appears to be the case - unless someone more expert has any better opinions.
> >>
> >> Ok well all the information is pointing one way.. the dell may not be able to use this nor in in fact any
> >> firewire audio device and the firewire setup on linux seems to be extremely inefficient going by the
> >> information available. As such I decided the only thing to do was to ignore it all and buy one anyway. =]
> >> I'll jump in the pit with it and go a few rounds. If I don't get anywhere I'll sell it on or use it on windows.
> >>
> >> I'll report back with any linux related results (ie not bad dell hardware problems which are outside the
> >> scope of this list really). It should arrive in a couple of days.
> >
> > Ok, a small udpate on my experience with ffado, the hb 12MKII and my dell inspiron 9400.
> >
> > ..the abridged version:
> >
> > argh.. xrun xrun.. nooo xrun xrun.. remove dvd drive.. xrun xrun.. remove wireless and disable
> > ethernet... xrun.. try every other damn thing that people suggested.. xrun xrun..
> > eventually discover that i8k.ko and thermal.ko cause cpu spikes.. remove them.. oh look,
> > rock solid RT performance with -r 96000 -p 256 -n 2 and 6.6% reported cpu usage when idle
> > (no connections).
> >
> > And they all skipped off into the woods to live noisily ever after.
> > The moral of the story.. DON'T buy an expresscard firewire interface until you have
> > exhausted all possibilities. Damn it. (probably wouldn't have helped anyway)
> >
> > Note that I put everything back as it was. It was only the thermal and i8k (dell fan/temp) module
> > that seem to have caused problems. also for google reference:
> > pete@email-addr-hidden:~$ lspci -nn|grep -i firewire
> > 03:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller [1180:0832]
> >
> > Incidentally, does anyone know why this thing (the phonic) has 2 firewire ports on it?
> >
> > cheers,
> > pete.
>
> Are these modules part of the kernel?

both kernel modules. thermal is vanilla, i8k.. hmm not sure but it probably is,

> If they are - and sorry that I
> don't remember what real-time kernel you are using

Not rt patched although I imagine it has numerous elements from previous patches
that were subsequently merged. I just built vanilla 2.6.28.3.

> - but if the
> modules are part of a normal kernel.org package you believe they are
> causing the problem then we should report this to Ingo & the crew.
> They would certainly want to know what the errors look like in case
> it's an issue with the rt-kernel design. Most of the time it's the
> driver that needs some small mode to make it real-time safe.

I think this is a hardware problem. I know a bit about the i8k code
and unless there's an alternative for getting and setting information
about the fans and sensors then there's nothing to be done.
the actual code (reverse engineered from a dell diagnostic tool iirc) is
frighteningly simple. I can't see how it could be a software problem.
thermal.ko... no idea about that but I'd expect something similar.

> As for the multiple ports it's just so you can build a network I
> think. 1 cable to your PC - another to a disk drive or something else
> 1394-based.

how considerate.. :)

cheers,
pete.
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Received on Sun Feb 15 04:15:03 2009

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