How to use Turtle Beach Micro USB sound card?

[Eggdog]

I installed Puppy 4.00 successfully on my "experimental" computer this afternoon, and loved it. I just put the live CD in one of my "production" computers, and it seems like it should work, but there's one problem.

The computer doesn't have a sound card. I use a USB sound card, an Audio Advantage Micro by Turtle Beach (Voyetra). I was able to get it working in Ubuntu 7.04, but the Alsa setup in Puppy doesn't seem to be able to find it. I don't have the option to mount that particular USB device.

I thought I had some email from Turtle Beach, but I can't seem to locate it. The one thing I do remember is that, under Linux, it has to be plugged directly into the USB port and can't go through a hub. Seems that once I did that, it just worked without any intervention on my part.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[davidh]

I am in a similar situation to the original poster - puppy linux 4.00 works great on my son's laptop, except the build-in sound card doesn't work. No surprise, the built-in sound in this laptop didn't work with Ubuntu either. But the USB audio did work with Ubuntu!

The laptop is a Gateway Solo 5150.

My usb audio device is a mono headset with a microphone. When I plug it into the USB port, I get the following in /var/log/messages:

Aug 7 03:08:09 (none) user.info kernel: usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
Aug 7 03:08:10 (none) user.info kernel: usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Aug 7 03:08:10 (none) user.info kernel: input: Plantronics Plantronics Headset as /class/input/input3
Aug 7 03:08:10 (none) user.info kernel: input: USB HID v1.00 Device [Plantronics Plantronics Headset] on usb-0000:00:07.2-1

I'm not sure where to go from here. I guess I'll compare the list of kernel modules in puppy 4.00 with the ones I see in Ubuntu (fortunately I haven't trashed the Ubuntu install) and see if anything jumps out at me.

In the mean time, if any one figures this out before I do, please feel free to post the solution!

[davidh]

I found a post from someone else who did get their usb headset working on puppy linux 4.00, but his problem was that his configuration went away and he had to re-run the sound wizard after every reboot:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=31274

But at least his Logictech USB headset was recognized by the audio setup wizard! When I run the audio wizard, it acts like it never heard of usb audio.

I was able to boot this machine back to Ubunto and compare the loaded usb modules in puppy with the ones in Ubuntu:


root@ujae:/# grep usb puppy-modules.txt
usblp 14080 0
usbhid 24928 0
usb_storage 83264 0
usbcore 127128 5 usblp,usbhid,usb_storage,uhci_hcd


root@ujae:/# grep usb ubuntu-modules.txt
snd_usb_audio 79296 0
snd_pcm 89864 3 snd_es18xx,snd_usb_audio,snd_pcm_oss
snd_usb_lib 16640 1 snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi 25504 2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_usb_lib
snd_hwdep 9376 2 snd_opl3_lib,snd_usb_audio
snd 55268 11 snd_es18xx,snd_opl3_lib,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_usb_audio,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep
usbhid 39904 0
usbcore 130820 5 snd_usb_audio,snd_usb_lib,usbhid,uhci_hcd


So now I'm going to boot puppy again and see if it knows how to load snd_usb_audio... wish me luck!

[davidh]

I got these encouraging results:

# modprobe snd_usb_audio
# lsmod | grep usb
snd_usb_audio 80992 0
snd_pcm 75656 1 snd_usb_audio
snd_usb_lib 16512 1 snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi 23584 1 snd_usb_lib
snd_hwdep 9220 1 snd_usb_audio
snd 52068 7 snd_usb_audio,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_usb_lib,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep
usblp 14080 0
usbhid 24928 0
usb_storage 83264 0
usbcore 127128 7 snd_usb_audio,snd_usb_lib,usblp,usbhid,usb_storage,uhci_hcd


I added the following two lines to /etc/modprobe.conf:

alias snd-card-0 snd-usb-audio
alias sound-slot-0 snd-usb-audio


I added the following line to /etc/rc.d/rc.local:
modprobe snd-usb-audio

Now for another reboot...

[davidh]

... and after rebooting, the usb audio headset works!

The Alsa sound configuration wizard completely let me down. But thanks to trapster's replies to http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=31274 I was able to figure out how to configure my usb sound manually. Hey, the forum works!

Thanks,
David H

[Drak]

alsawizard worked like a charm! many thanks!

Just 5 minutes and it was running, so now my puppy USB stick also plays my music

Many thanks for linking to the thread!

[Sylvander]

I've just bought this Lindy USB2 Audio Adapter [USB sound stick], and it is due to be delivered tomorrow Monday Aug 24th 2009.

Doing this because I want to use Skype, and my mic input doesn't work [broken connection I think].
So instead I'll plug my "Labtec C-324" headset [mic and headphone 3.5mm jacks] directly into the 2 sockets in this "external USB sound" device.

Can anyone think of something I aught to be aware of?