Alsa No firmware for EMU card

[linuxien_ref]

A Fresh Install Ubuntu Studio 9.10 Karmic Koala i386
DAW : AMD Athlon, MB ASUS A7N8E, Soundcard EMU 1820M (PCI + Audiodock)

My sound card doesn't start, audiodock is blank, no Alsa device for alsamixer.

dmesg log :
[ 23.071778] EMU10K1_Audigy 0000:01:0a.0: PCI INT A -> Link[APC1] -> GSI 16 (level, high) -> IRQ 16
[ 23.071872] emu1010: Special config.
[ 23.073377] emu1010: EMU_HANA_ID = 0x7f
[ 23.073382] emu1010: filename emu/hana.fw testing
[ 23.073388] EMU10K1_Audigy 0000:01:0a.0: firmware: requesting emu/hana.fw
[ 23.434662] firmware: emu/hana.fw not found. Err = -2
[ 23.434668] emu1010: Loading Firmware file emu/hana.fw failed
[ 23.441452] EMU10K1_Audigy 0000:01:0a.0: PCI INT A disabled
[ 23.441478] EMU10K1_Audigy: probe of 0000:01:0a.0 failed with error -2

I just upload "alsa-firmware-1.0.20" sources from ALSA project website
./configure; make; sudo make install

After the reboot my sound card works. I access to alsamixe, play sounds, run Jack in RT 48KHz.
(I'm not sure it's fully fonctionnal, because in previous realease I was on Ubuntu-studio 8.04LTS with beta ALSA drivers for my card, so I can't compare).

dmesg log :
[ 23.220586] EMU10K1_Audigy 0000:01:0a.0: PCI INT A -> Link[APC1] -> GSI 16 (level, high) -> IRQ 16
[ 23.220683] emu1010: Special config.
[ 23.220773] emu1010: EMU_HANA_ID = 0x7f
[ 23.220775] emu1010: filename emu/hana.fw testing
[ 23.220780] EMU10K1_Audigy 0000:01:0a.0: firmware: requesting emu/hana.fw
[ 23.406459] firmware size = 0x133a4

I think several component from ALSA are missing in install process.

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

This is still a problem in 10.04 AM64, which I have just installed. Whoever maintains the ALSA part of the project, has not installed the firmware drivers as a package. A workaround this is to download the latest firmware from the alsa-project website ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/firmware/alsa-firmware-1.0.23.tar.bz2 . Compiling and installing it should imo do no harm as it only generates the binary firmware files and copies them to locations where the driver itself is expecting them to be.

But for a specialist distribution like Ubuntu Studio, the firmware should be installed by default.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

This really is not a bug in Ubuntu Studio but a wishlist-type "please merge the firmwares into upstream linux-firmware.git".

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

I can't see something this critical as a 'wishlist'. It seems to be (from other bugs / questions filed in lp regarding ubuntu) a problem that is across all distributions of Ubuntu.

Bottom line is, the alsa firmware drivers are not installed by default (and selecting them in the Synaptic package manager) only installs 'selected' sound card firmware.

I don't know who is supposed to do this, but can this be elevated to the person who maintains sound and alsa so they can action this? Then the next version of Ubuntu Studio, and Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Mythbuntu, will work properly without 'workarounds'.

Please refer:

Question #92087

Also, looking through the 'alsa-driver' part of launchpad, alsa-firmware does not seem to be part of it.

This kind of 'bug' will affect all soundcards that need firmware to be loaded installed at the time they are booted up. These will typically be the higher end cards that are used for audio recording and production.

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

I have investigated further and I see that 'alsa-firmware' is not a sub-project of 'alsa' in launchpad.

A serious oversight imho.

How does one have 'alsa-firmware' added permanently as a project under 'alsa'

I have no idea how this works. The actual process of installing it in a target machine is relatively simple.
Integrating it into the distribution as a binary package - I don't know.

Here's hoping

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

We aren't going to carry alsa-firmware if at all possible. The correct route is to merge them into linux-firmware (or linux-firmware-nonfree, depending on license).

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

Please explain what you mean by 'linux-firmware'?

As far as I am concerned, this firmware is a component of alsa? The licence is the same as alsa, it is part of the alsa project.

I am not a programmer, but if I can help, I'm willing to get involved.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/git?p=ubuntu/linux-firmware.git;a=summary
https://edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-firmware

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

OK, so the alsa-firmware needs to be added to linux-firmware.

How to get this to happen?

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

OK

Read up about the background to this in bug # 26294

Is it an issue aroung the licencing conditions attached to the distribution of the firmware with Ubuntu?

If so, then the medibuntu option will work for now. I see that the discussion in bug # 26294 revolves about some research around the legality issues of distributing firmware.....

For now, it seems like a stalemate....

[Angus Kerr (angus-tropical)]

I bumped my head against this problem AGAIN (5 years later) when I upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04.2 on my studio recording computer. Lo and behold, still no alsa-firmware package for soundcards.

It would appear that the idea that the alsa firmware be iincluded in the kernel is not going to happen.

All that is required is that a package of the alsa-firmware be built for Debian. I'll do it myself if necessary, if it will help others to get their sound cards working.

I don't see why the sound firmware is left out when there are a thousand and one non-free firmware packages available for obscure TV cards, etc. etc.

So, how can we get a package built?

[Erich Eickmeyer (eeickmeyer)]

I'm pretty confident while this package could benefit the Ubuntu Studio project, this needs to be talked about upstream with the Alsa folks. 9 year-old bug with no activity since 2015, so I'm unsure of the status. Marking as "Won't Fix" with Ubuntu Studio simply because this is something that needs to be taken upstream.