qemu alsa support is broken

[Lee Revell]

Binary package hint: qemu

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.04
Release: 8.04

~$ apt-cache policy qemu
qemu:
  Installed: 0.9.1-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.9.1-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.9.1-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

rlrevell@chronopolis:~$ QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=alsa qemu -kernel-kqemu -soundhw es1370 -m 1024 windows.img
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac2'
alsa: Could not initialize ADC
alsa: Failed to set period size 1024
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize ADC
alsa: Failed to set period size 1024
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.adc'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac1'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac1'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac2'
alsa: Could not initialize ADC
alsa: Failed to set period size 1024
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize ADC
alsa: Failed to set period size 1024
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.adc'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac1'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac1'

And sound does not work in the guest.

[Richard Seguin (sectech)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Unfortunately we can't fix it, because your description didn't include enough information. You may find it helpful to read "How to report bugs effectively" [WWW] http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html. We'd be grateful if you would then provide a more complete description of the problem.

We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at [WWW] http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures

At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
Thanks!

[Lee Revell (rlrevell)]

1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem

    Launch qemu with QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=alsa set and sound support enabled, using command line
    "QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=alsa qemu -kernel-kqemu -soundhw es1370 -m 1024 windows.img".

2. Expected behavior: sound works in the guest.

3. Encountered behavior: qemu spews alsa error messages to the console. In the Windows XP guest, an es1370
    soundcard is detected, and sounds appear to play, but the host does not output any audio.

[Richard Seguin (sectech)]

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

Richard Seguin

[mrq1 (kubuntu-bugreporter)]

hi

i have the same problem on hardy amd64
with non-ubuntu 2.6.26-rc8 kernel

# cat start-xp.sh
#!/bin/bash
export QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=alsa
kvm -net nic,macaddr=00:13:37:00:00:07,model=rtl8139 -net tap,vlan=0,ifname=kvm0,script=no -soundhw all -m 512 -hda 20gb-xp-workcopy.dd

# ./start-xp.sh
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `pcspk'
pcspk: Could not open voice
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac2'
alsa: Could not initialize ADC
alsa: Failed to set period size 1024
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize ADC
alsa: Failed to set period size 1024
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.adc'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac1'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac1'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac2'
alsa: Could not initialize ADC
alsa: Failed to set period size 1024
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize ADC
alsa: Failed to set period size 1024
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.adc'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac1'
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
alsa: Could not initialize DAC
alsa: Failed to set period size 256
alsa: Reason: Invalid argument
audio: Failed to create voice `es1370.dac1'
/etc/qemu-ifdown: could not launch network script

[Philip White (pmw+ubuntu)]

This problem also exists in Windows Vista 32-bit running atop of KVM version 71.

A temporary and inferior solution is to enable OSS emulation in ALSA's configuration in the Linux kernel, then use "oss" instead of "alsa" for the environment variables.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Marking as "fix released" since this was fixed upstream in version 0.9.1+svn20080822-1 and Jaunty is already shipping 0.9.1+svn20081112-1ubuntu1.