# FreeBSD 10 with XFCE 4.10 and EMU 1616 PCI Loading Firmware



## jjthomas (May 24, 2014)

This is not EMU 1616*m*, just the plain EMU 1616.

I am running a fresh install of FreeBSD with the XFCE desktop.  I have not been able to get any sound out of the sound card.

According to the FreeBSD 10.0 release notes, the card is supported by the snd_emu10k1 driver.  Here is my output from pciconf:

```
pciconf -lv
emu10kx0@pci0:5:1:0:    class=0x040100 card=0x40041102 chip=0x00081102 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Creative Labs'
    device     = 'SB0400 Audigy2 Value'
    class      = multimedia
    subclass   = audio
```

I followed the thread by jb_fvwm2 here

I've tried both ALSA and OSS, neither seems to load the firmware into the card.  I recompiled my kernel to try the OSS drivers. I've tried both the snd_emu10kx and snd_emu10k1 drivers, neither seems to load the firmware.

Looking here it seems I need to load the firmware via usx2yloader utility included in alsa-tools and alsa-firmware packages.  I can't find either the alsa-tools or alsa-firmware package in the ports, or doing a pkg search.

How do I get the driver to load?

-JJ


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## tingo (May 31, 2014)

*Re: FreeBSD 10 with XFCE 4.10 and EMU 1616 PCI Loading Firmw*

The output from the `pciconf` command implies that the operating system has found and loaded a driver for your card (that's why it says "emu10kx0" instead of "none").
You can verify that by doing `cat /dev/sndstat` which will list installed devices. Example from one of my machines:

```
root@kg-v7# cat /dev/sndstat
Installed devices:
pcm0: <Realtek ALC887 (Rear Analog 7.1/2.0)> (play/rec) default
pcm1: <Realtek ALC887 (Front Analog)> (play/rec)
pcm2: <Realtek ALC887 (Rear Digital)> (play)
pcm3: <Realtek ALC887 (Onboard Digital)> (play)
pcm4: <Intel Ibex Peak (HDMI/DP 8ch)> (play)
pcm5: <Intel Ibex Peak (HDMI/DP 8ch)> (play)
```
So the problem with you not getting any sound out of the card is something else. It could be several things:
- the sound comes out of a different output than the one you expect (if this card has more than one output)
- the internal signal routing of the sound card doesn't route the signal to the correct output, if so there are hints hat can be set to change routing.

HTH


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## jjthomas (Sep 5, 2014)

*Re: FreeBSD 10 with XFCE 4.10 and EMU 1616 PCI Loading Firmw*

I'm trying to get this working, again.  Still no sound.  The one thing that has me stumped is then when I load Linux (LinuxMint 17) there is a firmware file that gets load which initializes the sound card.  The file is `emu1010b.fw`.  I don't see this file anywhere in FreeBSD.

When I do a  `cat /dev/sndstat` I get:

```
(0:28)ROOT@anthem:/root# cat /dev/sndstat 
Installed devices:
pcm0: <EMU10Kx DSP front PCM interface> (play/rec) default
pcm1: <EMU10Kx DSP rear PCM interface> (play)
pcm2: <EMU10Kx DSP center PCM interface> (play)
pcm3: <EMU10Kx DSP subwoofer PCM interface> (play)
(0:28)ROOT@anthem:/root#
```

`kldstat -v` gets me:

```
(0:30)ROOT@anthem:/root# kldstat -v | grep snd
                276 hdac/snd_hda
                275 pci/snd_hda
                274 hdaa/snd_hda_pcm
                273 hdacc/snd_hda
                272 pci/snd_via8233
                271 pci/snd_ich
                270 pci/snd_es137x
                269 emu10kx/snd_emu10kx_midi
                268 emu10kx/snd_emu10kx_pcm
                267 pci/snd_emu10kx
                266 csa/snd_csapcm
                265 pci/snd_csa
                264 pci/snd_cmi
(0:30)ROOT@anthem:/root#
```


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## gutaper (Sep 15, 2015)

jjthomas said:


> *Re: FreeBSD 10 with XFCE 4.10 and EMU 1616 PCI Loading Firmw*
> 
> I'm trying to get this working, again.  Still no sound.  The one thing that has me stumped is then when I load Linux (LinuxMint 17) there is a firmware file that gets load which initializes the sound card.  The file is `emu1010b.fw`.  I don't see this file anywhere in FreeBSD.



So can you enable the sound? I have emu0404 pci and the same issue with it. FreeBSD detects it, sound volume in ossxmix is shown but there is no sound in speakers.


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## jjthomas (Nov 5, 2015)

gutaper said:


> So can you enable the sound? I have emu0404 pci and the same issue with it. FreeBSD detects it, sound volume in ossxmix is shown but there is no sound in speakers.


Sorry, I was never able to get this to work.  I even tried recompiling the kernel.

I believe the problem comes down to FreeBSD is not loading the firmware.  I was not able to figure out how to get the firmware to load, by hand. 

-JJ


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## protocelt (Nov 5, 2015)

I have one of these cards in my parts drawer at home. I've never tried using it with FreeBSD, but I think the firmware is a Windows and Linux only thing. I'll throw it in a PC this weekend when I have more time and see if I can get it to work.

In the mean time, I notice the snd_emu10kx(4) man page mentions the Audigy 2 Value cards are only supported at 48kHz/16 bit stereo with the FreeBSD driver. Some sysctl(8) settings may need to be tweaked to get sound output. This probably means you should have the following sysctl(8)'s set assuming /dev/pcm0 is your card:

```
dev.pcm.0.play.vchanformat: s16le:2.0
dev.pcm.0.play.vchanrate: 48000
dev.pcm.0.play.32bit: 16
```
I don't know what the settings default to right now as I don't have access to that information.


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## jjthomas (Feb 15, 2016)

I came here looking on how to setup multimedia on FreeBSD.  I'm returning to FreeBSD.  Windows 10 scares me, Linux frustrates me...  So I'm back.  I know I had the card working on a previous version of FreeBSD, which one, I cannot say.  

I came up with the plan of using CentOS 6 under FreeBSD to load the firmware... but I never followed through.  

-JJ


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## gutaper (May 18, 2016)

Did you have any progress with firmware for emu card?


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## SirDice (May 18, 2016)

You may have more luck getting these cards to work with audio/oss. I have a Soundblaster X-fi in the past and the only way to get it working was with oss, not the standard FreeBSD drivers.


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## gutaper (May 22, 2016)

There is no sound even with OSS. I don't have FreeBSD installation now, but I compiled it on my openSUSE distro. By default it uses snd_sblive kernel module. Also I tried to change it to snd_emu10kx (in this case EMU 0404 pci even not recognized). So the card passed all test from osstest, but no sound in speakers.

Very sadly. This is only one thing, that blocking me from move to FreeBSD on my desktop.


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