DietPi-Config | Add Allwinner H3 analogue 3.5mm onboard audio

[eurya]

Creating a bug report/issue

Required Information

• DietPi version |
  G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE=8
  G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB=13
  G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC=2
  G_GITBRANCH='master'
  G_GITOWNER='MichaIng'
  G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[0]='applied'
  G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[1]='not applicable'

• Distro version | bullseye

• Kernel version | Linux DietPi 5.15.89-sunxi #22.11.4 SMP Mon Jan 23 21:58:30 UTC 2023 armv7l GNU/Linux

• SBC model | NanoPi NEO (armv7l)

• Power supply used | 5V 1A

• SD card used | SanDisk ultra

Steps to reproduce

1. Install latest Dietpi image for Nanopi NEO (version DietPi v8.13.2)
2. Enable sound in dietpi-config
3. No soundcards listed or found:

root@DietPi:~# aplay -l
aplay: device_list:274: no soundcards found...

Expected behaviour

• sound board listed to play sound

Actual behaviour

No soundcards listed or found:

root@DietPi:~# aplay -l
aplay: device_list:274: no soundcards found...

[MichaIng]

Please add analog-codec space separated to the end of the overlays= line in /boot/dietpiEnv.txt, reboot and try again.

[eurya]

Please add analog-codec space separated to the end of the overlays= line in /boot/dietpiEnv.txt, reboot and try again.

Thanks for the fast reply, after adding "analog-codec":

root@DietPi:~# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Codec [H3 Audio Codec], device 0: CDC PCM Codec-0 [CDC PCM Codec-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[MichaIng]

Great. You should now be able to set it up as default sound card, e.g. via dietpi-config.

[eurya]

Great. You should now be able to set it up as default sound card, e.g. via dietpi-config.

Yes, I can play some sound, it works. Thank you again.

But, the sound quality is quite poor, there is a lot of hissing in the background. It seems driver related as with the exact same hardware, with the FriendlyARM Ubuntu 20.04 image, I don't have any sound issue. Maybe I can open another issue for that?

[MichaIng]

Possibly a limitation of the driver with mainline kernel. Can you try to adjust the CPU governor, set it to powersave to stop voltage/power changes? Probably this affects the analogue signal negatively. Also how do you play sound? Can you try to adjust audio parameters, like sampling rate? Probably the sound card supports more than what the software is passing by default.

[MichaIng]

@eurya
Probably tweaking IRQ (hardware interrupt) affinities enhances sound quality. Could you show the output of:

cat /proc/interrupts

[MichaIng]

Implemented with: #6447