PTT with soundmodem

PTT with soundmodem

[Mike Markowski]

Hi all,

I'm thiiis close to having my packet set up working in kernel 2.4.24
(currently unpatched).  I'm using the user space soundmodem to create
interface ax0 -- so I assume I don't need to do a kissattach.  When I
use soundmodemconfig to test the setup, I can successfully use the
PTT gui button to get my rig to transmit (and also have no problem
with PTT when using Tomi's great gMFSK!).  However, while i can
receive APRS packets while running xastir, when it tries to transmit,
soundmodem complains after the xastir info:

   Tx: fm AB3AP-0 to APX121-0 via RELAY-0,WIDE-0 UI^ pid=F0
   =/:B7_;?z&y ab3ap@arrl.net, Avondale PA (XASTIR-Linux)
 
   sm[15891]: ioctl: SNDCTL_DSP_SYNC: Device or resource busy (16)

I see the LED on my PTT interface briefly light, but not long
enough to activate the rig itself before the error above is
printed.

I use the same HW addr (AB3AP-1) in my soundmodem.conf as in my
/etc/ax25/axports file.  Anyone spot what I'm doing wrong?  I haven't
included any .conf files since I'm not at that machine now and am
hoping the above description is enough to indicate my mistake, but
I'll be happy to go get those if needed.  Thanks for any ideas!

Mike  AB3AP

Re: PTT with soundmodem

[Hamish Moffatt]

On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 04:55:30PM -0500, Mike Markowski wrote:
> I'm thiiis close to having my packet set up working in kernel 2.4.24
> (currently unpatched).  I'm using the user space soundmodem to create
> interface ax0 -- so I assume I don't need to do a kissattach.  When I
> use soundmodemconfig to test the setup, I can successfully use the
> PTT gui button to get my rig to transmit (and also have no problem
> with PTT when using Tomi's great gMFSK!).  However, while i can
> receive APRS packets while running xastir, when it tries to transmit,
> soundmodem complains after the xastir info:
> 
>    Tx: fm AB3AP-0 to APX121-0 via RELAY-0,WIDE-0 UI^ pid=F0
>    =/:B7_;?z&y ab3ap@arrl.net, Avondale PA (XASTIR-Linux)
>  
>    sm[15891]: ioctl: SNDCTL_DSP_SYNC: Device or resource busy (16)
> 
> I see the LED on my PTT interface briefly light, but not long
> enough to activate the rig itself before the error above is
> printed.

Do you have any other programs at all accessing the sound card? Things
like the sound server for KDE or GNOME?

Is AX.25 working properly in 2.4.24? I was under the impression that it
was never reliable in 2.4, and fixes are going straight to 2.6. I'm
still running 2.2 on my packet machine.

Hamish
-- 
Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish@debian.org> <hamish@cloud.net.au>

Re: PTT with soundmodem

[Mike Fenske]

I am using userspace soundmodem on my old P-100 laptop with Xastir and
kernel 2.4.16 and SuSE 7.3. Works great. I use the parallel port for PTT.

Which version of soundmodem are you using and which interface for PTT??

Mike Fenske
VE7MKF

At 09:09 02/02/04 +1100, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
>On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 04:55:30PM -0500, Mike Markowski wrote:
>> I'm thiiis close to having my packet set up working in kernel 2.4.24
>> (currently unpatched).  I'm using the user space soundmodem to create
>> interface ax0 -- so I assume I don't need to do a kissattach.  When I
>> use soundmodemconfig to test the setup, I can successfully use the
>> PTT gui button to get my rig to transmit (and also have no problem
>> with PTT when using Tomi's great gMFSK!).  However, while i can
>> receive APRS packets while running xastir, when it tries to transmit,
>> soundmodem complains after the xastir info:
>> 
>>    Tx: fm AB3AP-0 to APX121-0 via RELAY-0,WIDE-0 UI^ pid=F0
>>    =/:B7_;?z&y ab3ap@arrl.net, Avondale PA (XASTIR-Linux)
>>  
>>    sm[15891]: ioctl: SNDCTL_DSP_SYNC: Device or resource busy (16)
>> 
>> I see the LED on my PTT interface briefly light, but not long
>> enough to activate the rig itself before the error above is
>> printed.
>
>Do you have any other programs at all accessing the sound card? Things
>like the sound server for KDE or GNOME?
>
>Is AX.25 working properly in 2.4.24? I was under the impression that it
>was never reliable in 2.4, and fixes are going straight to 2.6. I'm
>still running 2.2 on my packet machine.
>
>Hamish
>-- 
>Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish@debian.org> <hamish@cloud.net.au>
>-
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-hams" in
>the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>

Re: PTT with soundmodem

[Tomi Manninen]

On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 04:55:30PM -0500, Mike Markowski wrote:

>  I'm thiiis close to having my packet set up working in kernel 2.4.24
>  (currently unpatched).  I'm using the user space soundmodem to create
>  interface ax0 -- so I assume I don't need to do a kissattach.  When I
>  use soundmodemconfig to test the setup, I can successfully use the
>  PTT gui button to get my rig to transmit (and also have no problem
>  with PTT when using Tomi's great gMFSK!).  However, while i can
>  receive APRS packets while running xastir, when it tries to transmit,
>  soundmodem complains after the xastir info:
>  
>     Tx: fm AB3AP-0 to APX121-0 via RELAY-0,WIDE-0 UI^ pid=F0
>     =/:B7_;?z&y ab3ap@arrl.net, Avondale PA (XASTIR-Linux)
>   
>     sm[15891]: ioctl: SNDCTL_DSP_SYNC: Device or resource busy (16)
>  
>  I see the LED on my PTT interface briefly light, but not long
>  enough to activate the rig itself before the error above is
>  printed.

The SNDCTL_DSP_SYNC call is supposed to cause the driver to wait
until all samples buffered to the soundcard are actually written to
the output. This is done at the end of each transmission so that 
soundmodem knows when it can release the PTT and switch to RX.

For some reason this now fails and then PTT is released immediately.
Unfortunately the only cause for the failure I can think of, is a 
poorly written sound card driver (I could be wrong though -- what 
is your card btw?).

You could try forcing the driver to half duplex (in the IO tab in
soundmodemconfig) and see if that fixes it. That is not a good solution 
though as it can cause additional latency in tx/rx switching (bad for 
CSMA performance).

Another remedy might be trying the ALSA driver.

(And FWIW, gMFSK uses the same technique to time PTT switching,
but as latencies are not nearly as important in gMFSK, I can always
use half duplex audio IO. That tends to be fool (and poor driver) 
proof... :)

-- 
Tomi Manninen / OH2BNS / KP20ME04

Re: PTT with soundmodem

[Mike Markowski]

Thanks, guys, for the replies to my note.

On Sun 01-Feb-04 at 1709 EST, Hamish Moffatt wrote:
>
> Is AX.25 working properly in 2.4.24? I was under the impression that it
> was never reliable in 2.4, and fixes are going straight to 2.6.

I don't really know.  Though I'm certainly willing to a new kernel -
and especially if any new soundcard drivers are included!  (See
below.)

On Mon 02-Feb-04 at  109 EST, Mike Fenske wrote:
>
> Which version of soundmodem are you using and which interface for PTT??

I currently use the serial port for PTT (but will soon switch to
parallel so I can have rig control on the serial).  And I compiled
soundmodem-0.7 from source.

On Mon 02-Feb-04 at  719 EST, Tomi Manninen wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 04:55:30PM -0500, Mike Markowski wrote:
>
> >     sm[15891]: ioctl: SNDCTL_DSP_SYNC: Device or resource busy (16)

> For some reason this now fails and then PTT is released immediately.
> Unfortunately the only cause for the failure I can think of, is a
> poorly written sound card driver (I could be wrong though -- what
> is your card btw?).

That might be the problem.  I'm using a several-year-old HP Omnibook
XE3 laptop from work.  It has an ESS Maestro3 soundcard, which is
labeled as Experimental in the kernel config sound menu.

> You could try forcing the driver to half duplex (in the IO tab in
> soundmodemconfig) and see if that fixes it.

I gave it a try, and it keeps the PTT asserted long enough to
trigger the rig now, but still just briefly and I get the same error.

> Another remedy might be trying the ALSA driver.

Ok, I'll go to the ALSA website and read up on it, since I've
never played with that.  I'm hoping I can stick with the laptop,
but we'll see how it goes...  Thanks for the help!

         Mike  AB3AP

Re: PTT with soundmodem - solved!

[Mike Markowski]

Tomi,

You were exactly right!

On Mon 02-Feb-04 at  719 EST, Tomi Manninen wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 04:55:30PM -0500, Mike Markowski wrote:
> 
> >     sm[15891]: ioctl: SNDCTL_DSP_SYNC: Device or resource busy (16)
> 
> [...] Unfortunately the only cause for the failure I can think of, is a 
> poorly written sound card driver 

> [...] Another remedy might be trying the ALSA driver.

I read up on ALSA et al., downloaded the software, and started to
compile.  Only then did I download kernel 2.6.1 and discover ALSA
drivers are now in the kernel.  Doh!  Anyway, I cranked up xastir
after rebooting with the new kernel and starting soundmodem, and
everything is working fine!  Seeing acks come back from my aprs messages
really capped off the effort.  So now that everything is working...I
have to learn what other applications are available on packet.  :-)

Thanks very much for the help getting my laptop "packeting."

	Mike  AB3AP

2.6.[012] register_netdev kernel bug

[Leo Bistmans]

Hi,

 When loading soundmodem or baycomepp the mkiss and ax25 modules are
loaded, ax0 interface is created.  So far so good.  When stopping the
user-space application and restarting it some time later, the application
stalls, ifconfig stalls ... and kernel error is logged:

Feb  6 19:06:11 xyz kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 3
Feb  6 19:06:11 xyz kernel: mkiss: AX.25 Multikiss, Hans Albas PE1AYX

Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: ------------[ cut here ]------------
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: kernel BUG at net/core/dev.c:2703!
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: invalid operand: 0000 [#1]
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: CPU:    0
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: EIP:    0060:[<c0220419>]    Not tainted
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: EFLAGS: 00210202
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: EIP is at register_netdevice+0x61/0x1e4
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: eax: 00000001   ebx: cf12a058   ecx: c0308d40 
 edx: 00000000
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: esi: 00000001   edi: cf12a058   ebp: cf12a000 
 esp: c8c6fe8c
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: ds: 007b   es: 007b   ss: 0068
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: Process soundmodem (pid: 1043,
threadinfo=c8c6e000 task=cef34cc0)
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: Stack: cf12a058 00000001 cf12a058 cf12a000
c01fa1ea cf12a058 cf12a058 c9bfc000
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:        00000000 d09ec7d5 cf12a058 c9bfc00c
c038b538 c9bfc050 c9bfc000 c01d6883
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:        c9bfc000 bffff8e4 c9bfc000 0000001a
c9c04000 00000050 00000000 00000000
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: Call Trace:
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01fa1ea>] register_netdev+0x5e/0x70
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<d09ec7d5>] ax25_open+0xdd/0x16c [mkiss]
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01d6883>] tty_set_ldisc+0x133/0x220
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01dc95b>] set_termios+0x197/0x1a4
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01db82c>] n_tty_open+0x0/0x94
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01db800>] n_tty_close+0x0/0x2c
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01d9d08>] n_tty_flush_buffer+0x0/0x40
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01d9d48>] n_tty_chars_in_buffer+0x0/0x6c
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01db8c0>] read_chan+0x0/0x8ac
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01dc16c>] write_chan+0x0/0x1f8
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01dcb2c>] n_tty_ioctl+0x0/0x3f4
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01db650>] n_tty_set_termios+0x0/0x1b0
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01dc364>] normal_poll+0x0/0x134
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01da614>] n_tty_receive_buf+0x0/0x1000
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01da5ac>] n_tty_receive_room+0x0/0x38
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01da5e4>] n_tty_write_wakeup+0x0/0x30
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01d8bf4>] tiocsetd+0x18/0x24
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c01d9047>] tty_ioctl+0x2ef/0x3d4
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c015e979>] sys_ioctl+0x209/0x260
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:  [<c010af2f>] syscall_call+0x7/0xb
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel:
Feb  6 19:08:10 xyz kernel: Code: 0f 0b 8f 0a 63 c1 2a c0 8b 43 2c c7 83
24 01 00 00 ff ff ff


Thus the second time the user-space soundmodem does call register_netdev
there is this error.  As far as I can remember rmmod'ing mkiss and ax25
between the first and second run of soundmodem did not help.  

Results are identical for 2.6.0 and .1 and .2
The .config file I used came from www.backports.org/debian. The current
used ( for 2.6.2 ) can be found at http://users.pandora.be/nespa/kernoops

Is there some dependency I missed, either inside our outside kernel ?

Thanks in advance.

Leo, on1aad

--
wake up-what's in that room, wake up- what's in that house?   King Ink

Re: 2.6.[012] register_netdev kernel bug

[Jeroen Vreeken]

On 2004.02.06 22:48:58 +0100 Leo Bistmans wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>  When loading soundmodem or baycomepp the mkiss and ax25 modules are
> loaded, ax0 interface is created.  So far so good.  When stopping the
> user-space application and restarting it some time later, the application
> stalls, ifconfig stalls ... and kernel error is logged:
 
> Thus the second time the user-space soundmodem does call register_netdev
> there is this error.  As far as I can remember rmmod'ing mkiss and ax25
> between the first and second run of soundmodem did not help.  
> 
> Results are identical for 2.6.0 and .1 and .2
> The .config file I used came from www.backports.org/debian. The current
> used ( for 2.6.2 ) can be found at http://users.pandora.be/nespa/kernoops
> 
> Is there some dependency I missed, either inside our outside kernel ?

You are missing a few patches to fix the reuse of network devices in mkiss.
(it appears 6pack has it to, I will probably post a fix for it soon)
The patch for mkiss is included in 2.6.2-bk2

Jeroen