Thank you for your donation!


Cloudsmith graciously provides open-source package management and distribution for our project.


Using a MOTU UltraLite DAC - will it work?
#1
Hi

I bought an MOTU UltraLite mk5 to handle multichannel output (Main L/R, subs, zone 2 L/R) but I fear I've run into an incompatibility with moOde. From what I've read, the MOTU DACs need a kernel version 5.11 or higher, and since moOde uses 5.4 I'm not getting any output - not even simple stereo before I try anything more complex. Curiously Roon can see the DAC, and sending a stream to the DAC from Roon or the moOde GUI causes the MOTU to report on its screen that it is locked to the appropriate sample rate, but no stream is actually received.

The DAC sounds wonderful in other configurations, suggesting the problem does seem to be incompatibility with moOde, which is consistent with what I've read. I've Googled in vain to find a patch, but before throwing in the towel I thought I'd ask in case anyone has successfully got a MOTU DAC working with moOde.

If not then the plan will have to change, which would be a shame - I really wanted to use the moOde GUI for Camilla, but that may simply not be possible.

Thanks
Reply
#2
Your best bet is to contact the manufacturer and ask them if their device works on Raspberry Pi OS.
Enjoy the Music!
moodeaudio.org | Mastodon Feed | GitHub
Reply
#3
You could also try pm-ing user @jdubs  who was investigating that dac in this thread...

https://moodeaudio.org/forum/showthread....light=MOTU
----------
bob
Reply
#4
Thanks for your suggestions. I'll follow these up
Reply
#5
(08-11-2021, 04:13 PM)johnanon Wrote: Hi

I bought an MOTU UltraLite mk5 to handle multichannel output (Main L/R, subs, zone 2 L/R) but I fear I've run into an incompatibility with moOde. From what I've read, the MOTU DACs need a kernel version 5.11 or higher, and since moOde uses 5.4 I'm not getting any output - not even simple stereo before I try anything more complex. Curiously Roon can see the DAC, and sending a stream to the DAC from Roon or the moOde GUI causes the MOTU to report on its screen that it is locked to the appropriate sample rate, but no stream is actually received.

The DAC sounds wonderful in other configurations, suggesting the problem does seem to be incompatibility with moOde, which is consistent with what I've read. I've Googled in vain to find a patch, but before throwing in the towel I thought I'd ask in case anyone has successfully got a MOTU DAC working with moOde.

If not then the plan will have to change, which would be a shame - I really wanted to use the moOde GUI for Camilla, but that may simply not be possible.

Thanks

Kernel 5.11 or newer? 

Drat, the soon to be released debian Bullseye (and Raspi OS bullseye) come with kernel 5.10.52.

Cheers,

Phil

Reply
#6
Where's your sense of adventure? You can build 5.11 right now https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/tree/rpi-5.11.y

or you could try backporting the relevant USB audio stuff from 5.11 to 5.10 (which is LTS and likely to be the default RPi kernel for several years, or so say devs on the RaspberryPi forum).

Think of the bragging rights Tongue

ETA - neither approach is guaranteed to work, of course. Moving to either 5.10 or 5.11 might break existing moOde code; the USB tweaks might not be enough to get MOTU to work with 5.10. That's what makes it an adventure!

Regards,
Kent
Reply
#7
(08-14-2021, 02:50 PM)TheOldPresbyope Wrote: Where's your sense of adventure? You can build 5.11 right now https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/tree/rpi-5.11.y

or you could try backporting the relevant USB audio stuff from 5.11 to 5.10 (which is LTS and likely to be the default RPi kernel for several years, or so say devs on the RaspberryPi forum).

Think of the bragging rights Tongue

ETA - neither approach is guaranteed to work, of course. Moving to either 5.10 or 5.11 might break existing moOde code; the USB tweaks might not be enough to get MOTU to work with 5.10. That's what makes it an adventure!

Regards,
Kent

I'm up for adventure! But the last time I saw anything vaguely like the CLI was 40 years ago when I briefly was a programmer. Since then it's just been GUI based configuration, so this will be an exploration of new territory for me.

Backporting the relevant USB stuff sounds tough, but maybe using a different Linux OS might be worth trying first. I read that someone got their MOTU running nicely on Ubuntu 21.04 (which uses kernel 5.11, and there's a server version for RPi) so that might be the right starting point, and try installing moOde on that.

And if moOde wont run on that, then I guess I'll be adding code for Camilla, Roon and Spotify manually and doing the distance with just text. If anyone has done any of these elements before, it would be good to hear from them.
Reply
#8
@johnanon

My flip response was aimed more at @philrandal  than at you. Still, were I you I'd focus on working a new kernel into moOde rather than working moOde into a different OS. That way you'd know you have a path forward as moOde updates and releases come along.

As for trying Ubuntu 21.04 with your MOTU, I'd do that with a live install image on my x86_64 laptop first just because it's so easy.

Regards,
Kent

PS - and you're never too old to start hacking!
Reply


Forum Jump: