ALSA no dmix device

[MrMuesli]

Hi there,

I'm unable to get dmix working on a pure ALSA setup. As far as I understand the Arch Wiki and the Alsa Documentation itself, a dmix device should be created out of the box, but aplay just lists my soundcard:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
')

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'aplay -L
null
Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0
Default Audio Device
')

I've tried adding a system wide asound.conf with the following settings:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
ipc_key_add_uid false
ipc_perm 0666

slave {
pcm "hw:0"
channels 2
}
}

ctl.dmixer {
type hw
card 0
device 0
}
')

A dmix device still isn't created. alsactl restore gives the following error:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
alsa-lib main.c:1541:(snd_use_case_mgr_open) error: failed to import hw:0 use case configuration -2
')

Using an older guide on the HifiBerry Website as base I've also added
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
dtparam=i2s=on
dtparam=spi=on
')
to my config.txt, to no avail.

Kernel: 6.1.10-2-rpi-ARCH
alsa-lib: 6.1.10-2-rpi-ARCH

If you have any pointers or suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them!

[solskogen]

Does it help if you install pulseaudio (and reboot)?

[MrMuesli]

Yeah, I thought about skipping PulseAudio and going the PipeWire route, but damn is that a badly documented project. I guess I'll give PulseAudio a try.

[graysky]

I could be wrong but I believe there is a setting you can enabled in /boot/config.txt for this. Check the README or search...

[MrMuesli]

That would be:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'dtoverlay=i2s-mmap')
But according to upstream this particular property seems to be out of date since 2017. For posterity's sake I've tried enabling it nonethess without success. I've activated

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'dtparam=i2s=on')
instead.

My hunch is a kernel regression or some buggy firmware. I got it semi-working with PulseAudio, but I'd really prefer to use ALSA directly without the overhead. So I'll try switching to aarch64 first and if that doesn't work, downgrading the kernel.