IIRC the mainline driver is lacking some functionality around higher bitrates, but if that's not a problem for you I would also recommend the driver already included within the kernel.

Otherwise I think someone needs to write yet another patch. Development on sourceforge seems to be essentially dead.

For kernel 6.7.9 the driver does not compile (probably even since 6.1), build log shows this error:

DKMS make.log for sixfireusb-0.6.2 for kernel 6.7.9-arch1-1 (x86_64)
2024-03-15T08:56:48 CET
make: Entering directory '/usr/lib/modules/6.7.9-arch1-1/build'
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/chip.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/comm.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/control.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/firmware.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/midi.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/pcm.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/substream.o
  CC [M]  /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/urbs.o
/var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/pcm.c: In function ‘usb6fire_pcm_init’:
/var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/pcm.c:220:33: error: implicit declaration of function ‘snd_dma_continuous_data’ [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
  220 |                                 snd_dma_continuous_data(GFP_KERNEL),
      |                                 ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/pcm.c:220:33: warning: passing argument 3 of ‘snd_pcm_lib_preallocate_pages_for_all’ makes pointer from integer without a cast [-Wint-conversion]
  220 |                                 snd_dma_continuous_data(GFP_KERNEL),
      |                                 ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      |                                 |
      |                                 int
In file included from /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/substream.h:16,
                 from /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/pcm.c:20:
./include/sound/pcm.h:1270:59: note: expected ‘void *’ but argument is of type ‘int’
 1270 |                                           int type, void *data,
      |                                                     ~~~~~~^~~~
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
make[2]: *** [scripts/Makefile.build:243: /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build/pcm.o] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[1]: *** [/usr/lib/modules/6.7.9-arch1-1/build/Makefile:1911: /var/lib/dkms/sixfireusb/0.6.2/build] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:234: __sub-make] Error 2
make: Leaving directory '/usr/lib/modules/6.7.9-arch1-1/build'

There are some comments on which suggest a solution (https://sourceforge.net/p/sixfireusb/discussion/1341785/thread/7bc2b42046/), but I still have to try this out.

It's a pulseaudio bug (that genius piece of software tries to be smarter than alsa and fails). You can hack around it using some config files or open a PR to pulseaudio to fix it. I don't have time to do any of that.

When I use alsa as output in vlc for example, I have stereo sound. Should be a problem with the pulseaudio sink. For pacmd list-sinks I get this output for the DMX 6Fire:

index: 1
    name: <alsa_output.usb-TerraTec_DMX_6Fire_USB_00000000000305FE-00.analog-mono>
    driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
    flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL LATENCY 
    state: SUSPENDED
    suspend cause: IDLE
    priority: 9049
    volume: mono: 65172 /  99%
            balance 0,00
    base volume: 65536 / 100%
    volume steps: 181
    muted: no
    current latency: 0,00 ms
    max request: 0 KiB
    max rewind: 0 KiB
    monitor source: 2
    sample spec: s16le 1ch 44100Hz
    channel map: mono
                 Mono
    used by: 0
    linked by: 0
    fixed latency: 99,95 ms
    card: 1 <alsa_card.usb-TerraTec_DMX_6Fire_USB_00000000000305FE-00>
    module: 7
    properties:
        alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
        device.api = "alsa"
        device.class = "sound"
        alsa.class = "generic"
        alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
        alsa.name = "DMX 6Fire USB Analog"
        alsa.id = "6fire Analog"
        alsa.subdevice = "0"
        alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
        alsa.device = "0"
        alsa.card = "1"
        alsa.card_name = "TerraTec DMX6FireUSB"
        alsa.long_card_name = "TerraTec DMX6FireUSB at 2:9"
        alsa.driver_name = "snd_usb_6fire"
        device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1d.7-usb-0:1:1.0"
        sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.7/usb2/2-1/2-1:1.0/sound/card1"
        udev.id = "usb-TerraTec_DMX_6Fire_USB_00000000000305FE-00"
        device.bus = "usb"
        device.vendor.id = "0ccd"
        device.vendor.name = "TerraTec Electronic GmbH"
        device.product.id = "0080"
        device.product.name = "DMX 6Fire USB"
        device.serial = "TerraTec_DMX_6Fire_USB_00000000000305FE"
        device.string = "hw:1"
        device.buffering.buffer_size = "8816"
        device.buffering.fragment_size = "2204"
        device.access_mode = "mmap"
        device.profile.name = "analog-mono"
        device.profile.description = "Analog Mono"
        device.description = "DMX 6Fire USB Analog Mono"
        module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
        device.icon_name = "audio-card-usb"
    ports:
        analog-output: Analoge Ausgabe (priority 9900, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
            properties:

    active port: <analog-output>

Hey,

me Antergos system also recognizes the card as mono only, with the result that there is sound only on one speaker. Any idea how to fix that?

Hi Marco, thanks for the quick answer :) I did what you mentioned, no error was thrown.

But the soundcard is still not detected. If I type 'aplay -l' the other cards are listed but not the 6fire usb. Dmesg shows me the following: [ 39.799322] usb 4-1.1: USB disconnect, device number 3 [ 43.842811] usb 4-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using ehci-pci [ 43.941594] usb 4-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=0ccd, idProduct=0080, bcdDevice= 1.00 [ 43.941599] usb 4-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [ 43.941601] usb 4-1.1: Product: DMX 6Fire USB [ 43.941603] usb 4-1.1: Manufacturer: TerraTec [ 43.941605] usb 4-1.1: SerialNumber: 0000000000085904

I've rebooted after installing the driver. The card works. Yesterday before installing arch, with the driver built by hand everything worked fine. So it seems not to be a driver issue?

Any other ideas?

Short update: If I manually make the driver and then insert the manually by typing 'sudo insmod snd-usb-6fire.ko' the card works as expected. But somehow with the installation via pacman the driver doesn't get "registered" correctly, modprobe snd-usb-6fire, modinfo snd-usb-6fire... is only telling me there is no module named like that

Mario

Hey Mario

can you:

1. checkout the GIT repo for this package:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/sixfireusb-dkms.git

2. compile the package:

cd sixfireusb-dkms
makepkg

3. install the resulting package manually:

sudo pacman -U sixfireusb-dkms-0.6.2-7-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

and precisely report the errors you get during any of these steps? (including the full error message).

Cheers, Marco

Hi, I'm trying to use this package. I can install it without it throwing an error, but it doensn't work. Alsa still doesn't recognize my soundcard. I tried installing it manually but got a ssl error. Do you have any idea what could be wrong?

Regards Mario