Allo Boss 2 does not output sound after update to dietpi 8.15 & 8.16

Creating a bug report/issue

Since recently I do not get sound output from the boss 2 player (after updating from dietpi 8.11 to dietpi 8.15 and 8.16). I tried reinstalling the dietpi-os (clean install to SD card), but no change for the better.

Additional when streaming spotify (raspotify), there is no sound output and after 10-20 ish seconds the player on my phone skips to next track and so on.

Output on /boot/config.txt:

# Docs: https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/config_txt.html
# Overlays: https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/blob/e53d0757d08d1c36f911b0d9a392859e66709ad3/boot/overlays/README

#-------Display---------
# Max allocated framebuffers: Set to "0" in headless mode to reduce memory usage
# - Defaults to "2" on RPi4 and "1" on earlier RPi models
#max_framebuffers=0

# If you get no picture, set the following to "1" to apply most compatible HDMI settings.
#hdmi_safe=1

# Uncomment to adjust the HDMI signal strength if you have interferences, blanking, or no display.
# - Ranges from "0" to "11", use values above "7" only if required, e.g. with very long HDMI cable.
# - Default on first RPi1 A/B is "2", else "5", on RPi4 this setting is ignored.
#config_hdmi_boost=5

# Uncomment if HDMI display is not detected and composite is being outputted.
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# Uncomment to disable HDMI even if plugged, e.g. to force composite output.
#hdmi_ignore_hotplug=1

# Uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus overscan.
#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720

# Uncomment to enable SDTV/composite output on RPi4. This has no effect on previous RPi models.
#enable_tvout=1
# SDTV mode
#sdtv_mode=0

# Uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA).
#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=1

# Uncomment to force an HDMI mode rather than DVI. This enables HDMI audio in DMT modes.
#hdmi_drive=2

# Set "hdmi_blanking=1" to allow the display going into standby after 10 minutes without input.
# With default value "0", the display shows a blank screen instead, but will not go into standby.
# NB: Some legacy OpenMAX applications (OMXPlayer) cannot wake screens from real standby.
hdmi_blanking=1

# Set to "1" if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible.
disable_overscan=1

# Uncomment the following to adjust overscan.
# Use positive numbers if console goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border.
#overscan_left=16
#overscan_right=16
#overscan_top=16
#overscan_bottom=16

# Rotation
#display_hdmi_rotate=0
#lcd_rotate=0

#-------RPi camera module-------
#start_x=1
#disable_camera_led=1

#-------GPU memory splits-------
gpu_mem_256=16
gpu_mem_512=16
gpu_mem_1024=16

#-------Boot splash screen------
disable_splash=1

#-------Onboard sound-----------
dtparam=audio=off

#-------I2C-------------
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
#dtparam=i2c_arm_baudrate=100000

#-------SPI-------------
#dtparam=spi=off

#-------Serial/UART-----
# NB: "enable_uart=1" will enforce "core_freq=250" on RPi models with onboard WiFi.
enable_uart=0

#-------SD card HPD-----
# Comment to enable SD card hot-plug detection, while booting via USB or network.
# NB: This causes constant CPU load and kernel errors when no SD card is inserted.
dtparam=sd_poll_once

#-------Overclock-------
temp_limit=70
initial_turbo=20

#over_voltage=0
#arm_freq=1500
#core_freq=500

#over_voltage_min=0
#arm_freq_min=300
#core_freq_min=250
#sdram_freq_min=400
arm_64bit=1
dtoverlay=disable-wifi
dtoverlay=allo-boss2-dac-audio

Output of aplay -l:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Boss2 [Allo Boss2], device 0: bcm2835-i2s-allo-cs43130 allo-cs43130-0 [bcm2835-i2s-allo-cs43130 allo-cs43130-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Contents of /etc/asound.conf:

pcm.!default {
        type hw
        card 0
        device 0
}

ctl.!default {
        type hw
        card 0
}

Output of speaker-test -t wav -c 2:

speaker-test 1.2.4

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 8 to 131072
Period size range from 4 to 65536
Using max buffer size 131072
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 32768
was set buffer_size = 131072
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 0.063274
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 0.172713
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 0.209401
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
^CTime per period = 0.170877

speaker-test does not give any output to the speakers

Alsa mixer: master is on 60%, connected speakers are on max.

Hopefully this gives some pointers as what is wrong… Thank you

Required Information

  • DietPi version | cat /boot/dietpi/.version
G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE=8
G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB=16
G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC=2
G_GITBRANCH='master'
G_GITOWNER='MichaIng'
G_LIVE_PATCH_STATUS[0]='not applicable'
  • Distro version | echo $G_DISTRO_NAME $G_RASPBIAN
bullseye 0
  • Kernel version | uname -a
Linux AlloPi 6.1.21-v8+ #1642 SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr  3 17:24:16 BST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux
  • SBC model | echo $G_HW_MODEL_NAME or (EG: RPi3)
RPi 4 Model B (aarch64)
  • SD card used | SanDisk Extreme

Additional Information (if applicable)

  • Software title | Raspotify
  • Was the software title installed freshly or updated/migrated? | Both, same issue after fresh install
  • Can this issue be replicated on a fresh installation of DietPi?
    ← If you sent a ā€œdietpi-bugreportā€, please paste the ID here →
  • Bug report ID | echo $G_HW_UUID

Steps to reproduce

  1. Boot device, install raspotify, play spotify on phone and select dietpi destination, wait for it to connect, click play button. after 10-20 seconds next track starts playing etc, no sound output

Expected behaviour

  • Sound output should be occuring

Actual behaviour

  • No sound output :frowning:

Extra details

  • …

maybe it has something to do with recent kernel update published by RPI developer. Can you verify system architecture.

dpkg --print-architecture

Heya, it yields the following:

arm64

You may have a point regarding the kernel update…

ok maybe @MichaIng could have a look

Raising the master volume in alsamixer to 100% doesn’t help either? The sound card is detected, the ALSA config uses the correct card index, speaker-test visually works and alsamixer obviously shows the expected controls :thinking:. Probably a driver internal issue since Linux 6.1.

Does the kernel report any errors?

dmesg -l 0,1,2,3

I see you reported it on the Allo forum already:

If you have a spare SD card, could you test it with Raspberry Pi OS? Since we use the same kernel and overlay and ALSA is obviously configured correctly, I do not expect it to work there either, but that way it is easier to report on RPi forum and/or GitHub:

We can test whether downgrading the kernel to latest v5.15.y works, to verify that the kernel upgrade is the culprit:

cd /tmp
curl -Lo kernel.deb https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/r/raspberrypi-firmware/raspberrypi-kernel_1.20230306-1_arm64.deb
dpkg -i kernel.deb
rm kernel.deb
reboot

Thank you kindly for your response!

Above command gives the following output:

[    0.630169] bcm2708_fb soc:fb: Unable to determine number of FBs. Disabling driver.

So this indeed raises some suspicion…

Kernel downgrade gives resolves all issues.

The dmesg output remains the same tho:

[    0.559543] bcm2708_fb soc:fb: Unable to determine number of FBs. Disabling driver.

I do not have a spare sd card (working one that is) laying around, so I will try the raspberry-os image later (as a formality and perhaps find traction regarding this issue) and check the other topics.
Indeed I did put a similar post in the Allo forum, but as it seems desolate and people not receiving replies for a prolonged period of time I am -alas- not overly confident that these issues will resolve through that forum in a short term.

Anyways, thank you very much for helping me back to a working situation; I suspect that whenever I do update dietpi I have to revert to this kernel version manually?

Kind regards and if any updates follow, I will update this topic for future reference.

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Ensure using some 64bit RPI OS image if you are going to test it. As well do all updates to get latest/same kernel version.

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That kernel error your see is expected when you run the RPi headless, so not really an error, just telling you that there is no framebuffer device and thence the related kernel driver is disabled.

You can prevent kernel upgrades via:

apt-mark hold raspberrypi-kernel

Checking a little, here is the source of the Allo Boss 2 device tree overlay: linux/allo-boss2-dac-audio-overlay.dts at 3e39d7abde526d9058527bb3f25358c991ac47e2 Ā· raspberrypi/linux Ā· GitHub

I cannot see an error at first glace. The three used nodes to still exist, including the set attribute, aside of the added ones for the DAC itself and some cross-references:

2023-04-18 22:36:02 root@micha:/proc/device-tree# for i in /proc/device-tree/aliases/{i2s,i2c1,sound}; do echo "$i: $(<"/proc/device-tree$(<"$i")/status")"; ls -l "/proc/device-tree$(<"$i")"; done 2> /dev/null
/proc/device-tree/aliases/i2s: disabled
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:16 '#sound-dai-cells'
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  8 Apr 18 22:16  clocks
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 17 Apr 18 22:16  compatible
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  6 Apr 18 22:16  dma-names
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 16 Apr 18 22:16  dmas
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:16  name
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:16  phandle
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:16  pinctrl-0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  8 Apr 18 22:16  pinctrl-names
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  8 Apr 18 22:16  reg
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  9 Apr 18 22:09  status
/proc/device-tree/aliases/i2c1: disabled
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:19 '#address-cells'
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:19 '#size-cells'
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:19  clock-frequency
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  8 Apr 18 22:19  clocks
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 17 Apr 18 22:19  compatible
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  8 Apr 18 22:19  interrupts
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:19  name
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:19  phandle
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  4 Apr 18 22:19  pinctrl-0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  8 Apr 18 22:19  pinctrl-names
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  8 Apr 18 22:19  reg
-r--r--r-- 1 root root  9 Apr 18 22:09  status
/proc/device-tree/aliases/sound: disabled
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 6 Apr 18 22:20 name
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4 Apr 18 22:20 phandle
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 9 Apr 18 22:09 status

If is indeed a general issue, also on RPi OS, probably more Boss 2 users will join your report on the Allo forum, and otherwise hopefully some RPi engineers with more insights into the RPi device tree and changes between 5.15 and 6.1 can spot the issue.

Hi all,
Finally got around trying with vanilla raspberry pi os; same issue there.
Hence I did post on the upstream forum, maybe someone did have similar issues and/or I can find the issue somewhere in code depending on complexity related as to what has been changed… Anyways, I will update when a solution is found here.
Kind regards,

2 Likes

I had the same issue and can confirm that this worked for me also. Although my architecture is armhf so used: raspberrypi-kernel_1.20230306-1_armhf.deb

cd /tmp
curl -Lo kernel.deb https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/r/raspberrypi-firmware/raspberrypi-kernel_1.20230306-1_armhf.deb
dpkg -i kernel.deb
rm kernel.deb
reboot

Now I get sound output while using moOde 8.3.3

1 Like

So RPi OS and mo0de images have the same issue. Sadly no reaction from Allo or RPi/kernel devs, which more likely are able to fix it than us distributors. No one reported at RPi GitHub yet, right?

I reported it now at the RPi kernel repo. 2 months without any solution is too long to not try everything: Allo Boss 2 device tree overlay or driver broken Ā· Issue #5505 Ā· raspberrypi/linux Ā· GitHub

1 Like

@Uvidus @onelesscar
Phil from RPi suggested some debug commands on the GitHub report. If you have a GitHub account, could you run those and post results directly on GitHub? Else post them here and I will copy&paste or link them over.

Thank you for picking up this issue and my apologees for not responding any sooner.

I have reinstalled raspberry pi os 64 bit lite on a new SD-card and installed the allo-boss2-dac-audio driver again. Also I have made sure to run apt update/upgrade. So in base everything is -still- as per initial post - nothing changed so far - dac is not outputting any audio (yet).
Kernel version:

Linux raspberrypi 6.1.21-v8+ #1642 SMP PREEMPT Mon Apr  3 17:24:16 BST 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux

So as per github tips, I have ran the following commands:

  1. Clear the kernel message log and Enable i2c tracing:
$ sudo dmesg -C
$ sudo sh -c "echo 1 >/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/i2c/enable"

Output of the i2c traces of both the latest kernel and the old kernel i use (diet-pi) are attached.
i2c_log_speaker_test_kernel6_1_21.txt (5.3 KB)
i2c_log_wav_kernel6_1_21.txt (5.3 KB)
i2c_log_speaker_test_kernel5_15_84.txt (503.2 KB)
i2c_log_wav_kernel5_15_84.txt (261.5 KB)

After playback there was no output of dmesg whatsoever.

Difference is that the old kernel Linux AlloPi 5.15.84-v8+ #1613 SMP PREEMPT Thu Jan 5 12:03:08 GMT 2023 aarch64 GNU/Linux, gives the following when running aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav:

Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
aplay: set_params:1349: Channels count non available

This is probably also the reason aplay isn’t captured in that particular log.

I hope the RPi engineers can make use of this. These repeating I2C logs do not say me anything :sweat_smile:.

I think it is a driver issue, some dependency on an older module that did break / got refractored or something.

Great, Phil found the bug in the audio driver, added upstream with Linux 6.1 and obviously not reviewed and tested carefully. Next kernel upgrade will contain the fix: Allo Boss 2 device tree overlay or driver broken Ā· Issue #5505 Ā· raspberrypi/linux Ā· GitHub

Sorry for the late response,
I finally came home and tested the fix on both vanilla raspberry pi os aswell as dietpi v8.18, and can confirm this fixed the -lack of- sound output issue.
Again my gratitude for your assistance and boost to get this issue fixed through the github issue tracker!

1 Like