Cirrus Logic Sound Fusion CS4280, CS461x, CS462x, CS463x devices

This page describes how to enable support for sound devices based on CS46xx chipsets on Debian systems.

Contents

Cirrus Logic Sound Fusion CS4280, CS461x, CS462x, CS463x devices

snd-cs46xx is a Linux kernel module supporting Cirrus Logic's Sound Fusion CS46xx audio controllers. It is an ALSA driver included in the Linux kernel.

At linux-2.6 2.6.23-1, the binary-only firmware in this driver was removed due to licensing issues. The driver was disabled at this time. Firmware was also removed from the alsa-source package to resolve bug 483918.

At linux-2.6 2.6.31-1~experimental.1, the snd-cs46xx driver was re-enabled and patched to use firmware from userspace (resolving Debian bug 464197).

At Linux 3.14, the binary-only firmware was moved out of the kernel tree, with the driver modified to load this externally. Device firmware is part of ALSA releases since version 1.0.28.¹

Device firmware is unable to be distributed by the Debian project, as the snd-cs46xx driver has no license.² A free redistribution license has been requested from Cirrus Logic.³

Installation

Debian 8 "Jessie"

You are required to supply several firmware files for device use, which can be acquired from the ALSA project.

Install the alsa-utils package:

$ su
# aptitude update && aptitude install alsa-utils
# exit

Acquire an alsa-firmware tarball (≥ v1.0.28) from the ALSA project's server, for example:
```
$ wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/firmware/alsa-firmware-1.0.28.tar.bz2
```
Extract the tarball, for example:
```
$ tar xvf alsa-firmware-1.0.28.tar.bz2
```

Install the firmware to your system, for example:

$ cd alsa-firmware-1.0.28/cs46xx
$ su
# mkdir /lib/firmware/cs46xx
# cp ba1 cwc4630 cwcasync cwcbinhack cwcdma cwcsnoop /lib/firmware/cs46xx

Reload the snd-cs46xx module:

# modprobe -r snd-cs46xx ; modprobe snd-cs46xx

If not already performed, add your user account to the audio group, then log out and log back into your system:
```
# adduser yourusername audio
# exit
$ exit
```
Run alsamixer(1) to unmute channels and raise the volume levels.

Test the sound device, for example:

$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav
$ speaker-test -t sine -f 440 -c 2
$ speaker-test -t wav -c 2

Debian 7 "Wheezy"

You are required to supply one firmware file for device use.

Install the alsa-base, alsa-utils and build-essential packages:

$ su
# aptitude update && aptitude install alsa-base alsa-utils build-essential
# exit

Download cs46xx_image.h from Linus' kernel tree:

$ wget https://raw.github.com/torvalds/linux/v3.2/sound/pci/cs46xx/cs46xx_image.h

Download source code for a program to write out firmware from cs46xx_image.h:

$ wget 'https://wiki.debian.org/snd-cs46xx?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=write_images.c' -O write_images.c

Download a patch against cs46xx_image.h:

$ wget 'https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?msg=181;att=0;bug=464197' -O cs46xx_image.diff

Apply the patch:
```
$ patch -i cs46xx_image.diff
```
Compile the write_images program:
```
$ gcc -o write_images write_images.c
```
Execute the program to write out firmware:
```
$ ./write_images
```

Install the firmware:

$ su
# mkdir /lib/firmware/cs46xx
# cp cs46xx/cs46xx-old.fw /lib/firmware/cs46xx

Reload the snd-cs46xx module:

# modprobe -r snd-cs46xx ; modprobe snd-cs46xx

If not already performed, add your user account to the audio group, then log out and log back into your system:
```
# adduser yourusername audio
# exit
$ exit
```
Run alsamixer(1) to unmute channels and raise the volume levels.

Test the sound device, for example:

$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav
$ speaker-test -t sine -f 440 -c 2
$ speaker-test -t wav -c 2

Troubleshooting

Examine the kernel ring buffer (dmesg(1)) to verify firmware is being loaded.

If output similar to the following is shown:

[16576.681738] Sound Fusion CS46xx 0000:00:06.0: found PCI INT A -> IRQ 11
[16576.681774] Sound Fusion CS46xx 0000:00:06.0: sharing IRQ 11 with 0000:00:02.0
[16576.681827] Sound Fusion CS46xx 0000:00:06.0: sharing IRQ 11 with 0000:01:00.0
[16577.224760] Sound Fusion CS46xx 0000:00:06.0: firmware: requesting cs46xx/cs46xx-old.fw
[16577.403887] cs46xx: firmware hunk out of range
[16577.406087] image download error
[16577.412213] Sound Fusion CS46xx: probe of 0000:00:06.0 failed with error

The firmware is not in the correct format.

Ensure the patch for cs46xx_image.h is applied prior to compiling write_images.c.
Ensure write_images is executed on a system where unsigned long is little-endian 32-bit.

Supported Devices

The page HowToIdentifyADevice/PCI explains how to identify a PCI device.

The following list is based on the alias fields of modinfo snd-cs46xx in Debian 3.16 (3.16.7-ckt9-3~deb8u1) kernel images.

PCI: 1013:6001 Cirrus Logic CS 4610/11 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator]
PCI: 1013:6003 Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24/30 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator]
PCI: 1013:6004 Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator]

snd-cs46xx