Sorry to be a bit off topic, but as the Ardour site recommend hdsp multiface as a good soundcard under linux, I might find some help here…
I got an old multiface 1, running A1 with the pci card on UbuntuStudio. The thing is I can’t get it to work on my laptop with the cardbus, same system.
I’m happy, I solved my problem… by changing the ac adaptor !!! The card is supposed to work with power from 6 to 40 V, I switched from 12 to 18 and bingo, I could load the firmware… I never imagine that could be the problem… I switched back to a 12v ac adaptor and I wasn’t able to load the firmware again.
While this may not be the source nor the end solution to your problem, it looks like your on-board audio is sharing an IRQ with your multiface which may be causing conflicts. Don’t know if it’s possible with your laptop, but my recommendation would be changing the IRQ of your multiface, or better yet turning off the on-board audio off entirely in from your BIOS settings. (As a side note, my intel on-board audio had recently been causing me grief). Other than that, maybe double checking if you have cardbus support enabled in your kernel (believe ubuntu does, but not sure). Does HDSP show up at all in lsmod?
cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.14.
Compiled on Jun 21 2007 for kernel 2.6.20.3-ubuntu1-custom-2-6-20-lowlat
Did compile the alsa drivers and libs from source, same old… same old…
hdsploader
hdsploader - firmware loader for RME Hammerfall DSP cards
Looking for HDSP + Multiface or Digiface cards :
Card 0 : RME Hammerfall DSP at 0xd4000000, irq 11
Upload firmware for card hw:0
Hwdep ioctl error on card hw:0 : Input/output error
It has to be something with the cardbus. I’ve seen a message from Paul Davis saying to downgrade the firmware of the cardbus (need windows) but the problem was not the same, the soundcard was loaded but wasn’t sounding good.
I now have kindo of exactly the same problem…
tried to use my multiface II, which i usually run on a tower, on my laptop via pcmcia, and it doesnt work, telling me device is busy… and i also have the same irq 11 on both soundcards, the onboard and the interface:
thx peder, yes, finally it works, but it was more my stupidity… ;(
the new ubuntu jaunty doesnt need that you start hdsploader at the beginning, the soundcard works out of the box (at least in my case now) , and i had to disable the onboard soundcarsd by an entry in the blacklist… but now its ok… of course it crashes always when i tried to run hdsploader…