no sound through usb headsets

[charleslam]

currently i have an evga x79 ftw with an 8c/16t xeon.  the initial plan was to use 3x r9 270x's in it for effectively 3 vm's.  unfortunately due to motherboard real estate i realize this is not going to happen and unraid will not even detect my usb to vga adapter.  i found this out after being told via the irc chat that i should be able to do this, but after digging around these forums, i am finding that to be false.  which is frustrating, as i had to invest money into this home project.  already i am not feeling welcome into this community.  but i understand people make mistakes, so i'll try to not be hypersensitive over this individual.  

 

regardless, i purchased for this project 3 usb headsets.  1 Ovleng headset doesnt even get detected with unraid.  so idk what the problem is with that.  the other 2 (an HP and a random chinese one) are detected and have been assigned to the appropriate VM's.  driver installation is successful and the OS shows that sound should be going through them.  with max volume, not a peep.  I have tested both on my windows 8.1 computer and they work fine.  it just does not work on the unraid VM's.  I am at a loss as what im supposed to do on this, as far as i can tell they should be working without issue.  Creating the VM's was a pain as my installation media for windows 8.1 would not work with the windows 8.1 template.  i had to use the windows 7 template for the OS to install.  

 

I was searching around the internet only to find one other person having this issue, which did not ever find a solution.  

 

*side note*  I have had much difficulty with these VM's when they go into sleep mode.  they refuse to come out of sleep.  forcing me to do a force stop and start, essentially killing one of my VM's in the process.  very frustrating.  

 

*another side note*  im noticing missing drivers for 2 devices in my device manager.  a pci controller,  and a pci device.  these are not for the USB headset as it already shows up separately in the VM.  

 

Any help is appreciated and attached is the VM xml config text.  if you need more information, let me know.

 

Thanks, 

Charles Lam

VM XML Configs.txt

[Squid]

5 minutes ago, charleslam said:

*side note*  I have had much difficulty with these VM's when they go into sleep mode.  they refuse to come out of sleep.  forcing me to do a force stop and start, essentially killing one of my VM's in the process.  very frustrating.  

Sleep generally isn't used on a VM as there's not much point as sleep is there to turn off a physical computer, but in this case, the physical computer is always going to be on anyways.  Just disable sleep.

 

7 minutes ago, charleslam said:

*another side note*  im noticing missing drivers for 2 devices in my device manager.  a pci controller,  and a pci device.  these are not for the USB headset as it already shows up separately in the VM.  

Search for drivers for them, and include the virtio CD that you've mounted via the template...   But its really not a big deal, as one of them for instance is going to be a virtual serial port, and the other I can't remember what it is...

 

9 minutes ago, charleslam said:

unraid will not even detect my usb to vga adapter.

The person who told you that it would work was probably thinking that you would use it to pass through to a VM as a secondary display.   They definitely won't work as a display for unRaid, since no BIOS in the world supports them.  I would also think that as the only display on a VM they wouldn't work, since the drivers for it isn't loaded until after Windows is up and running...

 

12 minutes ago, charleslam said:

already i am not feeling welcome into this community

IMHO this is one of (if not the best) support communities around.  But, the primary support vector is via this forum, not IRC nor Reddit...

 

Unfortunately, I don't have much to offer regarding your actual problem regarding the Headphones, beyond the obvious stupid stuff like drivers, volume controls, etc.  And passing through USB ports might not be an option you have available to you either.

[charleslam]

let me be more specific.  when i stated the irc chat, i was referring to the official unraid chat room on freenode.  So you can see why i can be upset.  

 

Regardless, i appreciate the quick response.  and i will try to keep my questions strictly on the forums moving forward.  

[JonathanM]

7 hours ago, charleslam said:

i was referring to the official unraid chat room on freenode

I'm a long time member here, I didn't even know there was a limetech supported chat room. It's the first I've heard of it. Where on https://lime-technology.com does it refer to it? I can't find any reference to it.

[saarg]

2 hours ago, jonathanm said:

I'm a long time member here, I didn't even know there was a limetech supported chat room. It's the first I've heard of it. Where on https://lime-technology.com does it refer to it? I can't find any reference to it.

 

It's not an official channel as far as I know. @CHBMB is one of the mods there I think. 

[CHBMB]

Yeah, I didn't set up the room though. Not sure who did tbh....

 

Also, nowhere does it state it's the "official" chatroom.

 

EDIT: Just looked back on the IRC logs and the only reference I could find was a conversation you had with someone about videocards, and their reply was "It MIGHT work" certainly nothing more solid than that...

 

Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

 

 

 

[charleslam]

well thats a fun tangent.  were you able to see private messages as well?  had 3 of them up from people in that chat at that time where i was told what i was. but maybe you saw something that i might have missed.  Or maybe i misunderstood someone.  

 

 

as for an update though

I stopped troubleshooting it as i would get windows fully updated and then it would blank screen on any VM i set up.  i narrowed it down to the 2nd set of windows updates i would perform (2nd batch of 80+ updates).  I assumed it was with the computer's sleep function.  but it wasnt.  i double checked at the time, and the power settings were set to always be on.  this would happen with 7 and 8.1 VM's at the time.  It would fully boot windows and then blank screen upon going to desktop after that 2nd batch of updates.  it became a failure living in my closet for 6-8 months.  It wasnt worth my time and the GF wanted her kitchen table back.  

 

Tried tinkering with it again 2 weeks ago.  to my surprise windows 7 & 8.1 VM's no longer have that issue with this latest release.  good on whoever fixed that problem.

 

USB headset sound is still hit or miss with driver support.  One HP headset didnt work with windows 7.  install windows 8.1, sound magically starts working.  im uncertain if this is a driver issue or an unraid issue.  as far as i can tell it is using identical usb driver files to that of the VM's that arent working with sound (OVLeng Q5 and logitech h390).  

 

Something odd happened on my VM, a lenovo m600 mouse would install but not work either.  i decided i was done mucking with it and switch my trusty logitech proteus core.  added the usb device to the profile and ran it.  the logitech mouse was not responsive.  but all of a sudden my m600 mouse started working.  removed the logitech mouse, m600 stayed working.  not sure what happened there but worth noting.  

 

Got gpu passthrough working on my system so i dont need the usb vga dongle.

 

And before someone suggests dedicating a USB controller to the VM, are we even sure what the problem is here?  no not really.  and yes these problem headsets do work on a windows 8.1 computer.  here's what i dont understand,  why is it being detected and have drivers install, state the driver is working correctly, but then not emit sound?  and for what its worth, it was working on 2 VM's simultaneously before i broke my unbranded cheap chinese headset RIP.  I believe its a driver issue with generic PNP headsets.  but i dont know for certain.

I'd rather not purchase more usb controllers if i can possibly avoid it.  I've already invested alot into this and finding it to be a never ending pit.  it seems researching this topic is left with alot of "IDK" "use a separate controller"  "try the MSI hotfix"(which afaik is only applicable to nvidia sound through hdmi or the like with GPU sound)

 

Attached is my diagnostics,  and system log.  

tower-diagnostics-20170930-1211.zip

tower-syslog-20170930-1213.zip

[charleslam]

now i ran into another issue.  thought it was this flakey evga board so i swapped it with a known working asus p9x79.  nope.  still silent on the USB headsets.  so its running great, if i dont need sound.  which is kind of a bummer.  

 

on a good note, unlike the evga x79 ftw, this one flat out says there is a total of 3 usb controllers on board.  so i will try to make the task of getting that sorted out and dedicating each controller to a VM.  i was hoping not to do that, but as i can see, there really isnt a lot of buzz here in terms of people trying to help.  and it is at least something to try, even if it doesnt seem like it will fix the issue.

 

I am half tempted to make an appointment just to watch someone squirm over this problem.  

Edited October 1, 2017 by charleslam

[charleslam]

if i try that and it doesnt work, i guess i will be getting in touch with their customer support to get a refund. 

[saarg]

6 hours ago, charleslam said:

if i try that and it doesnt work, i guess i will be getting in touch with their customer support to get a refund. 

 

You are aware that passing through devices is not something that is promised to work? This has much to do with the device also. 

Unraid just use upstream packages for VMs that handles the pass through. So it's not much unraid can do with devices not working.

You already got the suggestion to pass through a USB controller, so to complain about not getting help when you don't want to try what is suggested is unfair.

As long as the USB controller supports pass through, it most likely solves your problems.  

[SSD]

@charleslam

 

I am just reading this thread. A chat room might be a good place to get personalised help, but it lacks the auditing of such information by a wider audience. Not sure who you spoke to, but I'm sure he did his best, but if you want to refer to the community, you need to be working through the forums not one on one. At that point you're dealing with a community of one!

 

There is an excellent 2 part video series in creating VMs from SpaceInvader One (youtube name), a.k.a. gridrunner on the forums. The first is on setting up a "daily driver" and the second covers video passthrough. Suggest you watch if you haven't. It uses Windows 10, but there is no reason Windows 8.1 would not work. (I well mention, through, that most Windows 8 users have moved to Windows 10, while many Windows 7 users have not. So we are starting to see drivers for 8/8.1 not getting much attention.)

 

Pass through (not even sure that's the right term, more like emulation) of individual usb devices, I have found, to be finicky. I had trouble passing through a Logitech unifying receiver. It passing through, but after an hour or two of use, it stopped working. And while it was working, the mouse action was not smooth. And if you unplugged the device and re-inserted, you'd lose it every time, The video series I listed above SPECIFICALLY mentions that usb headsets need to be used on a passed through USB controller. I passed through a USB controller for my Logitech UR and it works perfectly. Most motherboards have several such controllers onboard, and you can pass one or two through, while still leaving one for unRraid to use. Zero cost to do this. Search for another SI1 video on USB passthrough. I really think your headsets will work on a passed through USB controller.

 

Watch those videos and try USB controller passthrough. I think you'll have a smoother experience. And be careful not to be snippy here. Your problems are not anyone here's fault. The community members (including the moderators like me) are unpaid enthusiasts who try to be helpful. No one here is at fault for any of your issues. Attitudes like "I've spent enough money and it should work" are not helpful. And no one has even suggested you spend anything that I can see. So be patient and appreciative that people are taking the time to respond and offer suggestions to try to help you out, and I think your misplaced frustration with the community will end, and you'll actually get your configuration to work!

 

Good luck and keep us posted.

[charleslam]

USB passthrough got the USB headsets to work. 

 

went through space invader's method.  found this prior to your post SSD.  just wish it didnt take me so long to find it.

 

kind of pointless to have an interface with options for things that may/may not work like that.  i get it, no one wants to try to figure out why usb headsets dont work consistently in the fashion i set up.  but leaving that option up is misleading and confusing.  luckily i had space for one usb pci-e card.  

 

intel has 1 controller - passthrough worked right out the box

asmedia has 2 controller - only 1 ever worked and thats with setting  intel_iommu=pt.  the 2nd controller shows the same address as the first one (1b21:1042) while showing up on a different bus.  so that lead me to believe it really was only 1 physical controller and some other voodoo magic was going on.

usb pcie card shows up as a VIA usb controller, but strangely enough did not show up on my bus list.  manually added the address and its working.  *shrugs*  im done trying to figure out consistency with this stuff.

 

regardless thats what happened and what i did to get it working. 

 

 

[CHBMB]

Th point is KVM is an upstream project.  Why take the option out because it hasn't worked for your need?  It does work for other use cases, I've used it myself.

[charleslam]

10 hours ago, SSD said:

@charleslam

 

The video series I listed above SPECIFICALLY mentions that usb headsets need to be used on a passed through USB controller.

Yeah i found this out WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY after the fact.  I heard that at 11 AM this morning thinking "wow i wish i knew that before i started trying to throw this system together".  im kind of frustrated that i did not find this out until after all that.  

[charleslam]

9 minutes ago, CHBMB said:

Th point is KVM is an upstream project.  Why take the option out because it hasn't worked for your need?  It does work for other use cases, I've used it myself.

 

while i did have it work intermittently, it gets confusing and is a tad misleading that it will work or it will continue to work.  i was second guessing my devices or my motherboard.  i mean yeah it worked-ish for keyboards and mice (still had that weird experience with the m600 mouse...idk wtf that was all about).  *mileage may vary getting these usb devices working as intended*

 

well it wasnt spelled flat out before from what i could find on these forums for the usb headsets.  now it is.  

[SSD]

@charleslam

 

The use of VM technology with hardware passthrough is a relatively new phenomenon. Hardware support has been there for a while, and ways to exploit it for a typical home user - virtually non-existent. While I can sympathize with your frustration in getting it working properly for your use cases, embarking down the path, which may have predated some of the better resources available today, one had to be prepared for a technical solving adventure. The guard rails and "do not enter" signs only come with time based on the work of the early adopters. Everyone needs to pick their moment. 

 

I went down this road myself, and certainly experienced some setbacks and pot holes. But overall would say anyone comfortable enough to (do the equivalent of) drive a pickup truck on a bumpy country road can make this work. Which is a lot better than needing a machete and hip waders! But someone showing up in a corvette and expecting to whiz on down the road at 90 mph is going to be frustrated.

 

If I read between the lines, though, it sound like you did overcome your major challenges and have your system up and running more or less as desired. Hope that is true and all the challenges are behind you!

 

Enjoy your array!!