[FFADO-user] Saffire needs extra device on bus before it will work (was: generic digest subject)

[Jonathan W. <jw...@ju...>]

Hi David

> Greetings,  1st Post Here...
> Longtime lurker and freebob / ffado user though.

Welcome!

> I recently upgraded a rig from a PreSonus device to Focusrite Saffire Pro
> 40.  The thing works flawlessly in this setup with only a single, sort of
> nit-picky issue so I thought the group might be able to help.
> 
> Upon a fresh reboot the Focusrite device simply refuses to be recognized
> unless I also have something else on it's 1394 bus.  The other device can be
> any F/W device I have, the PreSonus Firepod, or a 1394 camera (Sony, JVC).
> As long as the other device is powered on and cabled properly when an
> attempt is made to use the bus once, all is well after.  Until I plug
> something else in I can't see the Saffire Pro.   Things low level like
> firecontrol also report no-device.  

This sounds *really* odd.

>  I've never seen anything like this with F/W, and wanted to know if you guys
> could think of some way to kick-start it, or perhaps I have a defective
> unit?

It would be easy to blame a defective unit, but even then it's hard to see
exactly how this set of symptoms could come to pass.  Given the way the bus
works I really can't see why the Saffire would be waiting for some other
device before it's willing to talk on the bus.  Even if there was something
funny with the IRM (isynchronous resource manager) election that shouldn't
affect the basic async communication.

About the best thing I can suggest is to check the system logs on boot with
just the Saffire on the bus.  What firewire messages are shown (if any)? 
This could be compared with the messages seen when you have another device
on the bus in the same situation (ie: after a boot).  Maybe something will
show up then.

Posting the output of ffado-diag might be interesting: at the very least
it'll tell us what firewire card you are using.  Perhaps that will shed some
light on the situation.

Stefan: do you have any ideas?  Have you ever seen anything like this?

What would happen if something was stopping the bus master election?  But
having said that I don't think it's possible for this to fail.

Regards
  jonathan