It is supported in the new release of XBMC Gotham Cheers!

Hi Paul Garcia

I have same problem

So

I need your help

Would you tell me how to setup XBMC Gotham?

Can I install raspbmc-2013-12-23.img first,and update the XBMC?

I search the XBMC

in this post

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=176043&page=80

wget -O xbmc-14-20140420-nc3.tar.gz http://goo.gl/tNRTO0 --no-check-certificate

pv xbmc-14-20140420-nc3.tar.gz | tar xzf - -C /home/pi/.upgrade

sudo cp /home/pi/.upgrade/xbmc-14-20140420-nc3/{fixup_x.dat,start_x.elf} /boot

ln -sfn /home/pi/.upgrade/xbmc-14-20140420-nc3/xbmc-bcm /home/pi/.xbmc-current

sudo reboot

so

my step will working?

The Woolfson card is just part of my system. I need to keep other bits up to date. Having a system where I cannot run apt-get update and / or raspi-update is unacceptable.

You have identified one problem raspi-update? I am not familiar with this I am going to guess you meant rpi-update. rpi-update will update you to the development Kernel. This is not intended for general use. But for the Linux dev's to test out the newer builds to see what bugs need to be discovered before being released into the general public. It's an advanced update utility and I strongly discourage anyone from using it if they want the most reliable tested kernel running on the Pi.

Here is a quote from recantha's blog: http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=7316

"As others have commented, rpi-update is useful if you want the latest, latest, latest version of the firmware, but does carry with it a few risks to the stability of your system."

This is why you will see files inside this firmware being updated almost daily. Yet the official image is released only a few times each year.

https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware

https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update

Updating for the sake of updating is never recommended unless your willing to post what issues you encountered and downgrade or help resolve the issues with the new firmware.

No developer should be blamed if raspi-update causes a conflict as they may have just barely downloaded it and began to work on a resolution. kernel: Bump to 3.12.19 is Three days old just how fast a resolution to a developers hardware or software is acceptable?

apt-get update doesn't do anything that should break your system:

apt-get update doesn't actually install new versions of software.

• apt-get update downloads the package lists from the repositories and "updates" them to get information on the newest versions of packages and their dependencies. It will do this for all repositories and PPAs.

• Used to re-synchronize the package index files from their sources. The indexes of available packages are fetched from the location(s) specified in /etc/apt/sources.list. An update should always be performed before an upgrade or dist-upgrade.

• apt-get upgrade will fetch new versions of packages existing on the machine if APT knows about these new versions by way of apt-get update.

If using apt-get upgrade. Always pay attention to what packages have been updated and report a package that has possibly broken a known working feature. Again downgrade that app and await an official update.

What is holding up the PR Documentation the Foundation needs is unclear and yes Wolfson should act as quickly as possible to get their card into the official Current Release of Raspbian. But as we are unaware of what steps they need to resolve at best we can hope for an update to their progress.

The original question of this thread comes from this post Raspberry Pi • View topic - Next firmware tree is now 3.12

If you notice it was stated the firmware would come out sometime this month I am not sure if it has already or if it is still in progress. Once Wolfson finishes their PR the Foundation will gladly update and include it very quickly.

If you are using this Kernel Dom wrote "Note: this tree is aimed at testers. There could be missing kernel modules, or things that don't work. If you find any problems, then report here, or create a github issue."

Wolfson was commented on and he replied what is needed. This was less than 30 days ago.

Todd Cowley wrote:

 

What is holding up the PR Documentation the Foundation needs is unclear and yes Wolfson should act as quickly as possible to get their card into the official Current Release of Raspbian. But as we are unaware of what steps they need to resolve at best we can hope for an update to their progress.

 

Wolfson has been taken over by Cirrus Logic. See this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-27202322

The article says;

"Wolfson has reported losses recently due to volatility in supplying that market.

It has been shedding staff to bring its costs down"

That may have something to do with lack of progress on getting the drivers included in the official Raspbian distribution. If the card is not considered a priority by Cirrus then we may be waiting a long time for anything to happen.

I think there is still hope just posted this:

Wolfson Audio Card Webinar June 12th.

I came across the following tweet I am hoping for some exciting news and updates.

@wolfsonmicro     May 2   

Looking for an introduction to the Wolfson Audio Card? Join our webinar with @element14 on 12 June to find out more http://bit.ly/1ucIXtF

Description

Wolfson invites you to delve into a new dimension of Raspberry Pi audio with the Wolfson audio card accessory. The Webinar will provide you a detailed overview of the Wolfson Audio Card and also show you creative ways of enhancing your Pi Projects with the use of this leading edge Pi accessory.

Todd Cowley wrote:

 

I think there is still hope just posted this:

 

 

Wolfson Audio Card Webinar June 12th.

That's encouraging. I guess there will be a period where Cirrus will be reviewing the projects that Wolfson have been engaged in, and decide what they want to do with them going forward. From what I read the Wolfson chief guy is staying on for now to guide the transition.

Todd Cowley wrote:

 

I'll keep looking for links. What is your desired setup with XBMC? Just curious as a $5 USB Sound card card can deliver the same audio quality out. Here's a good understanding of what this card is compared to a USB sound card. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU-JMVkbCP8&feature=youtu.be I am working on a write up as we speak and testing it out.

My desired setup is XBMC -> Wolfson DAC -> vintage Harman-Kardon receiver.  I've tried a $5 USB sound card and it didn't fulfill my needs for several reasons.  First, since it runs off the relatively dirty +5V from the Pi, this raises the noise floor to an objectionable level, unless you provide your own dedicated power supply for the USB DAC to run on.  Second, since it goes over USB, anything else that goes over USB and generates traffic on that bus (e.g. WiFi adapter, external hard drive) opens the possibility for contention, lag, and skips/pops.  (Hence distributions like Volumio that use the RT patch and are highly tuned to avoid this issue.)  The Wolfson card, as well as the HiFiBerry, communicate with the Pi using I2S, a dedicated channel that does not suffer from this issue.

Todd Cowley wrote:

 

I think in order to be of any assistance what requirements do you exactly need. What benefits over the older Kernel would you receive vs building it off the newer Kernel. (Note newer Kernel does not always equate to making your project better. Need to see what improvements were made.) Yes there does need to be integration into the default Raspbian images, etc.. But there are almost always options available through a Google search where work outside an official release results in what you need.

 

By defining why you need to run it with the current Kernel they can answer if any updates that do come out will address your particular need.

I'm not asking for a newer version of the kernel.  I'm asking for the driver to be in tree, or at least to see some progress toward that goal.

The issue preventing this from happening seems to be the quality of the driver.  From a kernel maintainer at http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=75895&hilit=wolfson :

"My main objection to these modules is 99% of users don't use them, they load by default which takes time and memory, and they mess with gpio lines and i2c which may affect users who are using the pins for other uses.  Ideally they would be "opt-in", perhaps with a raspi-config menu setting saying "Support I2S audio cards"."

In other words, the Wolfson driver doesn't play nicely with others, and that's why the maintainers won't merge it into tree.

To be honest, I'm really disappointed with the software support for this card.  In November of last year, Eddie Sinnott from Wolfson posted on this forum, "After a minor glitch with the hardware we've now got boards turning up at the warehouse in their thousands. Main focus now is on getting the software drivers to a level we're happy with before releasing. We're working closely with the Raspbian team as well as the team at Element14 and we'll keep you posted as soon as we have a firmer date."  They finally shipped in March, and I bought mine a month and a half ago with the understanding that better software support would soon be forthcoming, but that hasn't happened.  The Wolfson Audio card is really a great piece of hardware that's been let down by poor software support.

I feel your frustration but your mixing the two all together. The Raspbian images are supplied by the Foundation which has a goal of a teaching platform to be used as educational purposes. Adding a Sound Card by default conflicts with their goal. XBMC repo's are maintained outside of the Raspbian Updates and Packages. I use Raspbmc if the Foundation releases any update Raspbmc has to test and configure this then put out their own environment. If what Wolfson does release works with Raspbian there is no guarantee it will work with the Media Center Builds they then have to work to get it resolved. Ideally one package goes out and it works for everyone.

My post shows promise it does not help with delays or anything that can frustrate the end user:

Re: Wolfson drivers not in next Raspbian update

I did see this post on Raspbmc from 4/14/2014 so it is coming I would follow this post and possibly recommend Raspbmc as it the only build I am aware of that is building in support. Please let me know if the other builds also offer support or intend to Raspbmc  » New Raspbmc update!

I’m adding support for the following sound cards:

• Wolfson Microelectronics Raspberry Pi Module – Wolfson’s patches for this had issues, so I’ve done my best to manually resolve these myself. I have reached out to a developer at Wolfson who tells me patches will be released in the future.

I still have hope. Sometimes no word is good news it means so much time is spent getting it up and out posting theoretical dates and such is useless time spent. Do not I have yet to ever hear them promise, comment, commit that any intended use from their Viewpoint would be as an XBMC Sound Card. Wouldn't a more reliable choice have been an HDMI Audio Splitter? I ask even though I don't know if that would do what you intended. I am trying to review this card and in the past weeks have dug deep to see everything I can to give a non-biased review. I really feel that they have lived up to their promises which has been to do the best they can.

The card went out in March to a development platform the delay was due to them wanting to delivery a quality product. That is based on a chip used in smartphones to provide audio capabilities of in and out record voip, etc.. The last update is less than 30 days from both The Raspberry Pi foundation and Raspbmc of which Raspbmc stated he had contact with a developer at Wolfson that said patches are to come. Hold tight I hope it all works out in the end for everyone. But unfortunately we have a lot of trial and error on our end and all have a few products for the Pi that didn't necessarily live up to it's potential but for me those were products from last year.

I contacted Wolfson HQ and received this response today. Hopefully they have some good news coming. I will post again once I receive and update.

Hi Todd

Thanks for your email. I have someone in HQ working on response, and we aim to have it to you tomorrow.

Thanks!

Lynn Mason

Sales Administration Manager

Wolfson Microelectronics, Inc.

Todd Cowley wrote:

 

I contacted Wolfson HQ and received this response today. Hopefully they have some good news coming. I will post again once I receive and update.

 

Hi Todd

Thanks for your email. I have someone in HQ working on response, and we aim to have it to you tomorrow.

I wonder if the 'someone in HQ' is in Austin, Texas? Quite topical really, with Pfizer trying to take over Astrazeneca ...

Todd Cowley wrote:

 

I contacted Wolfson HQ and received this response today. Hopefully they have some good news coming. I will post again once I receive and update.

 

Hi Todd

Thanks for your email. I have someone in HQ working on response, and we aim to have it to you tomorrow.

I wonder if the 'someone in HQ' is in Austin, Texas? Quite topical really, with Pfizer trying to take over Astrazeneca ...