Cirrus Logic Audio Card working on the Raspberry Pi 2

For good measure, I've put together a tar archive of the 3.18 kernels with Cirrus Logic drivers, that can be installed on top of an existing Raspbian 3.18 installation.

Download the archive file kernel_3_18_9_W_CL.tgz from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzIaxMH3N5O1S1FfSGpqYjEwaVk/view?usp=sharing

To install:
Become root: sudo -s
Go to root directory: cd /
Untar the archive: tar xvzf /path/to/where/you/saved/kernel_3_18_9_W_CL.tgz
Add these lines

dtparam=spi=on
dtparam=i2c_arm=on
dtoverlay=rpi-cirrus-wm5102-overlay

to the file /boot/config.txt

On a RPi2B, also add

kernel=kernel7_CL.img

or, on all others, add

kernel=kernel_CL.img

to /boot/config.txt

Put these lines into /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blacklist.conf  (create the file if it doesn't exist.)

softdep arizona-spi pre: arizona-ldo1
softdep spi-bcm2708 pre: fixed

Reboot.

If it doesn't work, you can revert to your original kernel by just removing the "kernel=kernel_CL.img" line from /boot/config.txt

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Ragnar

Ragnar:

Thank you so much for putting this together.  I am up and running with the new kernel.  I am no luck however with the sound and I am putting that on my setup for now.  I have a local install of kodi on RPI2 to be controlled by BubbleUPnp android app, as well a as rpi2 install of BubbleUPnp, which allows to designate kodi as an openhome rendered and then drive the sound to the Onkyo Amp.  This setup worked only with HDMI before.  I am using the Sound configuration on Raspberry Pi with ALSA | Stephen C Phillips to troubleshoot, why I am not getting any sound. 

Ahmed

Ragnar:

Thank you so much for putting this together.  I am up and running with the new kernel.  I am no luck however with the sound and I am putting that on my setup for now.  I have a local install of kodi on RPI2 to be controlled by BubbleUPnp android app, as well a as rpi2 install of BubbleUPnp, which allows to designate kodi as an openhome rendered and then drive the sound to the Onkyo Amp.  This setup worked only with HDMI before.  I am using the Sound configuration on Raspberry Pi with ALSA | Stephen C Phillips to troubleshoot, why I am not getting any sound. 

Ahmed

I know nothing about Kodi

Have you run any of the "Playback.." scripts to select which output(s) the card should use?

I've noticed there's an experimental build of OpenELEC for the RPi2/Cirrus. Maybe some clues in there...

http://www.horus.com/~hias/tmp/openelec-wolfson/

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Ragnar

I have not run the play back scripts.  Thanks for pointing those out.  I think I need to go simple and use the 3.5 mm audio out instead of the digital out and work backwards.  I wish I did not have have to use kodi either.  I just needed a simple media player. I started looking at mpd and somehow ended up with kodi!  Kodi has an audio output area which I need to check again.

Hi Ahmed,

If you use HDMI to your Onkyo receiver,  you do not need to follow any of the CLAC specific setups, nor the card.

I recommend you look at ready to run image for Kodi, : Xbian. It allowed me to use HDMI sound output withouth too much work

If you want a headless music player look at TUTORIAL: Installing Squeezelite player on Raspbian | Squeezing a Raspberry Pi

if you read gerrelts tutorials you will be able to set the output of Squeezelite to the 1) Standard Raspi Analogue port ( fair but not hifi ) 2) HDMI ( but not together with Kodi running )

or the CLAC as discussed in this forum. Hint:  SL_SOUNDCARD="sysdefault:CARD=sndrpiwsp" in /usr/local/bin/squeezelite_settings.sh

I might experiment on Xbian and this Raspi 2B CLAC kernel later. But for me Kodi is not the preferred Audio renderer.

Regards Marcel

Marcel:

I did not like the sound out of the box on the HDMI and Onkyo, but I have not done any kind of optimization either.  The sound was kind of boomy and did not have any body to it  I will look at your suggestion for another RPI2 iplmementation, that I will do for another Denon AVR-X2000.  I am not advanced user of Linux, so I had issues using Kodi, when I do remote desktop using XRDP.  So my current setup is MPD/MediaPlayer/BubbleUpnp on RPI2, BubbleUPnP on Notes 2 and then SPDIF connection from CLAC to Onkyo.  The sound is richer.  It still is lacking compared to my 2.1 audiophile setup that I have using a win2012r2/AO/Foorbar2k -> Cambridge Audio Dac Magic Plus -> Adcom.  But I think Raspberry PI can be further improved as I get to learn more from you advanced folks.  Thanks for your note.

Ahmed

Hi Ahmed,

The HDMI output to the DAC in your receivers should be OK. If this does not sound right to you, I can only think of 2 causes.

1) The receiver is not up to your specs.

2) Kodi might to translations to the digital stream that does not preserve the full quality of your audio source.

But I am not an audiophile, I just need good clear sound and an afordable system.

If you like MPD, you can look at volumio, there might be support for the CLAC by now. At least there a a lot of audiophiles there.

An other quick start would be squeezeplug, but to my knowledge this had no CLAC support up to about 6 weeks ago.

Anyway I had bought 2 of the CLACs and have plans with the onboard class-d amp and the proper headset driver.

While volumio did not deliver on the  multi room promise and has a lagging  user interface....,

Gerrelt showed me the way to slap a squeeze lite client onto a Pi, and use the LMS on a laptop, and have many setup options to fit almost any wish. ( Read his site )

Now with the the Pi2 power, running the LMS on the Pi itself becomes more resonable, and this is my direction.

The fine kernel work done here by Regnar and others could be picked up to create easy to start sets.

I am working on a script that builds Gerrelts examples on Regnars initial image and updates it too with the corrected kernel.

I might present the script later, but currently it is not at beta stage, and I do not want to share the clumbsy code.

It fits my purpose to remember and document the steps, and brings back a working setup in 7 minutes.

Marcel