m17-gateway software fails to run with SX1255 hotspot board

[ka4ymy]

saved.log

[jancona]

What model Pi are you using for your hotspot? Can you run aplay -l and post the output?

[ka4ymy]

It's a Pi3. Here is a printout from entering aplay -l:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones], device 0: bcm2835 Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: GenericStereoAu [GenericStereoAudioCodec], device 0: bcm2835-i2s-dit-hifi dit-hifi-0 [bcm2835-i2s-dit-hifi dit-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: vc4hdmi [vc4-hdmi], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[jancona]

Try changing ALSAPlaybackDevice in m17-gateway.ini to:

ALSAPlaybackDevice = /dev/snd/pcmC1D0p

and restarting.

[ka4ymy]

That was it! I'm up and running. The dashboard reports being connected to M17-M17-C. All green.

Here is the systemctl status report:

● m17-gateway.service - M17 Gateway Service
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/m17-gateway.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2026-04-27 13:41:37 EDT; 12s ago
Main PID: 531 (m17-gateway)
Tasks: 12 (limit: 765)
CPU: 10.396s
CGroup: /system.slice/m17-gateway.service
└─531 /opt/m17/m17-gateway/m17-gateway -config /etc/m17-gateway.ini

Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.394382 [DEBUG] Adding audioClips[zulu]
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.394393 [DEBUG] Adding audioClips[m17]
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.396516 [DEBUG] sayCallsign(KA4YMY)
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.396644 [DEBUG] Connecting to M17-M17, 107.191.121.105:17000, module C
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.396746 [DEBUG] normalized callsign M17-M17 C to M17-M17 C
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.396980 [DEBUG] Sending CONN callsign: KA4YMY, module C, cmd: []byte{0x43, 0x4f, 0x4e, 0x4e, 0x0, 0x0, 0x9a, 0xab, 0x7b, 0xf3, 0x43}
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.397161 [DEBUG] Sent connect to M17-M17 107.191.121.105:17000
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.407349 [DEBUG] SX1255 enable RX: true
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.418399 [DEBUG] client: Waiting for close signal
Apr 27 13:41:39 sx1255 m17-gateway[531]: 2026/04/27 13:41:39.421440 [DEBUG] Received ACKN

[jancona]

Cool. I'm going to push a change that should allow you to go back to the original line. I'd appreciate it if you could test it when it's ready.

[ka4ymy]

Will do. Thanks!

[jancona]

If you change the ALSAPlaybackDevice line back and re-run the installer, that should pick up the fixed version. Let me if it works. Thanks!

[ka4ymy]

Yep I just removed the line, put it all back the way it was originally and it all works fine. I have a Pi4 in my stash, I'll pull it out later this evening and test it just to make sure it works with that one as I did try it a day or two ago with the same software fail. I suspect it will work now. Thank you Jim for your help with this issue!

[jancona]

Great, thanks for being patient! The issue was that the code was finding the headphone jack playback device before the SX1255 I2S device. It worked on the Pi Zero 2W because it doesn't have a jack. The fix should work for your Pi 4 too. Feel free to reopen this if it doesn't.