[pulseaudio-discuss] Can't use Alesis iO4, even though a bug fix seems to exist

[Martin G]

Pulse Audio users and developers,

(I originally asked about this on the ALSA mailing list, but I was
informed this is a Pulse Audio issue, so I am reproducing my question
here, with the necessary edits to refer to Pulse instead of ALSA.)

Recently I purchased an Alesis iO4, 4 microphone USB input device for
use with my Ubuntu 12.10 laptop.

I discovered it didn't work, and according to some very helpful advice
on the Audacity forums, it seems the problem is a bug in Pulse.

According to the bug tracking site for Pulse, the bug has been fixed
as of around May 2012. However, it is February 2013 and I am unable to
use the device. It seems the bug fix has not been implemented in the
Pulse version in the Ubuntu repositories.

My question is: Has the patch been implemented, and is it possible for
me to get a version of Pulse with that fix? According to Synaptic, the
version of Pulse I have installed is 1:2.1-0ubuntu4.

Or, is there any other configuration or method I can use to get Pulse
to accept input from my Alesis iO4? Can I apply the patch on my
current version?

I am keen to get this device working, and it's unclear to me when an
Pulse update might happen next, so I'm hoping there is something I can
do now to correct the problem.

Thank you for any advice.

For reference, this is the link to the discussion on the Audacity forum:
http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=70920

This is the Pulse bug that seems to be the problem:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45813

This is a duplicate bug that directly references the iO4:
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=49056

This is the Alesis iO4:
http://www.alesis.com/io4

Hope to hear from someone soon.

-- 
Martin