Just an update to my previous mail.
After some search among alsa users, I have found that a possible cause of the problem is a bug in ehci_hcd. Sometimes, full speed audio transfers cannot be scheduled through a high-speed hub because of the wrong estimation that there is not enough bandwidth. 
In addition, the problem does not occur in Ubuntu 10.10. Does this mean that I have to use and updated version of ehci_hcd somehow?

On Mon, 11 Jul 2011 05:32  PM, Konstantinos Birkos <kmpirkos@ece.upatras.gr> wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I am using an external USB audio capturing device (XLR to USB converter) 
> that is connected via a USB hub to an Alix 3d3 board running Voyage MPD 
> 0.7. When trying to record using the arecord utility, I get the 
> following error:
> 
> arecord: pcm_read: 1692: read error: Input/output error
> 
> The error does not occur when I connect the USB audio device directly to 
> the board. What am I possibly missing?
> 
> Thanks in advance
> 
> --
> Konstantinos Birkos
> PhD Student
> Wireless Telecommunication Laboratory
> Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
> University of Patras
> Patras, Greece
> Tel.: +30 2610 996465
> 
> 
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> 


