doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml,v 1.38 2004/07/30 12:42:06 swift Exp $ -->
<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">

<guide link = "/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">
<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>
<author title="Author">
  <mail link="zu@pandora.be">Vincent Verleye</mail>
</author>
<author title="Author">
  <mail link="g2boojum@gentoo.org">Grant Goodyear</mail>
</author>
<author title="Author">
  <mail link="agenkin@gentoo.org">Arcady Genkin</mail>
</author>
<author title="Author">
  <mail link="eradicator@gentoo.org">Jeremy Huddleston</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor"><!-- zhen@gentoo.org -->
        John P. Davis
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="swift@gentoo.org">Sven Vermeulen</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="bennyc@gentoo.org">Benny Chuang</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="blubber@gentoo.org">Tiemo Kieft</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="erwin@gentoo.org">Erwin</mail>
</author>

<abstract>
This guide will show you how to set up the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture 
(ALSA) on Gentoo Linux. In addition to the Gentoo Linux Desktop Configuration 
Guide, this guide is supposed to give you more information on this subject.
</abstract>

<license/>

<version>1.5.2</version>
<date>August 13, 2004</date>

<chapter>
<title>The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</title>
<section>
<title>What is ALSA?</title>
<body>

<p>
ALSA is the <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, a project dedicated to the
development of a high-quality Linux sound subsystem. It has replaced OSS
(<e>Open Sound System</e>) as default sound subsystem in the 2.6 kernel series.
</p>

<p>
ALSA provides efficient support for all types of audio interfaces, is fully
modularized, is SMP and thread-safe and provides a high-quality user space
library called <e>alsa-lib</e> to simplify application programming. It also
provides a backwards compatibility layer with OSS.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Installing ALSA</title>
<section>
<title>USE Flags</title>
<body>

<p>
Gentoo provides an <c>alsa</c> USE flag which you should set in
<path>/etc/make.conf</path> to allow our available packages to compile with 
ALSA support. If you have <c>oss</c> in your USE variable as well, ALSA will
compile with OSS backward compatibility.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Kernel Modules</title>
<body>

<p>
First of all, before continuing, make sure your kernel has <e>Sound Card
Support</e> enabled. If you used <c>genkernel</c> to build your kernel, then
this is automatically true. Otherwise reconfigure your kernel.
</p>

<p>
If you use a 2.6 kernel you can skip the rest of this section and continue with
<uri link="#alsa-utils">Installing the ALSA Utils</uri> as 2.6 already has the
necessary ALSA drivers in it. Of course, don't forget to enable support for the
sound card you have when configuring your kernel.
</p>

<p>
Users of 2.4 kernel sources will have to install the necessary ALSA drivers for
their soundcard. First find out what soundcard you have. An easy trick is to
search for "audio" in <path>/proc/pci</path>:
</p>

<pre caption="Finding out the soundcard type">
# <i>grep -i audio /proc/pci</i>
Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio 
Controller (rev 64).
</pre>

<p>
Now go to the <uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc">ALSA Soundcard
Matrix</uri> and search for your soundcard. In the above example you should go
to the "VIA" manufacturer. You will receive a table with the known chipsets of
that vendor. The chipset in the above example is "via82c686"; the "Details" link
then informs me that the driver is called <path>via82xx</path>.
</p>

<p>
Based on this information we can now install the <c>alsa-driver</c> for our
soundcard. First edit <path>/etc/make.conf</path> and <e>add</e> a new option
called ALSA_CARDS to it. Inside this variable you declare the soundcard driver
you want to use:
</p>

<pre caption="Editing /etc/make.conf for ALSA_CARDS">
ALSA_CARDS="via82xx"
</pre>

<p>
Now install <c>alsa-driver</c>:
</p>

<pre caption="Installing ALSA Drivers">
# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>
</pre>

<impo>
Whenever you (re)compile your kernel sources, chances are that the ALSA drivers
will be overwritten. It is therefore adviseable to rerun <c>emerge
alsa-driver</c> every time you (re)compile your kernel <e>after</e> having
rebooted into the new kernel.
</impo>

</body>
</section>
<section id="alsa-utils">
<title>Installing the ALSA Utils</title>
<body>

<p>
If you want backwards compatibility with OSS, you need to install
<c>alsa-oss</c>:
</p>

<pre caption="Installing the ALSA OSS compatibility layer">
# <i>emerge alsa-oss</i>
</pre>

<p>
Now install the ALSA Utils on your system (this is mandatory):
</p>

<pre caption="Installing ALSA Utils">
# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>
</pre>

<p>
Now that the utils are installed, it is time to configure ALSA...
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Configuring ALSA</title>
<section>
<title>Automatically Loading the Kernel Modules</title>
<body>

<p>
If you use a modular kernel (such as when using <c>genkernel</c>) you have to
edit <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> so that it activates the necesary modules
at boot time. For the soundcard in our example:
</p>

<pre caption="/etc/modules.d/alsa">
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
<comment># The following is only needed when you want OSS compatibility</comment>
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
</pre>

<p>
Now run <c>modules-update</c> to save the changes you made to the
<path>alsa</path> file into <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>:
</p>

<pre caption="Running modules-update">
# <i>modules-update</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Verifying the Device Files</title>
<body>

<p>
If you use DevFS (which is the default for Gentoo installations) make sure that
<path>/etc/devfsd.conf</path> has the ALSA devices and permissions correctly
registered:
</p>

<pre caption="/etc/devfsd.conf">
# ALSA/OSS stuff
# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on
# the audio devices
LOOKUP          snd          MODLOAD ACTION snd
LOOKUP          dsp          MODLOAD
LOOKUP          mixer        MODLOAD
LOOKUP          midi         MODLOAD
REGISTER        sound/.*     PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
REGISTER        snd/.*       PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Having ALSA Activated at Boot</title>
<body>

<p>
To activate ALSA support at boot, add the <c>alsasound</c> init script to the
boot runlevel:
</p>

<pre caption="Adding alsasound to the boot runlevel">
# <i>rc-update add alsasound boot</i>
# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Unmute the Channels</title>
<body>

<p>
By default, all sound channels are muted. To fix this, run <c>amixer</c>:
</p>

<pre caption="Running amixer">
# <i>amixer</i>
</pre>

<p>
If <c>amixer</c> produces lots of output then you're ready to unmute the
channels. If you receive an error, doublecheck that your soundcard module is
started.
</p>

<p>
Now unmute the <e>Master</e> and <e>PCM</e> channels. If this isn't sufficient,
also unmute the <e>Center</e> and <e>Surround</e> channels.
</p>

<pre caption="Unmuting the sound channels">
# <i>amixer set Master 100 unmute</i>
# <i>amixer set PCM 100 unmute</i>
<comment>(Only if the above isn't sufficient:)</comment>
# <i>amixer set Center 100 unmute</i>
# <i>amixer set Surround 100 unmute</i>
</pre>

<p>
To check if your sound works, play a wave file (using <c>aplay</c>), mp3 (using
<c>mpg123</c> or even <c>mplayer</c>) or any other sound file for that matter.
</p>

<p>
To fine-tune the sound channel settings you can use the <c>alsamixer</c>
application.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Activating MIDI Support</title>
<section>
<title>Installing the Necessary Packages</title>
<body>

<p>
Some soundcards come with onboard MIDI synthesizers. To use them, you must first
install the <c>awesfx</c> package:
</p>

<pre caption="Installing the awesfx package">
# <i>emerge awesfx</i>
</pre>

<p>
If you have a collection of sound fonts somewhere, place them in
<path>/usr/share/sfbank</path>. For instance, the SBLive has a sound font file
called <path>8MBGMSFX.SF2</path> or <path>CT4GMSFX.SF2</path>.
</p>

<p>
After copying over the sound font, select them using <c>asfxload</c>:
</p>

<pre caption="Loading the sound font">
# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sfbank/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>
</pre>

<p>
You must have this command run every time you boot, so it is adviseable to add
it to <path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path> as well.
</p>

<p>
If you can't find soundfonts on your driver CD you can download some online from
<uri>http://www.parabola.demon.co.uk/alsa/awe64.html</uri>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Timidity++ Virtual Synthesizer</title>
<body>

<p>
If your sound card does not come with a hardware synthesizer (or you don't want
to use it), you can use <c>timidity++</c> to provide you with a virtual
synthesizer. Start by emerging this package:
</p>

<pre caption="Installing Timidity++">
# <i>emerge timidity++</i>
</pre>

<p>
For timidity to play sounds, it needs a soundfont. If you do not have any,
install <c>timidity-eawpatches</c> which will give you some soundfonts.
</p>

<pre caption="Installing timidity-eawpatches">
# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>
</pre>

<p>
Don't forget to add <c>timidity</c> to the default runlevel.
</p>

<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">
# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>
# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Testing MIDI Support</title>
<body>

<p>
You can use <c>pmidi</c> to test your MIDI configuration:
</p>

<pre caption="Installing pmidi">
# <i>emerge pmidi</i>
</pre>

<p>
To see what MIDI output ports are available on your system, use the <c>-l</c>
option:
</p>

<pre caption="Viewing the MIDI output ports">
# <i>pmidi -l</i>
</pre>

<p>
If all looks fine, try playing a MIDI file to make sure everything works. With
the <c>-p</c> option you define what MIDI port you want to use. 
</p>

<pre caption="Playing a MIDI file">
# <i>pmidi -p 65:0 "Final Fantasy 7 - Aerith' Theme.mid"</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Final Remarks</title>
<section>
<title>Tools and Firmware</title>
<body>

<p>
Some specific sound cards can benefit from certain tools provided by the
<c>alsa-tools</c> and <c>alsa-firmware</c> packages. If you need
<c>alsa-tools</c>, be sure to define the ALSA_TOOLS variable in
<path>/etc/make.conf</path> with the tools you require. For instance:
</p>

<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">
ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"
</pre>

<p>
Then install the <c>alsa-tools</c> (and/or <c>alsa-firmware</c>) package(s):
</p>

<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">
# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Activating Joystick Support</title>
<body>

<p>
If your soundcard has a joystick plug, you might be interested in activating
joystick support for your soundcard. If so, start by verifying if your soundcard
driver has a joystick parameter. You can verify this by running <c>modinfo</c>
against your kernel module. For instance, for the <c>snd-via82xx</c>:
</p>

<pre caption="Running modinfo">
# <i>modinfo snd-via82xx</i>
filename:    /lib/modules/2.4.22-ck2/snd-via82xx.o
description: "VIA VT82xx audio"
author:      "Jaroslav Kysela &lt;perex@suse.cz&gt;"
license:     "GPL"
parm:        index int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Index value for
             VIA 82xx bridge."
parm:        id string array (min = 1, max = 8), description "ID string for VIA
             82xx bridge."
parm:        enable int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable audio part
             of VIA 82xx bridge."
parm:        mpu_port long array (min = 1, max = 8), description "MPU-401 port.
             (VT82C686x only)"
<i>parm:        joystick int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable
             joystick. (VT82C686x only)"</i>
parm:        ac97_clock int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "AC'97 codec 
             clock (default 48000Hz)."
parm:        dxs_support int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Support for 
             DXS channels (0 = auto, 1 = enable, 2 = disable, 3 = 48k only, 4 = 
             no VRA)
</pre>

<p>
If it has the <c>joystick</c> parameter, append <c>joystick=1</c> to your
<c>options</c> line in <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>. For instance:
</p>

<pre caption="Adding the joystick parameter">
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
options snd-via82xx joystick=1
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Resources</title>
<body>

<ul>
  <li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org">The ALSA Project</uri></li>
  <li><uri link="http://www.djcj.org">ALSA Howto's and FAQs</uri></li>
  <li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org">Linux Sound/MIDI Software</uri></li>
</ul>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>
</guide>
1	zhen	1.3	<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
2	cam	1.39	<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml,v 1.38 2004/07/30 12:42:06 swift Exp $ -->
3	drobbins	1.1	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
4
5	zhen	1.2	<guide link = "/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">
6	drobbins	1.1	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>
7	swift	1.20	<author title="Author">
8			<mail link="zu@pandora.be">Vincent Verleye</mail>
9	drobbins	1.1	</author>
10	swift	1.20	<author title="Author">
11			<mail link="g2boojum@gentoo.org">Grant Goodyear</mail>
12	peesh	1.10	</author>
13	swift	1.20	<author title="Author">
14			<mail link="agenkin@gentoo.org">Arcady Genkin</mail>
15	peesh	1.10	</author>
16	erwin	1.26	<author title="Author">
17			<mail link="eradicator@gentoo.org">Jeremy Huddleston</mail>
18			</author>
19	swift	1.18	<author title="Editor"><!-- zhen@gentoo.org -->
20			John P. Davis
21	drobbins	1.1	</author>
22	swift	1.20	<author title="Editor">
23			<mail link="swift@gentoo.org">Sven Vermeulen</mail>
24	swift	1.12	</author>
25	swift	1.20	<author title="Editor">
26			<mail link="bennyc@gentoo.org">Benny Chuang</mail>
27	bennyc	1.14	</author>
28	swift	1.20	<author title="Editor">
29			<mail link="blubber@gentoo.org">Tiemo Kieft</mail>
30	blubber	1.16	</author>
31	erwin	1.26	<author title="Editor">
32			<mail link="erwin@gentoo.org">Erwin</mail>
33			</author>
34	drobbins	1.1
35			<abstract>
36	swift	1.20	This guide will show you how to set up the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
37			(ALSA) on Gentoo Linux. In addition to the Gentoo Linux Desktop Configuration
38			Guide, this guide is supposed to give you more information on this subject.
39			</abstract>
40	drobbins	1.1
41	swift	1.25	<license/>
42
43	cam	1.39	<version>1.5.2</version>
44			<date>August 13, 2004</date>
45	drobbins	1.1
46			<chapter>
47	swift	1.35	<title>The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</title>
48	drobbins	1.1	<section>
49	swift	1.20	<title>What is ALSA?</title>
50	drobbins	1.1	<body>
51	swift	1.20
52	drobbins	1.1	<p>
53	swift	1.35	ALSA is the <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, a project dedicated to the
54			development of a high-quality Linux sound subsystem. It has replaced OSS
55			(<e>Open Sound System</e>) as default sound subsystem in the 2.6 kernel series.
56	drobbins	1.1	</p>
57
58			<p>
59	swift	1.35	ALSA provides efficient support for all types of audio interfaces, is fully
60			modularized, is SMP and thread-safe and provides a high-quality user space
61			library called <e>alsa-lib</e> to simplify application programming. It also
62			provides a backwards compatibility layer with OSS.
63	drobbins	1.1	</p>
64	swift	1.20
65	drobbins	1.1	</body>
66			</section>
67			</chapter>
68			<chapter>
69	swift	1.35	<title>Installing ALSA</title>
70	drobbins	1.1	<section>
71	swift	1.35	<title>USE Flags</title>
72	swift	1.17	<body>
73
74			<p>
75	swift	1.35	Gentoo provides an <c>alsa</c> USE flag which you should set in
76			<path>/etc/make.conf</path> to allow our available packages to compile with
77			ALSA support. If you have <c>oss</c> in your USE variable as well, ALSA will
78			compile with OSS backward compatibility.
79	swift	1.17	</p>
80
81			</body>
82			</section>
83			<section>
84	swift	1.35	<title>Kernel Modules</title>
85	drobbins	1.1	<body>
86	swift	1.20
87	drobbins	1.1	<p>
88	swift	1.35	First of all, before continuing, make sure your kernel has <e>Sound Card
89			Support</e> enabled. If you used <c>genkernel</c> to build your kernel, then
90			this is automatically true. Otherwise reconfigure your kernel.
91	drobbins	1.1	</p>
92	swift	1.20
93	drobbins	1.1	<p>
94	swift	1.35	If you use a 2.6 kernel you can skip the rest of this section and continue with
95			<uri link="#alsa-utils">Installing the ALSA Utils</uri> as 2.6 already has the
96			necessary ALSA drivers in it. Of course, don't forget to enable support for the
97			sound card you have when configuring your kernel.
98	drobbins	1.1	</p>
99	swift	1.20
100			<p>
101	swift	1.35	Users of 2.4 kernel sources will have to install the necessary ALSA drivers for
102			their soundcard. First find out what soundcard you have. An easy trick is to
103			search for "audio" in <path>/proc/pci</path>:
104	drobbins	1.1	</p>
105	swift	1.20
106	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Finding out the soundcard type">
107			# <i>grep -i audio /proc/pci</i>
108			Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio
109			Controller (rev 64).
110	drobbins	1.1	</pre>
111	swift	1.20
112	drobbins	1.1	<p>
113	swift	1.35	Now go to the <uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc">ALSA Soundcard
114			Matrix</uri> and search for your soundcard. In the above example you should go
115			to the "VIA" manufacturer. You will receive a table with the known chipsets of
116			that vendor. The chipset in the above example is "via82c686"; the "Details" link
117			then informs me that the driver is called <path>via82xx</path>.
118	drobbins	1.1	</p>
119	swift	1.20
120	swift	1.35	<p>
121			Based on this information we can now install the <c>alsa-driver</c> for our
122			soundcard. First edit <path>/etc/make.conf</path> and <e>add</e> a new option
123			called ALSA_CARDS to it. Inside this variable you declare the soundcard driver
124			you want to use:
125			</p>
126	swift	1.20
127	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Editing /etc/make.conf for ALSA_CARDS">
128			ALSA_CARDS="via82xx"
129	erwin	1.26	</pre>
130
131			<p>
132	swift	1.35	Now install <c>alsa-driver</c>:
133	erwin	1.26	</p>
134
135	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Drivers">
136			# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>
137			</pre>
138	swift	1.20
139	drobbins	1.1	<impo>
140	swift	1.35	Whenever you (re)compile your kernel sources, chances are that the ALSA drivers
141			will be overwritten. It is therefore adviseable to rerun <c>emerge
142			alsa-driver</c> every time you (re)compile your kernel <e>after</e> having
143			rebooted into the new kernel.
144	drobbins	1.1	</impo>
145	swift	1.20
146	drobbins	1.1	</body>
147			</section>
148	swift	1.35	<section id="alsa-utils">
149			<title>Installing the ALSA Utils</title>
150	drobbins	1.1	<body>
151
152			<p>
153	swift	1.35	If you want backwards compatibility with OSS, you need to install
154			<c>alsa-oss</c>:
155	drobbins	1.1	</p>
156	swift	1.20
157	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Installing the ALSA OSS compatibility layer">
158			# <i>emerge alsa-oss</i>
159	blubber	1.16	</pre>
160
161	drobbins	1.1	<p>
162	swift	1.35	Now install the ALSA Utils on your system (this is mandatory):
163	drobbins	1.1	</p>
164	swift	1.20
165	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Utils">
166			# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>
167	drobbins	1.1	</pre>
168	swift	1.20
169	drobbins	1.1	<p>
170	swift	1.35	Now that the utils are installed, it is time to configure ALSA...
171	drobbins	1.1	</p>
172	swift	1.20
173	drobbins	1.1	</body>
174			</section>
175	swift	1.35	</chapter>
176			<chapter>
177			<title>Configuring ALSA</title>
178	drobbins	1.1	<section>
179	swift	1.35	<title>Automatically Loading the Kernel Modules</title>
180	drobbins	1.1	<body>
181	swift	1.20
182	drobbins	1.1	<p>
183	swift	1.35	If you use a modular kernel (such as when using <c>genkernel</c>) you have to
184			edit <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> so that it activates the necesary modules
185			at boot time. For the soundcard in our example:
186	drobbins	1.1	</p>
187	swift	1.12
188	swift	1.35	<pre caption="/etc/modules.d/alsa">
189			alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
190			<comment># The following is only needed when you want OSS compatibility</comment>
191	erwin	1.26	alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
192	drobbins	1.1	alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
193			alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
194			alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
195			</pre>
196	swift	1.20
197	drobbins	1.1	<p>
198	swift	1.35	Now run <c>modules-update</c> to save the changes you made to the
199			<path>alsa</path> file into <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>:
200	swift	1.20	</p>
201
202			<pre caption="Running modules-update">
203	bennyc	1.14	# <i>modules-update</i>
204	drobbins	1.1	</pre>
205	swift	1.20
206	swift	1.35	</body>
207			</section>
208			<section>
209			<title>Verifying the Device Files</title>
210			<body>
211	swift	1.20
212	drobbins	1.1	<p>
213	swift	1.35	If you use DevFS (which is the default for Gentoo installations) make sure that
214			<path>/etc/devfsd.conf</path> has the ALSA devices and permissions correctly
215			registered:
216	drobbins	1.1	</p>
217	swift	1.20
218	seo	1.8	<pre caption="/etc/devfsd.conf">
219	drobbins	1.1	# ALSA/OSS stuff
220			# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on
221			# the audio devices
222			LOOKUP snd MODLOAD ACTION snd
223			LOOKUP dsp MODLOAD
224			LOOKUP mixer MODLOAD
225			LOOKUP midi MODLOAD
226			REGISTER sound/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
227			REGISTER snd/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
228			</pre>
229	swift	1.20
230	drobbins	1.1	</body>
231			</section>
232			<section>
233	swift	1.35	<title>Having ALSA Activated at Boot</title>
234	drobbins	1.1	<body>
235	swift	1.20
236	drobbins	1.1	<p>
237	swift	1.35	To activate ALSA support at boot, add the <c>alsasound</c> init script to the
238			boot runlevel:
239	swift	1.20	</p>
240
241	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Adding alsasound to the boot runlevel">
242	blubber	1.16	# <i>rc-update add alsasound boot</i>
243	swift	1.35	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
244	drobbins	1.1	</pre>
245	swift	1.20
246	drobbins	1.1	</body>
247			</section>
248			<section>
249	swift	1.35	<title>Unmute the Channels</title>
250	drobbins	1.1	<body>
251	swift	1.20
252	drobbins	1.1	<p>
253	swift	1.35	By default, all sound channels are muted. To fix this, run <c>amixer</c>:
254	drobbins	1.1	</p>
255	swift	1.20
256	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Running amixer">
257			# <i>amixer</i>
258	drobbins	1.1	</pre>
259	swift	1.20
260	drobbins	1.1	<p>
261	swift	1.35	If <c>amixer</c> produces lots of output then you're ready to unmute the
262			channels. If you receive an error, doublecheck that your soundcard module is
263			started.
264	drobbins	1.1	</p>
265	swift	1.20
266	drobbins	1.1	<p>
267	swift	1.35	Now unmute the <e>Master</e> and <e>PCM</e> channels. If this isn't sufficient,
268			also unmute the <e>Center</e> and <e>Surround</e> channels.
269	drobbins	1.1	</p>
270	swift	1.20
271	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Unmuting the sound channels">
272	swift	1.13	# <i>amixer set Master 100 unmute</i>
273			# <i>amixer set PCM 100 unmute</i>
274	swift	1.35	<comment>(Only if the above isn't sufficient:)</comment>
275	swift	1.13	# <i>amixer set Center 100 unmute</i>
276			# <i>amixer set Surround 100 unmute</i>
277	drobbins	1.1	</pre>
278	swift	1.20
279			<p>
280	swift	1.35	To check if your sound works, play a wave file (using <c>aplay</c>), mp3 (using
281			<c>mpg123</c> or even <c>mplayer</c>) or any other sound file for that matter.
282	drobbins	1.1	</p>
283	swift	1.20
284			<p>
285	swift	1.35	To fine-tune the sound channel settings you can use the <c>alsamixer</c>
286			application.
287	erwin	1.26	</p>
288
289			</body>
290			</section>
291			</chapter>
292			<chapter>
293	swift	1.35	<title>Activating MIDI Support</title>
294	erwin	1.26	<section>
295	swift	1.35	<title>Installing the Necessary Packages</title>
296	erwin	1.26	<body>
297
298			<p>
299	swift	1.35	Some soundcards come with onboard MIDI synthesizers. To use them, you must first
300			install the <c>awesfx</c> package:
301	erwin	1.26	</p>
302
303	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Installing the awesfx package">
304	erwin	1.26	# <i>emerge awesfx</i>
305			</pre>
306
307			<p>
308	swift	1.35	If you have a collection of sound fonts somewhere, place them in
309			<path>/usr/share/sfbank</path>. For instance, the SBLive has a sound font file
310			called <path>8MBGMSFX.SF2</path> or <path>CT4GMSFX.SF2</path>.
311	erwin	1.26	</p>
312
313			<p>
314	cam	1.39	After copying over the sound font, select them using <c>asfxload</c>:
315	erwin	1.26	</p>
316
317	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Loading the sound font">
318	cam	1.39	# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sfbank/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>
319	erwin	1.26	</pre>
320
321	swift	1.35	<p>
322			You must have this command run every time you boot, so it is adviseable to add
323			it to <path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path> as well.
324			</p>
325	erwin	1.26
326	swift	1.32	<p>
327			If you can't find soundfonts on your driver CD you can download some online from
328			<uri>http://www.parabola.demon.co.uk/alsa/awe64.html</uri>.
329			</p>
330
331	erwin	1.26	</body>
332			</section>
333			<section>
334			<title>Timidity++ Virtual Synthesizer</title>
335			<body>
336
337			<p>
338	swift	1.35	If your sound card does not come with a hardware synthesizer (or you don't want
339			to use it), you can use <c>timidity++</c> to provide you with a virtual
340	erwin	1.26	synthesizer. Start by emerging this package:
341			</p>
342
343			<pre caption="Installing Timidity++">
344			# <i>emerge timidity++</i>
345			</pre>
346
347			<p>
348	swift	1.35	For timidity to play sounds, it needs a soundfont. If you do not have any,
349			install <c>timidity-eawpatches</c> which will give you some soundfonts.
350	cam	1.33	</p>
351
352	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Installing timidity-eawpatches">
353	cam	1.33	# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>
354			</pre>
355
356			<p>
357	swift	1.35	Don't forget to add <c>timidity</c> to the default runlevel.
358	erwin	1.26	</p>
359
360	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">
361	erwin	1.26	# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>
362			# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>
363			</pre>
364
365			</body>
366			</section>
367			<section>
368			<title>Testing MIDI Support</title>
369			<body>
370
371			<p>
372	swift	1.35	You can use <c>pmidi</c> to test your MIDI configuration:
373	swift	1.20	</p>
374
375	erwin	1.26	<pre caption="Installing pmidi">
376			# <i>emerge pmidi</i>
377			</pre>
378
379	drobbins	1.1	<p>
380	swift	1.35	To see what MIDI output ports are available on your system, use the <c>-l</c>
381			option:
382	erwin	1.26	</p>
383
384	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Viewing the MIDI output ports">
385	erwin	1.26	# <i>pmidi -l</i>
386			</pre>
387
388			<p>
389	swift	1.35	If all looks fine, try playing a MIDI file to make sure everything works. With
390			the <c>-p</c> option you define what MIDI port you want to use.
391	drobbins	1.1	</p>
392	swift	1.20
393	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Playing a MIDI file">
394			# <i>pmidi -p 65:0 "Final Fantasy 7 - Aerith' Theme.mid"</i>
395	erwin	1.26	</pre>
396
397	drobbins	1.1	</body>
398			</section>
399			</chapter>
400			<chapter>
401	swift	1.35	<title>Final Remarks</title>
402	drobbins	1.1	<section>
403	swift	1.35	<title>Tools and Firmware</title>
404	drobbins	1.1	<body>
405	swift	1.20
406			<p>
407	swift	1.35	Some specific sound cards can benefit from certain tools provided by the
408	cam	1.36	<c>alsa-tools</c> and <c>alsa-firmware</c> packages. If you need
409	swift	1.35	<c>alsa-tools</c>, be sure to define the ALSA_TOOLS variable in
410			<path>/etc/make.conf</path> with the tools you require. For instance:
411	swift	1.20	</p>
412
413	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">
414			ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"
415	drobbins	1.1	</pre>
416	swift	1.20
417	erwin	1.26	<p>
418	swift	1.35	Then install the <c>alsa-tools</c> (and/or <c>alsa-firmware</c>) package(s):
419	erwin	1.26	</p>
420
421	swift	1.35	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">
422			# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>
423	erwin	1.26	</pre>
424
425			</body>
426			</section>
427			<section>
428	swift	1.21	<title>Activating Joystick Support</title>
429			<body>
430
431			<p>
432			If your soundcard has a joystick plug, you might be interested in activating
433	bennyc	1.37	joystick support for your soundcard. If so, start by verifying if your soundcard
434	swift	1.21	driver has a joystick parameter. You can verify this by running <c>modinfo</c>
435	swift	1.35	against your kernel module. For instance, for the <c>snd-via82xx</c>:
436	swift	1.21	</p>
437
438			<pre caption="Running modinfo">
439			# <i>modinfo snd-via82xx</i>
440			filename: /lib/modules/2.4.22-ck2/snd-via82xx.o
441			description: "VIA VT82xx audio"
442			author: "Jaroslav Kysela <perex@suse.cz>"
443			license: "GPL"
444	swift	1.35	parm: index int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Index value for
445			VIA 82xx bridge."
446			parm: id string array (min = 1, max = 8), description "ID string for VIA
447			82xx bridge."
448			parm: enable int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable audio part
449			of VIA 82xx bridge."
450			parm: mpu_port long array (min = 1, max = 8), description "MPU-401 port.
451			(VT82C686x only)"
452			<i>parm: joystick int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable
453			joystick. (VT82C686x only)"</i>
454			parm: ac97_clock int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "AC'97 codec
455			clock (default 48000Hz)."
456			parm: dxs_support int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Support for
457			DXS channels (0 = auto, 1 = enable, 2 = disable, 3 = 48k only, 4 =
458			no VRA)
459	swift	1.21	</pre>
460
461			<p>
462	swift	1.35	If it has the <c>joystick</c> parameter, append <c>joystick=1</c> to your
463			<c>options</c> line in <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>. For instance:
464	swift	1.21	</p>
465
466			<pre caption="Adding the joystick parameter">
467			alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
468			options snd-via82xx joystick=1
469			</pre>
470	swift	1.17
471			</body>
472			</section>
473	drobbins	1.1	<section>
474	swift	1.35	<title>Resources</title>
475	drobbins	1.1	<body>
476	swift	1.20
477	drobbins	1.1	<ul>
478	swift	1.35	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org">The ALSA Project</uri></li>
479			<li><uri link="http://www.djcj.org">ALSA Howto's and FAQs</uri></li>
480			<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org">Linux Sound/MIDI Software</uri></li>
481	drobbins	1.1	</ul>
482	swift	1.20
483	drobbins	1.1	</body>
484			</section>
485			</chapter>
486			</guide>