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1	<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>	1	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
		2	<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml,v 1.46 2004/12/08 11:12:50 neysx Exp $ -->
2	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">	3	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
3		4
4	<guide link = "/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">	5	<guide link="/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">
5	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>	6	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>
6	<author title="Author"><mail link="zu@pandora.be">	7	<author title="Author">
7	Vincent Verleye</mail>	8	<mail link="zu@pandora.be">Vincent Verleye</mail>
8	</author>	9	</author>
9	<author title="Author"><mail link="g2boojum@gentoo.org">	10	<author title="Author">
10	Grant Goodyear</mail>	11	<mail link="g2boojum@gentoo.org">Grant Goodyear</mail>
11	</author>	12	</author>
12	<author title="Author"><mail link="agenkin@gentoo.org">	13	<author title="Author">
13	Arcady Genkin</mail>	14	<mail link="agenkin@gentoo.org">Arcady Genkin</mail>
14	</author>	15	</author>
		16	<author title="Author">
		17	<mail link="eradicator@gentoo.org">Jeremy Huddleston</mail>
		18	</author>
15	<author title="Editor"><mail link="zhen@gentoo.org">	19	<author title="Editor"><!-- zhen@gentoo.org -->
16	John P. Davis</mail>	20	John P. Davis
17	</author>	21	</author>
18	<author title="Editor"><mail link="swift@gentoo.org">	22	<author title="Editor">
19	Sven Vermeulen</mail>	23	<mail link="swift@gentoo.org">Sven Vermeulen</mail>
20	</author>	24	</author>
21	<author title="Editor"><mail link="bennyc@gentoo.org">	25	<author title="Editor">
22	Benny Chuang</mail>	26	<mail link="bennyc@gentoo.org">Benny Chuang</mail>
23	</author>	27	</author>
24	<author title="Editor"><mail link="blubber@gentoo.org">	28	<author title="Editor">
25	Tiemo Kieft</mail>	29	<mail link="blubber@gentoo.org">Tiemo Kieft</mail>
26	</author>	30	</author>
		31	<author title="Editor">
		32	<mail link="erwin@gentoo.org">Erwin</mail>
		33	</author>
		34
		35	<abstract>
		36	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>
27		40
28	<license/>	41	<license/>
29		42
30	<abstract>
31	This guide will show you how to set up the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) on Gentoo Linux.
32	In addition to the Gentoo Linux Desktop Configuration Guide, this guide is supposed to give you more information on this subject. </abstract>
33
34	<version>1.3.3</version>	43	<version>1.5.8</version>
35	<date>October 9, 2003</date>	44	<date>2004-12-08</date>
36		45
37	<chapter>	46	<chapter>
38	<title>Introduction</title>	47	<title>The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</title>
39	<section>	48	<section>
40	<title>What is ALSA?</title>	49	<title>What is ALSA?</title>
41	<body>
42	<p>
43	The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) is a project to improve the Linux sound subsystem by rewriting
44	large chunks of it.
45	It is anticipated that ALSA will make it into Linux kernel 2.6.x (or 3.x.x -- whichever comes first) as it becomes ready.
46	</p>
47
48	<p>
49	ALSA provides audio and MIDI functionality for Linux.
50	</p>
51
52	<p>
53	Quoted from <uri>http://www.alsa-project.org</uri>, ALSA has the following features:
54	<ul><li> Efficient support for all types of audio interfaces, from consumer soundcards to professional multichannel audio interfaces.</li>
55	<li> Fully modularized sound drivers.</li>
56	<li> SMP and thread-safe design.</li>
57	<li> User space library (alsa-lib) to simplify application programming and provide higher level functionality.</li>
58	<li> Support for the older OSS API, providing binary compatibility for most OSS programs.</li>
59	</ul>
60	There's lots more to ALSA however, like support for Full Duplex playback and recording, multiple soundcard support,
61	hardware mixing of streams, extensive mixer capabilities (to support advanced features of new soundcards), ...
62	</p>
63	</body>	50	<body>
64	</section>	51
65	<section>
66	<title>Why use ALSA?</title>
67	<body>
68	<p>	52	<p>
69	If your soundcard is supported by the Linux kernel sound system or the commercial OSS/4Front sound driver system,	53	ALSA is the <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, a project dedicated to the
70	which can be found in all 2.4.x Linux kernels, you could just aswell build <e>those modules</e> for use with your soundcard.	54	development of a high-quality Linux sound subsystem. It has replaced OSS
71	If you want this, just read through the <uri link="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/index.html">Linux Sound HOWTO</uri>.	55	(<e>Open Sound System</e>) as default sound subsystem in the 2.6 kernel series.
72	</p>	56	</p>
		57
73	<p>	58	<p>
74	However, those OSS/4Front drivers have some limitations -- being commercial is one.	59	ALSA provides efficient support for all types of audio interfaces, is fully
75	ALSA is an attempt to go beyond these limitations and to do so in an open source fashion.	60	modularized, is SMP and thread-safe and provides a high-quality user space
76	ALSA is a fully GPL and LGPL'ed sound driver system, that provides a professional quality system for recording, playback,	61	library called <e>alsa-lib</e> to simplify application programming. It also
77	and MIDI sequencing.	62	provides a backwards compatibility layer with OSS.
78	</p>	63	</p>
79	</body>	64
80	</section>
81	<section>
82	<title>What cards does ALSA support?</title>
83	<body>
84	<p>
85	ALSA tries to support as many (new) cards as possible by providing open-source drivers.
86	However, some vendors may provide binary-only packages.
87	</p>
88	<p>To know if your card is supported, you can find a Soundcard Matrix of supported and not-supported cards here:
89	<uri>http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/</uri>.
90	</p>
91	</body>	65	</body>
92	</section>	66	</section>
93	</chapter>	67	</chapter>
94
95	<chapter>	68	<chapter>
96	<title>Installation</title>	69	<title>Installing ALSA</title>
97	<section>
98	<title>Gentoo USE flags</title>
99	<body>
100
101	<p>
102	To compile programs with ALSA-support, be sure to add <e>alsa</e> to
103	your USE-variable. However, several tools don't support alsa yet, and
104	require OSS. ALSA provides OSS-emulation if you define <e>oss</e> in your
105	USE-variable before you start.
106	</p>
107
108	</body>
109	</section>	70	<section>
		71	<title>USE Flags</title>
		72	<body>
110		73
		74	<p>
		75	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	</p>
		80
		81	</body>
111	<section>	82	</section>
		83	<section>
112	<title>Kernel modules</title>	84	<title>Kernel Modules</title>
113	<body>	85	<body>
114	<p>	86
115	Since we're still using 2.4.x kernel sources, we'll have to compile kernel modules and ALSA modules separately. People who are using a 2.5.x kernel can do this from within their kernel configuration, since the ALSA modules are included in the kernel sources and should be built there.
116	</p>	87	<p>
		88	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. Additionally,
		91	make sure you disable <e>Open Sound System</e> in your kernel configuration.
		92	If you don't, your system may try to use these drivers rather than the alsa
		93	ones. If you see a message about 'sound card not detected' and you are sure
		94	you have the correct driver, this is probably the reason.
117	<p>	95	</p>
118	First we'll make sure that our kernel configuration is ready for use with ALSA.	96
119	All you need in your kernel configuration is having Sound Card Support set to be built as a module (M).	97	<warn>
120	This will build <c>soundcore.o</c>.	98	If you use a 2.6 kernel, you may use the drivers provided in the kernel, but
		99	we still recommend that you use media-sound/alsa-driver as they are more up
		100	to date than what is provided in the kernel tree. If you still wish to use
		101	the drivers provided with your kernel, you can skip the rest of this section
		102	and continue with <uri link="#alsa-utils">Installing the ALSA Utils</uri>.
		103	</warn>
		104
121	</p>	105	<p>
		106	The first step in installing your sound drivers is figuring out what sound
		107	card you have. If you don't already know, an easy trick is to search
		108	for "audio" in the output of the <c>lspci</c> command. You can install
		109	this tool with <c>emerge pciutils</c>.
122	<p>	110	</p>
123	<note>	111
124	Possibly, this will also work when you built Sound Card Support in the kernel (Y) instead of building it as a module (M).	112	<pre caption="Finding out the soundcard type">
125	However, the official ALSA documentation suggests building it as a module, since ALSA will try loading it.	113	# <i>lspci \| grep -i audio</i>
126	</note>	114	Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 64).
127	</p>
128	<p>If you already have a working kernel configuration, make sure you remove all sound drivers (except for Sound Card Support).
129	If you wish to do this without having to reboot, you could do like this:
130	</p>
131	<pre>	115	</pre>
132	# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>	116
133	# <i>cp .config ~/</i>
134	# <i>make mrproper</i>
135	# <i>cp ~/.config .</i>
136	# <i>make menuconfig</i>
137	</pre>
138	<p>
139	Now select <e>Sound Card Support</e> as Module (M) and deselect all other sound drivers.
140	Exit and say Y to save your kernel configuration.
141	After that, build the modules:
142	</p>	117	<p>
		118	Now go to the <uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc">ALSA Soundcard
		119	Matrix</uri> and search for your soundcard. In the above example you should go
		120	to the "VIA" manufacturer. You will receive a table with the known chipsets of
		121	that vendor. The chipset in the above example is "via82c686"; the "Details" link
		122	then informs me that the driver is called <path>via82xx</path>. This is all the
		123	information you need, so you can safely discard the rest of that document.
		124	</p>
		125
		126	<p>
		127	Based on this information we can now install the <c>alsa-driver</c> for our
		128	soundcard. First edit <path>/etc/make.conf</path> and <e>add</e> a new option
		129	called ALSA_CARDS to it. Inside this variable you declare the soundcard driver
		130	you want to use:
		131	</p>
		132
		133	<pre caption="Editing /etc/make.conf for ALSA_CARDS">
		134	ALSA_CARDS="via82xx"
143	<pre>	135	</pre>
144	# <i>make dep clean</i>	136
145	# <i>make modules modules_install</i>	137	<warn>
146	</pre>	138	If you have multiple sound cards in your system, separate them with a comma
147	<p>	139	in the ALSA_CARDS variable. Ex: ALSA_CARDS="via82xx,emu10k1"
148	Before installing your new modules, this last line will delete all your previous modules,	140	</warn>
149	even the ones from a previous ALSA installation.	141
150	</p>	142	<p>
		143	If you want OSS compatibility (highly recommended), you should add 'oss' to
		144	your USE flags in <path>/etc/make.conf</path>. After that, you are ready to
		145	install <c>alsa-driver</c>:
151	<p>	146	</p>
		147
		148	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Drivers">
		149	# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>
		150	</pre>
		151
152	<impo>	152	<impo>
153	This means, whenever you recompile your kernel later on, you MUST recompile <c>alsa-driver</c>.	153	Whenever you (re)compile your kernel sources, chances are that the ALSA drivers
		154	will be deleted. It is therefore adviseable to rerun <c>emerge alsa-driver</c>
		155	every time you (re)compile your kernel. Note that this will compile the
		156	drivers for the kernel in /usr/src/linux, NOT the running kernel.
154	</impo>	157	</impo>
155	</p>
156	<p>
157	<note>However, there's no need to reinstall <c>nvidia-kernel</c>, the Nvidia drivers are in a separate directory
158	in <path>/lib/modules/*/video</path> and won't get deleted by a <c>make modules modules_install</c>
159	</note>
160	</p>
161	</body>
162	</section>
163		158
		159	</body>
164	<section>	160	</section>
165	<title>ALSA modules</title>	161	<section id="alsa-utils">
166	<body>	162	<title>Installing the ALSA Utils</title>
167
168	<p>
169	Now it's time to install the ALSA drivers for your soundcard(s). If your soundcard is PCI, you can find out the name
170	and type of your soundcard by looking at the output of /proc/pci.
171	</p>
172	<pre>
173	# <i>grep audio /proc/pci</i>
174	</pre>
175
176
177	<p>
178	<warn>
179	If you had a previous sound setup and there are still non-ALSA sound modules loaded, unload them <e>now</e>.
180	Check with <c>lsmod</c> and use <c>rmmod</c> to unload all sound-related modules on your system.
181	</warn>
182	</p>
183
184	<p>
185	We could simply do an <c>emerge alsa-driver</c> now, this would compile and install <e>all</e> ALSA sound drivers.
186	</p>
187	<p>
188	However, to save some time, lookup the <e>Module Name</e> of your soundcard(s) on the
189	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc">ALSA Soundcard Matrix</uri> by following the <e>Details</e> link in the <e>Driver and Docs</e> column in the row of the chipset of your soundcard.
190	Mine is <c>snd-emu10k1</c>, since I have an SBlive! soundcard, with the <e>EMU10K1</e> chipset.
191	We'll set ALSA_CARDS environment to the value of the module name before emerging (but without the snd prefix), so emerge will only compile the drivers we need.
192	</p>
193
194	<pre>
195	# <i>env ALSA_CARDS='emu10k1' emerge alsa-driver</i>
196	</pre>
197	<note>
198	You can also add this value in <path>/etc/make.conf</path>, so when you have to emerge the alsa-driver later on you can just run <c>emerge alsa-driver</c>.
199	For example, like this: <c>echo 'ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1"' >> /etc/make.conf</c>
200	</note>
201
202	<note>
203	When you want to install ALSA drivers for more than one soundcard, you could set ALSA_CARDS to a space-separated list
204	of drivers; like this: <c>env ALSA_CARDS='emu10k1 intel8x0 ens1370' emerge alsa-driver</c>
205	</note>
206
207	<note>If you want to have OSS compatibility, make sure to emerge <i>alsa-oss</i>, it is the ALSA/OSS compatibility
208	wrapper. </note>
209
210	<note>If you plan on recompiling your kernels numerous times, it might
211	be adviseable to emerge <c>alsa-driver</c> with <c>--buildpkg</c>. This
212	will create a binary package for it. Later, after recompiling your kernel,
213	you can just do <c>emerge --usepkg alsa-driver</c> which will install the
214	binary package instead of recompiling it completely.</note>
215
216	<p>
217	After this, the ALSA modules should be installed on your system.
218	</p>
219	</body>	163	<body>
220	</section>	164
221	<section>
222	<title>Configuration of ALSA</title>
223	<body>
224	<p>
225	Let's start configuring now to get ALSA working properly.
226	We'll need to edit some files, to let our system know about the freshly installed ALSA modules.
227	</p>	165	<p>
228		166	If the in-kernel OSS compatibility is not sufficient for your needs, you will
		167	want to install <c>alsa-oss</c>. This will provide you with the 'aoss'
		168	executable which can be used as demonstrated:
229	<p>	169	</p>
230	First, install <c>alsa-utils</c> on your system:	170
		171	<pre caption="More OSS compatibility layer">
		172	# <i>emerge alsa-oss</i>
		173	# <i>aoss mpg123 music.mp3</i>
		174	</pre>
		175
231	</p>	176	<p>
		177	Now install the ALSA Utils on your system (this is mandatory):
		178	</p>
232		179
233	<pre caption = "Emerging alsa-utils">	180	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Utils">
234	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>	181	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>
235	</pre>	182	</pre>
236		183
237	<p>	184	<p>
238	Hereafter, we need to edit <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>.	185	Now that the utils are installed, it is time to configure ALSA...
239	</p>
240	<warn>
241	There is no need to edit <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>. Instead, always edit files in <path>/etc/modules.d</path>.
242	</warn>
243	<p>	186	</p>
244	Check the ALSA portion <e>at the bottom of the file</e>.	187
245	By tweaking this line you can specify the max number of soundcards you have (generally, just one).	188	</body>
		189	</section>
		190	</chapter>
		191	<chapter>
		192	<title>Configuring ALSA</title>
		193	<section>
		194	<title>Automatically Loading the Kernel Modules</title>
		195	<body>
		196
246	</p>	197	<p>
247	<pre caption="At the bottom of /etc/modules.d/alsa">	198	If you use a modular kernel (such as when using <c>genkernel</c>) you have to
248	<comment>Set this to the correct number of cards.</comment>	199	edit <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> so that it activates the necessary
249	options snd cards_limit=1	200	modules at boot time. For the soundcard in our example:
250	</pre>
251	<p>	201	</p>
252	Now we'll specify the sounddriver(s) ALSA should use. In the same file, edit like this:	202
253	</p>
254	<pre caption="In /etc/modules.d/alsa">	203	<pre caption="/etc/modules.d/alsa">
255	## and then run `modules-update' command.
256	## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
257	##
258	## ALSA portion
259	alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
260	<comment>## If you have more than one, add:</comment>
261	## alias snd-card-1 snd-intel8x0	204	alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
262	## alias snd-card-2 snd-ens1370	205	<comment># The following is only needed when you want OSS compatibility</comment>
263	## OSS/Free portion
264	## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0	206	alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
265	## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
266	##
267	</pre>
268	<note>
269	If you have more than one soundcard, adjust the <c>cards_limit</c> value and add more snd-card aliases to the file.
270	I don't have experience with this, but you can find examples for configurations with two or more soundcards in
271	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-howto/c1660.htm">Chapter 6</uri>
272	of the <uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-howto/alsa-howto.html">ALSA Howto</uri>.
273	</note>
274	<p>
275	Last thing to do in this file, almost at the end, check if these lines are there and uncommented:
276	</p>
277	<pre caption="Near the end of /etc/modules.d/alsa">
278	alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss	207	alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
279	alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss	208	alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
280	alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss	209	alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
281	</pre>	210	</pre>
		211
		212	<p>
		213	Now run <c>modules-update</c> to save the changes you made to the
		214	<path>alsa</path> file into <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>:
282	<p>	215	</p>
283	Now double-check the file <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> and when you're sure everyting is ok, run <c>modules-update</c>.	216
284	<pre>	217	<pre caption="Running modules-update">
285	# <i>modules-update</i>	218	# <i>modules-update</i>
286	</pre>	219	</pre>
		220
		221	</body>
		222	</section>
		223	<section>
		224	<title>Verifying the Device Files</title>
		225	<body>
		226
287	</p>	227	<p>
288	<note>	228	This should be done automatically for you on recent installs, but if you run
289	Running <c>modules-update</c> here will insert the data from <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> into <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>	229	into problems, check that your ALSA devices and permissions are set correctly
290	</note>	230	by your /dev manager. If you use DevFS, check <path>/etc/devfsd.conf</path>
291	<p>	231	</p>
292	You should also verify that /etc/devfsd.conf has the alsa devices and permissions correctly registered.	232
293	</p>
294	<pre caption="/etc/devfsd.conf">	233	<pre caption="/etc/devfsd.conf">
295	# ALSA/OSS stuff	234	# ALSA/OSS stuff
296	# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on	235	# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on
297	# the audio devices	236	# the audio devices
298	LOOKUP snd MODLOAD ACTION snd	237	LOOKUP snd MODLOAD ACTION snd
…		…
300	LOOKUP mixer MODLOAD	239	LOOKUP mixer MODLOAD
301	LOOKUP midi MODLOAD	240	LOOKUP midi MODLOAD
302	REGISTER sound/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660	241	REGISTER sound/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
303	REGISTER snd/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660	242	REGISTER snd/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
304	</pre>	243	</pre>
305	<note>	244
306	Notice that devfsd.conf sets /dev/sound permissions to be root.audio. Thus, for non-root users to use audio they will have to be part of the audio group.	245	</body>
307	</note>	246	</section>
		247	<section>
		248	<title>Having ALSA Activated at Boot</title>
		249	<body>
		250
		251	<p>
		252	To activate ALSA support at boot, add the <c>alsasound</c> init script to the
		253	boot runlevel:
		254	</p>
		255
		256	<pre caption="Adding alsasound to the boot runlevel">
		257	# <i>rc-update add alsasound boot</i>
		258	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
		259	</pre>
		260
		261	</body>
		262	</section>
		263	<section>
		264	<title>Unmute the Channels</title>
		265	<body>
		266
		267	<p>
		268	By default, all sound channels are muted. To fix this, run <c>amixer</c>:
		269	</p>
		270
		271	<pre caption="Running amixer">
		272	# <i>amixer</i>
		273	</pre>
		274
		275	<p>
		276	If <c>amixer</c> produces lots of output then you're ready to unmute the
		277	channels. If you receive an error, doublecheck that your soundcard module is
		278	started.
		279	</p>
		280
		281	<p>
		282	Now unmute the <e>Master</e> and <e>PCM</e> channels. If this isn't sufficient,
		283	also unmute the <e>Center</e> and <e>Surround</e> channels.
		284	</p>
		285
		286	<pre caption="Unmuting the sound channels">
		287	<comment>If you prefer an ncurses method:</comment>
		288	# <i>alsamixer</i>
		289
		290	or
		291
		292	# <i>amixer set Master 100 unmute</i>
		293	# <i>amixer set PCM 100 unmute</i>
		294	<comment>(Only if the above isn't sufficient:)</comment>
		295	# <i>amixer set Center 100 unmute</i>
		296	# <i>amixer set Surround 100 unmute</i>
		297	# <i>amixer set Headphone 100 unmute</i>
		298	</pre>
		299
		300
		301	<p>
		302	To check if your sound works, play a wave file (using <c>aplay</c>), mp3 (using
		303	<c>mpg123</c> or even <c>mplayer</c>) or any other sound file for that matter.
		304	</p>
		305
308	</body>	306	</body>
309	</section>	307	</section>
310	</chapter>	308	</chapter>
311	<chapter>	309	<chapter>
312	<title>Starting ALSA</title>	310	<title>Activating MIDI Support</title>
313	<section>
314	<title>Adding alsasound to a runlevel</title>
315	<body>
316	<p>
317	First thing to do now, is to make ALSA startup at boottime. Like this:
318	<pre>
319	# <i>rc-update add alsasound boot</i>
320	</pre>
321	</p>
322	<p>
323	<warn>Note that the alsasound script should be added to the "boot" runlevel, not the "default" runlevel.</warn>
324	</p>
325	</body>
326	</section>	311	<section>
		312	<title>Installing the Necessary Packages</title>
		313	<body>
		314
		315	<p>
		316	Some soundcards come with onboard MIDI synthesizers. To use them, you must first
		317	install the <c>awesfx</c> package:
		318	</p>
		319
		320	<pre caption="Installing the awesfx package">
		321	# <i>emerge awesfx</i>
		322	</pre>
		323
		324	<p>
		325	If you have a collection of sound fonts somewhere, place them in
		326	<path>/usr/share/sfbank</path>. For instance, the SBLive has a sound font file
		327	called <path>8MBGMSFX.SF2</path> or <path>CT4GMSFX.SF2</path>.
		328	</p>
		329
		330	<p>
		331	After copying over the sound font, select them using <c>asfxload</c>:
		332	</p>
		333
		334	<pre caption="Loading the sound font">
		335	# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sfbank/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>
		336	</pre>
		337
		338	<p>
		339	You must have this command run every time you boot, so it is adviseable to add
		340	it to <path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path> as well.
		341	</p>
		342
		343	<p>
		344	If you can't find soundfonts on your driver CD you can download some online from
		345	<uri>http://www.parabola.demon.co.uk/alsa/awe64.html</uri>.
		346	</p>
		347
		348	</body>
327	<section>	349	</section>
328	<title>Running and unmuting</title>	350	<section>
		351	<title>Timidity++ Virtual Synthesizer</title>
		352	<body>
		353
		354	<p>
		355	If your sound card does not come with a hardware synthesizer (or you don't want
		356	to use it), you can use <c>timidity++</c> to provide you with a virtual
		357	synthesizer. Start by emerging this package:
		358	</p>
		359
		360	<pre caption="Installing Timidity++">
		361	# <i>emerge timidity++</i>
		362	</pre>
		363
		364	<p>
		365	For timidity to play sounds, it needs a soundfont. If you do not have any,
		366	install <c>timidity-eawpatches</c> or <c>timidity-shompatches</c> which will
		367	give you some soundfonts. You can have multiple soundfont configurations
		368	installed, and you can place your own in <path>/usr/share/timidity/</path>.
		369	To switch between different timidity configurations, you should use the
		370	<e>timidity-update</e> tool provided in the timidity++ package.
		371	</p>
		372
		373	<pre caption="Installing soundfonts">
		374	# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>
		375	# timidity-update -g -s eawpatches
		376
		377	<comment> or </comment>
		378
		379	# <i>emerge timidity-shompatches</i>
		380	# timidity-update -g -s shompatches
		381	</pre>
		382
		383	<p>
		384	Don't forget to add <c>timidity</c> to the default runlevel.
		385	</p>
		386
		387	<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">
		388	# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>
		389	# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>
		390	</pre>
		391
329	<body>	392	</body>
330	<p>	393	</section>
331	Since we're Linux users, we don't want to reboot. So we'll start the alsasound script manually.	394	<section>
		395	<title>Testing MIDI Support</title>
		396	<body>
		397
332	</p>	398	<p>
		399	You can use <c>aplaymidi</c> from the ALSA Utils to test your MIDI
		400	configuration.
		401	</p>
		402
		403	<p>
		404	To see what MIDI output ports are available on your system, use the <c>-l</c>
		405	option:
		406	</p>
		407
		408	<pre caption="Viewing the MIDI output ports">
		409	# <i>aplaymidi -l</i>
333	<pre>	410	</pre>
334	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>	411
335	</pre>
336	<p>
337	ALSA is running now. If everything is ok, you should be able to see the ALSA modules loaded when running <c>lsmod</c>.
338	However, sound won't work yet, because the channels are still muted. We need <c>amixer</c> for this.
339	</p>	412	<p>
340	<pre caption = "Running amixer">	413	If all looks fine, try playing a MIDI file to make sure everything works. With
341	# <i>amixer</i>	414	the <c>-p</c> option you define what MIDI port you want to use.
342	</pre>
343	<p>	415	</p>
344	<warn>	416
345	You shouldn't get this, but <e>if</e> you get an error about "amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory", you should manually modprobe	417	<pre caption="Playing a MIDI file">
346	<c>snd-mixer-oss</c> and <c>snd-pcm-oss</c> once. After that run amixer again.	418	# <i>aplaymidi -p 65:0 "Final Fantasy 7 - Aerith' Theme.mid"</i>
347	</warn>
348	</p>	419	</pre>
349	<pre caption="only if you get an error when running amixer">	420
350	# <i>modprobe snd-mixer-oss</i>
351	# <i>modprobe snd-pcm-oss</i>
352	# <i>amixer</i>
353	</pre>
354	<p>
355	If you got this far, now unmute Master and PCM channels. Some hardware
356	even requires you to unmute the center channel or even the surround
357	channel.
358	</p>
359	<p>
360	<pre caption = "Unmuting channels">
361	# <i>amixer set Master 100 unmute</i>
362	# <i>amixer set PCM 100 unmute</i>
363	<comment>Only if the above doesn't succeed on its own:</comment>
364	# <i>amixer set Center 100 unmute</i>
365	# <i>amixer set Surround 100 unmute</i>
366	<comment>Test the sound:</comment>
367	# <i>aplay $KDEDIR/share/sounds/pop.wav</i> <codenote>(pop.wav is part of KDE)</codenote>
368	</pre>
369	</p>
370	We check to see if sound is working by using the aplay (alsa play) command. If you hear a pop, then sound is indeed working.
371	Then, adjust the volume settings to your liking; the ncurses-based <c>alsamixer</c> is a great way to get them "just so".
372	<p>
373	You may want to emerge <c>alsa-xmms</c> as that will provide ALSA support for XMMS.
374	</p>
375	When you reboot your system, the <e>alsasound</e> init script will properly save and restore your volume settings.
376	</body>	421	</body>
377	</section>	422	</section>
378	</chapter>	423	</chapter>
379	<chapter>	424	<chapter>
380	<title>Final Notes</title>	425	<title>Final Remarks</title>
381	<section>
382	<title>After kernel-upgrades..</title>
383	<body>
384	<p>When you ever rebuild your kernel, or upgrade to another kernel, you'll have to rebuild the ALSA modules.</p>
385	<p>Although you might have installed <c>alsa-driver</c>, <c>alsa-libs</c> and <c>alsa-utils</c>, only the first will
386	have to be installed again, since it will put the alsa modules in
387	<path>/lib/modules/*/kernel/sound/pci/</path>.</p>
388	<pre caption="needed after each kernel compile">
389	# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>
390	</pre>
391	</body>
392	</section>	426	<section>
		427	<title>Tools and Firmware</title>
		428	<body>
		429
		430	<p>
		431	Some specific sound cards can benefit from certain tools provided by the
		432	<c>alsa-tools</c> and <c>alsa-firmware</c> packages. If you need
		433	<c>alsa-tools</c>, be sure to define the ALSA_TOOLS variable in
		434	<path>/etc/make.conf</path> with the tools you require. For instance:
		435	</p>
		436
		437	<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">
		438	ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"
		439	</pre>
		440
		441	<p>
		442	Then install the <c>alsa-tools</c> (and/or <c>alsa-firmware</c>) package(s):
		443	</p>
		444
		445	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">
		446	# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>
		447	</pre>
		448
		449	</body>
393	<section>	450	</section>
394	<title>/etc/modules.autoload</title>
395	<body>
396	<p>You won't have to edit this file for use with ALSA. After our <c>rc-update add alsasound boot</c>, our system will
397	load the correct modules at startup.</p>
398	<p>It's not necessary to add <c>snd-pcm-oss</c> or <c>snd-mixer-oss</c> in this file.
399	Check the <uri link="http://www.djcj.org/LAU/guide/alsbook/faq1.html">this FAQ</uri> for more info.</p>
400	</body>
401	</section>	451	<section>
		452	<title>Activating Joystick Support</title>
		453	<body>
402		454
		455	<p>
		456	If your soundcard has a joystick plug, you might be interested in activating
		457	joystick support for your soundcard. If so, start by verifying if your soundcard
		458	driver has a joystick parameter. You can verify this by running <c>modinfo</c>
		459	against your kernel module. For instance, for the <c>snd-via82xx</c>:
		460	</p>
		461
		462	<pre caption="Running modinfo">
		463	# <i>modinfo snd-via82xx</i>
		464	filename: /lib/modules/2.4.22-ck2/snd-via82xx.o
		465	description: "VIA VT82xx audio"
		466	author: "Jaroslav Kysela <perex@suse.cz>"
		467	license: "GPL"
		468	parm: index int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Index value for
		469	VIA 82xx bridge."
		470	parm: id string array (min = 1, max = 8), description "ID string for VIA
		471	82xx bridge."
		472	parm: enable int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable audio part
		473	of VIA 82xx bridge."
		474	parm: mpu_port long array (min = 1, max = 8), description "MPU-401 port.
		475	(VT82C686x only)"
		476	<i>parm: joystick int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable
		477	joystick. (VT82C686x only)"</i>
		478	parm: ac97_clock int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "AC'97 codec
		479	clock (default 48000Hz)."
		480	parm: dxs_support int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Support for
		481	DXS channels (0 = auto, 1 = enable, 2 = disable, 3 = 48k only, 4 =
		482	no VRA)
		483	</pre>
		484
		485	<p>
		486	If it has the <c>joystick</c> parameter, append <c>joystick=1</c> to your
		487	<c>options</c> line in <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>. For instance:
		488	</p>
		489
		490	<pre caption="Adding the joystick parameter">
		491	alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
		492	options snd-via82xx joystick=1
		493	</pre>
		494
		495	</body>
403	<section>	496	</section>
404	<title>Known bugs</title>	497	<section>
		498	<title>Resources</title>
405	<body>	499	<body>
406
407	<note>
408	This guide lags behind on the alsa-development. Chances are these bugs
409	are already fixed when you read this.
410	</note>
411		500
412	<ul>	501	<ul>
413	<li>	502	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org">The ALSA Project</uri></li>
414	If you have <b>lots of noise</b> when using <b>oss</b> emulation, add	503	<li><uri link="http://www.djcj.org">ALSA Howto's and FAQs</uri></li>
415	<e>options snd-pcm-oss dsp_map=1</e> to	504	<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org">Linux Sound/MIDI Software</uri></li>
416	<path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>.
417	</li>
418	</ul>	505	</ul>
419		506
420	</body>
421	</section>
422
423	<section>
424	<title>More links..</title>
425	<body>
426	<p>
427	You could check these for additional info:
428	</p>
429	<p>
430	<ul>
431	<li><uri link="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/desktop.xml">The Gentoo Linux Desktop Configuration Guide</uri></li>
432	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org">ALSA Project Homepage</uri></li>
433	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/documentation.php3">ALSA Users Documentation</uri></li>
434	<li><uri link="http://www.djcj.org">ALSA Howto's and FAQ's</uri></li>
435	<li><uri link="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/index.html">Linux Sound HOWTO</uri></li>
436	<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org/">Sound and MIDI Software For Linux</uri></li>
437	</ul>
438	</p>
439	</body>	507	</body>
440	</section>	508	</section>
441	</chapter>	509	</chapter>
442	</guide>	510	</guide>

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