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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 1.21 2003/11/23 16:30:50 swift Exp $ -->	2	<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml,v 1.65 2006/03/25 06:59:01 fox2mike Exp $ -->
		3
3	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">	4	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
4		5
5	<guide link = "/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">	6	<guide link="/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">
6	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>	7	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>
		8
7	<author title="Author">	9	<author title="Author">
8	<mail link="zu@pandora.be">Vincent Verleye</mail>	10	<mail link="fox2mike@gentoo.org">Shyam Mani</mail>
9	</author>	11	</author>
10	<author title="Author">
11	<mail link="g2boojum@gentoo.org">Grant Goodyear</mail>
12	</author>
13	<author title="Author">
14	<mail link="agenkin@gentoo.org">Arcady Genkin</mail>
15	</author>
16	<author title="Editor"><!-- zhen@gentoo.org -->
17	John P. Davis
18	</author>
19	<author title="Editor">
20	<mail link="swift@gentoo.org">Sven Vermeulen</mail>
21	</author>
22	<author title="Editor">
23	<mail link="bennyc@gentoo.org">Benny Chuang</mail>
24	</author>
25	<author title="Editor">
26	<mail link="blubber@gentoo.org">Tiemo Kieft</mail>
27	</author>
28		12
		13	<abstract>
		14	This document helps a user setup ALSA on Gentoo Linux.
		15	</abstract>
		16
		17	<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
		18	<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
29	<license/>	19	<license/>
30		20
31	<abstract>
32	This guide will show you how to set up the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
33	(ALSA) on Gentoo Linux. In addition to the Gentoo Linux Desktop Configuration
34	Guide, this guide is supposed to give you more information on this subject.
35	</abstract>
36
37	<version>1.3.4</version>	21	<version>2.11</version>
38	<date>November 23, 2003</date>	22	<date>2006-03-25</date>
39		23
40	<chapter>	24	<chapter>
41	<title>Introduction</title>	25	<title>Introduction</title>
42	<section>	26	<section>
43	<title>What is ALSA?</title>	27	<title>What is ALSA?</title>
44	<body>	28	<body>
45		29
46	<p>	30	<p>
47	The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) is a project to improve the Linux	31	ALSA, which stands for <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, provides
48	sound subsystem by rewriting large chunks of it. It is anticipated that ALSA	32	audio and MIDI (<e>Musical Instrument Digital Interface</e>) functionality to
49	will make it into Linux kernel 2.6.x (or 3.x.x -- whichever comes first) as it	33	the Linux operating system. ALSA is the default sound subsystem in the 2.6
50	becomes ready.	34	kernel thereby replacing OSS (<e>Open Sound System</e>), which was used in the
51	</p>	35	2.4 kernels.
52
53	<p>	36	</p>
54	ALSA provides audio and MIDI functionality for Linux.	37
55	</p>	38	<p>
56		39	ALSA's main features include efficient support for all types of audio
		40	interfaces ranging from consumer sound cards to professional sound
		41	equipment, fully modularized drivers, SMP and thread safety, backward
		42	compatibility with OSS and a user-space library <c>alsa-lib</c> to make
		43	application development a breeze.
57	<p>	44	</p>
58	Quoted from <uri>http://www.alsa-project.org</uri>, ALSA has the following	45
59	features:	46	</body>
		47	</section>
		48	<section>
		49	<title>ALSA on Gentoo</title>
		50	<body>
		51
		52	<p>
		53	One of Gentoo's main strengths lies in giving the user maximum control over
		54	how a system is installed/configured. ALSA on Gentoo follows the same
		55	principle. There are two ways you can get ALSA support up and running on your
		56	system. We shall look at them in detail in the next chapter.
		57	</p>
		58
		59	</body>
		60	</section>
		61	</chapter>
		62
		63	<chapter>
		64	<title>Installing ALSA</title>
		65	<section>
		66	<title>Options</title>
		67	<body>
		68
		69	<warn>
		70	The methods shown below are mutually exclusive. You cannot have ALSA compiled
		71	in your kernel and use <c>media-sound/alsa-driver</c>. It <e>will</e> fail.
		72	</warn>
		73
		74	<p>
		75	The two options are :
		76	</p>
		77
		78	<ol>
		79	<li>
		80	Use ALSA provided by your kernel. This is the preferred/recommended
		81	method.
		82	</li>
		83	<li>
		84	Use Gentoo's <c>media-sound/alsa-driver</c> package.
		85	</li>
		86	</ol>
		87
		88	<p>
		89	We shall take a peek into both before finally deciding on one.
		90	</p>
		91
		92	<p>
		93	If you were to use ALSA provided by the kernel, the following are the pros and
		94	cons :
		95	</p>
		96
		97	<table>
		98	<tr>
		99	<th>Kernel ALSA</th>
		100	<th>Pros and Cons</th>
		101	</tr>
		102	<tr>
		103	<th>+</th>
		104	<ti>Pretty stable as drivers are integrated into kernel.</ti>
		105	</tr>
		106	<tr>
		107	<th>+</th>
		108	<ti>One shot solution, no repeating emerges.</ti>
		109	</tr>
		110	<tr>
		111	<th>-</th>
		112	<ti>Might be a slightly older version than <c>alsa-driver</c>.</ti>
		113	</tr>
		114	</table>
		115
		116	<p>
		117	And, if you were to use alsa-driver,
		118	</p>
		119
		120	<table>
		121	<tr>
		122	<th>alsa-driver</th>
		123	<th>Pros and Cons</th>
		124	</tr>
		125	<tr>
		126	<th>+</th>
		127	<ti>Latest drivers from the ALSA Project.</ti>
		128	</tr>
		129	<tr>
		130	<th>-</th>
		131	<ti>Every kernel recompile requires a re-emerge of <c>alsa-driver</c>.</ti>
		132	</tr>
		133	<tr>
		134	<th>-</th>
		135	<ti>Needs certain kernel config options disabled to work correctly.</ti>
		136	</tr>
		137	</table>
		138
		139	</body>
		140	</section>
		141	<section>
		142	<title>So...</title>
		143	<body>
		144
		145	<p>
		146	The main difference between using <c>alsa-driver</c> and ALSA that comes with
		147	the kernel is that <c>alsa-driver</c> is generally more up to date than the
		148	version in the kernel. Since this does not make any huge difference as
		149	such, you are encouraged to use the ALSA provided by the kernel for ease of use.
		150	Before reporting any sound related issues to <uri
		151	link="https://bugs.gentoo.org">Gentoo Bugzilla</uri>, please try to reproduce
		152	them using <c>alsa-driver</c> and file the bug report no matter what the
		153	result.
		154	</p>
		155
		156	</body>
		157	</section>
		158	<section id="lspci">
		159	<title>Before you proceed</title>
		160	<body>
		161
		162	<p>
		163	Whichever method of install you choose, you need to know what drivers your
		164	sound card uses. In most cases, sound cards (onboard and otherwise) are PCI
		165	based and <c>lspci</c> will help you in digging out the required information.
		166	Please <c>emerge sys-apps/pciutils</c> to get <c>lspci</c>, if you don't have it
		167	installed already. In case you have a USB sound card, <c>lsusb</c> from
		168	<c>sys-apps/usbutils</c> <e>might</e> be of help. For ISA cards, try using
		169	<c>sys-apps/isapnptools</c>. Also, the following pages <e>may</e> help users
		170	with ISA based sound cards.
60	</p>	171	</p>
61		172
62	<ul>	173	<ul>
63	<li>	174	<li>
64	Efficient support for all types of audio interfaces, from consumer	175	<uri link="http://www.roestock.demon.co.uk/isapnptools/">The ISAPNPTOOLS
65	soundcards to professional multichannel audio interfaces	176	Page</uri>
66	</li>
67	<li>Fully modularized sound drivers</li>
68	<li>SMP and thread-safe design</li>
69	<li>
70	User space library (alsa-lib) to simplify application programming and
71	provide higher level functionality
72	</li>
73	<li>
74	Support for the older OSS API, providing binary compatibility for most OSS
75	programs
76	</li>	177	</li>
		178	<li>
		179	<uri link="http://www2.linuxjournal.com/article/3269">LinuxJournal PnP
		180	Article</uri>
		181	</li>
		182	<li>
		183	<uri link="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/x320.html">TLDP Sound
		184	HowTo</uri>
		185	</li>
77	</ul>	186	</ul>
78		187
79	<p>	188	<note>
80	There's lots more to ALSA however, like support for Full Duplex playback and	189	For ease of use/explanation, we assume the user has a PCI based sound card for
81	recording, multiple soundcard support, hardware mixing of streams, extensive	190	the remainder of this guide.
82	mixer capabilities (to support advanced features of new soundcards), ...	191	</note>
		192
83	</p>	193	<p>
		194	We now proceed to find out details about the sound card.
		195	</p>
84		196
		197	<pre caption="Soundcard Details">
		198	# <i>lspci -v \| grep -i audio</i>
		199	0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 06)
		200	</pre>
		201
		202	<p>
		203	We now know that the sound card on the machine is a Sound Blaster Live! and
		204	the card manufacturer is Creative Labs. Head over to the
		205	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/"> ALSA Soundcard Matrix</uri>
		206	page and select Creative Labs from the drop down menu. You will be taken to
		207	the Creative Labs matrix page where you can see that the SB Live! uses the
		208	<c>emu10k1</c> module. That is the information we need for now. If you are
		209	interested in detailed information, you can click on the link next to the
		210	"Details" and that will take you to the <c>emu10k1</c> specific page.
		211	</p>
		212
85	</body>	213	</body>
86	</section>
87	<section>	214	</section>
88	<title>Why use ALSA?</title>	215	<section id="kernel">
89	<body>	216	<title>Using ALSA provided by your Kernel</title>
90
91	<p>
92	If your soundcard is supported by the Linux kernel sound system or the
93	commercial OSS/4Front sound driver system, which can be found in all 2.4.x
94	Linux kernels, you could just aswell build <e>those modules</e> for use with
95	your soundcard. If you want this, just read through the <uri
96	link="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/index.html">Linux Sound HOWTO</uri>.
97	</p>
98
99	<p>
100	However, those OSS/4Front drivers have some limitations -- being commercial is
101	one. ALSA is an attempt to go beyond these limitations and to do so in an open
102	source fashion. ALSA is a fully GPL and LGPL'ed sound driver system, that
103	provides a professional quality system for recording, playback, and MIDI
104	sequencing.
105	</p>
106
107	</body>	217	<body>
108	</section>	218
		219	<p>
		220	If you're a person who likes to keep things simple like I do, then this is
		221	the way to go.
		222	</p>
		223
		224	<note>
		225	Since the 2005.0 release, Gentoo Linux uses 2.6 as the default kernel. Unless
		226	you are specifically using the 2.4 profile, <c>gentoo-sources</c> will be a
		227	2.6 kernel on <e>most</e> architectures. Please check that your kernel is a
		228	2.6 series kernel. This method will <e>not</e> work on a 2.4 kernel.
		229	</note>
		230
		231	<p>
		232	Let us now configure the kernel to enable ALSA.
		233	</p>
		234
		235	<impo>
		236	<c>genkernel</c> users should now run <c>genkernel --menuconfig all</c> and
		237	then follow the instructions in <uri link="#doc_chap2_pre3">Kernel Options for
		238	ALSA</uri>.
		239	</impo>
		240
		241	<pre caption="Heading over to the source">
		242	# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
		243	# <i>make menuconfig</i>
		244	</pre>
		245
		246	<note>
		247	The above example assumes that <path>/usr/src/linux</path> symlink points to
		248	the kernel sources you want to use. Please ensure the same before proceeding.
		249	</note>
		250
		251	<p>
		252	Now we will look at some of the options we will have to enable in the 2.6
		253	kernel to ensure proper ALSA support for our sound card.
		254	</p>
		255
		256	<p>
		257	Please note that for the sake of ease, all examples show ALSA built as modules.
		258	It is advisable to follow the same as it then allows the use of <c>alsaconf</c>
		259	which is a boon when you want to configure your card. Please do <e>not</e> skip
		260	the <uri link="#alsa-config">Configuration</uri> section of this document. If
		261	you still like to have options built-in, ensure that you make changes to your
		262	config accordingly.
		263	</p>
		264
		265	<pre caption="Kernel Options for ALSA">
		266	Device Drivers --->
		267	Sound --->
		268
		269	<comment>(This needs to be enabled)</comment>
		270	<M> Sound card support
		271
		272	<comment>(Make sure OSS is disabled)</comment>
		273	Open Sound System --->
		274	< > Open Sound System (DEPRECATED)
		275
		276	<comment>(Move one step back and enter ALSA)</comment>
		277	Advanced Linux Sound Architecture --->
		278	<M> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
		279	<comment>(Select this if you want MIDI sequencing and routing)</comment>
		280	<M> Sequencer support
		281	<comment>(Old style /dev/mixer* and /dev/dsp* support. Recommended.)</comment>
		282	<M> OSS Mixer API
		283	<M> OSS PCM (digital audio) API
		284
		285	<comment>(You now have a choice of devices to enable support for. Generally,
		286	you will have one type of device and not more. If you have more than one
		287	sound card, please enable them all here.)</comment>
		288
		289	<comment>(Mostly for testing and development purposes, not needed for normal
		290	users unless you know what you are doing.)</comment>
		291	Generic devices --->
		292
		293	<comment>(For ISA Sound cards)</comment>
		294	ISA devices --->
		295	<comment>(IF you had the Gravis, you would select this option)</comment>
		296	<M> Gravis UltraSound Extreme
		297
		298	<comment>(Move one level back and into PCI devices. Most sound cards today are
		299	PCI devices)</comment>
		300	PCI devices --->
		301	<comment>(We now select the emu10k1 driver for our card)</comment>
		302	<M> Emu10k1 (SB Live!, Audigy, E-mu APS)
		303	<comment>(Or an Intel card would be)</comment>
		304	<M> Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller
		305	<comment>(Or if you have a VIA Card)</comment>
		306	<M> VIA 82C686A/B, 8233/8235 AC97 Controller
		307
		308	<comment>(Move one level back and select in case you have an USB sound card)</comment>
		309	USB Devices --->
		310	</pre>
		311
		312	<p>
		313	Now that your options are set, you can (re)compile the kernel and ALSA support
		314	for your card should be functional once you reboot into the new kernel. Don't
		315	forget to update your GRUB configuration to use the newly built kernel.
		316	You can now proceed to <uri link="#alsa-utilities">ALSA Utilities</uri> and
		317	see if everything is working as it should.
		318	</p>
		319
		320	</body>
109	<section>	321	</section>
110	<title>What cards does ALSA support?</title>	322	<section id="alsa-driver">
		323	<title>Using the ALSA Driver package</title>
111	<body>	324	<body>
112		325
113	<p>
114	ALSA tries to support as many (new) cards as possible by providing open-source
115	drivers. However, some vendors may provide binary-only packages.
116	</p>	326	<p>
117		327	So you've decided to go the <c>alsa-driver</c> way. Let's get started then.
		328	There are a few minor things to be done to ensure only the drivers for your
		329	sound card are compiled. Although this is not really necessary, it cuts down
		330	on the unnecessary drivers that will be compiled otherwise.
118	<p>	331	</p>
119	To know if your card is supported, you can find a Soundcard Matrix of supported	332
120	and not-supported cards here: <uri>http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/</uri>.
121	</p>	333	<p>
		334	If you don't have an idea of what drivers your sound card might need, please
		335	take a look at the <uri link="#lspci">lspci</uri> section of this guide. Once
		336	you have your driver name (<c>emu10k1</c> in our example), edit
		337	<path>/etc/make.conf</path> and add a variable, <c>ALSA_CARDS</c>.
		338	</p>
		339
		340	<pre caption="Adding ALSA_CARDS to make.conf">
		341	<comment>(For one sound card)</comment>
		342	ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1"
		343	<comment>(For more than one, separate names with spaces)</comment>
		344	ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1 via82xx"
		345	</pre>
		346
		347	<p>
		348	If you have compiled your kernel and want to use <c>alsa-driver</c>, please
		349	ensure the following before proceeding, else <c>alsa-driver</c> is likely to
		350	fail. The next code listing gives you one way of performing the checks.
		351	</p>
		352
		353	<note>
		354	<c>genkernel</c> users can proceed with <uri link="#doc_chap2_pre6">Installing
		355	alsa-driver</uri> as their configuration is in sync with the one shown below by
		356	default.
		357	</note>
		358
		359	<ol>
		360	<li>
		361	<c>CONFIG_SOUND</c> is set. (Basic Sound support enabled)
		362	</li>
		363	<li>
		364	<c>CONFIG_SOUND_PRIME</c> is not set. (In-built OSS support disabled)
		365	</li>
		366	<li>
		367	<c>CONFIG_SND</c> is not set. (In-built ALSA support disabled)
		368	</li>
		369	<li>
		370	<path>/usr/src/linux</path> points to the kernel you want ALSA working on.
		371	</li>
		372	</ol>
		373
		374	<pre caption=".config checks">
		375	<comment>(Assuming the linux symlink points to the correct kernel)</comment>
		376	# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
		377	# <i>grep SOUND .config</i>
		378	<comment>(1. is true)</comment>
		379	CONFIG_SOUND=y
		380	<comment>(2. is true)</comment>
		381	CONFIG_SOUND_PRIME is not set
		382	# <i>grep SND .config</i>
		383	<comment>(and 3. is true)</comment>
		384	CONFIG_SND is not set
		385	</pre>
		386
		387	<p>
		388	Now all you have to do is type the magic words... and no, it's not abracadabra.
		389	</p>
		390
		391	<pre caption="Installing alsa-driver">
		392	# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>
		393	</pre>
		394
		395	<impo>
		396	Please note that you will have to run <c>emerge alsa-driver</c> after every
		397	kernel (re)compile, as the earlier drivers are deleted.
		398	</impo>
122		399
123	</body>	400	</body>
124	</section>	401	</section>
125	</chapter>	402	</chapter>
126		403
127	<chapter>	404	<chapter>
128	<title>Installation</title>	405	<title>Configuring/Testing ALSA</title>
129	<section>	406	<section id="alsa-utilities">
130	<title>Gentoo USE flags</title>	407	<title>ALSA Utilities</title>
131	<body>
132
133	<p>
134	To compile programs with ALSA-support, be sure to add <e>alsa</e> to
135	your USE-variable. However, several tools don't support alsa yet, and
136	require OSS. ALSA provides OSS-emulation if you define <e>oss</e> in your
137	USE-variable before you start.
138	</p>
139
140	</body>	408	<body>
141	</section>
142	<section>
143	<title>Kernel modules</title>
144	<body>
145		409
146	<p>
147	Since we're still using 2.4.x kernel sources, we'll have to compile kernel
148	modules and ALSA modules separately. People who are using a 2.5.x kernel can
149	do this from within their kernel configuration, since the ALSA modules are
150	included in the kernel sources and should be built there.
151	</p>	410	<p>
152		411	<c>alsa-utils</c> forms an integral part of ALSA as it has a truckload of
		412	programs that are highly useful, including the ALSA Initscripts. Hence we
		413	strongly recommend that you install <c>alsa-utils</c>
153	<p>	414	</p>
154	First we'll make sure that our kernel configuration is ready for use with ALSA.	415
155	All you need in your kernel configuration is having Sound Card Support set to	416	<pre caption="Install alsa-utils">
156	be built as a module (M). This will build <path>soundcore.o</path>.	417	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>
157	</p>	418	</pre>
158		419
159	<note>	420	<note>
160	Possibly, this will also work when you built Sound Card Support in the kernel	421	If you activated ALSA in your <uri link="#kernel">kernel</uri> <e>and</e> did
161	(Y) instead of building it as a module (M). However, the official ALSA	422	not compile ALSA as modules, please proceed to the
162	documentation suggests building it as a module, since ALSA will try loading it.	423	<uri link="#initscript">ALSA Initscript</uri> section. The rest of you need
		424	to configure ALSA. This is made very easy by the existence of the
		425	<c>alsaconf</c> tool provided by <c>alsa-utils</c>.
163	</note>	426	</note>
164		427
165	<p>	428	</body>
166	If you already have a working kernel configuration, make sure you remove all	429	</section>
167	sound drivers (except for Sound Card Support). If you wish to do this without	430	<section id="alsa-config">
168	having to reboot, you could do like this:	431	<title>Configuration</title>
		432	<body>
		433
		434	<note>
		435	Please shut down any programs that <e>might</e> access the sound card while
		436	running <c>alsaconf</c>.
		437	</note>
		438
169	</p>	439	<p>
170		440	The easiest way to configure your sound card is to run <c>alsaconf</c>. Just
171	<pre caption="Kernel configuration">	441	type <c>alsaconf</c> in a shell as root.
172	# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
173	# <i>cp .config ~/</i>
174	# <i>make mrproper</i>
175	# <i>cp ~/.config .</i>
176	# <i>make menuconfig</i>
177	</pre>
178
179	<p>	442	</p>
180	Now select <e>Sound Card Support</e> as Module (M) and deselect all other sound	443
181	drivers. Exit and say Y to save your kernel configuration. After that, build	444	<pre caption="Invoking alsaconf">
182	the modules:	445	# <i>alsaconf</i>
		446	</pre>
		447
183	</p>	448	<p>
184		449	You will now see a neat menu guided interface that will automatically probe
185	<pre caption="Kernel compilation">	450	your devices and try to find out your sound card. You will be asked to pick
186	# <i>make dep clean</i>	451	your sound card from a list. Once that's done, it will ask you permission to
187	# <i>make modules modules_install</i>	452	automatically make required changes to <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>.
188	</pre>	453	It will then adjust your volume settings to optimum levels, run
189		454	<c>modules-update</c> and start the <path>/etc/init.d/alsasound</path> service.
		455	Once <c>alsaconf</c> exits, you can proceed with setting up the ALSA
		456	initscript.
190	<p>	457	</p>
191	Before installing your new modules, this last line will delete all your previous	458
192	modules, even the ones from a previous ALSA installation.	459	</body>
		460	</section>
		461	<section id="initscript">
		462	<title>ALSA Initscript</title>
		463	<body>
		464
193	</p>	465	<p>
		466	We're now almost all setup. Whichever method you chose to install ALSA, you'll
		467	need to have something load your modules or initialize ALSA and restore your
		468	volume settings when your system comes up. The ALSA Initscript handles all of
		469	this for you and is called <c>alsasound</c>. Add it to the boot runlevel.
		470	</p>
		471
		472	<pre caption="Adding ALSA to the boot runlevel">
		473	# <i>rc-update add alsasound boot</i>
		474	* alsasound added to runlevel boot
		475	* rc-update complete.
		476	</pre>
		477
		478	<p>
		479	Next, just check the <path>/etc/conf.d/alsasound</path> file and ensure that
		480	SAVE_ON_STOP variable is set to yes. This saves your sound settings when you
		481	shutdown your system.
		482	</p>
		483
		484	</body>
		485	</section>
		486	<section>
		487	<title>Audio Group</title>
		488	<body>
		489
		490	<p>
		491	Before we move on to testing, there's one last <e>important</e> thing that needs
		492	to be setup. Rule of thumb in a *nix OS : Do not run as root unless needed.
		493	This applies here as well ;) How? Well, most of the times you should be logged
		494	in as a user and would like to listen to music or access your soundcard. For
		495	that to happen, you need to be in the "audio" group. At this point, we'll add
		496	users to the audio group, so that they won't have any issues when they want to
		497	access sound devices. We'll use <c>gpasswd</c> here and you need to be logged in
		498	as root for this to work.
		499	</p>
		500
		501	<pre caption="Adding users to the audio group">
		502	<comment>(Substitute <username> with your user)</comment>
		503	# <i>gpasswd -a <username> audio </i>
		504	Adding user <username> to group audio
		505	</pre>
		506
		507	</body>
		508	</section>
		509	<section>
		510	<title>Volume Check!</title>
		511	<body>
		512
		513	<p>
		514	We've completed all the setups and pre-requisites, so let's fire up ALSA. If
		515	you ran <c>alsaconf</c>, you can skip this step, since <c>alsaconf</c> already
		516	does this for you.
		517	</p>
		518
		519	<pre caption="Start the service">
		520	<comment>(ALSA as modules)</comment>
		521	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
		522	* Loading ALSA modules ...
		523	* Loading: snd-card-0 ... [ ok ]
		524	* Loading: snd-pcm-oss ... [ ok ]
		525	* Loading: snd-seq ... [ ok ]
		526	* Loading: snd-emu10k1-synth ... [ ok ]
		527	* Loading: snd-seq-midi ... [ ok ]
		528	* Restoring Mixer Levels ... [ ok ]
		529	<comment>(ALSA compiled in)</comment>
		530	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
		531	* Loading ALSA modules ...
		532	* Restoring Mixer Levels ... [ ok ]
		533	</pre>
		534
		535	<p>
		536	Now that the required things have been taken care of, we need to check up on
		537	the volume as in certain cases, it is muted. We use <c>alsamixer</c> for this
		538	purpose.
		539	</p>
		540
		541	<pre caption="Starting alsamixer">
		542	<comment>(Opens up a console program. Only required settings are shown)</comment>
		543	# <i>alsamixer</i>
		544	</pre>
194		545
195	<impo>	546	<impo>
196	This means, whenever you recompile your kernel later on, you MUST recompile	547	If you have issues starting up <c>alsamixer</c> and get errors such as
197	<c>alsa-driver</c>.	548	alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory,
		549	this is usually an issue with udev setting up the devices. Run <c>killall
		550	udevd; udevstart</c> to reload <path>/dev</path> entries and fire up
		551	<c>alsamixer</c>. It should solve the issue.
198	</impo>	552	</impo>
199		553
200	</body>
201	</section>
202	<section>
203	<title>ALSA modules</title>
204	<body>
205
206	<p>
207	Now it's time to install the ALSA drivers for your soundcard(s). If your
208	soundcard is PCI, you can find out the name and type of your soundcard by
209	looking at the output of <path>/proc/pci</path>.
210	</p>	554	<p>
211		555	This is how the ALSA Mixer <e>might</e> look the first time you open it. Pay
212	<pre caption="Search for soundcard information">	556	attention to the Master and PCM channels which both have an MM below them.
213	# <i>grep audio /proc/pci</i>	557	That means they are muted. If you try to play anything with <c>alsamixer</c>
		558	in this state, you will not hear anything on your speakers.
214	</pre>	559	</p>
		560
		561	<figure link="/images/docs/alsa-mixermuted.png" short="AlsaMixer Muted" caption="The Alsa Mixer Main Window, Muted"/>
		562
		563	<p>
		564	Now, we shall unmute the channels, and set volume levels as needed.
		565	</p>
215		566
216	<warn>	567	<warn>
217	If you had a previous sound setup and there are still non-ALSA sound modules	568	Both Master <e>and</e> PCM need to be unmuted and set to audible volume levels
218	loaded, unload them <e>now</e>. Check with <c>lsmod</c> and use <c>rmmod</c>	569	if you want to hear some output on your speakers.
219	to unload all sound-related modules on your system.
220	</warn>	570	</warn>
221		571
222	<p>	572	<ul>
223	We could simply do an <c>emerge alsa-driver</c> now, this would compile and	573	<li>
224	install <e>all</e> ALSA sound drivers.	574	To move between channels, use your left and right arrow keys. (<-
225	</p>	575	& ->)
226		576	</li>
227	<p>	577	<li>
228	However, to save some time, lookup the <e>Module Name</e> of your soundcard(s)	578	To toggle mute, move to the specific channel, for example Master and press
229	on the <uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc">ALSA Soundcard	579	the <e>m</e> key on the keyboard.
230	Matrix</uri> by following the <e>Details</e> link in the <e>Driver and Docs</e>	580	</li>
231	column in the row of the chipset of your soundcard. Mine is <c>snd-emu10k1</c>,	581	<li>
232	since I have an SBlive! soundcard, with the <e>EMU10K1</e> chipset. We'll set	582	To increase and decrease the volume levels, use the up and down arrow keys
233	ALSA_CARDS environment to the value of the module name before emerging (but	583	respectively.
234	without the snd prefix), so emerge will only compile the drivers we need.	584	</li>
235	</p>	585	</ul>
236
237	<pre caption="Compile correct modules">
238	# <i>env ALSA_CARDS='emu10k1' emerge alsa-driver</i>
239	</pre>
240		586
241	<note>	587	<note>
242	You can also add this value in <path>/etc/make.conf</path>, so when you have	588	Be careful when setting your Bass and Treble values. 50 is usually a good
243	to emerge the alsa-driver later on you can just run <c>emerge alsa-driver</c>.	589	number for both. Extremely high values of Bass may cause <e>jarring</e>
244	For example, like this: <c>echo 'ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1"' >> /etc/make.conf</c>	590	on speakers that are not designed to handle them.
245	</note>	591	</note>
246		592
		593	<p>
		594	After you're all done, your ALSA Mixer should look similar to the one below.
		595	Note the 00 instead of the MM and also the volume levels for some optimum
		596	settings.
		597	</p>
		598
		599	<figure link="/images/docs/alsa-mixerunmuted.png" short="AlsaMixer Unmuted" caption="Alsa Mixer ready to roll"/>
		600
		601	</body>
		602	</section>
		603	<section>
		604	<title>Sound Check!</title>
		605	<body>
		606
		607	<p>
		608	Finally. Some music. If everything above is perfect, you should now be able to
		609	listen to some good music. A quick way to test is to use a command line tool
		610	like <c>media-sound/madplay</c>. You could also use something more well known
		611	like <c>mpg123</c> or <c>xmms</c>. If you are an ogg fan, you could use
		612	<c>ogg123</c> provided by <c>media-sound/vorbis-tools</c>. Use any player you
		613	are comfortable with. As always, <c>emerge</c> what you need.
		614	</p>
		615
		616	<pre caption="Getting the software">
		617	<comment>(Install the applications you want)</comment>
		618	# <i>emerge madplay mpg123 xmms</i>
		619	<comment>(To play .ogg files)</comment>
		620	# <i>emerge vorbis-tools</i>
		621	</pre>
		622
		623	<p>
		624	And then play your favorite sound track...
		625	</p>
		626
		627	<pre caption="Playing Music">
		628	# <i>madplay -v /mnt/shyam/Music/Paul\ Oakenfold\ -\ Dread\ Rock.mp3</i>
		629	MPEG Audio Decoder 0.15.2 (beta) - Copyright (C) 2000-2004 Robert Leslie et al.
		630	Title: Dread Rock
		631	Artist: Paul Oakenfold
		632	Album: Matrix Reloaded
		633	Year: 2003
		634	Genre: Soundtrack
		635	Soundtrack
		636	00:04:19 Layer III, 160 kbps, 44100 Hz, joint stereo (MS), no CRC
		637
		638	# <i>ogg123 Paul\ Oakenfold\ -\ Dread\ Rock.ogg</i>
		639	Audio Device: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) output
		640
		641	Playing: Paul Oakenfold - Dread Rock.ogg
		642	Ogg Vorbis stream: 2 channel, 44100 Hz
		643	Genre: Soundtrack
		644	Transcoded: mp3;160
		645	Title: Dread Rock
		646	Artist: Paul Oakenfold
		647	Date: 2003
		648	Album: Matrix Reloaded
		649	Time: 00:11.31 [04:28.75] of 04:40.06 (200.6 kbps) Output Buffer 96.9%
		650	</pre>
		651
		652	</body>
		653	</section>
		654	<section>
		655	<title>ALSA and USE</title>
		656	<body>
		657
		658	<p>
		659	You can now add the <c>alsa</c> use flag to <path>/etc/make.conf</path> to
		660	ensure that your applications that support ALSA get built with it. Some
		661	architectures like x86 and amd64 have the flag enabled by default.
		662	</p>
		663
		664	</body>
		665	</section>
		666	<section>
		667	<title>Issues?</title>
		668	<body>
		669
		670	<p>
		671	If for some reason you're unable to hear sound, the first thing to do would
		672	be to check your <uri link="#doc_chap3_pre6">alsamixer</uri> settings. 80% of
		673	the issues lie with muted channels or low volume. Also check your Window
		674	Manager's sound applet and verify that volumes are set to audible levels.
		675	</p>
		676
		677	<p>
		678	<path>/proc</path> is your friend. And in this case, <path>/proc/asound</path>
		679	is your best friend. We shall just take a short look at how much info is made
		680	available to us there.
		681	</p>
		682
		683	<pre caption="Fun with /proc/asound">
		684	<comment>(First and foremost, if /proc/asound/cards shows your card, ALSA has
		685	picked up your sound card fine.)</comment>
		686	# <i>cat /proc/asound/cards</i>
		687	0 [Live ]: EMU10K1 - Sound Blaster Live!
		688	Sound Blaster Live! (rev.6, serial:0x80271102) at 0xb800, irq 11
		689
		690	<comment>(If you run ALSA off the kernel like I do and wonder how far behind
		691	you are from alsa-driver, this displays current running ALSA version)</comment>
		692	# <i>cat /proc/asound/version</i>
		693	Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.8 (Thu Jan 13 09:39:32 2005 UTC).
		694
		695	<comment>(ALSA OSS emulation details)</comment>
		696	# <i>cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat</i>
		697	Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.8 emulation code)
		698	Kernel: Linux airwolf.zion 2.6.11ac1 #2 Wed May 4 00:35:08 IST 2005 i686
		699	Config options: 0
		700
		701	Installed drivers:
		702	Type 10: ALSA emulation
		703
		704	Card config:
		705	Sound Blaster Live! (rev.6, serial:0x80271102) at 0xb800, irq 11
		706
		707	Audio devices:
		708	0: EMU10K1 (DUPLEX)
		709
		710	Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG
		711
		712	Midi devices:
		713	0: EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART)
		714
		715	Timers:
		716	7: system timer
		717
		718	Mixers:
		719	0: SigmaTel STAC9721/23
		720	</pre>
		721
		722	<p>
		723	The other most common issue users face is the dreaded "Unknown symbol in module"
		724	error. An example of the same is shown below.
		725	</p>
		726
		727	<pre caption="Unknown Symbol in module error">
		728	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
		729	* Loading ALSA modules ...
		730	* Loading: snd-card-0 ... [ ok ]
		731	* Loading: snd-pcm-oss ...
		732	WARNING: Error inserting snd_mixer_oss
		733	(/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-mixer-oss.ko): Unknown
		734	symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg) FATAL: Error inserting
		735	snd_pcm_oss
		736	(/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-pcm-oss.ko): Unknown
		737	symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
		738	[ !! ]
		739	* Loading: snd-mixer-oss ...
		740	FATAL: Error inserting snd_mixer_oss
		741	(/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-mixer-oss.ko): Unknown
		742	symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
		743	[ !! ]
		744	* Loading: snd-seq ... [ ok ]
		745	* Loading: snd-emu10k1-synth ... [ ok ]
		746	* Loading: snd-seq-midi ... [ ok ]
		747	* Restoring Mixer Levels ... [ ok ]
		748	</pre>
		749
		750	<p>
		751	And when you take a look at <c>dmesg</c> as suggested, you're quite likely to
		752	see:
		753	</p>
		754
		755	<pre caption="dmesg output">
		756	<comment>(Only relevant portions are shown below)</comment>
		757	# <i>dmesg \| less</i>
		758	ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:06.0[A] -> Link [APC3] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 209
		759	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device
		760	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device
		761	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback
		762	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register
		763	snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device
		764	snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device
		765	snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_ioctl_card
		766	snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register
		767	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device
		768	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device
		769	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback
		770	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register
		771	</pre>
		772
		773	<p>
		774	The above issue is caused when you switch from <c>alsa-driver</c> to in-kernel
		775	ALSA because when you unmerge <c>alsa-driver</c> the module files are config
		776	protected and hence get left behind. So, when you switch to in-kernel
		777	drivers, running <c>modprobe</c> gives you a mix of <c>alsa-driver</c> and
		778	in-kernel modules thus causing the above errors.
		779	</p>
		780
		781	<p>
		782	The solution is quite easy. We just need to manually remove the problem causing
		783	directory after you unmerge <c>alsa-driver</c>. Be sure to remove the correct
		784	kernel version and not the current one!
		785	</p>
		786
		787	<pre caption="Removing the alsa-driver modules">
		788	<comment>(Replace KERNELVER with your kernel version)</comment>
		789	# <i>rm -rf /lib/modules/KERNELVER/alsa-driver</i>
		790	</pre>
		791
		792	</body>
		793	</section>
		794	</chapter>
		795
		796	<chapter>
		797	<title>Other things ALSA</title>
		798	<section>
		799	<title>Setting up MIDI support</title>
		800	<body>
		801
		802	<p>
		803	If your sound card is one of those that come with on-board MIDI synthesizers
		804	and you would like to listen to some .mid files, you have to install
		805	<c>awesfx</c> which is basically a set of utilities for controlling the AWE32
		806	driver. We need to install it first. If you don't have a hardware synthesizer,
		807	you can use a virtual one. Please see the section on
		808	<uri link="#vsynth">Virtual Synthesizers</uri> for more information.
		809	</p>
		810
		811	<pre caption="Installing awesfx">
		812	# <i>emerge awesfx</i>
		813	</pre>
		814
247	<note>	815	<note>
248	When you want to install ALSA drivers for more than one soundcard, you could	816	You will need to copy over SoundFont (SF2) files from your sound card's driver
249	set ALSA_CARDS to a space-separated list of drivers; like this: <c>env	817	CD or a Windows installation into <path>/usr/share/sounds/sf2/</path>. For
250	ALSA_CARDS='emu10k1 intel8x0 ens1370' emerge alsa-driver</c>	818	example a sound font file for the Creative SBLive! card would be 8MBGMSFX.SF2.
251	</note>	819	</note>
252		820
		821	<p>
		822	After copying over the Soundfont files, we can then play a midi file as shown.
		823	You can also add the <c>asfxload</c> command to
		824	<path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path>, so that the sound font is loaded
		825	every time the system starts up.
		826	</p>
		827
253	<note>	828	<note>
254	If you want to have OSS compatibility, make sure to emerge <i>alsa-oss</i>, it	829	<path>/mnt</path> paths mentioned in the code listing(s) below will <e>not</e>
255	is the ALSA/OSS compatibility wrapper.	830	be the same in your machine. They are just an example. Please be careful to
		831	change the path to suit your machine.
256	</note>	832	</note>
257		833
258	<note>	834	<pre caption="Loading Soundfonts">
259	If you plan on recompiling your kernels numerous times, it might	835	<comment>(First, copy the Soundfont)</comment>
260	be adviseable to emerge <c>alsa-driver</c> with <c>--buildpkg</c>. This	836	# <i>cp /mnt/win2k/Program\ Files/CreativeSBLive2k/SFBank/8MBGMSFX.SF2 /usr/share/sounds/sf2/</i>
261	will create a binary package for it. Later, after recompiling your kernel,	837	<comment>(Or get it from your SoundBlaster CD)</comment>
262	you can just do <c>emerge --usepkg alsa-driver</c> which will install the	838	# <i>cp /mnt/cdrom/AUDIO/ENGLISH/SFBANK/8MBGMSFX.SF2 /usr/share/sounds/sf2/</i>
263	binary package instead of recompiling it completely.	839	<comment>(We load the specific Soundfont)</comment>
264	</note>	840	# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sounds/sf2/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>
		841	</pre>
265		842
266	<p>
267	After this, the ALSA modules should be installed on your system.
268	</p>	843	<p>
		844	You can now play midi files using a program like <c>aplaymidi</c>. Run
		845	<c>aplaymidi -l</c> to get a list of available ports and then pick one
		846	to play the file on.
		847	</p>
269		848
		849	<pre caption="Playing MIDI">
		850	<comment>(Check open ports)</comment>
		851	# <i>aplaymidi -l</i>
		852	Port Client name Port name
		853	64:0 EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART) EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART)
		854	65:0 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 0
		855	65:1 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 1
		856	65:2 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 2
		857	65:3 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 3
		858	<comment>(Pick a port, and play a mid file)</comment>
		859	# <i> aplaymidi --port=65:0 /mnt/shyam/music/midi/mi2.mid</i>
		860	</pre>
		861
270	</body>	862	</body>
271	</section>
272	<section>	863	</section>
273	<title>Configuration of ALSA</title>	864	<section id="vsynth">
274	<body>	865	<title>Virtual Synthesizers</title>
275
276	<p>
277	Let's start configuring now to get ALSA working properly. We'll need to edit
278	some files, to let our system know about the freshly installed ALSA modules.
279	</p>
280
281	<p>
282	First, install <c>alsa-utils</c> on your system:
283	</p>
284
285	<pre caption = "Emerging alsa-utils">
286	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>
287	</pre>
288
289	<p>
290	Hereafter, we need to edit <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>.
291	</p>
292
293	<warn>
294	There is no need to edit <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>. Instead, always edit
295	files in <path>/etc/modules.d</path>.
296	</warn>
297
298	<p>
299	Check the ALSA portion <e>at the bottom of the file</e>. By tweaking this line
300	you can specify the max number of soundcards you have (generally, just one).
301	</p>
302
303	<pre caption="At the bottom of /etc/modules.d/alsa">
304	<comment>Set this to the correct number of cards.</comment>
305	options snd cards_limit=1
306	</pre>
307
308	<p>
309	Now we'll specify the sounddriver(s) ALSA should use. In the same file, edit
310	like this:
311	</p>
312
313	<pre caption="In /etc/modules.d/alsa">
314	## and then run `modules-update' command.
315	## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
316	##
317	## ALSA portion
318	alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
319	<comment>## If you have more than one, add:</comment>
320	## alias snd-card-1 snd-intel8x0
321	## alias snd-card-2 snd-ens1370
322	## OSS/Free portion
323	## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
324	## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
325	##
326	</pre>
327
328	<note>
329	If you have more than one soundcard, adjust the <c>cards_limit</c> value and add
330	more snd-card aliases to the file. I don't have experience with this, but you
331	can find examples for configurations with two or more soundcards in <uri
332	link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-howto/c1660.htm">Chapter 6</uri>
333	of the <uri
334	link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-howto/alsa-howto.html">ALSA
335	Howto</uri>.
336	</note>
337
338	<p>
339	Last thing to do in this file, almost at the end, check if these lines are there
340	and uncommented:
341	</p>
342
343	<pre caption="Near the end of /etc/modules.d/alsa">
344	alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
345	alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
346	alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
347	</pre>
348
349	<p>
350	Now double-check the file <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> and when you're sure
351	everyting is ok, run <c>modules-update</c>.
352	</p>
353
354	<pre caption="Running modules-update">
355	# <i>modules-update</i>
356	</pre>
357
358	<note>
359	Running <c>modules-update</c> here will insert the data from
360	<path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> into <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>
361	</note>
362
363	<p>
364	You should also verify that <path>/etc/devfsd.conf</path> has the alsa devices
365	and permissions correctly registered.
366	</p>
367
368	<pre caption="/etc/devfsd.conf">
369	# ALSA/OSS stuff
370	# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on
371	# the audio devices
372	LOOKUP snd MODLOAD ACTION snd
373	LOOKUP dsp MODLOAD
374	LOOKUP mixer MODLOAD
375	LOOKUP midi MODLOAD
376	REGISTER sound/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
377	REGISTER snd/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
378	</pre>
379
380	<note>
381	Notice that devfsd.conf sets <path>/dev/sound</path> permissions to be
382	root.audio. Thus, for non-root users to use audio they will have to be part of
383	the audio group.
384	</note>
385
386	</body>	866	<body>
387	</section>
388	</chapter>
389		867
390	<chapter>	868	<p>
391	<title>Starting ALSA</title>	869	If your sound card lacks a hardware synthesizer, you could use a virtual one
		870	like <c>timidity++</c>. Installation is a breeze.
		871	</p>
		872
		873	<pre caption="Installing timidity++">
		874	# <i>emerge timidity++</i>
		875	</pre>
		876
		877	<p>
		878	For timidity to play sounds, it needs a sound font. If you do not have any,
		879	install <c>timidity-eawpatches</c> or <c>timidity-shompatches</c> which will
		880	give you some sound fonts. You can have multiple sound font configurations
		881	installed, and you can place your own in <path>/usr/share/timidity/</path>.
		882	To switch between different timidity configurations, you should use the
		883	<c>timidity-update</c> tool provided in the timidity++ package.
		884	</p>
		885
		886	<pre caption="Installing sound fonts">
		887	# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>
		888	# <i>timidity-update -g -s eawpatches</i>
		889
		890	<comment>(or)</comment>
		891
		892	# <i>emerge timidity-shompatches</i>
		893	# <i>timidity-update -g -s shompatches</i>
		894	</pre>
		895
		896	<p>
		897	Don't forget to add <c>timidity</c> to the default runlevel.
		898	</p>
		899
		900	<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">
		901	# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>
		902	# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>
		903	</pre>
		904
		905	<p>
		906	You can now try out <uri link="#doc_chap4_pre3">Playing MIDI</uri> files.
		907	</p>
		908
		909	</body>
392	<section>	910	</section>
393	<title>Adding alsasound to a runlevel</title>
394	<body>
395
396	<p>
397	First thing to do now, is to make ALSA startup at boottime. Like this:
398	</p>
399
400	<pre caption="Add ALSA to the default runlevel">
401	# <i>rc-update add alsasound boot</i>
402	</pre>
403
404	<warn>
405	Note that the alsasound script should be added to the "boot" runlevel, not the
406	"default" runlevel.
407	</warn>
408
409	</body>
410	</section>	911	<section>
		912	<title>Tools and Firmware</title>
		913	<body>
		914
		915	<p>
		916	Some specific sound cards can benefit from certain tools provided by the
		917	<c>alsa-tools</c> and <c>alsa-firmware</c> packages. If you need
		918	<c>alsa-tools</c>, be sure to define the ALSA_TOOLS variable in
		919	<path>/etc/make.conf</path> with the tools you require. For instance:
		920	</p>
		921
		922	<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">
		923	ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"
		924	</pre>
		925
		926	<p>
		927	If the ALSA_TOOLS variable is not set, all available tools will be built.
		928	Now, install the <c>alsa-tools</c> (and/or <c>alsa-firmware</c>) package(s):
		929	</p>
		930
		931	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">
		932	# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>
		933	</pre>
		934
		935	</body>
411	<section>	936	</section>
412	<title>Running and unmuting</title>
413	<body>
414
415	<p>
416	Since we're Linux users, we don't want to reboot. So we'll start the alsasound
417	script manually.
418	</p>
419
420	<pre caption="Starting ALSA">
421	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
422	</pre>
423
424	<p>
425	ALSA is running now. If everything is ok, you should be able to see the ALSA
426	modules loaded when running <c>lsmod</c>. However, sound won't work yet,
427	because the channels are still muted. We need <c>amixer</c> for this.
428	</p>
429
430	<pre caption = "Running amixer">
431	# <i>amixer</i>
432	</pre>
433
434	<warn>
435	You shouldn't get this, but <e>if</e> you get an error about "amixer: Mixer
436	attach default error: No such file or directory", you should manually modprobe
437	<c>snd-mixer-oss</c> and <c>snd-pcm-oss</c> once. After that run amixer again.
438	</warn>
439
440	<pre caption="Only if you get an error when running amixer">
441	# <i>modprobe snd-mixer-oss</i>
442	# <i>modprobe snd-pcm-oss</i>
443	# <i>amixer</i>
444	</pre>
445
446	<p>
447	If you got this far, now unmute Master and PCM channels. Some hardware
448	even requires you to unmute the center channel or even the surround
449	channel.
450	</p>
451
452	<pre caption = "Unmuting channels">
453	# <i>amixer set Master 100 unmute</i>
454	# <i>amixer set PCM 100 unmute</i>
455	<comment>Only if the above doesn't succeed on its own:</comment>
456	# <i>amixer set Center 100 unmute</i>
457	# <i>amixer set Surround 100 unmute</i>
458	<comment>Test the sound:</comment>
459	# <i>aplay $KDEDIR/share/sounds/pop.wav</i> <codenote>(pop.wav is part of KDE)</codenote>
460	</pre>
461
462	<p>
463	We check to see if sound is working by using the aplay (alsa play) command. If
464	you hear a pop, then sound is indeed working. Then, adjust the volume settings
465	to your liking; the ncurses-based <c>alsamixer</c> is a great way to get them
466	"just so".
467	</p>
468
469	<p>
470	You may want to emerge <c>alsa-xmms</c> as that will provide ALSA support for
471	XMMS.
472	</p>
473
474	<p>
475	When you reboot your system, the <c>alsasound</c> init script will properly saveand restore your volume settings.
476	</p>
477
478	</body>
479	</section>	937	<section>
480	</chapter>	938	<title>A Big thank you to...</title>
		939	<body>
481		940
482	<chapter>	941	<p>
483	<title>Final Notes</title>	942	Everyone who contributed to the earlier version of the Gentoo ALSA Guide:
		943	Vincent Verleye, Grant Goodyear, Arcady Genkin, Jeremy Huddleston,
		944	John P. Davis, Sven Vermeulen, Benny Chuang, Tiemo Kieft and Erwin.
		945	</p>
		946
		947	</body>
484	<section>	948	</section>
485	<title>After kernel-upgrades..</title>
486	<body>
487
488	<p>
489	When you ever rebuild your kernel, or upgrade to another kernel, you'll have to
490	rebuild the ALSA modules.
491	</p>
492
493	<p>
494	Although you might have installed <c>alsa-driver</c>, <c>alsa-libs</c> and
495	<c>alsa-utils</c>, only the first will have to be installed again, since it will
496	put the alsa modules in <path>/lib/modules/*/kernel/sound/pci/</path>.
497	</p>
498
499	<pre caption="needed after each kernel compile">
500	# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>
501	</pre>
502
503	</body>
504	</section>	949	<section>
505	<section>	950	<title>References</title>
506	<title>/etc/modules.autoload</title>
507	<body>
508
509	<p>
510	You won't have to edit this file for use with ALSA. After our <c>rc-update add
511	alsasound boot</c>, our system will load the correct modules at startup.
512	</p>
513
514	<p>
515	It's not necessary to add <c>snd-pcm-oss</c> or <c>snd-mixer-oss</c> in this
516	file. Check the <uri link="http://www.djcj.org/LAU/guide/alsbook/faq1.html">this
517	FAQ</uri> for more info.
518	</p>
519
520	</body>	951	<body>
521	</section>
522	<section>
523	<title>Known bugs</title>
524	<body>
525
526	<note>
527	This guide lags behind on the alsa-development. Chances are these bugs
528	are already fixed when you read this.
529	</note>
530		952
531	<ul>	953	<ul>
532	<li>
533	If you have <b>lots of noise</b> when using <b>oss</b> emulation, add
534	<e>options snd-pcm-oss dsp_map=1</e> to <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>
535	</li>
536	</ul>
537
538	</body>
539	</section>
540	<section>
541	<title>Activating Joystick Support</title>
542	<body>
543
544	<p>
545	If your soundcard has a joystick plug, you might be interested in activating
546	joystick support for your soundcard. If so, start by verifying if your soundcard
547	driver has a joystick parameter. You can verify this by running <c>modinfo</c>
548	against your <path>snd-<your chipset></path>. For instance, for the
549	<c>snd-via82xx</c>:
550	</p>
551
552	<pre caption="Running modinfo">
553	# <i>modinfo snd-via82xx</i>
554	filename: /lib/modules/2.4.22-ck2/snd-via82xx.o
555	description: "VIA VT82xx audio"
556	author: "Jaroslav Kysela <perex@suse.cz>"
557	license: "GPL"
558	parm: index int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Index value for VIA 82xx bridge."
559	parm: id string array (min = 1, max = 8), description "ID string for VIA 82xx bridge."
560	parm: enable int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable audio part of VIA 82xx bridge."
561	parm: mpu_port long array (min = 1, max = 8), description "MPU-401 port. (VT82C686x only)"
562	<i>parm: joystick int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable joystick. (VT82C686x only)"</i>
563	parm: ac97_clock int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "AC'97 codec clock (default 48000Hz)."
564	parm: dxs_support int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Support for DXS channels
565	(0 = auto, 1 = enable, 2 = disable, 3 = 48k only, 4 = no VRA)"
566	</pre>
567
568	<p>
569	If it has the <c>joystick</c> parameter, then append <c>joystick=1</c> to your
570	<c>options</c> line in <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>. For instance, for the
571	<c>snd-via82xx</c>:
572	</p>
573
574	<pre caption="Adding the joystick parameter">
575	alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
576	options snd-via82xx joystick=1
577	</pre>
578
579	</body>
580	</section>
581	<section>
582	<title>More links..</title>
583	<body>
584
585	<p>
586	You could check these for additional info:
587	</p>
588
589	<ul>
590	<li>
591	<uri link="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/desktop.xml">The Gentoo Linux
592	Desktop Configuration Guide</uri>
593	</li>
594	<li>
595	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org">ALSA Project Homepage</uri>	954	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/">The ALSA Project</uri></li>
596	</li>
597	<li>
598	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/documentation.php3">ALSA Users
599	Documentation</uri>
600	</li>
601	<li>
602	<uri link="http://www.djcj.org">ALSA Howto's and FAQ's</uri>
603	</li>
604	<li>
605	<uri link="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/index.html">Linux Sound
606	HOWTO</uri>
607	</li>
608	<li>
609	<uri link="http://linux-sound.org/">Sound and MIDI Software For Linux</uri>	955	<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org">Linux Sound/MIDI Software</uri></li>
610	</li>
611	</ul>	956	</ul>
612		957
613	</body>	958	</body>
614	</section>	959	</section>
615	</chapter>	960	</chapter>

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