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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 1.50 2005/04/24 09:14:23 swift Exp $ -->	2
3	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">	3	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
4		4
5	<guide link="/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">	5	<guide link="/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">
6	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>	6	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>
		7
7	<author title="Author">	8	<author title="Author">
8	<mail link="zu@pandora.be">Vincent Verleye</mail>	9	<mail link="fox2mike@gmail.com">Shyam Mani</mail>
9	</author>	10	</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="Author">
17	<mail link="eradicator@gentoo.org">Jeremy Huddleston</mail>
18	</author>
19	<author title="Editor"><!-- zhen@gentoo.org -->
20	John P. Davis
21	</author>
22	<author title="Editor">
23	<mail link="swift@gentoo.org">Sven Vermeulen</mail>
24	</author>
25	<author title="Editor">
26	<mail link="bennyc@gentoo.org">Benny Chuang</mail>
27	</author>
28	<author title="Editor">
29	<mail link="blubber@gentoo.org">Tiemo Kieft</mail>
30	</author>
31	<author title="Editor">
32	<mail link="erwin@gentoo.org">Erwin</mail>
33	</author>
34		11
35	<abstract>	12	<abstract>
36	This guide will show you how to set up the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture	13	This document helps a user setup ALSA on Gentoo Linux.
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>	14	</abstract>
40		15
		16	<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
		17	<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 -->
41	<license/>	18	<license/>
42		19
43	<version>1.5.12</version>	20	<version>2.0</version>
44	<date>2005-04-24</date>	21	<date>2005-06-07</date>
45		22
46	<chapter>	23	<chapter>
47	<title>The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</title>	24	<title>Introduction</title>
48	<section>	25	<section>
49	<title>What is ALSA?</title>	26	<title>What is ALSA?</title>
50	<body>	27	<body>
51		28
52	<p>	29	<p>
53	ALSA is the <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, a project dedicated to the	30	ALSA, which stands for <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, provides
54	development of a high-quality Linux sound subsystem. It has replaced OSS	31	audio and MIDI (<e>Musical Instrument Digital Interface</e>) functionality to
55	(<e>Open Sound System</e>) as default sound subsystem in the 2.6 kernel series.	32	the Linux operating system. ALSA is the default sound subsystem in the 2.6
56	</p>	33	kernel thereby replacing OSS (<e>Open Sound System</e>), which was used in the
57		34	2.4 kernels.
58	<p>	35	</p>
59	ALSA provides efficient support for all types of audio interfaces, is fully	36
60	modularized, is SMP and thread-safe and provides a high-quality user space	37	<p>
61	library called <e>alsa-lib</e> to simplify application programming. It also	38	ALSA's main features include efficient support for all types of audio
62	provides a backwards compatibility layer with OSS.	39	interfaces ranging from consumer sound cards to professional sound
		40	equipment, fully modularized drivers, SMP and thread safety, backward
		41	compatibility with OSS and a user-space library <c>alsa-lib</c> to make
		42	application development a breeze.
		43	</p>
		44
		45	</body>
		46	</section>
		47	<section>
		48	<title>ALSA on Gentoo</title>
		49	<body>
		50
		51	<p>
		52	One of Gentoo's main strengths lies in giving the user maximum control over
		53	how a system is installed/configured. ALSA on Gentoo follows the same
		54	principle. There are two ways you can get ALSA support up and running on your
		55	system. We shall look at them in detail in the next chapter.
63	</p>	56	</p>
64		57
65	</body>	58	</body>
66	</section>	59	</section>
67	</chapter>	60	</chapter>
		61
68	<chapter>	62	<chapter>
69	<title>Installing ALSA</title>	63	<title>Installing ALSA</title>
70	<section>	64	<section>
71	<title>USE Flags</title>	65	<title>Options</title>
72	<body>
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>	66	<body>
82	</section>
83	<section>
84	<title>Kernel Modules</title>
85	<body>
86
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.
95	</p>
96		67
97	<warn>	68	<warn>
98	If you use a 2.6 kernel, you may use the drivers provided in the kernel, but	69	The methods shown below are mutually exclusive. You cannot have ALSA compiled
99	we still recommend that you use media-sound/alsa-driver as they are more up	70	in your kernel and use <c>media-sound/alsa-driver</c>. It <e>will</e> fail.
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>	71	</warn>
104		72
105	<p>	73	<impo>
106	The first step in installing your sound drivers is figuring out what sound	74	<c>genkernel</c> users have their config built such a way that the ALSA
107	card you have. If you don't already know, an easy trick is to search	75	sub-system in the kernel is active. Therefore <c>genkernel</c> users can
108	for "audio" in the output of the <c>lspci</c> command. You can install	76	proceed to the <uri link="#alsa-utilities">ALSA Utilities</uri> section
109	this tool with <c>emerge pciutils</c>.	77	directly.
		78	</impo>
		79
110	</p>	80	<p>
		81	The two options are :
		82	</p>
111		83
112	<pre caption="Finding out the soundcard type">	84	<ol>
		85	<li>
		86	Use ALSA provided by your kernel. This is the preferred/recommended
		87	method.
		88	</li>
		89	<li>
		90	Use Gentoo's <c>media-sound/alsa-driver</c> package.
		91	</li>
		92	</ol>
		93
		94	<p>
		95	We shall take a peek into both before finally deciding on one.
		96	</p>
		97
		98	<p>
		99	If you were to use ALSA provided by the kernel, the following are the pros and
		100	cons :
		101	</p>
		102
		103	<table>
		104	<tr>
		105	<th>Kernel ALSA</th>
		106	<th>Pros and Cons</th>
		107	</tr>
		108	<tr>
		109	<th>+</th>
		110	<ti>Pretty stable as drivers are integrated into kernel.</ti>
		111	</tr>
		112	<tr>
		113	<th>+</th>
		114	<ti>One shot solution, no repeating emerges.</ti>
		115	</tr>
		116	<tr>
		117	<th>-</th>
		118	<ti>Might be a slightly older version than <c>alsa-driver</c>.</ti>
		119	</tr>
		120	</table>
		121
		122	<p>
		123	And, if you were to use alsa-driver,
		124	</p>
		125
		126	<table>
		127	<tr>
		128	<th>alsa-driver</th>
		129	<th>Pros and Cons</th>
		130	</tr>
		131	<tr>
		132	<th>+</th>
		133	<ti>Latest drivers from the ALSA Project.</ti>
		134	</tr>
		135	<tr>
		136	<th>-</th>
		137	<ti>Every kernel recompile requires a re-emerge of <c>alsa-driver</c>.</ti>
		138	</tr>
		139	<tr>
		140	<th>-</th>
		141	<ti>Needs certain kernel config options disabled to work correctly.</ti>
		142	</tr>
		143	</table>
		144
		145	</body>
		146	</section>
		147	<section>
		148	<title>So...</title>
		149	<body>
		150
		151	<p>
		152	The main difference between using <c>alsa-driver</c> and ALSA that comes with
		153	the kernel is that <c>alsa-driver</c> is generally more up to date than the
		154	version in the kernel. Since this does not make any huge difference as
		155	such, you are encouraged to use the ALSA provided by the kernel.
		156	</p>
		157
		158	</body>
		159	</section>
		160	<section id="lspci">
		161	<title>Before you proceed</title>
		162	<body>
		163
		164	<p>
		165	Whichever method of install you choose, you need to know what drivers your
		166	sound card uses. <c>lspci</c> will help you in digging out the required
		167	information. Please <c>emerge sys-apps/pciutils</c> to get <c>lspci</c>, if
		168	you don't have it installed already. We now proceed to find out details about
		169	the sound card.
		170	</p>
		171
		172	<pre caption="Soundcard Details">
113	# <i>lspci \| grep -i audio</i>	173	# <i>lspci -v \| grep -i audio</i>
114	Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 64).	174	0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 06)
115	</pre>	175	</pre>
116		176
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>	177	<p>
125		178	We now know that the sound card on the machine is a Sound Blaster Live! and
		179	the card manufacturer is Creative Labs. Head over to the
		180	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/"> ALSA Soundcard Matrix</uri>
		181	page and select Creative Labs from the drop down menu. You will be taken to
		182	the Creative Labs matrix page where you can see that the SB Live! uses the
		183	<c>emu10k1</c> module. That is the information we need for now. If you are
		184	interested in detailed information, you can click on the link next to the
		185	"Details" and that will take you to the <c>emu10k1</c> specific page.
126	<p>	186	</p>
127	Based on this information we can now install the <c>alsa-driver</c> for our	187
128	soundcard. First edit <path>/etc/make.conf</path> and <e>add</e> a new option	188	</body>
129	called ALSA_CARDS to it. Inside this variable you declare the soundcard driver	189	</section>
130	you want to use:	190	<section id="kernel">
		191	<title>Using ALSA provided by your Kernel</title>
		192	<body>
		193
131	</p>	194	<p>
		195	If you're a person who likes to keep things simple like I do, then this is
		196	the way to go.
		197	</p>
132		198
133	<pre caption="Editing /etc/make.conf for ALSA_CARDS">	199	<note>
		200	Since the 2005.0 release, Gentoo Linux uses 2.6 as the default kernel. Unless
		201	you are specifically using the 2.4 profile, <c>gentoo-sources</c> will be a
		202	2.6 kernel on <e>most</e> architectures. Please check that your kernel is a
		203	2.6 series kernel. This method will <e>not</e> work on a 2.4 kernel.
		204	</note>
		205
		206	<p>
		207	Let us now configure the kernel to enable ALSA.
		208	</p>
		209
		210	<pre caption="Heading over to the source">
		211	# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
		212	# <i>make menuconfig</i>
		213	</pre>
		214
		215	<note>
		216	The above example assumes that <path>/usr/src/linux</path> symlink points to
		217	the kernel sources you want to use. Please ensure the same before proceeding.
		218	</note>
		219
		220	<p>
		221	Now we will look at some of the options we will have to enable in the 2.6
		222	kernel to ensure proper ALSA support for our sound card.
		223	</p>
		224
		225	<note>
		226	Please note that for the sake of ease, all examples show a modular kernel. It
		227	is advisable to follow the same. Please do <e>not</e> skip the
		228	<uri link="#alsa-config">Configuration</uri> section of this document. If
		229	you still like to have options built-in, ensure that you make changes to your
		230	config accordingly.
		231	</note>
		232
		233	<pre caption="Kernel Options for ALSA">
		234	Device Drivers --->
		235	Sound --->
		236
		237	<comment>(This needs to be enabled)</comment>
		238	<M> Sound card support
		239
		240	<comment>(Make sure OSS is disabled)</comment>
		241	Open Sound System --->
		242	< > Open Sound System (DEPRECATED)
		243
		244	<comment>(Move one step back and enter ALSA)</comment>
		245	Advanced Linux Sound Architecture --->
		246	<M> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
		247	<comment>(Select this if you want MIDI sequencing and routing)</comment>
		248	<M> Sequencer support
		249	<comment>(Old style /dev/mixer* and /dev/dsp* support. Recommended.)</comment>
		250	<M> OSS Mixer API
		251	<M> OSS PCM (digital audio) API
		252
		253	<comment>(You now have a choice of devices to enable support for. Generally,
		254	you will have one type of device and not more. If you have more than one
		255	sound card, please enable them all here.)</comment>
		256
		257	<comment>(Mostly for testing and development purposes, not needed for normal
		258	users unless you know what you are doing.)</comment>
		259	Generic devices --->
		260
		261	<comment>(For ISA Sound cards)</comment>
		262	ISA devices --->
		263	<comment>(IF you had the Gravis, you would select this option)</comment>
		264	<M> Gravis UltraSound Extreme
		265
		266	<comment>(Move one level back and into PCI devices. Most sound cards today are
		267	PCI devices)</comment>
		268	PCI devices --->
		269	<comment>(We now select the emu10k1 driver for our card)</comment>
		270	<M> Emu10k1 (SB Live!, Audigy, E-mu APS)
		271	<comment>(Or an Intel card would be)</comment>
		272	<M> Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller
		273	<comment>(Or if you have a VIA Card)</comment>
		274	<M> VIA 82C686A/B, 8233/8235 AC97 Controller
		275
		276	<comment>(Move one level back and select in case you have an USB sound card)</comment>
		277	USB Devices --->
		278	</pre>
		279
		280	<p>
		281	Now that your options are set, you can (re)compile the kernel and ALSA support
		282	for your card should be functional once you reboot into the new kernel.
		283	You can now proceed to <uri link="#alsa-utilities">ALSA Utilities</uri> and
		284	see if everything is working as it should.
		285	</p>
		286
		287	</body>
		288	</section>
		289	<section id="alsa-driver">
		290	<title>Using the ALSA Driver package</title>
		291	<body>
		292
		293	<p>
		294	So you've decided to go the <c>alsa-driver</c> way. Let's get started then.
		295	There are a few minor things to be done to ensure only the drivers for your
		296	sound card are compiled. Although this is not really necessary, it cuts down
		297	on the unnecessary drivers that will be compiled otherwise.
		298	</p>
		299
		300	<p>
		301	If you don't have an idea of what drivers your sound card might need, please
		302	take a look at the <uri link="#lspci">lspci</uri> section of this guide. Once
		303	you have your driver name (<c>emu10k1</c> in our example), edit
		304	<path>/etc/make.conf</path> and add a variable, <c>ALSA_CARDS</c>.
		305	</p>
		306
		307	<pre caption="Adding ALSA_CARDS to make.conf">
		308	<comment>(For one sound card)</comment>
		309	ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1"
		310	<comment>(For more than one, seperate names with spaces)</comment>
134	ALSA_CARDS="via82xx"	311	ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1 via82xx"
		312	</pre>
		313
		314	<p>
		315	If you have compiled your kernel and want to use <c>alsa-driver</c>, please
		316	ensure the following before proceeding, else <c>alsa-driver</c> is likely to
		317	fail. The next code listing gives you one way of performing the checks.
135	</pre>	318	</p>
		319
		320	<ol>
		321	<li>
		322	<c>CONFIG_SOUND</c> is set. (Basic Sound support enabled)
		323	</li>
		324	<li>
		325	<c>CONFIG_SOUND_PRIME</c> is not set. (In-built OSS support disabled)
		326	</li>
		327	<li>
		328	<c>CONFIG_SND</c> is not set. (In-built ALSA support disabled)
		329	</li>
		330	<li>
		331	<path>/usr/src/linux</path> points to the kernel you want ALSA working on.
		332	</li>
		333	</ol>
		334
		335	<pre caption=".config checks">
		336	<comment>(Assuming the linux symlink points to the correct kernel)</comment>
		337	# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
		338	# <i>grep SOUND .config</i>
		339	<comment>(1. is true)</comment>
		340	CONFIG_SOUND=y
		341	<comment>(2. is true)</comment>
		342	CONFIG_SOUND_PRIME is not set
		343	# <i>grep SND .config</i>
		344	<comment>(and 3. is true)</comment>
		345	CONFIG_SND is not set
		346	</pre>
		347
		348	<p>
		349	Now all you have to do is type the magic words...and no, its not abracadabra.
		350	</p>
		351
		352	<pre caption="Installing alsa-driver">
		353	# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>
		354	</pre>
		355
		356	<impo>
		357	Please note that you will have to run <c>emerge alsa-driver</c> after every
		358	kernel (re)compile, as the earlier drivers are deleted.
		359	</impo>
		360
		361	</body>
		362	</section>
		363	</chapter>
		364
		365	<chapter>
		366	<title>Configuring/Testing ALSA</title>
		367	<section id="alsa-utilities">
		368	<title>ALSA Utilities</title>
		369	<body>
		370
		371	<p>
		372	<c>alsa-utils</c> forms an integral part of ALSA as it has a truckload of
		373	programs that are highly useful, including the ALSA Initscripts. Hence we
		374	strongly recommend that you install <c>alsa-utils</c>
		375	</p>
		376
		377	<pre caption="Install alsa-utils">
		378	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>
		379	</pre>
		380
		381	<note>
		382	If you activated ALSA in your <uri link="#kernel">kernel</uri> <e>and</e> did
		383	not compile ALSA as modules, please proceed to the
		384	<uri link="#initscript">ALSA Initscript</uri> section. The rest of you need
		385	to configure ALSA. This is made very easy by the existence of the
		386	<c>alsaconf</c> tool provided by <c>alsa-utils</c>.
		387	</note>
		388
		389	</body>
		390	</section>
		391	<section id="alsa-config">
		392	<title>Configuration</title>
		393	<body>
		394
		395	<note>
		396	Please shut down any programs that <e>might</e> access the sound card while
		397	running <c>alsaconf</c>.
		398	</note>
		399
		400	<p>
		401	The easiest way to configure your sound card is to run <c>alsaconf</c>. Just
		402	type <c>alsaconf</c> in a shell as root.
		403	</p>
		404
		405	<pre caption="Invoking alsaconf">
		406	# <i>alsaconf</i>
		407	</pre>
		408
		409	<p>
		410	You will now see a neat menu guided interface that will automatically probe
		411	your devices and try to find out your sound card. You will be asked to pick
		412	your sound card from a list. Once that's done, it will ask you permission to
		413	automatically make required changes to <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>.
		414	It will then adjust your volume settings to optimum levels and run
		415	<c>modules-update</c> and starts the <path>/etc/init.d/alsasound</path>
		416	service. Once <c>alsaconf</c> exits, you can proceed with setting up the ALSA
		417	initscript.
		418	</p>
		419
		420	</body>
		421	</section>
		422	<section id="initscript">
		423	<title>ALSA Initscript</title>
		424	<body>
		425
		426	<p>
		427	We're now almost all setup. Whichever method you chose to install ALSA, you'll
		428	need to have something load your modules or initialize ALSA and restore your
		429	volume settings when your system comes up. The ALSA Initscript handles all of
		430	this for you and is called <c>alsasound</c>. Add it to the default run-level.
		431	</p>
		432
		433	<pre caption="Adding ALSA to default">
		434	# <i>rc-update add alsasound default</i>
		435	* alsasound added to runlevel default
		436	* rc-update complete.
		437	</pre>
		438
		439	<p>
		440	Next, just check the <path>/etc/conf.d/alsasound</path> file and ensure that
		441	SAVE_ON_STOP variable is set to yes. This saves your sound settings when you
		442	shutdown your system.
		443	</p>
		444
		445	</body>
		446	</section>
		447	<section>
		448	<title>Volume Check!</title>
		449	<body>
		450
		451	<p>
		452	We've completed all the setups and pre-requisites, so let's fire up ALSA. If
		453	you ran <c>alsaconf</c>, you can skip this step, since <c>alsaconf</c> already
		454	does this for you.
		455	</p>
		456
		457	<pre caption="Start the service">
		458	<comment>(Modular Kernels)</comment>
		459	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
		460	* Loading ALSA modules ...
		461	* Loading: snd-card-0 ... [ ok ]
		462	* Loading: snd-pcm-oss ... [ ok ]
		463	* Loading: snd-seq ... [ ok ]
		464	* Loading: snd-emu10k1-synth ... [ ok ]
		465	* Loading: snd-seq-midi ... [ ok ]
		466	* Restoring Mixer Levels ... [ ok ]
		467	<comment>(ALSA compiled in)</comment>
		468	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
		469	* Loading ALSA modules ...
		470	* Restoring Mixer Levels ... [ ok ]
		471	</pre>
		472
		473	<p>
		474	Now that the required things have been take care of, we need to check up on
		475	the volume as in certain cases, it is muted. We use <c>alsamixer</c> for this purpose.
		476	</p>
		477
		478	<pre caption="Starting alsamixer">
		479	<comment>(Opens up a console program. Only required settings are shown)</comment>
		480	# <i>alsamixer</i>
		481	</pre>
		482
		483	<p>
		484	This is how the ALSA Mixer <e>might</e> look the first time you open it. Pay
		485	attention to the Master and PCM channels which both have an MM below them.
		486	That means they are muted. If you try to play anything with <c>alsamixer</c>
		487	in this state, you will not hear anything on your speakers.
		488	</p>
		489
		490	<figure link="/images/docs/alsa-mixermuted.png" short="AlsaMixer Muted" caption="The Alsa Mixer Main Window, Muted"/>
		491
		492	<p>
		493	Now, we shall unmute the channels, and set volume levels as needed.
		494	</p>
136		495
137	<warn>	496	<warn>
138	If you have multiple sound cards in your system, separate them with a comma	497	Both Master <e>and</e> PCM need to be unmuted and set to audible volume levels if
139	in the ALSA_CARDS variable. Ex: ALSA_CARDS="via82xx,emu10k1"	498	you want to hear some output on your speakers.
140	</warn>	499	</warn>
141		500
142	<p>	501	<ul>
143	If you want OSS compatibility (highly recommended), you should add 'oss' to	502	<li>
144	your USE flags in <path>/etc/make.conf</path>. After that, you are ready to	503	To move between channels, use your left and right arrow keys. (<-
145	install <c>alsa-driver</c>:	504	& ->)
		505	</li>
		506	<li>
		507	To toggle mute, move to the specific channel, for example Master and press
		508	the <e>m</e> key on the keyboard.
		509	</li>
		510	<li>
		511	To increase and decrease the volume levels, use the up and down arrow keys
		512	respectively.
		513	</li>
		514	</ul>
		515
		516	<note>
		517	Be careful when setting your Bass and Treble values. 50 is usually a good
		518	number for both. Extremely high values of Bass may cause <e>jarring</e>
		519	on speakers that are not designed to handle them.
		520	</note>
		521
146	</p>	522	<p>
147		523	After you're all done, your ALSA Mixer should look similar to the one below.
148	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Drivers">	524	Note the 00 instead of the MM and also the volume levels for some optimum
149	# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>	525	settings.
150	</pre>	526	</p>
151		527
152	<impo>	528	<figure link="/images/docs/alsa-mixerunmuted.png" short="AlsaMixer Unmuted" caption="Alsa Mixer ready to roll"/>
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.
157	</impo>
158		529
159	</body>	530	</body>
		531	</section>
160	</section>	532	<section>
161	<section id="alsa-utils">	533	<title>Sound Check!</title>
162	<title>Installing the ALSA Utils</title>	534	<body>
		535
		536	<p>
		537	Finally. Some music. If everything above is perfect, you should be able to now
		538	listen to some good music. A quick way to test is to use a command line tool
		539	like <c>media-sound/madplay</c>. You could also use something more well known
		540	like <c>mpg123</c> or <c>xmms</c>. If you are an ogg fan, you could use
		541	<c>ogg123</c> provided by <c>media-sound/vorbis-tools</c>. Use any player you
		542	are comfortable with. As always, <c>emerge</c> what you need.
		543	</p>
		544
		545	<pre caption="Getting the software">
		546	<comment>(Install the applications you want)</comment>
		547	# <i>emerge madplay mpg123 xmms</i>
		548	<comment>(To play .ogg files)</comment>
		549	# <i>emerge vorbis-tools</i>
		550	</pre>
		551
		552	<p>
		553	And then play your favorite sound track...
		554	</p>
		555
		556	<pre caption="Playing Music">
		557	# <i>madplay -v /mnt/shyam/Music/Paul\ Oakenfold\ -\ Dread\ Rock.mp3</i>
		558	MPEG Audio Decoder 0.15.2 (beta) - Copyright (C) 2000-2004 Robert Leslie et al.
		559	Title: Dread Rock
		560	Artist: Paul Oakenfold
		561	Album: Matrix Reloaded
		562	Year: 2003
		563	Genre: Soundtrack
		564	Soundtrack
		565	00:04:19 Layer III, 160 kbps, 44100 Hz, joint stereo (MS), no CRC
		566
		567	# <i>ogg123 Paul\ Oakenfold\ -\ Dread\ Rock.ogg</i>
		568	Audio Device: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) output
		569
		570	Playing: Paul Oakenfold - Dread Rock.ogg
		571	Ogg Vorbis stream: 2 channel, 44100 Hz
		572	Genre: Soundtrack
		573	Transcoded: mp3;160
		574	Title: Dread Rock
		575	Artist: Paul Oakenfold
		576	Date: 2003
		577	Album: Matrix Reloaded
		578	Time: 00:11.31 [04:28.75] of 04:40.06 (200.6 kbps) Output Buffer 96.9%
		579	</pre>
		580
163	<body>	581	</body>
		582	</section>
		583	<section>
		584	<title>Issues?</title>
		585	<body>
164		586
165	<p>
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:
169	</p>	587	<p>
170		588	If for some reason you're unable to hear sound, the first thing to do would
171	<pre caption="More OSS compatibility layer">	589	be to check your <uri link="#doc_chap3_pre5">alsamixer</uri> settings. 80% of
172	# <i>emerge alsa-oss</i>	590	the issues lie with muted channels or low volume. Also check your Window
173	# <i>aoss mpg123 music.mp3</i>	591	Manager's sound applet and verify that volumes are set to audible levels.
174	</pre>
175
176	<p>	592	</p>
177	Now install the ALSA Utils on your system (this is mandatory):	593
178	</p>	594	<p>
179		595	<path>/proc</path> is your friend. And in this case, <path>/proc/asound</path>
180	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Utils">	596	is your best friend. We shall just take a short look at how much info is made
181	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>	597	available to us there.
182	</pre>
183
184	<p>	598	</p>
185	Now that the utils are installed, it is time to configure ALSA...	599
		600	<pre caption="Fun with /proc/asound">
		601	<comment>(First and foremost, if /proc/asound/cards shows your card, ALSA has
		602	picked up your sound card fine.)</comment>
		603	# <i>cat /proc/asound/cards</i>
		604	0 [Live ]: EMU10K1 - Sound Blaster Live!
		605	Sound Blaster Live! (rev.6, serial:0x80271102) at 0xb800, irq 11
		606
		607	<comment>(If you run ALSA off the kernel like I do and wonder how far behind
		608	you are from alsa-driver, this displays current running ALSA version)</comment>
		609	# <i>cat /proc/asound/version</i>
		610	Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.8 (Thu Jan 13 09:39:32 2005 UTC).
		611
		612	<comment>(ALSA OSS emulation details)</comment>
		613	# <i>cat /proc/asound/oss/sndstat</i>
		614	Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.8 emulation code)
		615	Kernel: Linux airwolf.zion 2.6.11ac1 #2 Wed May 4 00:35:08 IST 2005 i686
		616	Config options: 0
		617
		618	Installed drivers:
		619	Type 10: ALSA emulation
		620
		621	Card config:
		622	Sound Blaster Live! (rev.6, serial:0x80271102) at 0xb800, irq 11
		623
		624	Audio devices:
		625	0: EMU10K1 (DUPLEX)
		626
		627	Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG
		628
		629	Midi devices:
		630	0: EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART)
		631
		632	Timers:
		633	7: system timer
		634
		635	Mixers:
		636	0: SigmaTel STAC9721/23
186	</p>	637	</pre>
187		638
188	</body>	639	</body>
189	</section>	640	</section>
190	</chapter>	641	</chapter>
		642
191	<chapter>	643	<chapter>
192	<title>Configuring ALSA</title>	644	<title>Other things ALSA</title>
193	<section>
194	<title>Automatically Loading the Kernel Modules</title>
195	<body>
196
197	<p>
198	If you use a modular kernel (such as when using <c>genkernel</c>) you have to
199	edit <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> so that it activates the necessary
200	modules at boot time. For the soundcard in our example:
201	</p>
202
203	<pre caption="/etc/modules.d/alsa">
204	alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
205	<comment># The following is only needed when you want OSS compatibility</comment>
206	alias sound-slot-0 snd-via82xx
207	alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
208	alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
209	alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
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>:
215	</p>
216
217	<pre caption="Running modules-update">
218	# <i>modules-update</i>
219	</pre>
220
221	</body>
222	</section>	645	<section>
223	<section>	646	<title>Setting up MIDI support</title>
224	<title>Verifying the Device Files</title>
225	<body>
226
227	<p>
228	This should be done automatically for you on recent installs, but if you run
229	into problems, check that your ALSA devices and permissions are set correctly
230	by your /dev manager. If you use DevFS, check <path>/etc/devfsd.conf</path>
231	</p>
232
233	<pre caption="/etc/devfsd.conf">
234	# ALSA/OSS stuff
235	# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on
236	# the audio devices
237	LOOKUP snd MODLOAD ACTION snd
238	LOOKUP dsp MODLOAD
239	LOOKUP mixer MODLOAD
240	LOOKUP midi MODLOAD
241	REGISTER sound/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
242	REGISTER snd/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
243	</pre>
244
245	</body>	647	<body>
246	</section>
247	<section>
248	<title>Having ALSA Activated at Boot</title>
249	<body>
250		648
251	<p>
252	To activate ALSA support at boot, add the <c>alsasound</c> init script to the
253	boot runlevel:
254	</p>	649	<p>
255		650	If your sound card is one of those that come with on-board MIDI synthesizers
256	<pre caption="Adding alsasound to the boot runlevel">	651	and you would like to listen to some .mid files, you have to install
257	# <i>rc-update add alsasound boot</i>	652	<c>awesfx</c> which is basically a set of utilities for controlling the AWE32
258	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>	653	driver. We need to install it first. If you don't have a hardware synthesizer,
259	</pre>	654	you can use a virtual one. Please see the section on
260		655	<uri link="#vsynth">Virtual Synthesizers</uri> for more information.
261	</body>
262	</section>
263	<section>
264	<title>Unmute the Channels</title>
265	<body>
266
267	<p>	656	</p>
268	By default, all sound channels are muted. To fix this, run <c>amixer</c>:
269	</p>
270		657
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. Do not unmute the
284	channels of which you can not change the volume; this might actually result in
285	ALSA producing no sound at all...
286	</p>
287
288	<pre caption="Unmuting the sound channels">
289	<comment>(If you prefer an ncurses method:)</comment>
290
291	# <i>alsamixer</i>
292
293	<comment>(or)</comment>
294
295	# <i>amixer set Master 100% unmute</i>
296	# <i>amixer set PCM 100% unmute</i>
297	<comment>(Only if the above isn't sufficient:)</comment>
298	# <i>amixer set Center 100% unmute</i>
299	# <i>amixer set Surround 100% unmute</i>
300	# <i>amixer set Headphone 100% unmute</i>
301	</pre>
302
303
304	<p>
305	To check if your sound works, play a wave file (using <c>aplay</c>), mp3 (using
306	<c>mpg123</c> or even <c>mplayer</c>) or any other sound file for that matter.
307	</p>
308
309	</body>
310	</section>
311	</chapter>
312	<chapter>
313	<title>Activating MIDI Support</title>
314	<section>
315	<title>Installing the Necessary Packages</title>
316	<body>
317
318	<p>
319	Some soundcards come with onboard MIDI synthesizers. To use them, you must first
320	install the <c>awesfx</c> package:
321	</p>
322
323	<pre caption="Installing the awesfx package">	658	<pre caption="Installing awesfx">
324	# <i>emerge awesfx</i>	659	# <i>emerge awesfx</i>
325	</pre>	660	</pre>
326		661
327	<p>	662	<note>
328	If you have a collection of sound fonts somewhere, place them in	663	You will need to copy over SoundFont (SF2) files from your sound card's driver
329	<path>/usr/share/sfbank</path>. For instance, the SBLive has a sound font file	664	CD or a Windows installation into <path>/usr/share/sounds/sf2/</path>. For
330	called <path>8MBGMSFX.SF2</path> or <path>CT4GMSFX.SF2</path>.	665	example a sound font file for the Creative SBLive! card would be 8MBGMSFX.SF2.
		666	</note>
		667
331	</p>	668	<p>
332		669	After copying over the Soundfont files, we can then play a midi file as shown.
		670	You can also add the <c>asfxload</c> command to
		671	<path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path>, so that the sound font is loaded
		672	every time the system starts up.
333	<p>	673	</p>
334	After copying over the sound font, select them using <c>asfxload</c>:
335	</p>
336		674
		675	<note>
		676	<path>/mnt</path> paths mentioned in the code listing(s) below will <e>not</e>
		677	be the same in your machine. They are just an example. Please be careful to
		678	change the path to suit your machine.
		679	</note>
		680
337	<pre caption="Loading the sound font">	681	<pre caption="Loading Soundfonts">
		682	<comment>(First, copy the Soundfont)</comment>
		683	# <i>cp /mnt/win2k/Program\ Files/CreativeSBLive2k/SFBank/8MBGMSFX.SF2 /usr/share/sounds/sf2/</i>
		684	<comment>(We load the specific Soundfont)</comment>
338	# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sfbank/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>	685	# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sounds/sf2/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>
339	</pre>	686	</pre>
340		687
341	<p>
342	You must have this command run every time you boot, so it is adviseable to add
343	it to <path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path> as well.
344	</p>	688	<p>
345		689	You can now play midi files using a program like <c>aplaymidi</c>. Run
		690	<c>aplaymidi -l</c> to get a list of available ports and then pick one
		691	to play the file on.
346	<p>	692	</p>
347	If you can't find soundfonts on your driver CD you can download some online from	693
348	<uri>http://www.parabola.demon.co.uk/alsa/awe64.html</uri>.	694	<pre caption="Playing MIDI">
		695	<comment>(Check open ports)</comment>
		696	# <i>aplaymidi -l</i>
		697	Port Client name Port name
		698	64:0 EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART) EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART)
		699	65:0 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 0
		700	65:1 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 1
		701	65:2 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 2
		702	65:3 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 3
		703	<comment>(Pick a port, and play a mid file)</comment>
		704	# <i> aplaymidi --port=65:0 /mnt/shyam/music/midi/mi2.mid</i>
349	</p>	705	</pre>
350		706
351	</body>	707	</body>
352	</section>
353	<section>	708	</section>
		709	<section id="vsynth">
354	<title>Timidity++ Virtual Synthesizer</title>	710	<title>Virtual Synthesizers</title>
355	<body>	711	<body>
356		712
357	<p>
358	If your sound card does not come with a hardware synthesizer (or you don't want
359	to use it), you can use <c>timidity++</c> to provide you with a virtual
360	synthesizer. Start by emerging this package:
361	</p>	713	<p>
		714	If your sound card lacks a hardware synthesizer, you could use a virtual one
		715	like <c>timidity++</c>. Installation is a breeze.
		716	</p>
362		717
363	<pre caption="Installing Timidity++">	718	<pre caption="Installing timidity++">
364	# <i>emerge timidity++</i>	719	# <i>emerge timidity++</i>
365	</pre>	720	</pre>
366		721
367	<p>	722	<p>
368	For timidity to play sounds, it needs a soundfont. If you do not have any,	723	For timidity to play sounds, it needs a sound font. If you do not have any,
369	install <c>timidity-eawpatches</c> or <c>timidity-shompatches</c> which will	724	install <c>timidity-eawpatches</c> or <c>timidity-shompatches</c> which will
370	give you some soundfonts. You can have multiple soundfont configurations	725	give you some sound fonts. You can have multiple sound font configurations
371	installed, and you can place your own in <path>/usr/share/timidity/</path>.	726	installed, and you can place your own in <path>/usr/share/timidity/</path>.
372	To switch between different timidity configurations, you should use the	727	To switch between different timidity configurations, you should use the
373	<e>timidity-update</e> tool provided in the timidity++ package.	728	<e>timidity-update</e> tool provided in the timidity++ package.
374	</p>	729	</p>
375		730
376	<pre caption="Installing soundfonts">	731	<pre caption="Installing sound fonts">
377	# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>	732	# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>
378	# <i>timidity-update -g -s eawpatches</i>	733	# <i>timidity-update -g -s eawpatches</i>
379		734
380	<comment>(or)</comment>	735	<comment>(or)</comment>
381		736
…		…
390	<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">	745	<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">
391	# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>	746	# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>
392	# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>	747	# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>
393	</pre>	748	</pre>
394		749
		750	<p>
		751	You can now try out <uri link="#doc_chap4_pre3">Playing MIDI</uri> files.
		752	</p>
		753
395	</body>	754	</body>
396	</section>
397	<section>	755	</section>
398	<title>Testing MIDI Support</title>
399	<body>
400
401	<p>
402	You can use <c>aplaymidi</c> from the ALSA Utils to test your MIDI
403	configuration.
404	</p>
405
406	<p>
407	To see what MIDI output ports are available on your system, use the <c>-l</c>
408	option:
409	</p>
410
411	<pre caption="Viewing the MIDI output ports">
412	# <i>aplaymidi -l</i>
413	</pre>
414
415	<p>
416	If all looks fine, try playing a MIDI file to make sure everything works. With
417	the <c>-p</c> option you define what MIDI port you want to use.
418	</p>
419
420	<pre caption="Playing a MIDI file">
421	# <i>aplaymidi -p 65:0 "Final Fantasy 7 - Aerith' Theme.mid"</i>
422	</pre>
423
424	</body>
425	</section>
426	</chapter>
427	<chapter>
428	<title>Final Remarks</title>
429	<section>	756	<section>
430	<title>Tools and Firmware</title>	757	<title>Tools and Firmware</title>
431	<body>	758	<body>
432		759
433	<p>	760	<p>
…		…
440	<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">	767	<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">
441	ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"	768	ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"
442	</pre>	769	</pre>
443		770
444	<p>	771	<p>
		772	If the ALSA_TOOLS variable is not set, all available tools will be built.
445	Then install the <c>alsa-tools</c> (and/or <c>alsa-firmware</c>) package(s):	773	Now, install the <c>alsa-tools</c> (and/or <c>alsa-firmware</c>) package(s):
446	</p>	774	</p>
447		775
448	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">	776	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">
449	# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>	777	# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>
450	</pre>	778	</pre>
451		779
452	</body>	780	</body>
453	</section>	781	</section>
454	<section>	782	<section>
455	<title>Activating Joystick Support</title>	783	<title>A Big thank you to...</title>
456	<body>
457
458	<p>
459	If your soundcard has a joystick plug, you might be interested in activating
460	joystick support for your soundcard. If so, start by verifying if your soundcard
461	driver has a joystick parameter. You can verify this by running <c>modinfo</c>
462	against your kernel module. For instance, for the <c>snd-via82xx</c>:
463	</p>
464
465	<pre caption="Running modinfo">
466	# <i>modinfo snd-via82xx</i>
467	filename: /lib/modules/2.4.22-ck2/snd-via82xx.o
468	description: "VIA VT82xx audio"
469	author: "Jaroslav Kysela <perex@suse.cz>"
470	license: "GPL"
471	parm: index int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Index value for
472	VIA 82xx bridge."
473	parm: id string array (min = 1, max = 8), description "ID string for VIA
474	82xx bridge."
475	parm: enable int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable audio part
476	of VIA 82xx bridge."
477	parm: mpu_port long array (min = 1, max = 8), description "MPU-401 port.
478	(VT82C686x only)"
479	<i>parm: joystick int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Enable
480	joystick. (VT82C686x only)"</i>
481	parm: ac97_clock int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "AC'97 codec
482	clock (default 48000Hz)."
483	parm: dxs_support int array (min = 1, max = 8), description "Support for
484	DXS channels (0 = auto, 1 = enable, 2 = disable, 3 = 48k only, 4 =
485	no VRA)
486	</pre>
487
488	<p>
489	If it has the <c>joystick</c> parameter, append <c>joystick=1</c> to your
490	<c>options</c> line in <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>. For instance:
491	</p>
492
493	<pre caption="Adding the joystick parameter">
494	alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
495	options snd-via82xx joystick=1
496	</pre>
497
498	</body>	784	<body>
499	</section>	785
		786	<p>
		787	Everyone who contributed to the earlier version of the Gentoo ALSA Guide:
		788	Vincent Verleye, Grant Goodyear, Arcady Genkin, Jeremy Huddleston,
		789	John P. Davis, Sven Vermeulen, Benny Chuang, Tiemo Kieft and Erwin.
		790	</p>
		791
		792	</body>
500	<section>	793	</section>
		794	<section>
501	<title>Resources</title>	795	<title>References</title>
502	<body>	796	<body>
503		797
504	<ul>	798	<ul>
505	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org">The ALSA Project</uri></li>	799	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/">The ALSA Project</uri></li>
506	<li><uri link="http://www.djcj.org">ALSA Howto's and FAQs</uri></li>
507	<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org">Linux Sound/MIDI Software</uri></li>	800	<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org">Linux Sound/MIDI Software</uri></li>
508	</ul>	801	</ul>
509		802
510	</body>	803	</body>
511	</section>	804	</section>

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