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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	<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml,v 1.69 2006/07/07 14:40:08 rane 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="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		12
35	<abstract>	13	<abstract>
36	This guide will show you how to set up the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture	14	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>	15	</abstract>
40		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 -->
41	<license/>	19	<license/>
42		20
43	<version>1.5.12</version>	21	<version>2.14</version>
44	<date>2005-04-24</date>	22	<date>2006-07-06</date>
45		23
46	<chapter>	24	<chapter>
47	<title>The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</title>	25	<title>Introduction</title>
48	<section>	26	<section>
49	<title>What is ALSA?</title>	27	<title>What is ALSA?</title>
50	<body>	28	<body>
51		29
52	<p>	30	<p>
53	ALSA is the <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, a project dedicated to the	31	ALSA, which stands for <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, provides
54	development of a high-quality Linux sound subsystem. It has replaced OSS	32	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.	33	the Linux operating system. ALSA is the default sound subsystem in the 2.6
56	</p>	34	kernel thereby replacing OSS (<e>Open Sound System</e>), which was used in the
57		35	2.4 kernels.
58	<p>	36	</p>
59	ALSA provides efficient support for all types of audio interfaces, is fully	37
60	modularized, is SMP and thread-safe and provides a high-quality user space	38	<p>
61	library called <e>alsa-lib</e> to simplify application programming. It also	39	ALSA's main features include efficient support for all types of audio
62	provides a backwards compatibility layer with OSS.	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.
		44	</p>
		45
		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.
63	</p>	57	</p>
64		58
65	</body>	59	</body>
66	</section>	60	</section>
67	</chapter>	61	</chapter>
		62
68	<chapter>	63	<chapter>
69	<title>Installing ALSA</title>	64	<title>Installing ALSA</title>
70	<section>	65	<section>
71	<title>USE Flags</title>	66	<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>	67	<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		68
97	<warn>	69	<warn>
98	If you use a 2.6 kernel, you may use the drivers provided in the kernel, but	70	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	71	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>	72	</warn>
104		73
105	<p>	74	<p>
106	The first step in installing your sound drivers is figuring out what sound	75	The two options are :
107	card you have. If you don't already know, an easy trick is to search	76	</p>
108	for "audio" in the output of the <c>lspci</c> command. You can install	77
109	this tool with <c>emerge pciutils</c>.	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
110	</p>	88	<p>
		89	We shall take a peek into both before finally deciding on one.
		90	</p>
111		91
112	<pre caption="Finding out the soundcard type">	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.
		171	</p>
		172
		173	<ul>
		174	<li>
		175	<uri link="http://www.roestock.demon.co.uk/isapnptools/">The ISAPNPTOOLS
		176	Page</uri>
		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>
		186	</ul>
		187
		188	<note>
		189	For ease of use/explanation, we assume the user has a PCI based sound card for
		190	the remainder of this guide.
		191	</note>
		192
		193	<p>
		194	We now proceed to find out details about the sound card.
		195	</p>
		196
		197	<pre caption="Soundcard Details">
113	# <i>lspci \| grep -i audio</i>	198	# <i>lspci -v \| grep -i audio</i>
114	Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 64).	199	0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 06)
115	</pre>	200	</pre>
116		201
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>	202	<p>
125		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.
126	<p>	211	</p>
127	Based on this information we can now install the <c>alsa-driver</c> for our	212
128	soundcard. First edit <path>/etc/make.conf</path> and <e>add</e> a new option	213	</body>
129	called ALSA_CARDS to it. Inside this variable you declare the soundcard driver	214	</section>
130	you want to use:	215	<section id="kernel">
		216	<title>Using ALSA provided by your Kernel</title>
		217	<body>
		218
131	</p>	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>
132		223
133	<pre caption="Editing /etc/make.conf for ALSA_CARDS">	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>
		321	</section>
		322	<section id="alsa-driver">
		323	<title>Using the ALSA Driver package</title>
		324	<body>
		325
		326	<p>
		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.
		331	</p>
		332
		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>
134	ALSA_CARDS="via82xx"	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.
135	</pre>	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>
		399
		400	</body>
		401	</section>
		402	</chapter>
		403
		404	<chapter>
		405	<title>Configuring/Testing ALSA</title>
		406	<section id="alsa-utilities">
		407	<title>ALSA Utilities</title>
		408	<body>
		409
		410	<p>
		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>
		414	</p>
		415
		416	<pre caption="Install alsa-utils">
		417	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>
		418	</pre>
		419
		420	<note>
		421	If you activated ALSA in your <uri link="#kernel">kernel</uri> <e>and</e> did
		422	not compile ALSA as modules, please proceed to the
		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>.
		426	</note>
		427
		428	</body>
		429	</section>
		430	<section id="alsa-config">
		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
		439	<p>
		440	The easiest way to configure your sound card is to run <c>alsaconf</c>. Just
		441	type <c>alsaconf</c> in a shell as root.
		442	</p>
		443
		444	<pre caption="Invoking alsaconf">
		445	# <i>alsaconf</i>
		446	</pre>
		447
		448	<p>
		449	You will now see a neat menu guided interface that will automatically probe
		450	your devices and try to find out your sound card. You will be asked to pick
		451	your sound card from a list. Once that's done, it will ask you permission to
		452	automatically make required changes to <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>.
		453	It will then adjust your volume settings to optimum levels, run
		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.
		457	</p>
		458
		459	</body>
		460	</section>
		461	<section id="initscript">
		462	<title>ALSA Initscript</title>
		463	<body>
		464
		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>
		545
		546	<impo>
		547	If you have issues starting up <c>alsamixer</c> and get errors such as
		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.
		552	</impo>
		553
		554	<p>
		555	This is how the ALSA Mixer <e>might</e> look the first time you open it. Pay
		556	attention to the Master and PCM channels which both have an MM below them.
		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.
		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>
136		566
137	<warn>	567	<warn>
138	If you have multiple sound cards in your system, separate them with a comma	568	Both Master <e>and</e> PCM need to be unmuted and set to audible volume levels
139	in the ALSA_CARDS variable. Ex: ALSA_CARDS="via82xx,emu10k1"	569	if you want to hear some output on your speakers.
140	</warn>	570	</warn>
141		571
142	<p>	572	<ul>
143	If you want OSS compatibility (highly recommended), you should add 'oss' to	573	<li>
144	your USE flags in <path>/etc/make.conf</path>. After that, you are ready to	574	To move between channels, use your left and right arrow keys. (<-
145	install <c>alsa-driver</c>:	575	& ->)
		576	</li>
		577	<li>
		578	To toggle mute, move to the specific channel, for example Master and press
		579	the <e>m</e> key on the keyboard.
		580	</li>
		581	<li>
		582	To increase and decrease the volume levels, use the up and down arrow keys
		583	respectively.
		584	</li>
		585	</ul>
		586
		587	<note>
		588	Be careful when setting your Bass and Treble values. 50 is usually a good
		589	number for both. Extremely high values of Bass may cause <e>jarring</e>
		590	on speakers that are not designed to handle them.
		591	</note>
		592
146	</p>	593	<p>
147		594	After you're all done, your ALSA Mixer should look similar to the one below.
148	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Drivers">	595	Note the 00 instead of the MM and also the volume levels for some optimum
149	# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>	596	settings.
150	</pre>	597	</p>
151		598
152	<impo>	599	<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		600
159	</body>	601	</body>
		602	</section>
160	</section>	603	<section>
161	<section id="alsa-utils">	604	<title>Sound Check!</title>
162	<title>Installing the ALSA Utils</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
163	<body>	652	</body>
		653	</section>
		654	<section>
		655	<title>ALSA and USE</title>
		656	<body>
164		657
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>	658	<p>
170		659	You can now add the <c>alsa</c> use flag to <path>/etc/make.conf</path> to
171	<pre caption="More OSS compatibility layer">	660	ensure that your applications that support ALSA get built with it. Some
172	# <i>emerge alsa-oss</i>	661	architectures like x86 and amd64 have the flag enabled by default.
173	# <i>aoss mpg123 music.mp3</i>
174	</pre>
175
176	<p>	662	</p>
177	Now install the ALSA Utils on your system (this is mandatory):	663
		664	</body>
		665	</section>
		666	<section>
		667	<title>Issues?</title>
		668	<body>
		669
178	</p>	670	<p>
179		671	If for some reason you're unable to hear sound, the first thing to do would
180	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Utils">	672	be to check your <uri link="#doc_chap3_pre6">alsamixer</uri> settings. 80% of
181	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>	673	the issues lie with muted channels or low volume. Also check your Window
182	</pre>	674	Manager's sound applet and verify that volumes are set to audible levels.
183
184	<p>	675	</p>
185	Now that the utils are installed, it is time to configure ALSA...	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	# <i>rm -rf /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/alsa-driver</i>
		789	</pre>
		790
		791	<p>
		792	Another reason for error messages similar to the ones above could be a file in
		793	<path>/etc/modules.d</path> supplying a <c>device_mode</c> parameter when it
		794	isn't required. Confirm that this is indeed the issue and find out which file
		795	is the culprit.
		796	</p>
		797
		798	<pre caption="Confirming and searching for device_mode">
		799	<comment>(Check dmesg to confirm)</comment>
		800	# <i>dmesg \| grep device_mode</i>
		801	snd: Unknown parameter `device_mode'
		802	<comment>(Now, to get to the source of the issue)</comment>
		803	# <i>grep device_mode /etc/modules.d/*</i>
		804	</pre>
		805
		806	<p>
		807	Usually it is a file called <path>alsa</path> with the line <c>options snd
		808	device_mode=0666</c>. Remove this line and restart the alsasound service and
		809	that should take care of this issue.
186	</p>	810	</p>
187		811
188	</body>	812	</body>
189	</section>	813	</section>
190	</chapter>	814	</chapter>
		815
191	<chapter>	816	<chapter>
192	<title>Configuring ALSA</title>	817	<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>	818	<section>
223	<section>	819	<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>	820	<body>
246	</section>
247	<section>
248	<title>Having ALSA Activated at Boot</title>
249	<body>
250		821
251	<p>
252	To activate ALSA support at boot, add the <c>alsasound</c> init script to the
253	boot runlevel:
254	</p>	822	<p>
255		823	If your sound card is one of those that come with on-board MIDI synthesizers
256	<pre caption="Adding alsasound to the boot runlevel">	824	and you would like to listen to some .mid files, you have to install
257	# <i>rc-update add alsasound boot</i>	825	<c>awesfx</c> which is basically a set of utilities for controlling the AWE32
258	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>	826	driver. We need to install it first. If you don't have a hardware synthesizer,
259	</pre>	827	you can use a virtual one. Please see the section on
260		828	<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>	829	</p>
268	By default, all sound channels are muted. To fix this, run <c>amixer</c>:
269	</p>
270		830
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">	831	<pre caption="Installing awesfx">
324	# <i>emerge awesfx</i>	832	# <i>emerge awesfx</i>
325	</pre>	833	</pre>
326		834
327	<p>	835	<note>
328	If you have a collection of sound fonts somewhere, place them in	836	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	837	CD or a Windows installation into <path>/usr/share/sounds/sf2/</path>. For
330	called <path>8MBGMSFX.SF2</path> or <path>CT4GMSFX.SF2</path>.	838	example a sound font file for the Creative SBLive! card would be 8MBGMSFX.SF2.
		839	</note>
		840
331	</p>	841	<p>
332		842	After copying over the Soundfont files, we can then play a midi file as shown.
		843	You can also add the <c>asfxload</c> command to
		844	<path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path>, so that the sound font is loaded
		845	every time the system starts up.
333	<p>	846	</p>
334	After copying over the sound font, select them using <c>asfxload</c>:
335	</p>
336		847
		848	<note>
		849	<path>/mnt</path> paths mentioned in the code listing(s) below will <e>not</e>
		850	be the same in your machine. They are just an example. Please be careful to
		851	change the path to suit your machine.
		852	</note>
		853
337	<pre caption="Loading the sound font">	854	<pre caption="Loading Soundfonts">
		855	<comment>(First, copy the Soundfont)</comment>
		856	# <i>cp /mnt/win2k/Program\ Files/CreativeSBLive2k/SFBank/8MBGMSFX.SF2 /usr/share/sounds/sf2/</i>
		857	<comment>(Or get it from your SoundBlaster CD)</comment>
		858	# <i>cp /mnt/cdrom/AUDIO/ENGLISH/SFBANK/8MBGMSFX.SF2 /usr/share/sounds/sf2/</i>
		859	<comment>(We load the specific Soundfont)</comment>
338	# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sfbank/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>	860	# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sounds/sf2/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>
339	</pre>	861	</pre>
340		862
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>	863	<p>
345		864	You can now play midi files using a program like <c>aplaymidi</c>. Run
		865	<c>aplaymidi -l</c> to get a list of available ports and then pick one
		866	to play the file on.
346	<p>	867	</p>
347	If you can't find soundfonts on your driver CD you can download some online from	868
348	<uri>http://www.parabola.demon.co.uk/alsa/awe64.html</uri>.	869	<pre caption="Playing MIDI">
		870	<comment>(Check open ports)</comment>
		871	# <i>aplaymidi -l</i>
		872	Port Client name Port name
		873	64:0 EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART) EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART)
		874	65:0 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 0
		875	65:1 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 1
		876	65:2 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 2
		877	65:3 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 3
		878	<comment>(Pick a port, and play a mid file)</comment>
		879	# <i> aplaymidi --port=65:0 /mnt/shyam/music/midi/mi2.mid</i>
349	</p>	880	</pre>
350		881
351	</body>	882	</body>
352	</section>
353	<section>	883	</section>
		884	<section id="vsynth">
354	<title>Timidity++ Virtual Synthesizer</title>	885	<title>Virtual Synthesizers</title>
355	<body>	886	<body>
356		887
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>	888	<p>
		889	If your sound card lacks a hardware synthesizer, you could use a virtual one
		890	like <c>timidity++</c>. Installation is a breeze.
		891	</p>
362		892
363	<pre caption="Installing Timidity++">	893	<pre caption="Installing timidity++">
364	# <i>emerge timidity++</i>	894	# <i>emerge timidity++</i>
365	</pre>	895	</pre>
366		896
367	<p>	897	<p>
368	For timidity to play sounds, it needs a soundfont. If you do not have any,	898	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	899	install <c>timidity-eawpatches</c> or <c>timidity-shompatches</c> which will
370	give you some soundfonts. You can have multiple soundfont configurations	900	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>.	901	installed, and you can place your own in <path>/usr/share/timidity/</path>.
372	To switch between different timidity configurations, you should use the	902	To switch between different timidity configurations, you should use the
373	<e>timidity-update</e> tool provided in the timidity++ package.	903	<c>timidity-update</c> tool provided in the timidity++ package.
374	</p>	904	</p>
375		905
376	<pre caption="Installing soundfonts">	906	<pre caption="Installing sound fonts">
377	# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>	907	# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>
378	# <i>timidity-update -g -s eawpatches</i>	908	# <i>timidity-update -g -s eawpatches</i>
379		909
380	<comment>(or)</comment>	910	<comment>(or)</comment>
381		911
…		…
390	<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">	920	<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">
391	# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>	921	# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>
392	# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>	922	# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>
393	</pre>	923	</pre>
394		924
		925	<p>
		926	You can now try out <uri link="#doc_chap4_pre3">Playing MIDI</uri> files.
		927	</p>
		928
395	</body>	929	</body>
396	</section>
397	<section>	930	</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>	931	<section>
430	<title>Tools and Firmware</title>	932	<title>Tools and Firmware</title>
431	<body>	933	<body>
432		934
433	<p>	935	<p>
…		…
440	<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">	942	<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">
441	ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"	943	ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"
442	</pre>	944	</pre>
443		945
444	<p>	946	<p>
		947	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):	948	Now, install the <c>alsa-tools</c> (and/or <c>alsa-firmware</c>) package(s):
446	</p>	949	</p>
447		950
448	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">	951	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">
449	# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>	952	# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>
450	</pre>	953	</pre>
451		954
452	</body>	955	</body>
453	</section>	956	</section>
454	<section>	957	<section>
455	<title>Activating Joystick Support</title>	958	<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>	959	<body>
499	</section>	960
		961	<p>
		962	Everyone who contributed to the earlier version of the Gentoo ALSA Guide:
		963	Vincent Verleye, Grant Goodyear, Arcady Genkin, Jeremy Huddleston,
		964	John P. Davis, Sven Vermeulen, Benny Chuang, Tiemo Kieft and Erwin.
		965	</p>
		966
		967	</body>
500	<section>	968	</section>
		969	<section>
501	<title>Resources</title>	970	<title>References</title>
502	<body>	971	<body>
503		972
504	<ul>	973	<ul>
505	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org">The ALSA Project</uri></li>	974	<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>	975	<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org">Linux Sound/MIDI Software</uri></li>
508	</ul>	976	</ul>
509		977
510	</body>	978	</body>
511	</section>	979	</section>

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