/[gentoo]/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

Diff of /xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

Parent Directory | Revision Log | View Patch Patch

Revision 1.11		Revision 1.67
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 1.67 2006/05/27 13:59:35 neysx Exp $ -->
		3
2	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">	4	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
3		5
4	<guide link = "/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">	6	<guide link="/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml">
5	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>	7	<title>Gentoo Linux ALSA Guide</title>
6	<author title="Author"><mail link="zu@pandora.be">	8
7	Vincent Verleye</mail>	9	<author title="Author">
		10	<mail link="fox2mike@gentoo.org">Shyam Mani</mail>
8	</author>	11	</author>
9	<author title="Author"><mail link="g2boojum@gentoo.org">
10	Grant Goodyear</mail>
11	</author>
12	<author title="Author"><mail link="agenkin@gentoo.org">
13	Arcady Genkin</mail>
14	</author>
15	<author title="Editor"><mail link="zhen@gentoo.org">
16	John P. Davis</mail>
17	</author>
18		12
		13	<abstract>
		14	This document helps a user setup ALSA on Gentoo Linux.
		15	</abstract>
		16
		17	<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
		18	<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
19	<license/>	19	<license/>
20		20
21	<abstract>
22	This guide will show you how to set up the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) on Gentoo Linux.
23	In addition to the Gentoo Linux Desktop Configuration Guide, this guide is supposed to give you more information on this subject. </abstract>
24
25	<version>1.2</version>	21	<version>2.13</version>
26	<date>5 June 2003</date>	22	<date>2006-05-27</date>
27		23
28	<chapter>	24	<chapter>
29	<title>Introduction</title>	25	<title>Introduction</title>
30	<section>	26	<section>
31	<title>What is ALSA?</title>	27	<title>What is ALSA?</title>
		28	<body>
		29
		30	<p>
		31	ALSA, which stands for <e>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture</e>, provides
		32	audio and MIDI (<e>Musical Instrument Digital Interface</e>) functionality to
		33	the Linux operating system. ALSA is the default sound subsystem in the 2.6
		34	kernel thereby replacing OSS (<e>Open Sound System</e>), which was used in the
		35	2.4 kernels.
		36	</p>
		37
		38	<p>
		39	ALSA's main features include efficient support for all types of audio
		40	interfaces ranging from consumer sound cards to professional sound
		41	equipment, fully modularized drivers, SMP and thread safety, backward
		42	compatibility with OSS and a user-space library <c>alsa-lib</c> to make
		43	application development a breeze.
		44	</p>
		45
32	<body>	46	</body>
33	<p>	47	</section>
34	The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) is a project to improve the Linux sound subsystem by rewriting	48	<section>
35	large chunks of it.	49	<title>ALSA on Gentoo</title>
36	It is anticipated that ALSA will make it into Linux kernel 2.6.x (or 3.x.x -- whichever comes first) as it becomes ready.	50	<body>
		51
37	</p>	52	<p>
38		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.
39	<p>	57	</p>
40	ALSA provides audio and MIDI functionality for Linux.	58
		59	</body>
		60	</section>
		61	</chapter>
		62
		63	<chapter>
		64	<title>Installing ALSA</title>
		65	<section>
		66	<title>Options</title>
		67	<body>
		68
		69	<warn>
		70	The methods shown below are mutually exclusive. You cannot have ALSA compiled
		71	in your kernel and use <c>media-sound/alsa-driver</c>. It <e>will</e> fail.
		72	</warn>
		73
41	</p>	74	<p>
42		75	The two options are :
43	<p>	76	</p>
44	Quoted from <uri>http://www.alsa-project.org</uri>, ALSA has the following features:	77
45	<ul><li> Efficient support for all types of audio interfaces, from consumer soundcards to professional multichannel audio interfaces.</li>	78	<ol>
46	<li> Fully modularized sound drivers.</li>	79	<li>
47	<li> SMP and thread-safe design.</li>	80	Use ALSA provided by your kernel. This is the preferred/recommended
48	<li> User space library (alsa-lib) to simplify application programming and provide higher level functionality.</li>	81	method.
49	<li> Support for the older OSS API, providing binary compatibility for most OSS programs.</li>	82	</li>
		83	<li>
		84	Use Gentoo's <c>media-sound/alsa-driver</c> package.
		85	</li>
		86	</ol>
		87
		88	<p>
		89	We shall take a peek into both before finally deciding on one.
		90	</p>
		91
		92	<p>
		93	If you were to use ALSA provided by the kernel, the following are the pros and
		94	cons :
		95	</p>
		96
		97	<table>
		98	<tr>
		99	<th>Kernel ALSA</th>
		100	<th>Pros and Cons</th>
		101	</tr>
		102	<tr>
		103	<th>+</th>
		104	<ti>Pretty stable as drivers are integrated into kernel.</ti>
		105	</tr>
		106	<tr>
		107	<th>+</th>
		108	<ti>One shot solution, no repeating emerges.</ti>
		109	</tr>
		110	<tr>
		111	<th>-</th>
		112	<ti>Might be a slightly older version than <c>alsa-driver</c>.</ti>
		113	</tr>
		114	</table>
		115
		116	<p>
		117	And, if you were to use alsa-driver,
		118	</p>
		119
		120	<table>
		121	<tr>
		122	<th>alsa-driver</th>
		123	<th>Pros and Cons</th>
		124	</tr>
		125	<tr>
		126	<th>+</th>
		127	<ti>Latest drivers from the ALSA Project.</ti>
		128	</tr>
		129	<tr>
		130	<th>-</th>
		131	<ti>Every kernel recompile requires a re-emerge of <c>alsa-driver</c>.</ti>
		132	</tr>
		133	<tr>
		134	<th>-</th>
		135	<ti>Needs certain kernel config options disabled to work correctly.</ti>
		136	</tr>
		137	</table>
		138
		139	</body>
		140	</section>
		141	<section>
		142	<title>So...</title>
		143	<body>
		144
		145	<p>
		146	The main difference between using <c>alsa-driver</c> and ALSA that comes with
		147	the kernel is that <c>alsa-driver</c> is generally more up to date than the
		148	version in the kernel. Since this does not make any huge difference as
		149	such, you are encouraged to use the ALSA provided by the kernel for ease of use.
		150	Before reporting any sound related issues to <uri
		151	link="https://bugs.gentoo.org">Gentoo Bugzilla</uri>, please try to reproduce
		152	them using <c>alsa-driver</c> and file the bug report no matter what the
		153	result.
		154	</p>
		155
		156	</body>
		157	</section>
		158	<section id="lspci">
		159	<title>Before you proceed</title>
		160	<body>
		161
		162	<p>
		163	Whichever method of install you choose, you need to know what drivers your
		164	sound card uses. In most cases, sound cards (onboard and otherwise) are PCI
		165	based and <c>lspci</c> will help you in digging out the required information.
		166	Please <c>emerge sys-apps/pciutils</c> to get <c>lspci</c>, if you don't have it
		167	installed already. In case you have a USB sound card, <c>lsusb</c> from
		168	<c>sys-apps/usbutils</c> <e>might</e> be of help. For ISA cards, try using
		169	<c>sys-apps/isapnptools</c>. Also, the following pages <e>may</e> help users
		170	with ISA based sound cards.
		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>
50	</ul>	186	</ul>
51	There's lots more to ALSA however, like support for Full Duplex playback and recording, multiple soundcard support,	187
52	hardware mixing of streams, extensive mixer capabilities (to support advanced features of new soundcards), ...	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
53	</p>	193	<p>
		194	We now proceed to find out details about the sound card.
		195	</p>
		196
		197	<pre caption="Soundcard Details">
		198	# <i>lspci -v \| grep -i audio</i>
		199	0000:00:0a.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 06)
		200	</pre>
		201
		202	<p>
		203	We now know that the sound card on the machine is a Sound Blaster Live! and
		204	the card manufacturer is Creative Labs. Head over to the
		205	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/"> ALSA Soundcard Matrix</uri>
		206	page and select Creative Labs from the drop down menu. You will be taken to
		207	the Creative Labs matrix page where you can see that the SB Live! uses the
		208	<c>emu10k1</c> module. That is the information we need for now. If you are
		209	interested in detailed information, you can click on the link next to the
		210	"Details" and that will take you to the <c>emu10k1</c> specific page.
		211	</p>
		212
54	</body>	213	</body>
55	</section>
56	<section>	214	</section>
57	<title>Why use ALSA?</title>	215	<section id="kernel">
58	<body>	216	<title>Using ALSA provided by your Kernel</title>
59	<p>
60	If your soundcard is supported by the Linux kernel sound system or the commercial OSS/4Front sound driver system,
61	which can be found in all 2.4.x Linux kernels, you could just aswell build <e>those modules</e> for use with your soundcard.
62	If you want this, just read through the <uri link="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/index.html">Linux Sound HOWTO</uri>.
63	</p>
64	<p>
65	However, those OSS/4Front drivers have some limitations -- being commercial is one.
66	ALSA is an attempt to go beyond these limitations and to do so in an open source fashion.
67	ALSA is a fully GPL and LGPL'ed sound driver system, that provides a professional quality system for recording, playback,
68	and MIDI sequencing.
69	</p>
70	</body>	217	<body>
71	</section>	218
		219	<p>
		220	If you're a person who likes to keep things simple like I do, then this is
		221	the way to go.
		222	</p>
		223
		224	<note>
		225	Since the 2005.0 release, Gentoo Linux uses 2.6 as the default kernel. Unless
		226	you are specifically using the 2.4 profile, <c>gentoo-sources</c> will be a
		227	2.6 kernel on <e>most</e> architectures. Please check that your kernel is a
		228	2.6 series kernel. This method will <e>not</e> work on a 2.4 kernel.
		229	</note>
		230
		231	<p>
		232	Let us now configure the kernel to enable ALSA.
		233	</p>
		234
		235	<impo>
		236	<c>genkernel</c> users should now run <c>genkernel --menuconfig all</c> and
		237	then follow the instructions in <uri link="#doc_chap2_pre3">Kernel Options for
		238	ALSA</uri>.
		239	</impo>
		240
		241	<pre caption="Heading over to the source">
		242	# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
		243	# <i>make menuconfig</i>
		244	</pre>
		245
		246	<note>
		247	The above example assumes that <path>/usr/src/linux</path> symlink points to
		248	the kernel sources you want to use. Please ensure the same before proceeding.
		249	</note>
		250
		251	<p>
		252	Now we will look at some of the options we will have to enable in the 2.6
		253	kernel to ensure proper ALSA support for our sound card.
		254	</p>
		255
		256	<p>
		257	Please note that for the sake of ease, all examples show ALSA built as modules.
		258	It is advisable to follow the same as it then allows the use of <c>alsaconf</c>
		259	which is a boon when you want to configure your card. Please do <e>not</e> skip
		260	the <uri link="#alsa-config">Configuration</uri> section of this document. If
		261	you still like to have options built-in, ensure that you make changes to your
		262	config accordingly.
		263	</p>
		264
		265	<pre caption="Kernel Options for ALSA">
		266	Device Drivers --->
		267	Sound --->
		268
		269	<comment>(This needs to be enabled)</comment>
		270	<M> Sound card support
		271
		272	<comment>(Make sure OSS is disabled)</comment>
		273	Open Sound System --->
		274	< > Open Sound System (DEPRECATED)
		275
		276	<comment>(Move one step back and enter ALSA)</comment>
		277	Advanced Linux Sound Architecture --->
		278	<M> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
		279	<comment>(Select this if you want MIDI sequencing and routing)</comment>
		280	<M> Sequencer support
		281	<comment>(Old style /dev/mixer* and /dev/dsp* support. Recommended.)</comment>
		282	<M> OSS Mixer API
		283	<M> OSS PCM (digital audio) API
		284
		285	<comment>(You now have a choice of devices to enable support for. Generally,
		286	you will have one type of device and not more. If you have more than one
		287	sound card, please enable them all here.)</comment>
		288
		289	<comment>(Mostly for testing and development purposes, not needed for normal
		290	users unless you know what you are doing.)</comment>
		291	Generic devices --->
		292
		293	<comment>(For ISA Sound cards)</comment>
		294	ISA devices --->
		295	<comment>(IF you had the Gravis, you would select this option)</comment>
		296	<M> Gravis UltraSound Extreme
		297
		298	<comment>(Move one level back and into PCI devices. Most sound cards today are
		299	PCI devices)</comment>
		300	PCI devices --->
		301	<comment>(We now select the emu10k1 driver for our card)</comment>
		302	<M> Emu10k1 (SB Live!, Audigy, E-mu APS)
		303	<comment>(Or an Intel card would be)</comment>
		304	<M> Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller
		305	<comment>(Or if you have a VIA Card)</comment>
		306	<M> VIA 82C686A/B, 8233/8235 AC97 Controller
		307
		308	<comment>(Move one level back and select in case you have an USB sound card)</comment>
		309	USB Devices --->
		310	</pre>
		311
		312	<p>
		313	Now that your options are set, you can (re)compile the kernel and ALSA support
		314	for your card should be functional once you reboot into the new kernel. Don't
		315	forget to update your GRUB configuration to use the newly built kernel.
		316	You can now proceed to <uri link="#alsa-utilities">ALSA Utilities</uri> and
		317	see if everything is working as it should.
		318	</p>
		319
		320	</body>
72	<section>	321	</section>
73	<title>What cards does ALSA support?</title>	322	<section id="alsa-driver">
		323	<title>Using the ALSA Driver package</title>
74	<body>	324	<body>
75	<p>	325
76	ALSA tries to support as many (new) cards as possible by providing open-source drivers.
77	However, some vendors may provide binary-only packages.
78	</p>	326	<p>
79	<p>To know if your card is supported, you can find a Soundcard Matrix of supported and not-supported cards here:	327	So you've decided to go the <c>alsa-driver</c> way. Let's get started then.
80	<uri>http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/</uri>.	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
81	</p>	333	<p>
		334	If you don't have an idea of what drivers your sound card might need, please
		335	take a look at the <uri link="#lspci">lspci</uri> section of this guide. Once
		336	you have your driver name (<c>emu10k1</c> in our example), edit
		337	<path>/etc/make.conf</path> and add a variable, <c>ALSA_CARDS</c>.
		338	</p>
		339
		340	<pre caption="Adding ALSA_CARDS to make.conf">
		341	<comment>(For one sound card)</comment>
		342	ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1"
		343	<comment>(For more than one, separate names with spaces)</comment>
		344	ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1 via82xx"
		345	</pre>
		346
		347	<p>
		348	If you have compiled your kernel and want to use <c>alsa-driver</c>, please
		349	ensure the following before proceeding, else <c>alsa-driver</c> is likely to
		350	fail. The next code listing gives you one way of performing the checks.
		351	</p>
		352
		353	<note>
		354	<c>genkernel</c> users can proceed with <uri link="#doc_chap2_pre6">Installing
		355	alsa-driver</uri> as their configuration is in sync with the one shown below by
		356	default.
		357	</note>
		358
		359	<ol>
		360	<li>
		361	<c>CONFIG_SOUND</c> is set. (Basic Sound support enabled)
		362	</li>
		363	<li>
		364	<c>CONFIG_SOUND_PRIME</c> is not set. (In-built OSS support disabled)
		365	</li>
		366	<li>
		367	<c>CONFIG_SND</c> is not set. (In-built ALSA support disabled)
		368	</li>
		369	<li>
		370	<path>/usr/src/linux</path> points to the kernel you want ALSA working on.
		371	</li>
		372	</ol>
		373
		374	<pre caption=".config checks">
		375	<comment>(Assuming the linux symlink points to the correct kernel)</comment>
		376	# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
		377	# <i>grep SOUND .config</i>
		378	<comment>(1. is true)</comment>
		379	CONFIG_SOUND=y
		380	<comment>(2. is true)</comment>
		381	CONFIG_SOUND_PRIME is not set
		382	# <i>grep SND .config</i>
		383	<comment>(and 3. is true)</comment>
		384	CONFIG_SND is not set
		385	</pre>
		386
		387	<p>
		388	Now all you have to do is type the magic words... and no, it's not abracadabra.
		389	</p>
		390
		391	<pre caption="Installing alsa-driver">
		392	# <i>emerge alsa-driver</i>
		393	</pre>
		394
		395	<impo>
		396	Please note that you will have to run <c>emerge alsa-driver</c> after every
		397	kernel (re)compile, as the earlier drivers are deleted.
		398	</impo>
		399
82	</body>	400	</body>
83	</section>	401	</section>
84	</chapter>	402	</chapter>
85		403
86	<chapter>	404	<chapter>
87	<title>Installation</title>	405	<title>Configuring/Testing ALSA</title>
88	<section>	406	<section id="alsa-utilities">
89	<title>Kernel modules</title>	407	<title>ALSA Utilities</title>
90	<body>	408	<body>
91	<p>	409
92	Since we're still using 2.4.x kernel sources, we'll have to compile kernel modules and ALSA modules separately. People who are using a 2.5.x kernel can do this from within their kernel configuration, since the ALSA modules are included in the kernel sources and should be built there.
93	</p>	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>
94	<p>	414	</p>
95	First we'll make sure that our kernel configuration is ready for use with ALSA.	415
96	All you need in your kernel configuration is having Sound Card Support set to be built as a module (M).	416	<pre caption="Install alsa-utils">
97	This will build <c>soundcore.o</c>.	417	# <i>emerge alsa-utils</i>
98	</p>	418	</pre>
99	<p>	419
100	<note>	420	<note>
101	Possibly, this will also work when you built Sound Card Support in the kernel (Y) instead of building it as a module (M).	421	If you activated ALSA in your <uri link="#kernel">kernel</uri> <e>and</e> did
102	However, the official ALSA documentation suggests building it as a module, since ALSA will try loading it.	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>.
103	</note>	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
104	</p>	439	<p>
105	<p>If you already have a working kernel configuration, make sure you remove all sound drivers (except for Sound Card Support).	440	The easiest way to configure your sound card is to run <c>alsaconf</c>. Just
106	If you wish to do this without having to reboot, you could do like this:	441	type <c>alsaconf</c> in a shell as root.
107	</p>	442	</p>
		443
		444	<pre caption="Invoking alsaconf">
		445	# <i>alsaconf</i>
108	<pre>	446	</pre>
109	# <c>cd /usr/src/linux</c>	447
110	# <c>cp .config ~/</c>
111	# <c>make mrproper</c>
112	# <c>cp ~/.config .</c>
113	# <c>make menuconfig</c>
114	</pre>
115	<p>
116	Now select <e>Sound Card Support</e> as Module (M) and deselect all other sound drivers.
117	Exit and say Y to save your kernel configuration.
118	After that, build the modules:
119	</p>	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.
120	<pre>	476	</pre>
121	# <c>make dep clean</c>	477
122	# <c>make modules modules_install</c>
123	</pre>
124	<p>
125	Before installing your new modules, this last line will delete all your previous modules,
126	even the ones from a previous ALSA installation.
127	</p>	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.
128	<p>	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
129	<impo>	546	<impo>
130	This means, whenever you recompile your kernel later on, you MUST recompile <c>alsa-driver</c>.	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.
131	</impo>	552	</impo>
		553
132	</p>	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.
133	<p>	559	</p>
134	<note>However, there's no need to reinstall <c>nvidia-kernel</c>, the Nvidia drivers are in a separate directory	560
135	in <path>/lib/modules/*/video</path> and won't get deleted by a <c>make modules modules_install</c>	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>
		566
		567	<warn>
		568	Both Master <e>and</e> PCM need to be unmuted and set to audible volume levels
		569	if you want to hear some output on your speakers.
		570	</warn>
		571
		572	<ul>
		573	<li>
		574	To move between channels, use your left and right arrow keys. (<-
		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.
136	</note>	591	</note>
		592
137	</p>	593	<p>
138	</body>	594	After you're all done, your ALSA Mixer should look similar to the one below.
139	</section>	595	Note the 00 instead of the MM and also the volume levels for some optimum
		596	settings.
		597	</p>
140		598
		599	<figure link="/images/docs/alsa-mixerunmuted.png" short="AlsaMixer Unmuted" caption="Alsa Mixer ready to roll"/>
		600
		601	</body>
141	<section>	602	</section>
142	<title>ALSA modules</title>	603	<section>
		604	<title>Sound Check!</title>
		605	<body>
		606
		607	<p>
		608	Finally. Some music. If everything above is perfect, you should now be able to
		609	listen to some good music. A quick way to test is to use a command line tool
		610	like <c>media-sound/madplay</c>. You could also use something more well known
		611	like <c>mpg123</c> or <c>xmms</c>. If you are an ogg fan, you could use
		612	<c>ogg123</c> provided by <c>media-sound/vorbis-tools</c>. Use any player you
		613	are comfortable with. As always, <c>emerge</c> what you need.
		614	</p>
		615
		616	<pre caption="Getting the software">
		617	<comment>(Install the applications you want)</comment>
		618	# <i>emerge madplay mpg123 xmms</i>
		619	<comment>(To play .ogg files)</comment>
		620	# <i>emerge vorbis-tools</i>
		621	</pre>
		622
		623	<p>
		624	And then play your favorite sound track...
		625	</p>
		626
		627	<pre caption="Playing Music">
		628	# <i>madplay -v /mnt/shyam/Music/Paul\ Oakenfold\ -\ Dread\ Rock.mp3</i>
		629	MPEG Audio Decoder 0.15.2 (beta) - Copyright (C) 2000-2004 Robert Leslie et al.
		630	Title: Dread Rock
		631	Artist: Paul Oakenfold
		632	Album: Matrix Reloaded
		633	Year: 2003
		634	Genre: Soundtrack
		635	Soundtrack
		636	00:04:19 Layer III, 160 kbps, 44100 Hz, joint stereo (MS), no CRC
		637
		638	# <i>ogg123 Paul\ Oakenfold\ -\ Dread\ Rock.ogg</i>
		639	Audio Device: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) output
		640
		641	Playing: Paul Oakenfold - Dread Rock.ogg
		642	Ogg Vorbis stream: 2 channel, 44100 Hz
		643	Genre: Soundtrack
		644	Transcoded: mp3;160
		645	Title: Dread Rock
		646	Artist: Paul Oakenfold
		647	Date: 2003
		648	Album: Matrix Reloaded
		649	Time: 00:11.31 [04:28.75] of 04:40.06 (200.6 kbps) Output Buffer 96.9%
		650	</pre>
		651
143	<body>	652	</body>
		653	</section>
		654	<section>
		655	<title>ALSA and USE</title>
		656	<body>
144		657
145	<p>
146	Now it's time to install the ALSA drivers for your soundcard(s). If your soundcard is PCI, you can find out the name
147	and type of your soundcard by looking at the output of /proc/pci
148	<pre># <c>grep audio /proc/pci</c></pre>
149	</p>	658	<p>
150		659	You can now add the <c>alsa</c> use flag to <path>/etc/make.conf</path> to
		660	ensure that your applications that support ALSA get built with it. Some
		661	architectures like x86 and amd64 have the flag enabled by default.
151	<p>	662	</p>
152	<warn>	663
153	If you had a previous sound setup and there are still non-ALSA sound modules loaded, unload them <e>now</e>.	664	</body>
154	Check with <c>lsmod</c> and use <c>rmmod</c> to unload all sound-related modules on your system.	665	</section>
155	</warn>	666	<section>
		667	<title>Issues?</title>
		668	<body>
		669
156	</p>	670	<p>
157		671	If for some reason you're unable to hear sound, the first thing to do would
		672	be to check your <uri link="#doc_chap3_pre6">alsamixer</uri> settings. 80% of
		673	the issues lie with muted channels or low volume. Also check your Window
		674	Manager's sound applet and verify that volumes are set to audible levels.
158	<p>	675	</p>
159	We could simply do an <c>emerge alsa-driver</c> now, this would compile and install <e>all</e> ALSA sound drivers.	676
160	</p>	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.
161	<p>	681	</p>
162	However, to save some time, lookup the <e>Module Name</e> of your soundcard(s) on the
163	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc">ALSA Soundcard Matrix</uri> by following the <e>Details</e> link in the <e>Driver and Docs</e> column in the row of the chipset of your soundcard.
164	Mine is <c>snd-emu10k1</c>, since I have an SBlive! soundcard, with the <e>EMU10K1</e> chipset.
165	We'll set ALSA_CARDS environment to the value of the module name before emerging (but without the snd prefix), so emerge will only compile the drivers we need.
166	</p>
167		682
168	<p>	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
169	<pre>	720	</pre>
170	# <c>env ALSA_CARDS='emu10k1' emerge alsa-driver</c>	721
171	</pre>
172	</p>	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.
173	<p>	725	</p>
		726
		727	<pre caption="Unknown Symbol in module error">
		728	# <i>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</i>
		729	* Loading ALSA modules ...
		730	* Loading: snd-card-0 ... [ ok ]
		731	* Loading: snd-pcm-oss ...
		732	WARNING: Error inserting snd_mixer_oss
		733	(/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-mixer-oss.ko): Unknown
		734	symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg) FATAL: Error inserting
		735	snd_pcm_oss
		736	(/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-pcm-oss.ko): Unknown
		737	symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
		738	[ !! ]
		739	* Loading: snd-mixer-oss ...
		740	FATAL: Error inserting snd_mixer_oss
		741	(/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r6/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-mixer-oss.ko): Unknown
		742	symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
		743	[ !! ]
		744	* Loading: snd-seq ... [ ok ]
		745	* Loading: snd-emu10k1-synth ... [ ok ]
		746	* Loading: snd-seq-midi ... [ ok ]
		747	* Restoring Mixer Levels ... [ ok ]
		748	</pre>
		749
		750	<p>
		751	And when you take a look at <c>dmesg</c> as suggested, you're quite likely to
		752	see:
		753	</p>
		754
		755	<pre caption="dmesg output">
		756	<comment>(Only relevant portions are shown below)</comment>
		757	# <i>dmesg \| less</i>
		758	ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:06.0[A] -> Link [APC3] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 209
		759	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device
		760	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device
		761	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback
		762	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register
		763	snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device
		764	snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device
		765	snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_ioctl_card
		766	snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register
		767	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device
		768	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device
		769	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback
		770	snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register
		771	</pre>
		772
		773	<p>
		774	The above issue is caused when you switch from <c>alsa-driver</c> to in-kernel
		775	ALSA because when you unmerge <c>alsa-driver</c> the module files are config
		776	protected and hence get left behind. So, when you switch to in-kernel
		777	drivers, running <c>modprobe</c> gives you a mix of <c>alsa-driver</c> and
		778	in-kernel modules thus causing the above errors.
		779	</p>
		780
		781	<p>
		782	The solution is quite easy. We just need to manually remove the problem causing
		783	directory after you unmerge <c>alsa-driver</c>. Be sure to remove the correct
		784	kernel version and not the current one!
		785	</p>
		786
		787	<pre caption="Removing the alsa-driver modules">
		788	<comment>(Replace KERNELVER with your kernel version)</comment>
		789	# <i>rm -rf /lib/modules/KERNELVER/alsa-driver</i>
		790	</pre>
		791
		792	<p>
		793	Another reason for error messages similar to the ones above could be a file in
		794	<path>/etc/modules.d</path> supplying a <c>device_mode</c> parameter when it
		795	isn't required. Confirm that this is indeed the issue and find out which file
		796	is the culprit.
		797	</p>
		798
		799	<pre caption="Confirming and searching for device_mode">
		800	<comment>(Check dmesg to confirm)</comment>
		801	# <i>dmesg \| grep device_mode</i>
		802	snd: Unknown parameter `device_mode'
		803	<comment>(Now, to get to the source of the issue)</comment>
		804	# <i>grep device_mode /etc/modules.d/*</i>
		805	</pre>
		806
		807	<p>
		808	Usually it is a file called <path>alsa</path> with the line <c>options snd
		809	device_mode=0666</c>. Remove this line and restart the alsasound service and
		810	that should take care of this issue.
		811	</p>
		812
		813	</body>
		814	</section>
		815	</chapter>
		816
		817	<chapter>
		818	<title>Other things ALSA</title>
		819	<section>
		820	<title>Setting up MIDI support</title>
		821	<body>
		822
		823	<p>
		824	If your sound card is one of those that come with on-board MIDI synthesizers
		825	and you would like to listen to some .mid files, you have to install
		826	<c>awesfx</c> which is basically a set of utilities for controlling the AWE32
		827	driver. We need to install it first. If you don't have a hardware synthesizer,
		828	you can use a virtual one. Please see the section on
		829	<uri link="#vsynth">Virtual Synthesizers</uri> for more information.
		830	</p>
		831
		832	<pre caption="Installing awesfx">
		833	# <i>emerge awesfx</i>
		834	</pre>
		835
174	<note>	836	<note>
175	You can also add this value in <path>/etc/make.conf</path>, so when you have to emerge the alsa-driver later on you can just run <c>emerge alsa-driver</c>.	837	You will need to copy over SoundFont (SF2) files from your sound card's driver
176	For example, like this: <c>echo 'ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1"' >> /etc/make.conf</c>	838	CD or a Windows installation into <path>/usr/share/sounds/sf2/</path>. For
		839	example a sound font file for the Creative SBLive! card would be 8MBGMSFX.SF2.
177	</note>	840	</note>
178		841
		842	<p>
		843	After copying over the Soundfont files, we can then play a midi file as shown.
		844	You can also add the <c>asfxload</c> command to
		845	<path>/etc/conf.d/local.start</path>, so that the sound font is loaded
		846	every time the system starts up.
		847	</p>
		848
179	<note>	849	<note>
180	When you want to install ALSA drivers for more than one soundcard, you could set ALSA_CARDS to a space-separated list	850	<path>/mnt</path> paths mentioned in the code listing(s) below will <e>not</e>
181	of drivers; like this: <c>env ALSA_CARDS='emu10k1 intel8x0 ens1370' emerge alsa-driver</c>	851	be the same in your machine. They are just an example. Please be careful to
		852	change the path to suit your machine.
182	</note>	853	</note>
183		854
184	<note>If you want to have OSS compatibility, make sure to emerge <i>alsa-oss</i>, it is the ALSA/OSS compatibility	855	<pre caption="Loading Soundfonts">
185	wrapper. </note>	856	<comment>(First, copy the Soundfont)</comment>
		857	# <i>cp /mnt/win2k/Program\ Files/CreativeSBLive2k/SFBank/8MBGMSFX.SF2 /usr/share/sounds/sf2/</i>
		858	<comment>(Or get it from your SoundBlaster CD)</comment>
		859	# <i>cp /mnt/cdrom/AUDIO/ENGLISH/SFBANK/8MBGMSFX.SF2 /usr/share/sounds/sf2/</i>
		860	<comment>(We load the specific Soundfont)</comment>
		861	# <i>asfxload /usr/share/sounds/sf2/8MBGMSFX.SF2</i>
		862	</pre>
186		863
187	</p>	864	<p>
		865	You can now play midi files using a program like <c>aplaymidi</c>. Run
		866	<c>aplaymidi -l</c> to get a list of available ports and then pick one
		867	to play the file on.
188	<p>	868	</p>
189	After this, the ALSA modules should be installed on your system.	869
		870	<pre caption="Playing MIDI">
		871	<comment>(Check open ports)</comment>
		872	# <i>aplaymidi -l</i>
		873	Port Client name Port name
		874	64:0 EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART) EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART)
		875	65:0 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 0
		876	65:1 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 1
		877	65:2 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 2
		878	65:3 Emu10k1 WaveTable Emu10k1 Port 3
		879	<comment>(Pick a port, and play a mid file)</comment>
		880	# <i> aplaymidi --port=65:0 /mnt/shyam/music/midi/mi2.mid</i>
190	</p>	881	</pre>
		882
191	</body>	883	</body>
192	</section>
193	<section>	884	</section>
194	<title>Configuration of ALSA</title>	885	<section id="vsynth">
195	<body>	886	<title>Virtual Synthesizers</title>
196	<p>
197	Let's start configuring now to get ALSA working properly.
198	We'll need to edit some files, to let our system know about the freshly installed ALSA modules.
199	</p>
200	<p>
201	First file to edit is <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path>.
202	</p>
203	<warn>
204	There is no need to edit <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>. Instead, always edit files in <path>/etc/modules.d</path>.
205	</warn>
206	<p>
207	Check the ALSA portion <e>at the bottom of the file</e>.
208	By tweaking this line you can specify the max number of soundcards you have (generally, just one).
209	</p>
210	<p>
211	<pre caption="At the bottom of /etc/modules.d/alsa">
212	# Set this to the correct number of cards.
213	<c>options snd cards_limit=1</c>
214	</pre>
215	</p>
216	<p>
217	Now we'll specify the sounddriver(s) ALSA should use. In the same file, edit like this:
218	<pre caption="In /etc/modules.d/alsa">
219	## and then run `update-modules' command.
220	## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
221	##
222	## ALSA portion
223	<c>alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1</c>
224	<c>## If you have more than one, add:
225	## alias snd-card-1 snd-intel8x0
226	## alias snd-card-2 snd-ens1370</c>
227	## OSS/Free portion
228	## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
229	## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
230	##
231	</pre>
232	</p>
233	<p>
234	<note>
235	If you have more than one soundcard, adjust the <c>cards_limit</c> value and add more snd-card aliases to the file.
236	I don't have experience with this, but you can find examples for configurations with two or more soundcards in
237	<uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-howto/c1660.htm">Chapter 6</uri>
238	of the <uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-howto/alsa-howto.html">ALSA Howto</uri>.
239	</note>
240	</p>
241	<p>
242	Last thing to do in this file, almost at the end, check if these lines are there and uncommented:
243	<pre caption="Near the end of /etc/modules.d/alsa">
244	alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
245	alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
246	alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
247	</pre>
248	</p>
249	<p>
250	Now double-check the file <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> and when you're sure everyting is ok, run <c>update-modules</c>.
251	<pre>
252	# <c>update-modules</c>
253	</pre>
254	</p>
255	<note>
256	Running <c>update-modules</c> here will insert the data from <path>/etc/modules.d/alsa</path> into <path>/etc/modules.conf</path>
257	</note>
258	<p>
259	You should also verify that /etc/devfsd.conf has the alsa devices and permissions correctly registered.
260	</p>
261	<pre caption="/etc/devfsd.conf">
262	# ALSA/OSS stuff
263	# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on
264	# the audio devices
265	LOOKUP snd MODLOAD ACTION snd
266	LOOKUP dsp MODLOAD
267	LOOKUP mixer MODLOAD
268	LOOKUP midi MODLOAD
269	REGISTER sound/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
270	REGISTER snd/.* PERMISSIONS root.audio 660
271	</pre>
272	<note>
273	Notice that devfsd.conf sets /dev/sound permissions to be root.audio. Thus, for non-root users to use audio they will have to be part of the audio group.
274	</note>
275	</body>	887	<body>
276	</section>	888
277	</chapter>	889	<p>
278	<chapter>	890	If your sound card lacks a hardware synthesizer, you could use a virtual one
279	<title>Starting ALSA</title>	891	like <c>timidity++</c>. Installation is a breeze.
		892	</p>
		893
		894	<pre caption="Installing timidity++">
		895	# <i>emerge timidity++</i>
		896	</pre>
		897
		898	<p>
		899	For timidity to play sounds, it needs a sound font. If you do not have any,
		900	install <c>timidity-eawpatches</c> or <c>timidity-shompatches</c> which will
		901	give you some sound fonts. You can have multiple sound font configurations
		902	installed, and you can place your own in <path>/usr/share/timidity/</path>.
		903	To switch between different timidity configurations, you should use the
		904	<c>timidity-update</c> tool provided in the timidity++ package.
		905	</p>
		906
		907	<pre caption="Installing sound fonts">
		908	# <i>emerge timidity-eawpatches</i>
		909	# <i>timidity-update -g -s eawpatches</i>
		910
		911	<comment>(or)</comment>
		912
		913	# <i>emerge timidity-shompatches</i>
		914	# <i>timidity-update -g -s shompatches</i>
		915	</pre>
		916
		917	<p>
		918	Don't forget to add <c>timidity</c> to the default runlevel.
		919	</p>
		920
		921	<pre caption="Adding timidity to the default runlevel">
		922	# <i>rc-update add timidity default</i>
		923	# <i>/etc/init.d/timidity start</i>
		924	</pre>
		925
		926	<p>
		927	You can now try out <uri link="#doc_chap4_pre3">Playing MIDI</uri> files.
		928	</p>
		929
		930	</body>
280	<section>	931	</section>
281	<title>Adding alsasound to a runlevel</title>
282	<body>
283	<p>
284	First thing to do now, is to make ALSA startup at boottime. Like this:
285	<pre>
286	# <c>rc-update add alsasound boot</c>
287	</pre>
288	</p>
289	<p>
290	<warn>Note that the alsasound script should be added to the "boot" runlevel, not the "default" runlevel.</warn>
291	</p>
292	</body>
293	</section>	932	<section>
		933	<title>Tools and Firmware</title>
		934	<body>
		935
		936	<p>
		937	Some specific sound cards can benefit from certain tools provided by the
		938	<c>alsa-tools</c> and <c>alsa-firmware</c> packages. If you need
		939	<c>alsa-tools</c>, be sure to define the ALSA_TOOLS variable in
		940	<path>/etc/make.conf</path> with the tools you require. For instance:
		941	</p>
		942
		943	<pre caption="Selecting ALSA Tools in /etc/make.conf">
		944	ALSA_TOOLS="as10k1 ac3dec"
		945	</pre>
		946
		947	<p>
		948	If the ALSA_TOOLS variable is not set, all available tools will be built.
		949	Now, install the <c>alsa-tools</c> (and/or <c>alsa-firmware</c>) package(s):
		950	</p>
		951
		952	<pre caption="Installing ALSA Tools">
		953	# <i>emerge alsa-tools</i>
		954	</pre>
		955
		956	</body>
294	<section>	957	</section>
295	<title>Running and unmuting</title>
296	<body>
297	<p>
298	Since we're Linux users, we don't want to reboot. So we'll start the alsasound script manually.
299	</p>
300	<pre>
301	# <c>/etc/init.d/alsasound start</c>
302	</pre>
303	<p>
304	ALSA is running now. If everything is ok, you should be able to see the ALSA modules loaded when running <c>lsmod</c>.
305	However, sound won't work yet, because the channels are still muted. We need <c>alsa-utils</c> for this.
306	</p>
307	<pre>
308	# <c>emerge alsa-utils</c>
309	# <c>amixer</c>
310	</pre>
311	<p>
312	<warn>
313	You shouldn't get this, but <e>if</e> you get an error about "amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory", you should manually insmod
314	<c>snd-mixer-oss</c> and <c>snd-pcm-oss</c> once. After that run amixer again.
315	</warn>
316	</p>
317	<pre caption="only if you get an error when running amixer">
318	# <c>insmod snd-mixer-oss</c>
319	# <c>insmod snd-pcm-oss</c>
320	# <c>amixer</c>
321	</pre>
322	<p>
323	If you got this far, now unmute both Master and PCM channels.
324	</p>
325	<p>
326	<pre>
327	# <c>amixer set Master 100 unmute</c>
328	# <c>amixer set PCM 100 unmute</c>
329	# <c>aplay $KDEDIR/share/sounds/pop.wav</c> <codenote>(pop.wav is part of KDE)</codenote>
330	</pre>
331	</p>
332	We check to see if sound is working by using the aplay (alsa play) command. If you hear a pop, then sound is indeed working.
333	Then, adjust the volume settings to your liking; the ncurses-based <c>alsamixer</c> is a great way to get them "just so".
334	<p>
335	You may want to emerge <c>alsa-xmms</c> as that will provide ALSA support for XMMS.
336	</p>
337	When you reboot your system, the <e>alsasound</e> init script will properly save and restore your volume settings.
338	</body>
339	</section>	958	<section>
340	</chapter>	959	<title>A Big thank you to...</title>
341	<chapter>	960	<body>
342	<title>Final Notes</title>	961
		962	<p>
		963	Everyone who contributed to the earlier version of the Gentoo ALSA Guide:
		964	Vincent Verleye, Grant Goodyear, Arcady Genkin, Jeremy Huddleston,
		965	John P. Davis, Sven Vermeulen, Benny Chuang, Tiemo Kieft and Erwin.
		966	</p>
		967
		968	</body>
343	<section>	969	</section>
344	<title>After kernel-upgrades..</title>
345	<body>
346	<p>When you ever rebuild your kernel, or upgrade to another kernel, you'll have to rebuild the ALSA modules.</p>
347	<p>Although you might have installed <c>alsa-driver</c>, <c>alsa-libs</c> and <c>alsa-utils</c>, only the first will
348	have to be installed again, since it will put the alsa modules in
349	<path>/lib/modules/*/kernel/sound/pci/</path>.</p>
350	<pre caption="needed after each kernel compile">
351	# <c>emerge alsa-driver</c>
352	</pre>
353	</body>
354	</section>	970	<section>
355	<section>	971	<title>References</title>
356	<title>/etc/modules.autoload</title>
357	<body>
358	<p>You won't have to edit this file for use with ALSA. After our <c>rc-update add alsasound boot</c>, our system will
359	load the correct modules at startup.</p>
360	<p>It's not necessary to add <c>snd-pcm-oss</c> or <c>snd-mixer-oss</c> in this file.
361	Check the <uri link="http://www.djcj.org/LAU/guide/alsbook/faq1.html">this FAQ</uri> for more info.</p>
362	</body>	972	<body>
363	</section>	973
364	<section>
365	<title>More links..</title>
366	<body>
367	<p>
368	You could check these for additional info:
369	</p>
370	<p>
371	<ul>	974	<ul>
372	<li><uri link="http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/desktop.xml">The Gentoo Linux Desktop Configuration Guide</uri></li>
373	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org">ALSA Project Homepage</uri></li>	975	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/">The ALSA Project</uri></li>
374	<li><uri link="http://www.alsa-project.org/documentation.php3">ALSA Users Documentation</uri></li>
375	<li><uri link="http://www.djcj.org">ALSA Howto's and FAQ's</uri></li>
376	<li><uri link="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/index.html">Linux Sound HOWTO</uri></li>
377	<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org/">Sound and MIDI Software For Linux</uri></li>	976	<li><uri link="http://linux-sound.org">Linux Sound/MIDI Software</uri></li>
378	</ul>	977	</ul>
379	</p>	978
380	</body>	979	</body>
381	</section>	980	</section>
382	</chapter>	981	</chapter>
383	</guide>	982	</guide>

 Legend:



Removed from v.1.11
 


changed lines


 
Added in v.1.67
 Legend:



Removed from v.1.11
 


changed lines


 
Added in v.1.67
-Removed from v.1.11
+Added in v.1.67

	ViewVC Help
Powered by ViewVC 1.1.20