  Alsa-sound-mini-HOWTO
  Valentijn Sessink valentyn@alsa-project.org
  v2.0-pre1, 12 November 1999

  Describes the installation of the ALSA sound drivers for Linux. These
  sound drivers can be used as a replacement for the regular sound
  drivers, as they are fully compatible.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents

  1. Introduction

     1.1 Acknowledgments
     1.2 Revision History
     1.3 New versions of this document
     1.4 Feedback
     1.5 Distribution Policy

  2. NOWTO - a quick install guide

     2.1 Installing ALSA for kernels 2.2.x
     2.2 Playing and recording sound
     2.3 Installing ALSA for 2.0.x
     2.4 Playing and recording sound

  3. Before you start

     3.1 Introduction
     3.2 General information about the ALSA drivers
     3.3 Supported hardware
     3.4 Other HOWTO's
        3.4.1 Sound cards
        3.4.2 Plug and Play cards
        3.4.3 Loadable modules
        3.4.4 Kerneld

  4. How to install ALSA sound drivers

     4.1 What you need
     4.2 Getting the drivers
     4.3 ALSA versions
     4.4 Extracting
     4.5 Compiling
     4.6 Preparing the devices

  5. Loading the driver

     5.1 Inserting with modprobe
     5.2 Which module for which card?
        5.2.1 Gravis UltraSound Extreme
        5.2.2 Gravis UltraSound MAX
        5.2.3 ESS AudioDrive
        5.2.4 ESS AudioDrive 18xx
        5.2.5 Gravis UltraSound PnP
        5.2.6 UltraSound 32-Pro
        5.2.7 Soundblaster
        5.2.8 Soundblaster 16
        5.2.9 OAK Mozart
        5.2.10 OPTi 82C9xx
        5.2.11 AD1847/48 and CS4248
        5.2.12 Yamaha OPL3-SA2/SA3 soundcards
        5.2.13 S3 SonicVibes
        5.2.14 Ensoniq/Soundblaster PCI64
        5.2.15 CS4231
        5.2.16 CS4232/4232A
        5.2.17 4235 and higher
        5.2.18 4610/4612/4615 and 4680
        5.2.19 ESS Solo 1
        5.2.20 Trident 4DWave DX/NX
        5.2.21 ForteMedia FM801
     5.3 modprobe for drivers without auto-probing
        5.3.1 OPL3-SA2 and OPL3-SA3
        5.3.2 CS4231 chips
        5.3.3 CS4232/CS4232A chips
        5.3.4 CS4235/CS4236/CS4236B/CS4237B/CS4238B/CS4239 chips
     5.4 The kerneld approach
     5.5 Backwards compatibility

  6. Testing and using

     6.1 The /proc filesystem
     6.2 The mixer
        6.2.1 Mixer settings for playing
        6.2.2 Mixer parts
        6.2.3 Mixer settings for recording
        6.2.4 Other mixer settings
     6.3 The /dev/snd/ devices
     6.4 Additional information
        6.4.1 /proc/asound/#/pcm#0
        6.4.2 /proc/asound/#card#/sb16

  7. Tips and Troubleshooting

     7.1 Compiling the driver
        7.1.1 Linux kernel sourcetree
        7.1.2 Cannot create executables
     7.2 Loading the driver
        7.2.1 Sound devices
        7.2.2 Sound card compatibility
        7.2.3 ``Device busy'' or ``unresolved symbols''
           7.2.3.1 2.0 kernels
           7.2.3.2 2.2 kernels
        7.2.4 References to other drivers
        7.2.5 Unresolved symbols revisited
        7.2.6 Check the PnP setup
        7.2.7 Are your parameters right ?
     7.3 Driver loaded... but no (or hardly any) sound
        7.3.1 Unmuting
        7.3.2 Gain
        7.3.3 OSS/Linux compatibility
        7.3.4 Cannot open mixer
     7.4 General suggestions
        7.4.1 Try using ``insmod''
        7.4.2 Read the INSTALL file.
        7.4.3 Debug messages
        7.4.4 If all else fails...
     7.5 Bug reports
     7.6 Tip: playing CD's
     7.7 Tip: installing the MIDI serial driver
     7.8 Tip: new kernel? New modules!
     7.9 Tip: KDE and ALSA drivers
     7.10 Tip: use the ALSA devices
     7.11 Tip: removing all modules


  ______________________________________________________________________

  1.  Introduction

  This is the ALSA Sound drivers mini-HOWTO. It gives you information
  about installing and using the ALSA sound drivers for your soundcard.
  The ALSA drivers are fully modularized sound drivers that support
  kerneld and kmod. They are compatible with, but surpass the
  possibilities of, the current OSS API. In other words: compatible, but
  better.

  1.1.  Acknowledgments

  This documents contains information I got from the ALSA driver page.
  The structure was ripped off the SB-mini-HOWTO, mainly because it had
  about the structure I was looking for. Thanks to the SGML Tools
  package, this HOWTO is available in several formats, all generated
  from a common source file. Thanks to Erik Warmelink for proof reading,
  thanks to Alfred Munnikes for a couple of questions and helpful
  suggestions. Yamahata Isaku thanks for the Japanese translation,
  Miodrag Vallat for the translation in French. Later on, Steve Crowder
  did a great job by reading and editing the whole text. Thanks to
  Cserna Zsolt for the Hungarian translation and Marco Meloni for the
  Italian one.  Thanks to Mohamed Ismail Mohamed-Ibrahim who sent me a
  document about the Trident 4DWave DX/NX soundcard with a lot of useful
  information, thanks to Gerard Haagh who sent me a lot of useful
  information and who also pointed out a few unclear sections.

  Thanks to Marc-Aur`ele Darche, Piotr Ingling, Juergen Kahrs, Tim
  Pearce, Patrick Stoddard, Rutger de Graaf, Shuly Wintner, Jyrki
  Saarela, Jonas Lofwander, Kumar Sankaran and many others for useful
  tips and additions.

  1.2.  Revision History

  Version 2.0-pre1 - November 12, 1999. Updating a couple of sections to
  ALSA 0.4.1e., added various links.

  Version 1.7 - July 29, 1999. A few fixes.

  Version 1.6 - July 26, 1999. Added a section about ALSA-versions

  Version 1.5 - May 21, 1999. Changed the mixer section, added a quick
  install section

  Version 1.4 - May 18, 1999. Included the URL to the French version,
  changed more URLs.

  Version 1.3 - May 16, 1999. Thanks to Jaroslav this HOWTO has found a
  home at the ALSA-project website.  As a result of that, some updates
  in mail and web addresses.

  Version 1.2 - May 11, 1999. Several updates.

  Version 1.1 - March 11, 1999. Added a couple of sound cards from the
  new 0.3 series drivers, wrote a bit about the 2.2 series kernel.

  Version 1.0 - February 8, 1999. Added a few things to the
  troubleshooting section, but we seem fairly complete.

  Version 0.3 beta - January 20, 1999. A link on the ALSA-homepage. Ha,
  we're official!

  Version 0.2 alpha - Mid January 1999, first .sgml-version.

  Version 0.1 alpha - January 1999, first version, mostly HTML.

  Still: please submit any patches in plain English, you native
  speakers!

  There are a couple of additions that need to be added to the HOWTO
  now. Notably, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed-Ibrahim and Gerard Haagh wrote
  wonderful additions to the HOWTO, that will keep me off my regular
  work for some more time. So this is 2.0-pre1 and more pre's are to
  follow.


  1.3.  New versions of this document

  The latest version can be found at http://www.alsa-
  project.org./~valentyn


  Other formats (full size html, sgml, txt) are in the directory other-
  formats. Unfortunately, I have not succeeded in compiling a Postscript
  version, as the sgml2latex-script returns a bunch of errors.

  Yamahata Isaku has translated a Japanese version, which will be
  available at the Japanese ALSA site,
  http://plaza21.mbn.or.jp/~momokuri/alsa/index.html

  Miodrag Vallat translated a French version, which is available at
  http://www.freenix.fr/unix/linux/HOWTO/mini/Alsa.html.

  Cserna Zsolt has translated the Hungarian version of the ALSA-HOWTO.
  You can find it at http://kib4.vein.hu/~zsolt/alsa.html.

  Marco Meloni did an Italian version, you can get it at
  http://pluto.linux.it/ildp/index.html.

  If you make a translation of this document into another language, let
  me know and I'll include a reference to it here. Ook een Nederlandse
  versie is welkom, ik heb zelf geen tijd om deze te schrijven. Leve de
  koningin!

  1.4.  Feedback

  I rely on you, the reader, to make this HOWTO useful. If you have any
  suggestions, corrections or comments, please send them to me (alsa-
  howto@alsa-project.org), and I will try to incorporate them in the
  next revision.

  Please note: I do not get a lot of mail about the ALSA drivers and any
  addition is welcome. Even a ``thank you for'' is appreciated - maybe
  it's not too much work to add a ``I appreciated most'' or ``this-or-
  that was not immediately clear to me''-section.

  If you publish this document on a CD-ROM or in hardcopy form, a
  complimentary copy would be appreciated. Mail me for my postal
  address. Also consider making a donation to the Linux Documentation
  Project to help support free documentation for Linux. Contact the
  Linux HOWTO co-ordinator, Tim Bynum linux-howto@metalab.unc.edu, for
  more information.

  1.5.  Distribution Policy

  Copyright 1998/1999 Valentijn Sessink

  This HOWTO is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or
  modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
  published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
  License, or (at your option) any later version.

  This document is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  without any warranty; without even the implied warranty of
  merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. See the GNU
  General Public License for more details.

  You can obtain a copy of the GNU General Public License by writing to
  the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139,
  USA.


  2.  NOWTO - a quick install guide

  If you want sound and you want it NOW! and not after reading this
  HOWTO, this quick tour through the ALSA driver installation might be
  of help. Please note: there are a couple of differences between the
  ALSA versions that support 2.0 kernels and those that support 2.2
  kernels.

  2.1.  Installing ALSA for kernels 2.2.x

  You will probably want to use the ALSA 0.4.1e (or later) version if
  your kernel is 2.2.x.  If your kernel is older, please use 0.3.0-pre4
  and see below.

  Just the all time ``./configure - make - make install'' stuff. Do this
  for drivers, library and utilities.  You need all three because the
  utilities help you to unmute your card. Kernels 2.2.x need to have
  general sound support in the kernel (without choosing a specific
  card).

  The ALSA drivers have their own devices, you can make them usinge the
  ./snddevices script.

  You need to load the module for your card (or use kmod) and if you
  want sound to be backwards compatible with the Linux kernel sound
  drivers (yes you want this) you need two other modules called snd-
  pcm1-oss and snd-mixer-oss. See the section ``Which module for which
  card'' to find out which module to load. After loading, you can look
  in /proc/asound for various information about the ALSA drivers.

  2.2.  Playing and recording sound

  A few remarks. ALSA has it's own devices in /dev/snd, for example
  /dev/snd/pcmC0D1 is Card 0, Device 1.  You can use the old /dev/pcmXY
  devices if you loaded snd-pcm1-oss for backwards compatibility. You'll
  also want to use /dev/mixer, so load snd-mixer-oss as well. Before you
  can play any sound, you need to unmute the card with ``amixer''. Type
  ``amixer groups'', then try something like

  amixer set PCM 100 unmute

  Generally you can use options ``mute'' or ``unmute'', ``capture'' or
  ``nocapture'' and numbers.

  That's it! Now if it works, it works. If it doesn't work, you may need
  to actually read this HOWTO...


  2.3.  Installing ALSA for 2.0.x

  The ALSA drivers versions 0.3.0, 0.3.1 and 0.3.2 have various problems
  due to the restructuring of the mixer interface. Later versions do not
  support kernel 2.0.x, so you definately will want to use version
  0.3.0-pre4 if you have a 2.0 version kernel.

  Just the all time ``./configure - make - make install'' stuff. Do this
  for drivers, library and utilities.  You need all three because the
  utilities help you to unmute your card. Kernels 2.0.x need to have all
  sound support disabled in the kernel setup

  The ALSA drivers have their own devices, you can make them usinge the
  ./snddevices script.

  You need to load the module for your card (or use kmod) and if you
  want sound to be backwards compatible with the Linux kernel sound
  drivers (yes you want this) you need another modules called snd-
  pcm1-oss. See the section ``Which module for which card'' to find out
  which module to load. After loading, you can look in /proc/asound for
  various information about the ALSA drivers.

  2.4.  Playing and recording sound

  A few remarks. ALSA has it's own devices in /dev/snd, for example
  /dev/snd/pcmC0D1 is Card 0, Device 1.  You can use the old /dev/pcmXY
  devices if you loaded snd-pcm1-oss for backwards compatibility. Before
  you can play any sound, you need to unmute the card with ``amixer''.
  Type ``amixer'', then try something like

  amixer pcm 100 unmute

  Generally you can use options ``mute'' or ``unmute'', ``rec'' or
  ``norec'', numbers or left:right.

  That's it! Now if it works, it works. If it doesn't work, you may need
  to actually read this HOWTO...

  3.  Before you start

  3.1.  Introduction

  This document tries to help you install and use the ALSA sound drivers
  in your Linux system. The reference system is a Slackware 4.0
  distribution of Linux on an AMD/K6 computer (x86 compatible), but it
  should work with any other Linux distribution. I do not know if the
  ALSA drivers work on other platforms, according to the documentation,
  Alpha has been tested and proven to work.  I have only x86 PC's here,
  so any additional information you may have would be appreciated.

  It might be handy to read the Linux Sound HOWTO (see section Other
  HOWTO's), but that HOWTO focuses on the built-in kernel drivers.

  3.2.  General information about the ALSA drivers

  The ALSA sound driver was originally written as a replacement for the
  Linux kernel sound for Gravis UltraSound (GUS) cards. As this GUS
  replacement proved to be a success, the author started the ALSA
  project for a generic driver for several sound chips, with fully
  modularized design.

  It is compatible with the OSS/Free and OSS/Linux sound drivers (the
  drivers in the kernel), but has its own interface that is even better
  than the OSS drivers. A list of features can be found at
  http://www.alsa-project.org/intro.html

  Please note that the ALSA drivers are still under development. Things
  may change over time, and some programs that rely on ALSA only work
  under specific versions of it. Apart from that: I think they're great.
  I use ALSA for 10 months now and will never go back to the dark ages
  of closed source sound drivers - hint ;)

  The main page of the ALSA project is http://www.alsa-project.org/


  3.3.  Supported hardware

  The ALSA drivers support only a subset of all sound cards available.
  As the time of writing, the following cards are supported.

  ·  Cards with a Trident 4D Wave DX/NX chipset, thanks to Trident
     Microsystems who offered ALSA ``first cut'' GPL'd drivers (MIXER
     and PCM devices only) and documentation for their 4D Wave PCI audio
     chipsets.  See
     http://www.tridentmicro.com/HTML/products%20folder/audio.htm for
     more information.
     Cards using this chipset include: Best Union  Miss Melody 4DWave
     PCI, HIS  4DWave PCI, Warpspeed  ONSpeed 4DWave PCI, AzTech  PCI
     64-Q3D, Addonics  SV 750, CHIC  True Sound 4Dwave, Shark
     Predator4D-PCI and Jaton SonicWave 4D.

  ·  Gravis Ultrasound (GUS): ``PnP'',  Extreme, Classic/ACE, MAX

  ·  Cards with a GUS chipset: Dynasonic 3-D, STB Sound Rage 32,
     UltraSound 32-Pro (STB), ExpertColor MED3201 and others with AMD
     InterWave(TM) chip, notably some STB cards by Compaq

  ·  Soundblaster: 1.0, 2.0, Pro, 16, AWE32/64, PCI64

  ·  ESS AudioDrive ESx688

  ·  ESS ES968 chip based cards (PnP only).

  ·  ESS ES18xx (chipsets). Please note that I personally experienced a
     lot of trouble with the ESS1888. The developer of the driver for
     this card did his best, but to no avail.

  ·  ESS Solo-1 ES1938 and ES1946. Only one of the two channels works,
     which means that recording is not possible. The author of the
     ES1938 code ``is aware of the problem and is currently
     investigating it''.

  ·  Yamaha: OPL3-SA2, OPL3-SA3 (chipsets)

  ·  OAK Mozart

  ·  Schubert 32 PCI (PINE, S3 SonicVibes PCI chipset)

  ·  Ensoniq AudioPCI ES1370/1371 PCI soundcards (Soundblaster PCI64)

  ·  SonicVibes PCI soundcards (PINE Schubert 32 PCI)

  ·  ForteMedia FM801 based cards (in 0.3.2)

  ·  OPTi 82C9xx chipset based soundcards

  ·  AD1847, AD1848 and CS4248 chipset based cards

  ·  AZT2320 chip based soundcards (PnP only).

  ·  Advance Logic ALS100/ALS120 based cards

  ·  C-Media CMI8330 based cards

     Then a whole lot of Crystal Semiconductors-based sound boards are
     supported.  These chips can be found in a lot of hardware, in
     separate cards (some Philips PCA series) and on motherboards (e.g.
     IBM Aptiva, Dell computers). Boards based on the following chipsets
     are supported:

  ·  4231

  ·  4232

  ·  4232A

  ·  4235

  ·  4236B

  ·  4237B

  ·  4238B

  ·  4239

  ·  4280

  ·  4610

  ·  4612

  ·  4614

  ·  4615

  ·  4680

     The best thing is: ALSA now supports computers without a soundcard
     to produce video! This is done with a dummy driver, that tricks
     programs like Realplayer into thinking that there is a sound card
     available.

  A more recent list may be found inside the driver package itself, that
  is in doc/SOUNDCARDS

  3.4.  Other HOWTO's

  This ALSA-sound-mini-HOWTO is just mini - although it seems to grow
  fast. Other HOWTO's may help you out in case this one is too terse. I
  will name a few things you may come across while trying to install the
  ALSA drivers. HOWTO's can generally, be found at mirrors of Metalab
  (the former Sunsite). So take a look at
  http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/mirrors.html and pick out your closest
  mirror site. You can find HOWTO's in the directory LDP/HOWTO/.  Please
  note: the links in this document will all be relative to
  /LDP/HOWTO/mini. If you look at this document from a reasonably good
  mirror site, you will find the HOWTO's.

  Then a note for the 2.2.x kernel series. For the 2.2.x kernel series,
  sound support is like any other support: it works, but it is different
  from what you used to do. This HOWTO (like any other HOWTO) will from
  version 2.0pre1 concentrate on the 2.2 series kernel, although I'll
  try to point out the differences.

  3.4.1.  Sound cards

  Perhaps you bought a sound card already, or maybe it has been
  installed in your computer for ages. And now you are going to use it!
  Have a look at the Sound-HOWTO to see if this is all worth the
  trouble. (You might want to buy this new Mega-Rumble-Blaster first,
  then try the ALSA drivers.)

  3.4.2.  Plug and Play cards

  Most modern sound cards for the Intel platform are ISA PnP cards,
  which is an abbreviation for ''Plug and Play''. This means, that the
  card has to be configured by the operation system. This has to be done
  through an initialization routine at boot time. You probably need to
  configure your card with the PnP-utils-package. Every recent Linux
  distribution includes these tools. For usage have a look at the Plug-
  and-Play-HOWTO

  The ALSA-drivers seem to have built in their own ISA-PnP-support for a
  couple of sound cards. Unfortunately, as I cannot find documentation
  about this, I cannot tell you how it works. If anyone out there wants
  to try ALSA sound support while deliberately not using the ISA-PnP-
  tools, please drop me a line.
  3.4.3.  Loadable modules

  The ALSA sound drivers are built as modules. You can find more
  information about modules in the Kernel-HOWTO.  There is also a
  module-HOWTO, but that is unmaintained at the moment; take a look at
  the umaintained section of the Howto-HOWTO. There is a Modules-mini-
  HOWTO though that may be useful.

  3.4.4.  Kerneld

  Another HOWTO that will be useful for some, is the Kerneld-mini-HOWTO.
  Kerneld is a daemon that installs and removes kernel modules as
  needed. (I have zero experience with it, so additional information on
  the topic is welcome. The ALSA driver documentation contains some
  information about configuration of the kerneld, this has been included
  in this mini-HOWTO.)

  As the kernel module loader is included in kernel 2.2.x, things have
  changed. But as I am one of those guys that rather modprobes something
  than have some daemon handle it, I have no info on this.


  4.  How to install ALSA sound drivers

  4.1.  What you need

  ·  a functional Linux system (e.g. the Slackware distribution), with
     the "Development" packages installed (i.e. gcc, make etc.)

  ·  some knowledge about Linux (meaning you know how to use "ls", "cd",
     "tar" etc.)

  ·  a root-account

     The great thing is: you don't need a supported sound card anymore,
     as ALSA now has a dummy driver that does nothing!  (No, it really
     does nothing, but some programs will work now that they believe
     there is a sound card available).

  If you have a PnP card, you will also need:

  ·  the isapnptools software package.

     The INSTALL text in the driver directory suggests that for some
     cards, PnP support is native. I also received a suggestion from
     Jaroslav about this.  When I get further information about this
     topic I will add it to this mini-HOWTO.

  Please note that you should not have any sound drivers active when you
  want to use the ALSA drivers. If you have a kernel with sound drivers
  compiled in, you'll need a kernel recompilation. If you have the old
  "sound.o" module active, you need to deactivate it. If you use
  kerneld, this probably means deleting sound.o from the
  /lib/modules/<kernel_version>/misc directory.  Newer RedHat systems
  have a different sound approach, with several sound modules active.
  You need to deactivate them all.

  The 2.2 series kernel has a new approach to sound. You should include
  sound support here ! Yep, that's right: you add sound support to the
  kernel, but do not include any sound card. Then compile and install
  the kernel and after that, compile the ALSA-drivers.

  4.2.  Getting the drivers

  The ALSA drivers are available from ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/
  and there are mirrors at

  ·  US: ftp://ftp.silug.org/pub/alsa

  ·  US: ftp://ftp.eecs.umich.edu/pub/linux/alsa

  ·  Netherlands: ftp://linux.a2000.nl/alsa

  ·  Poland: ftp://ftp.task.gda.pl/pub/linux/misc/alsa

  ·  Germany: ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/alsa

  ·  Slovakia: ftp://ftp.phacka.sk/pub/alsa

  ·  Australia: ftp://ftp.suburbia.com.au/pub/alsa

  For a fully functional ALSA-installation, you will need the driver,
  the libs and the utilities; e.g if you chose the A2000 mirror you
  would get ftp://linux.a2000.nl/alsa/driver/alsa-driver-0.4.1e.tar.gz,
  ftp://linux.a2000.nl/alsa/lib/alsa-lib-0.4.1d.tar.gz and
  ftp://linux.a2000.nl/alsa/utils/alsa-utils-0.4.1.tar.gz


  4.3.  ALSA versions

  The ALSA drivers have come a long way. Development started during the
  2.0 version kernel, then the 2.2 series showed up (with their own
  sound kernel).

  As the 0.4 versions work perfectly for me, I think it is safe to use
  0.4.1e (or newer, if you want). If you have a 2.0.x kernel, you will
  definately not want to use 0.3.0 or later. Instead, use alsa-
  driver-0.3.0-pre4, alsa-lib-0.3.0-pre4 and alsa-utils-0.3.0-pre3.

  The older versions, 0.2.0-pre10p3 and older do work under 2.0.x, but I
  cannot get them to work under 2.2.x (probably due to the lack of
  interfacing with the soundcore module of the kernel).


  4.4.  Extracting

  You extract the drivers by some reasonable command, like the all-time
  tar -zxf <file>. Most likely you would do that in the /usr/src
  directory, so you need root priviliges for this.  Type ``su'' and then
  the root password to become root. But please note: it is unwise to use
  your system as the ``root'' user if it is not necessary. So:

       cd /usr/src

       tar -zxf ~/alsa-driver-0.4.1e.tar.gz

  tar -zxf ~/alsa-lib-0.4.1d.tar.gz

       tar -zxf ~/alsa-utils-0.4.1.tar.gz

  Also working and more fun: find ~ -name alsa* -exec tar -zxf {} \;
  (Don't try this at home kids, it's just an example). Note that when
  downloading the drivers with Netscape, you may accidentally get
  unpacked drivers with a ".tgz" extension. If tar complains about the
  file format, you may get better results by leaving off the "z" in the
  tar options.

  4.5.  Compiling

  You need the drivers before you can compile and use the libs. You need
  the libs before you can compile or use the utils. So let's begin:


       cd alsa-driver-0.4.1e

  (and for those not so experienced: try typing a <tab> (the "tab"-key)
  after "alsa-d". That's called command line completion.)


       ./configure

  If you want to use the built-in PnP interfacing, you should use


       ./configure --with-isapnp=yes

       make

  Now you need to be 'root' to install the stuff (you probably were
  "root" already)


       make install

  If this tells you that something like ``version.h'' cannot be found,
  then you probably do not have a proper kernel source tree. You need a
  couple of files of your kernel source to be able to compile the ALSA-
  drivers. Unpack your favorite linux-2.x.y.tar.gz in /usr/src, and
  issue a make menuconfig. (Actually, make symlinks may be enough).  Now
  compile the libraries:


       cd ../alsa-lib-0.4.1d

       ./configure

       make

       make install

  OK, you're getting it, the utilities:


       cd ../alsa-utils-0.4.1

       ./configure

       make

       make install

  Note: you can leave out the "make install" for the utilities at first.
  You could even leave out the whole library-making and utility-making,
  just to check if the driver works.


  4.6.  Preparing the devices

  There is a script in the driver-directory that will install the ALSA-
  sound-devices in your /dev directory. Type


       ./snddevices

  from the driver-directory. There should be a /dev/snd subdirectory now
  (test if it is there. If you are not familiar with even the "ls" com­
  mand, please consider reading other HOWTO's first. You should have
  some basic Linux knowledge to install these drivers).

  Now you're ready to insert the driver, so please turn over to the next
  paragraph.

  5.  Loading the driver

  There are two ways to use the ALSA-sound-modules. I personally prefer
  using the manual method, meaning that I insert the driver at startup.
  The ALSA-drivers were designed as loadable/unloadable modules - for
  instance they do not reset the mixer after loading - so you can easily
  use the kerneld approach.

  Please do read the section ``Backwards Compatibility''.  You need it
  to have sound support ``the old way''.

  5.1.  Inserting with modprobe

  Note: If you have a PnP audio-card, you first need to set it to the
  right (or at least some known) IO/IRQ/DMA. See the Plug-and-Play-
  HOWTO. Did you configure your Plug-and-Play-soundcard? Ok, then read
  on please.  The main part is: do a "modprobe snd-card-<soundcard>".
  This should do the trick. Please note that not all distributions do
  include /sbin in your path.  If you get a "bash: modprobe: command not
  found", this will most likely mean that modprobe is not in your path.
  Try ``/sbin/modprobe snd-card-sb16'', or try to find the modprobe
  utility elsewhere.

  The most important difficulty is with the Crystal chipsets, for these
  the ALSA-drivers are not auto probing. More recent information may be
  acquired from the INSTALL file in the driver-directory. Two examples,
  then a list: Gravis UltraSound (GUS) and compatibles:


       /sbin/modprobe snd-card-gusclassic

  For all 16-bit Soundblaster-cards (SoundBlaster 16 (PnP), SoundBlaster
  AWE 32 (PnP), SoundBlaster AWE 64 (PnP):


       /sbin/modprobe snd-card-sb16

  However, if you have a 0.3.0-pre4 package, the GUS Classic driver is
  called ``snd-gusclassic'' and the SoundBlaster 16 module is called
  ``snd-sb16'' (so, without the ``card'' part).

  5.2.  Which module for which card?

  Please note that ALSA versions before 0.4.x sometimes had different
  names. You need to leave out the ``card'' part for those drivers. This
  is indicated by an asterisk (*).


  5.2.1.  Gravis UltraSound Extreme``(*)''


  modprobe snd-card-gusextreme

  5.2.2.  Gravis UltraSound MAX``(*)''


  modprobe snd-card-gusmax


  5.2.3.  ESS AudioDrive``(*)''

  ESS AudioDrive ES-1688 and ES-688 soundcards

  modprobe snd-card-audiodrive1688


  5.2.4.  ESS AudioDrive 18xx``(*)''

  ESS AudioDrive ES-18xx based soundcards

  modprobe snd-card-audiodrive18xx


  5.2.5.  Gravis UltraSound PnP``(*)''

  Gravis UltraSound PnP, Dynasonic 3-D/Pro, STB Sound Rage 32,
  ExpertColor MED3201 and other soundcards based on AMD InterWave(TM)
  chip.

  modprobe snd-card-interwave

  5.2.6.  UltraSound 32-Pro``(*)''

  UltraSound 32-Pro (soundcard from STB used by Compaq) and other
  soundcards based on AMD InterWave (tm) chip with TEA6330T circuit for
  extended control of bass, treble and master volume

  modprobe snd-card-interwave-stb

  5.2.7.  Soundblaster``(*)''

  8-bit Soundblaster cards (SoundBlaster 1.0, SoundBlaster 2.0,
  SoundBlaster Pro)

  modprobe snd-card-sb8

  5.2.8.  Soundblaster 16``(*)''

  16-bit SoundBlaster cards (SoundBlaster 16 (PnP), SoundBlaster AWE 32
  (PnP), SoundBlaster AWE 64 (PnP). Please note: this module does not
  support the SoundBlaster VibraX16 soundcard.

  modprobe snd-card-sb16

  5.2.9.  OAK Mozart``(*)''


  modprobe snd-mozart

  5.2.10.  OPTi 82C9xx``(*)''

  Various sound cards that use the OPTi 82C9xx chipset, like Audio 16
  Pro EPC-SOUN9301 (82C930 based), ExpertColor MED-3931 v2.0 (82C931
  based), ExpertMedia Sound 16 MED-1600 (82C928 based - AD1848), Mozart
  S601206-G (OPTI601 based - CS4231) and Sound Player S-928

  modprobe snd-card-opti9xx

  5.2.11.  AD1847/48 and CS4248


  modprobe snd-card-ad1848

  5.2.12.  Yamaha OPL3-SA2/SA3 soundcards``(*)''

  Just "modprobe snd-opl3sa" will not work, this driver does not do
  autoprobing.  See below.

  5.2.13.  S3 SonicVibes``(*)''

  S3 SonicVibes PCI soundcards. (PINE Schubert 32 PCI)

  modprobe snd-card-sonicvibes


  5.2.14.  Ensoniq/Soundblaster PCI64``(*)''

  Ensoniq AudioPCI ES1370/1371 PCI soundcards. (SoundBlaster PCI 64)

  modprobe snd-card-audiopci

  5.2.15.  CS4231

  Just ``modprobe snd-card-cs4231'' will not work, no auto-probing. See
  below.

  5.2.16.  CS4232/4232A

  All soundcards based on CS4232/CS4232A chips.  Just "modprobe snd-
  card-cs4232" will not work, no auto-probing. See below.


  5.2.17.  4235 and higher

  All soundcards based on CS4235/CS4236/CS4236B/CS4237B/CS4238B/CS4239
  chips.  Just "modprobe snd-card-cs4236" will not work, no auto-
  probing. See below.


  5.2.18.  4610/4612/4615 and 4680


  modprobe snd-card-cs461x

  5.2.19.  ESS Solo 1``(*)''

  ESS Solo-1, 128iPCI card (es1938, ESS-SOLO-1). Jonas Lofwander sent me
  a link to a document that will help you installing this card - which
  is, basically, nothing more than modprobe snd-card-esssolo1 ... but
  http://dice.shopcenter.nu/alsa/ can be of help. If you have an IBM
  Thinkpad 1412 you can also refer to
  http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/3649/1412.html, thanks to
  Kumar Sankaran.

  5.2.20.  Trident 4DWave DX/NX``(**)''

  Best Union  Miss Melody 4DWave PCI, HIS  4DWave PCI, Warpspeed
  ONSpeed 4DWave PCI, AzTech  PCI 64-Q3D, Addonics  SV 750, CHIC  True
  Sound 4Dwave, Shark  Predator4D-PCI, Jaton  SonicWave 4D.

  modprobe snd-card-trident

  5.2.21.  ForteMedia FM801

  These are PCI cards based on the FM801 chip.

  modprobe snd-card-fm801

  (*) For ALSA version 0.3.0-pre4, you need to leave out the ``card-''
  part in most (not all!) of the drivernames.  So ``snd-card-sb16''
  becomes ``snd-sb16'', however, ``snd-card-cs4232'' remains ``snd-card-
  cs4232'' (modprobe snd-cs4232 will do something, but it will not
  produce any sound!)

  (**) In older ALSA versions this driver was called ``snd-card-
  trid4wave'' and ``snd-trid4wave''.

  5.3.  modprobe for drivers without auto-probing

  If you have a non-autoprobing driver, you need to supply additional
  info at startup to have the driver work. More information can be found
  in the file INSTALL in the driver directory.

  5.3.1.  OPL3-SA2 and OPL3-SA3

  According to the INSTALL file you need to supply all the information
  for this driver. If you initialized the card with the isapnp-tools,
  you can probably get info from the /etc/isapnp.conf file for the
  following values:


       snd_port - control port # for OPL3-SA chip
       snd_wss_port - WSS port # for OPL3-SA chip (0x530,0xe80,0xf40,0x604)
       snd_midi_port - port # for MPU-401 UART (0x300,0x330), -1 = disable
       snd_fm_port - FM port # for OPL3-SA chip (0x388), -1 = disable
       snd_irq - IRQ # for OPL3-SA chip (5,7,9,10)
       snd_dma1 - first DMA # for Yamaha OPL3-SA chip (0,1,3)
       snd_dma1_size - max first DMA size in kB (4-64kB)
       snd_dma2 - second DMA # for Yamaha OPL3-SA chip (0,1,3), -1 = disable
       snd_dma2_size - max second DMA size in kB (4-64kB)

  You would do a "modprobe snd-card-opl3sa snd_port=0xNNN
  snd_wss_port=0x530 snd_midi_port=-1 snd_fm_port=0x388 snd_irq=5
  snd_dma1=0 snd_dma1_size=NN snd_dma2=1 snd_dma2_size=NN" to load this
  driver (without midi-support. I am still convinced that midi-support
  is the thing you need when you have synthesizers and stuff and want to
  connect them to your Linux box. Never needed Midi-support even to play
  midi-files.)

  Note that the "NN" values need to be supplied, only I do not know what
  would be reasonable values. I do not know if the dma size option is
  really required.

  If you happen to have an IBM Thinkpad with this chipset, then
  http://www.cirs.org/patrick/index.html might be of help.

  If you use the driver from 0.3.0-pre4, then leave out the ``card-''
  part in the name.


  5.3.2.  CS4231 chips

  According to the INSTALL file you need to supply the main port for
  this card. Note that with the driver for 3235/6/7/8/9 cards, the one
  below, I ended up supplying all information (except DMA-size),
  otherwise the driver did not work.  So you may as well use the whole
  command line to insert the driver. If you initialized the card with
  the isapnp-tools, you can probably get info from the /etc/isapnp.conf
  file for the following values:


       snd_port - port # for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x534)
       snd_mpu_port - port # for MPU-401 UART (PnP setup - 0x300), -1 = disable
       snd_irq - IRQ # for CS4232 chip (5,7,9,11,12,15)
       snd_mpu_irq - IRQ # for MPU-401 UART (9,11,12,15)
       snd_dma1 - first DMA # for CS4232 chip (0,1,3)
       snd_dma1_size - max first DMA size in kB (4-64kB)
       snd_dma2 - second DMA # for Yamaha CS4232 chip (0,1,3), -1 = disable
       snd_dma2_size - max second DMA size in kB (4-64kB)

  You would do a "modprobe snd-card-cs4231 snd_port=0x534
  snd_mpu_port=-1 snd_irq=5 snd_dma1=0 snd_dma1_size=NN snd_dma2=1
  snd_dma2_size=NN" to load the driver for a "standard configured"
  soundcard. (Without midi-support, see the note at Yamaha OPL-3).  If
  you used different values in /etc/isapnp.conf, then you would use the
  values here also (Note: it can be wise to use your brains anyway ;)

  Note that the "NN" values need to be supplied, only I do not know what
  would be reasonable values. I do not know if the dma size option is
  really required.


  5.3.3.  CS4232/CS4232A chips

  According to the INSTALL file you need to supply the main port for
  this card. Note that with the driver for 3235/6/7/8/9 cards, the one
  below, I ended up supplying all information (except DMA-size),
  otherwise the driver did not work.  So you may as well use the whole
  command line to insert the driver. If you initialized the card with
  the isapnp-tools, you can probably get info from the /etc/isapnp.conf
  file for the following values:

  snd_port - port # for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x534)
  snd_cport - control port # for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x120)
  snd_mpu_port - port # for MPU-401 UART (PnP setup - 0x300), -1 = disable
  snd_fm_port - FM port # for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x388), -1 = disable
  snd_jport - joystick port for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x200), -1 =
  disable
  snd_irq - IRQ # for CS4232 chip (5,7,9,11,12,15)
  snd_mpu_irq - IRQ # for MPU-401 UART (9,11,12,15)
  snd_dma1 - first DMA # for CS4232 chip (0,1,3)
  snd_dma1_size - max first DMA size in kB (4-64kB)
  snd_dma2 - second DMA # for Yamaha CS4232 chip (0,1,3), -1 = disable
  snd_dma2_size - max second DMA size in kB (4-64kB)

  You would do a "modprobe snd-card-cs4232 snd_port=0x534
  snd_cport=0x120 snd_mpu_port=-1 snd_fm_port=0x388 snd_jport=-1
  snd_irq=5 snd_dma1=0 snd_dma1_size=NN snd_dma2=1 snd_dma2_size=NN" to
  load the driver for a "standard configured" soundcard. (Without midi-
  support, see the note at Yamaha OPL-3, and no joystick support). If
  you used different values in /etc/isapnp.conf, then you would use the
  values here also (Note: it can be wise to use your brains anyway ;)

  Note that the "NN" values need to be supplied, only I do not know what
  would be reasonable values. I do not know if the dma size option is
  really required.

  5.3.4.  CS4235/CS4236/CS4236B/CS4237B/CS4238B/CS4239 chips

  According to the INSTALL file you need to supply the main port and
  control ports for this card. Note that with a CS4237B card, I ended up
  supplying all information (except DMA-size), otherwise the driver did
  not work. So you may as well use the whole command line to insert the
  driver, and not only supply snd_port and snd_cport. If you initialized
  the card with the isapnp-tools, you can probably get info from the
  /etc/isapnp.conf file for the following values:


       snd_port - port # for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x534)
       snd_cport - control port # for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x120)
       snd_mpu_port - port # for MPU-401 UART (PnP setup - 0x300), -1 = disable
       snd_fm_port - FM port # for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x388), -1 = disable
       snd_jport - joystick port for CS4232 chip (PnP setup - 0x200), -1 = disable
       snd_irq - IRQ # for CS4232 chip (5,7,9,11,12,15)
       snd_mpu_irq - IRQ # for MPU-401 UART (9,11,12,15)
       snd_dma1 - first DMA # for CS4232 chip (0,1,3)
       snd_dma1_size - max first DMA size in kB (4-64kB)
       snd_dma2 - second DMA # for Yamaha CS4232 chip (0,1,3), -1 = disable
       snd_dma2_size - max second DMA size in kB (4-64kB)

  You would do a "modprobe snd-card-cs4236 snd_port=0x534
  snd_cport=0x120 snd_mpu_port=-1 snd_fm_port=0x388 snd_jport=-1
  snd_irq=5 snd_dma1=0 snd_dma1_size=NN snd_dma2=1 snd_dma2_size=NN" to
  load the driver. (Without midi-support, see the note at Yamaha OPL-3,
  and no joystick support).  Notes:

  ·  the "NN" values need to be supplied, only I do not know what would
     be reasonable values.

  ·  my CS4237B works fine without explicit dma size option.


  5.4.  The kerneld approach

  kerneld is a daemon that inserts modules on request, and unloads them
  once they are not in use anymore. Since I have no experience with
  kerneld, I do not know if the information below is accurate. The info
  comes from the INSTALL file in the ALSA-drivers package. Excellent
  information about kerneld can be found in the kerneld-mini-HOWTO.

  Follow these steps:

  ·  Edit your /etc/conf.modules (see below for examples)

  ·  Run 'modprobe snd-card' where card is name of your card [Which I
     find rather strange, since kerneld is supposed to load them? VS]

     Example for /etc/conf.modules for Gravis UltraSound PnP soundcard:


       alias char-major-14 snd
       alias snd-minor-oss-0 snd-interwave
       alias snd-minor-oss-3 snd-pcm1-oss
       alias snd-minor-oss-4 snd-pcm1-oss
       alias snd-minor-oss-5 snd-pcm1-oss
       alias snd-minor-oss-12 snd-pcm1-oss
       alias snd-card-0 snd-interwave
       options snd snd_major=14 snd_cards_limit=1
       options snd-interwave snd_index=1 snd_id="guspnp" snd_port=0x220 snd_irq=5
       snd_dma1=5 snd_dma2=6

  Example if you want use more soundcards in one machine (configuration
  below is for Sound Blaster 16 and Gravis UltraSound Classic):


       alias char-major-14 snd
       alias snd-minor-oss-0 snd-mixer
       alias snd-minor-oss-3 snd-pcm1-oss
       alias snd-minor-oss-4 snd-pcm1-oss
       alias snd-minor-oss-5 snd-pcm1-oss
       alias snd-minor-oss-12 snd-pcm1-oss
       alias snd-card-0 snd-sb16
       alias snd-card-1 snd-gusclassic
       options snd snd_major=14 snd_cards_limit=2
       options snd-sb16 snd_index=1 snd_port=0x220 snd_irq=5 snd_dma8=1 snd_dma16=5
       options snd-gusclassic snd_index=2 snd_irq=11 snd_dma1=6 snd_dma2=7

  Example if two Gravis UltraSound Classic soundcards are present in
  system:

  alias char-major-14 snd
  alias snd-minor-oss-0 snd-mixer
  alias snd-minor-oss-3 snd-pcm1-oss
  alias snd-minor-oss-4 snd-pcm1-oss
  alias snd-minor-oss-5 snd-pcm1-oss
  alias snd-minor-oss-12 snd-pcm1-oss
  alias snd-card-0 snd-gusclassic
  alias snd-card-1 snd-gusclassic
  options snd snd_major=14 snd_cards_limit=2
  options snd-gusclassic snd_index=1,2 snd_port=0x220,0x260 snd_irq=5,11
  snd_dma1=5,6 snd_dma2=7,3

  5.5.  Backwards compatibility

  If you want to preserve OSS/Free or OSS/Linux compatibility, you need
  to insert one more driver: the snd-pcm1-oss driver for OSS-
  compatibility.  Issue a


       modprobe snd-pcm1-oss

  This will give you /dev/audio and /dev/dsp-support, just as the
  OSS/Free (kernel) drivers and OSS/Linux (the $25 ones) do. Note that
  this is only an emulation.


  6.  Testing and using

  Now you should test if the sound driver really is available, then try
  to use it.

  6.1.  The /proc filesystem

  You can find a lot of useful information about your system in the
  /proc subdirectory. /proc is a "virtual" filesystem, meaning that it
  does not exist in real life, but merely is a mapping to various
  processes and tasks in your computer. In order for /proc to work, you
  need to have support for it compiled into your kernel. Most linux
  distributions have this as a default, but if you compiled a kernel and
  left /proc out obviously there won't be anything in /proc.

  /proc/modules gives information about loaded modules. Once the ALSA
  sound drivers are loaded, if you type cat /proc/modules you should see
  something like:


       snd-pcm1-oss      4            0
       snd-sb16          1            1
       snd-sb-dsp        4    [snd-sb16]      0
       snd-pcm1          4    [snd-pcm1-oss snd-sb-dsp]      0
       snd-pcm           3    [snd-pcm1-oss snd-sb16 snd-sb-dsp snd-pcm1]    0
       snd-mixer         3    [snd-pcm1-oss snd-sb16 snd-sb-dsp]      1
       snd-mpu401-uart   1    [snd-sb16]      0
       snd-midi          4    [snd-sb16 snd-sb-dsp snd-mpu401-uart]   0
       snd-opl3          1    [snd-sb16]      0
       snd-synth         1    [snd-sb16 snd-opl3]     0
       snd-timer         1    [snd-opl3]      0
       snd               8    [snd-pcm1-oss snd-sb16 snd-sb-dsp snd-pcm1 snd-pcm snd-mixer snd-mpu401-uart snd-midi snd-opl3 snd-synth snd-timer]    0

  If something went wrong during the installation of the driver, you
  will still see a couple of "snd" devices, but there won't be sound
  support.

  For example (Note: you should never issue this command as follows, the
  cs4236 driver needs options):


       win3:~# modprobe snd-card-cs4236
       /lib/modules/2.0.35/misc/snd-card-cs4236.o: init_module: Device or resource busy
       snd-mixer: Device or resource busy
       win3:~# cat /proc/modules
       snd-cs4236        2           0
       snd-cs4231        3    [snd-cs4236]    0
       snd-timer         1    [snd-cs4231]    0
       snd-pcm1          4    [snd-cs4236 snd-cs4231] 0
       snd-mixer         3    [snd-cs4236 snd-cs4231] 0
       snd-pcm           3    [snd-cs4236 snd-cs4231 snd-pcm1]       0
       snd-mpu401-uart   1           0
       snd-midi          4    [snd-mpu401-uart]       0
       snd-opl3          1           0
       snd-synth         1    [snd-opl3]      0
       snd-timer         1    [snd-cs4231 snd-opl3]   0
       snd               8    [snd-cs4231 snd-timer snd-pcm1 snd-mixer snd-pcm]     0

  You can check the existence of a soundcard by looking in
  /proc/asound/cards.  For example:


       bash$ cat /proc/asound/cards
       0 [card1          : SB16 - Sound Blaster 16
                           Sound Blaster 16 at 0x220, irq 5, dma 1&5

  In the previous example (where I forgot the options) the output would
  have been:


       win3:~# cat /proc/asound/cards
       --- no soundcards ---

  A working CS4236 card would produce


       0 [card1         ]: CS4236 - CS4237B
                           CS4237B at 0x534, irq 7, dma 1&0

  If you checked and doublechecked your settings and still see no sound
  card, take a look at the troubleshooting section.

  The /proc/asound/ virtual directory shows lots of other information
  about the driver. Please note that /proc/asound/ will only exist after
  you inserted the first ALSA module. If there is no /proc/asound, it
  simply means that the "snd" module was not loaded properly. You can
  find installed cards in /proc/asound/cards, then find information
  about card0 in /proc/asound/0, /proc/asound/1 for card1 etcetera.

  If cat /proc/asound/card1/pcm0 shows something like


             ES1370 DAC2/ADC
             Playback isn't active.
             Record isn't active.

  this means that your driver is ready to go, but is not doing anything
  right now. (So everything went well).

  For users of a 2.0.x kernel there is a third method to find
  information about the sound devices, namely if you inserted the OSS
  compatible driver there is a /dev/sndstat device. The ALSA drivers
  kindly request that you not to rely on this information as it is only
  there for compatibility with the OSS drivers and better information
  can easily be obtained from /proc/asound/. In kernel 2.2.x ALSA uses
  the kernel soundcore and therefor cannot emulate /dev/sndstat, since
  it would interfere with the OSS drivers.


  6.2.  The mixer

  Once the drivers for your sound card have been installed and your
  /proc filesystem tells you so, you can try to make a real sound. To do
  this, you need to set the mixer volumes to a reasonable value. You
  need the ``amixer'' from the alsa-utils package for this. First of
  all, install the utility package, or at least put the "amixer" command
  in some reasonable place (like /usr/local/bin).

  Version 0.3.2 and later have an interface that differs from the OSS
  drivers. If you type just ``amixer'' you will see the mixer elements
  and their value. One of these elements could be ``Master volume'' for
  example, and could look like:

       Group 'Master',0
         Capabilities: volume
         Channels: Front-Left Front-Right
         Limits: min = 0, max = 31
         Front-Left: 31 [100%] [on] [---]
         Front-Right: 26 [84%] [on] [---]

  Unfortunately, I do not know how to set left and right volumes
  independently. With amixer, you can change volumes with the ``amixer
  set'' command. For example, to change the Master volume, you would
  issue a

       amixer set Master 15

  Please note that the names of the elements can be different for
  different types of sound cards. Also note that amixer is case
  dependent, so ``amixer set masteR 10'' will not work.  For more
  information, please look in the amixer man page.
  If you have a 0.3.0-pre4 ALSA, then amixer works just like normal
  mixer programs.  You can look at the mixer settings by typing
  ``amixer''. This command lists the ``mixer settings'', or as you would
  normally call it, the volume settings of the various parts of the
  soundcard.  The output from amixer can greatly differ from card to
  card. My Soundblaster 16 shows:


       Master         0  % (-14.00dB) : 0  % (-14.00dB)
       Bass           0  % (-14.00dB) : 0  % (-14.00dB)
       Treble         0  % (-14.00dB) : 0  % (-14.00dB)
       Synth          0  % (-62.00dB) : 0  % (-62.00dB)
       PCM            0  % (-62.00dB) : 0  % (-62.00dB)
       Line-In        0  % (-62.00dB) : 0  % (-62.00dB) Mute
       MIC            0  % (-62.00dB) : 0  % (-62.00dB) Mute
       CD             0  % (-62.00dB) : 0  % (-62.00dB) Mute
       In-Gain        0  % (-18.00dB) : 0  % (-18.00dB)
       Out-Gain       0  % (-18.00dB) : 0  % (-18.00dB)
       PC Speaker     0  % (-18.00dB) : 0  % (-18.00dB)

  If you only get a message like ``amixer: Specify command...'', then
  you are using the ALSA 3.2 utilities. I suggest you to upgrade to
  0.4.1e or later, or to go back to 0.3.0-pre4.


  6.2.1.  Mixer settings for playing

  You have noticed the "Mute" entry for some devices. This means that
  this particular device will be zeroed out, whatever volume setting you
  use. Some cards (the CS4237B in the example) even mute their master
  channel.  So, for the CS4237B, I would have to type

  amixer set "Master d" unmute

  to even be able to produce any sound at all. The Soundblaster does not
  have muted output, but

  amixer set Master 100 unmute

  would set the volume to 100% - and unmute it if it would have been
  muted.  You can use a number, a word like "mute" or "unmute", or both.
  Type

  amixer set "Master d" 100; amixer set PCM 100 unmute

  to set the CS4237B card to maximum master volume and unmute PCM volume
  and set it to maximum.

  If you use an older version of amixer, you need to leave out the
  ``set'' part of the command, so you would just type

  amixer "master d" 100


  6.2.2.  Mixer parts

  The various mixer parts may confuse you if you have no knowledge of
  digital sound production. The sound-HOWTO may help a bit, but a very
  short introduction is here.

  You will probably only need few mixer elements: one of them is the
  ``CD'' setting (this is analog sound of your CD player, most CD
  players are connected with a 3 or 4 wire red/white/black cable).
  The ``PCM'' setting is used for most applications. Programs like
  mpg123, xmms, speakfreely, realplayer and most others use the PCM
  channel.

  ``MIC'' stands for microphone, ``line-in'' is an (optional) extra
  input at the back of your sound card.

  The various ``gain'' parts offer extra amplification for various uses
  and are pretty self-explanatory. (Like: record-gain is extra
  amplification for the recording channel, which can be useful if you
  use a microphone).


  6.2.3.  Mixer settings for recording

  You would set the CD channel to record by typing

  amixer set CD capture

  and stop the recording setting again by typing

  amixer set CD nocapture.

  Note that older amixer programs use ``amixer CD rec'' and ``amixer CD
  norec'' for this.

  If you would like to record something from the microphone, you would
  probably use

  amixer set "Input Gain" 100; amixer set Mic 100 capture mute.

  (Using the microphone input unmuted will produce loud high-pitched
  sound if your mic picks up its own signal from the speakers again).
  Most microphones have a ``gain'' setting to boost the microphone
  volume; you are most likely going to need it to pick up any sound from
  the microphone at all.

  Again, older amixer programs use ``amixer "input gain" 100; amixer mic
  100 rec mute''.


  6.2.4.  Other mixer settings

  Unfortunately I have not been able to change the volume of the "3d
  center" and "3d space" settings with amixer 0.3.0-pre4. I haven't
  tried yet with 0.4.1e (this particular machine is still running
  2.0.38). If anyone succeeds please let me know. I can use alsamixer
  for this job, but alsamixer was not ported to the 0.4.1e version yet.

  The ALSA FAQ says that it is possible to restore mixer settings with
  cat <file> > /proc/asound/#/mixerC0D0, where <file> was obtained from
  /proc/asound/#/mixerC0D0. I have not been able to reproduce this as my
  system complains about non-existing devices. Then there is the
  ``alsactl'' program, which I don't use. I invite you (yes, you!)  to
  write this section.


  6.3.  The /dev/snd/ devices

  The alsa drivers have native sound-devices in the /dev/snd/ directory.
  If you have  one card you might see the following devices:

  /dev/snd/pcmC0D0 - the raw audio device for the card
  /dev/snd/mixerC0D0 - the mixer for card 0
  /dev/snd/controlC0D0 - the control device for card 0

  The first number means the number of the soundcard, the second number
  (if any) is the number of the device. A sound card with two PCM
  devices would have a pcmC0D0 and pcmC0D1 device.  Please note: the
  ALSA devices have changed between the previous version. Older ALSA
  drivers use /dev/snd/pcm00 (first number is the card, second number is
  the device).  If this HOWTO uses the older notation, please drop me a
  line so I can correct it.

  Now you are ready to put any soundfile you want into the PCM device of
  the first card. So try to cat any textfile (any file) to
  /dev/snd/pcmC0D0, like this: cat <filename> > /dev/snd/pcmC0D0. The
  filename can be any file, as long as it has some length. If you have a
  soundfile lying around somewhere, you could try that. You could also
  get the file at http://www.ldp.org/sounds/english.au this is Linus
  Torvalds saying how to pronounce Linux.

  The default setting of your sound device is 8000 Hz, 8 bit. That means
  that the "english.au" file mentioned above will produce speech, other
  test files will probably just produce noise. If you do not hear
  anything, check your speakers, try to run "amixer" again or consult a
  doctor.  (Later on you can easily use the full 48 KHz, 16 bit features
  of your sound card, by using your favourite sound player like sox or
  mpg123).

  If you loaded the ``snd-pcm1-oss'' module, you can also use the OSS-
  compatibility to access your sound card. The following mappings are
  made:


       /dev/snd/pcmC0D0 -> /dev/audio0 (/dev/audio) -> minor 4
       /dev/snd/pcmC0D0 -> /dev/dsp0 (/dev/dsp) -> minor 3
       /dev/snd/pcmC0D1 -> /dev/adsp0 (/dev/adsp) -> minor 12
       /dev/snd/pcmC1D0 -> /dev/audio1 -> minor 4+16 = 20
       /dev/snd/pcmC1D0 -> /dev/dsp1 -> minor 3+16 = 19
       /dev/snd/pcmC1D1 -> /dev/adsp1 -> minor 12+16 = 28
       /dev/snd/pcmC2D0 -> /dev/audio2 -> minor 4+32 = 36
       /dev/snd/pcmC2D0 -> /dev/dsp2 -> minor 3+32 = 35
       /dev/snd/pcmC2D1 -> /dev/adsp2 -> minor 12+32 = 44

  You probaly want to use the ``snd-mixer-oss'' module as wel, so you
  can use the backwards compatible mixer.


  6.4.  Additional information

  The INSTALL file in the ALSA driver directory mentions some tricks to
  tell the driver which settings to use. If you need these commands it
  will depend on the application you use to play sound. Regular sound
  playing applications, like mpg123, sox (mostly called with the
  ``play'' command), or X11 applications like RealPlayer will probably
  do fine without these. I never used these anyway.

  6.4.1.  /proc/asound/#/pcm#0

       "Playback erase" - erase all additional informations about OSS applications
       "Playback <app_name> <fragments> <fragment_size> [<options>]"
       "Record erase" - erase all additional informations about OSS applications
       "Record <app_name> <fragments> <fragment_size> [<options>]"

  <app_name> - name of application with (highter priority) or without
  path

  <fragments> - number of fragments or zero if auto

  <fragment_size> - size of fragment in bytes or zero if auto

  <options> - optional parameters

  WR_ONLY - if application tries open pcm device with O_RDWR driver
  rewrites this to O_WRONLY (playback) - good for Quake etc...

  Examples:


       echo "Playback x11amp 128 16384" > /proc/asound/0/pcm0o
       echo "Playback squake 0 0 WR_ONLY" > /proc/asound/0/pcm0o

  6.4.2.  /proc/asound/#card#/sb16

       "Playback 8" -> driver will use always 8-bit DMA channel for playback.
       "Playback 16" -> driver will use always 16-bit DMA channel for playback.
       "Playback auto" (default) -> driver will use auto mode (first opened direction will use 16-bit DMA channel).
       "Record 8" -> driver will use always 8-bit DMA channel for record.
       "Record 16" -> driver will use always 16-bit DMA channel for record.
       "Record auto" (default) -> driver will use auto mode (first opened direction will use 16-bit DMA channel).

  Example: echo "Record 16" > /proc/asound/0/sb16

  For further reference, please consult the INSTALL file.

  7.  Tips and Troubleshooting

  Please take a look at the FAQ file in the sound driver directory. This
  section is still under construction.

  7.1.  Compiling the driver


  7.1.1.  Linux kernel sourcetree

  If your ALSA drivers do not compile correctly and tell you things
  about ``version.h'' or other header-files that cannot be found, this
  can mean that you do not have the kernel header files.  Take a look at
  the kernel-HOWTO, unpack a recent kernel in /usr/src and issue a make
  config.

  7.1.2.  Cannot create executables

  The utils also contain code written in c++. Most of us have a c++
  compiler either from gcc or egcs but make sure you also have the
  libstdc++-devel package installed, else when you run the configure
  script for the utils, your system will stump you with an error message
  saying your ``c++ compiler cannot create executables''.


  7.2.  Loading the driver

  Please check the following items.


  7.2.1.  Sound devices

  ALSA uses special devices in the /dev-tree. Make sure you have run the
  ./snddevices script in the alsa-drivers source directory.


  7.2.2.  Sound card compatibility

  Are you 100% sure that your sound card IS supported ? Do check it
  again.  Sometimes an X123 is not exactly an X123b and you might be
  wasting time.  On the other hand, even a supported card can give you
  troubles - it took me two hours to figure out the installation of a
  CS4237B which was, after all, just a fine example of RTFM.


  7.2.3.  ``Device busy'' or ``unresolved symbols''

  You might have a 2.0.x kernel with sound support compiled in, or the
  OSS/Lite (kernel) sound driver could be loaded (check with cat
  /proc/modules). Remove the driver or recompile the kernel (have a look
  at the Kernel-HOWTO).

  The sound module in the 2.0 series kernel is called ``sound.o'' and
  should not be active.  (The ALSA driver ``snd.o'' is OK, though).

  If you have a 2.2.x series kernel without sound driver compiled in,
  the ALSA drivers will not work, too.


  7.2.3.1.  2.0 kernels

  I know it this is confusing, so let me try to explain it one more
  time. If you have a 2.0.x series kernel (the command ``uname -a''
  tells you something like ``Linux penguin 2.0.35 #6 Wed Sep 23 10:19:16
  CEST 1998 i686 unknown'') then you need to leave out sound drivers in
  the kernel. ALSA 0.4.x and later do not work with the 2.0 series
  kernel


  7.2.3.2.  2.2 kernels

  If you have a 2.2.x series kernel you do need the sound drivers. A 2.2
  series kernel should be compiled with sound support, but without any
  sound card driver. So you select sound support but make sure that no
  specific sound card driver will be compiled.


  7.2.4.  References to other drivers

  Another reason why the driver complains that the device is busy could
  be that the file /etc/conf.modules still has references to the
  soundcard drivers. You should delete these and leave only the
  references to the ALSA-driver.  (If there are other non-sound-related
  drivers there, then you can probably leave these as-is).


  7.2.5.  Unresolved symbols revisited

  Another source of ``unresolved symbols'' messages could be a new
  kernel with older drivers. Please recompile the ALSA drivers after you
  recompile a new kernel. This will make sure that the drivers match
  your new kernel.


  7.2.6.  Check the PnP setup

  Are you sure that your card is active? Take another look at the PnP-
  HOWTO and check if you activated your sound card correctly.


  7.2.7.  Are your parameters right ?

  Check, doublecheck your sound card parameters. Please note: 534 is not
  543, nor is 0x534 the same as 534.

  Also, some sound cards must be loaded by a different name than might
  be expected. Take a break, a beer or whatever, and look again at your
  ``modprobe'' command. For example the Crystal 4232 driver should be
  inserted by modprobe snd-card-cs4232, not ``snd-cs4231'', and the
  SoundBlaster PCI 64 should be loaded with ``snd-card-audiopci'', not
  snd-es1370. (It's all in the docs, and even though I wrote the HOWTO,
  I once spent an evening trying to persuade snd-cs4231 to make sound).


  7.3.  Driver loaded... but no (or hardly any) sound

  7.3.1.  Unmuting

  The ALSA drivers can use the ``muting'' facilities that most
  soundcards have. If you loaded the sound drivers and everything is
  fine but you get nothing but silence, then you probably forgot to
  unmute your card. You need ``amixer'' or ``alsamixer'' for this, both
  from the ALSA-util package.  Just typing


       amixer set -c 1 Master 70 unmute
       amixer set -c 1 PCM 70 unmute
       amixer set -c 1 CD 70 unmute

  should do for most applications. Please note that for the older amixer
  command you need to leave out the ``set'' in the command line.


  7.3.2.  Gain

  Most sound cards have a separate mixer part for extra input or output
  boosting. This entry is most likely called the ``gain'', ``in-gain''
  for input and ``out-gain'' for output. Setting this gain to an
  appropriate level will greatly help you getting the maximum volume out
  of your speakers (think about your parents/neighbours/ears though).
  So a command like


  amixer set out-gain 100 unmute

  will probably help.


  7.3.3.  OSS/Linux compatibility

  If this is the first time you use the ALSA drivers and you used the
  built-in sound drivers before, you probably want to have backwards
  compatible sound (i.e. use the /dev/pcmX devices). You need to load
  the ``OSS compatibility driver'' for this. Do a modprobe snd-pcm1-oss
  && modprobe snd-mixer-oss. (See the end of the section about loading
  the driver). Please note: snd-pcm1-oss is not equal to snd-pcm1, you
  need snd-pcm1-oss for old-fashioned sound support and snd-mixer-oss
  for (you guessed it) the mixer.


  7.3.4.  Cannot open mixer

  If you have tried to install a couple of different ALSA versions, then
  sometimes the mixer cannot be opened anymore. This happens if you have
  tried 0.3.2 and want to downgrade to 0.3.0-pre4 (IIRC). You should
  delete all libasound files and links from /usr/lib and then recompile
  libraries and utils:


       rm /usr/lib/libasound.*

  Just to be safe, remove all ALSA sound drivers afterwards, then recom­
  pile and install and reload the drivers.


  7.4.  General suggestions

  7.4.1.  Try using ``insmod''

  It can always be useful to start with "insmod" instead of kerneld.
  Maybe you actually see the error on screen.


  7.4.2.  Read the INSTALL file.

  A lot of information can be found in the INSTALL file in the drivers
  directory. If your driver won't work check if there is additional
  information available.


  7.4.3.  Debug messages

  As a last resort, you can rebuild the driver and tell it to send debug
  information to /var/log/messages. Go to the driver-directory with cd
  /usr/src/alsa-driver-....  and type:

       ./configure --with-debug=detect; make clean; make


  Remove the driver (as far as it is active, see below for a general
  remove statement).  Then use the "modprobe" statement you used before
  to insert the newly compiled driver.  Look in /var/log/messages if
  there are any messages.


  7.4.4.  If all else fails...

  If these messages doesn't help you, send a message to the ALSA users
  mailing list, alsa-user@alsa-project.org.

  Include the following information:

  ·  soundcard name + chip names present on your soundcard

  ·  relevant sections in your isapnp.conf if you have ISA PnP soundcard

  ·  your conf.modules or line which you activate ALSA driver

  ·  all messages from /var/log/messages which should be relevant to the
     ALSA driver


  7.5.  Bug reports

  If you found a bug, the ALSA developers would like to know the
  following things (at minimum)

  1. driver + kernel version: 'cat /proc/asound/version'

  2. soundcard info

  ·  soundcard name provided by manufacture

  ·  list of chips which soundcard have onboard

  ·  contents of 'cat /proc/asound/cards'

  3. all messages from /var/log/messages which should be relevant to
     ALSA driver

  4. problem description


  7.6.  Tip: playing CD's

  If you use kmod/kerneld and the ALSA drivers to play CD's, then
  kmod/kerneld probably do not load the drivers as expected. This is due
  to the fact that a command line CD player only tells the CD player to
  start playing without using any of the devices that tell kmod/kerneld
  that there is sound to occur. Using modprobe may be your only solution
  to this problem.


  7.7.  Tip: installing the MIDI serial driver

  Normally, the IO port of the serial device is owned by the standard
  serial device driver. So before you can do ``modprobe snd-serial'' we
  have to tell the driver to release the serial device.

  Here is the procedure.

  setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none
  modprobe snd-serial

  (Replace /dev/ttyS0 with the appropriate /dev/ttySx device if your
  MIDI device uses a different serial device).


  7.8.  Tip: new kernel? New modules!

  After you upgrade your kernel, you probably need to recompile the ALSA
  drivers. If they are still in the original /usr/src directory, then
  please do not forget to issue a make clean before you do the
  ./configure, make, make install thing.

  Oh, and then there is this anomaly in kernel numbering: a ``2.2.0ac1''
  kernel that is ``not a number'' - says the configure script. I think
  this was resolved in newer scripts, otherwise you should maybe change
  the kernel version in the source.


  7.9.  Tip: KDE and ALSA drivers

  Suppose you have KDE up and running but you cannot get system sounds
  to work, like for opening windows, changing desktops, etc. Sound works
  in general.  If your cd player and mp3 player and mixer all do work,
  then it's probably just "kwmsound" that's lacking.

  So: make sure "kwmsound" is in your startscript ($KDEDIR/bin/startkde)


  7.10.  Tip: use the ALSA devices

  If you had sound support in your Linux before, then your applications
  will probably all point to /dev/pcm0, /dev/audio and /dev/mixer. This
  is fine, if you use OSS compatibility with the snd-pcm1-oss module. It
  might be better, however, to use the real ALSA devices, those found in
  /dev/snd/.


  7.11.  Tip: removing all modules

  Removing 10+ modules one by one is not the way to go. Luckily, all
  modules start with the "snd-" prefix, so a little command line
  programming will do.  You can easily remove ALSA sound by issuing a
  command like:

       cat /proc/modules|gawk '/^snd-/{print $1}'|xargs -i rmmod {}

  Juergen Kahrs wrote: ``I have a script that also removes soundcore and
  soundlow and sound if present and if they are not in use. This script
  processes /proc/modules three times so there should not be too many
  modules left after processing''. His solution is

       awk '/^snd/||/^sound/&&($3==0){system("rmmod " $1)}' /proc/modules /proc/modules /proc/modules


  Please note: if some module is dependent on another module you cannot
  just remove the "higher" one.  This means that you might need to issue
  a second removal statement. (I never encountered this situation
  though, it seems that you can remove the ALSA modules in the order
  they appear in /proc/modules).

