From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([140.105.134.102] helo=robin.gentoo.org) by nuthatch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.62) (envelope-from ) id 1HpFBW-0001PX-Qi for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sat, 19 May 2007 03:00:48 +0000 Received: from robin.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with SMTP id l4J30YkD024197; Sat, 19 May 2007 03:00:34 GMT Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (smtp.gentoo.org [140.211.166.183]) by robin.gentoo.org (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id l4J30Xpv024152 for ; Sat, 19 May 2007 03:00:33 GMT Received: from stork.gentoo.org (stork.gentoo.org [64.127.104.133]) (using TLSv1 with cipher AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0CE2964A65 for ; Sat, 19 May 2007 03:00:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from nightmorph by stork.gentoo.org with local (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1HpFBF-00029r-HP for gentoo-doc-cvs@lists.gentoo.org; Sat, 19 May 2007 03:00:29 +0000 To: gentoo-doc-cvs@lists.gentoo.org Subject: [gentoo-doc-cvs] cvs commit: alsa-guide.xml Message-Id: From: Josh Saddler Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 03:00:29 +0000 Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-doc-cvs@gentoo.org Reply-to: docs-team@lists.gentoo.org X-Archives-Salt: 8d0e76a2-a027-4ea6-a8d2-f9c5855b3793 X-Archives-Hash: 85fdacafa1b69d71a1f5fd9726eae78a nightmorph 07/05/19 03:00:29 Modified: alsa-guide.xml Log: spacing fixes by pva, bug 177969. no content change. Revision Changes Path 1.80 xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml file : http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml?rev=1.80&view=markup plain: http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml?rev=1.80&content-type=text/plain diff : http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml?r1=1.79&r2=1.80 Index: alsa-guide.xml =================================================================== RCS file: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml,v retrieving revision 1.79 retrieving revision 1.80 diff -u -r1.79 -r1.80 --- alsa-guide.xml 7 May 2007 07:08:24 -0000 1.79 +++ alsa-guide.xml 19 May 2007 03:00:29 -0000 1.80 @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ - + @@ -34,18 +34,18 @@

-ALSA, which stands for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, provides -audio and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) functionality to -the Linux operating system. ALSA is the default sound subsystem in the 2.6 -kernel thereby replacing OSS (Open Sound System), which was used in the +ALSA, which stands for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, provides +audio and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) functionality to +the Linux operating system. ALSA is the default sound subsystem in the 2.6 +kernel thereby replacing OSS (Open Sound System), which was used in the 2.4 kernels.

-ALSA's main features include efficient support for all types of audio -interfaces ranging from consumer sound cards to professional sound -equipment, fully modularized drivers, SMP and thread safety, backward -compatibility with OSS and a user-space library alsa-lib to make +ALSA's main features include efficient support for all types of audio +interfaces ranging from consumer sound cards to professional sound +equipment, fully modularized drivers, SMP and thread safety, backward +compatibility with OSS and a user-space library alsa-lib to make application development a breeze.

@@ -56,9 +56,9 @@

-One of Gentoo's main strengths lies in giving the user maximum control over -how a system is installed/configured. ALSA on Gentoo follows the same -principle. There are two ways you can get ALSA support up and running on your +One of Gentoo's main strengths lies in giving the user maximum control over +how a system is installed/configured. ALSA on Gentoo follows the same +principle. There are two ways you can get ALSA support up and running on your system. We shall look at them in detail in the next chapter.

@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ -The methods shown below are mutually exclusive. You cannot have ALSA compiled +The methods shown below are mutually exclusive. You cannot have ALSA compiled in your kernel and use media-sound/alsa-driver. It will fail. @@ -99,7 +99,7 @@

-If you were to use ALSA provided by the kernel, the following are the pros and +If you were to use ALSA provided by the kernel, the following are the pros and cons:

@@ -174,14 +174,14 @@

-Whichever method of install you choose, you need to know what drivers your +Whichever method of install you choose, you need to know what drivers your sound card uses. In most cases, sound cards (onboard and otherwise) are PCI -based and lspci will help you in digging out the required information. +based and lspci will help you in digging out the required information. Please emerge sys-apps/pciutils to get lspci, if you don't have it installed already. In case you have a USB sound card, lsusb from sys-apps/usbutils might be of help. For ISA cards, try using sys-apps/isapnptools. Also, the following pages may help users -with ISA based sound cards. +with ISA based sound cards:

ALSA -Soundcard Matrix

emu10k1

-Please note that for ease of use, all examples show ALSA built as modules. It +Please note that for ease of use, all examples show ALSA built as modules. It is advisable to follow the same as it then allows the use of alsaconf which is a boon when you want to configure your card. Please do not skip the Configuration section of this document. If @@ -301,10 +301,10 @@ <M> OSS PCM (digital audio) API (You now have a choice of devices to enable support for. Generally, -you will have one type of device and not more. If you have more than one +you will have one type of device and not more. If you have more than one sound card, please enable them all here.) -(Mostly for testing and development purposes, not needed for normal +(Mostly for testing and development purposes, not needed for normal users unless you know what you are doing.) Generic devices ---> @@ -313,7 +313,7 @@ (IF you had the Gravis, you would select this option) <M> Gravis UltraSound Extreme -(Move one level back and into PCI devices. Most sound cards today are +(Move one level back and into PCI devices. Most sound cards today are PCI devices) PCI devices ---> (We now select the emu10k1 driver for our card) @@ -331,7 +331,7 @@ Now that your options are set, you can (re)compile the kernel and ALSA support for your card should be functional once you reboot into the new kernel. Don't forget to update your GRUB configuration to use the newly built kernel. -You can now proceed to ALSA Utilities and +You can now proceed to ALSA Utilities and see if everything is working as it should.

-So you've decided to go the alsa-driver way. Let's get started then. -There are a few minor things to be done to ensure only the drivers for your -sound card are compiled. Although this is not really necessary, it cuts down +So you've decided to go the alsa-driver way. Let's get started then. +There are a few minor things to be done to ensure only the drivers for your +sound card are compiled. Although this is not really necessary, it cuts down on the unnecessary drivers that will be compiled otherwise.

-If you don't have an idea of what drivers your sound card might need, please -take a look at the lspci section of this guide. Once -you have your driver name (emu10k1 in our example), edit +If you don't have an idea of what drivers your sound card might need, please +take a look at the lspci section of this guide. Once +you have your driver name (emu10k1 in our example), edit /etc/make.conf and add a variable, ALSA_CARDS.

-If you have compiled your kernel and want to use alsa-driver, please -ensure the following before proceeding, else alsa-driver is likely to +If you have compiled your kernel and want to use alsa-driver, please +ensure the following before proceeding, else alsa-driver is likely to fail. The next code listing gives you one way of performing the checks.

-alsa-utils forms an integral part of ALSA as it has a truckload of -programs that are highly useful, including the ALSA Initscripts. Hence we +alsa-utils forms an integral part of ALSA as it has a truckload of +programs that are highly useful, including the ALSA Initscripts. Hence we strongly recommend that you install alsa-utils

-If you activated ALSA in your kernel and did -not compile ALSA as modules, please proceed to the -ALSA Initscript section. The rest of you need -to configure ALSA. This is made very easy by the existence of the +If you activated ALSA in your kernel and did +not compile ALSA as modules, please proceed to the +ALSA Initscript section. The rest of you need +to configure ALSA. This is made very easy by the existence of the alsaconf tool provided by alsa-utils.

-Please shut down any programs that might access the sound card while +Please shut down any programs that might access the sound card while running alsaconf.

-Another way to configure your sound card is to run alsaconf. Just type -alsaconf in a shell as root. +To configure your sound card just type alsaconf in a shell as root.

@@ -476,10 +475,10 @@

-You will now see a neat menu guided interface that will automatically probe -your devices and try to find out your sound card. You will be asked to pick -your sound card from a list. Once that's done, it will ask you permission to -automatically make required changes to /etc/modules.d/alsa. +You will now see a neat menu guided interface that will automatically probe +your devices and try to find out your sound card. You will be asked to pick +your sound card from a list. Once that's done, it will ask you permission to +automatically make required changes to /etc/modules.d/alsa. It will then adjust your volume settings to optimum levels, run update-modules and start the /etc/init.d/alsasound service. Once alsaconf exits, you can proceed with setting up the ALSA @@ -493,9 +492,9 @@

-We're now almost all setup. Whichever method you chose to install ALSA, you'll -need to have something load your modules or initialize ALSA and restore your -volume settings when your system comes up. The ALSA Initscript handles all of +We're now almost all setup. Whichever method you chose to install ALSA, you'll +need to have something load your modules or initialize ALSA and restore your +volume settings when your system comes up. The ALSA Initscript handles all of this for you and is called alsasound. Add it to the boot runlevel.

-Next, just check the /etc/conf.d/alsasound file and ensure that -SAVE_ON_STOP variable is set to yes. This saves your sound settings when you +Next, just check the /etc/conf.d/alsasound file and ensure that +SAVE_ON_STOP variable is set to yes. This saves your sound settings when you shutdown your system.

-We've completed all the setups and prerequisites, so let's fire up ALSA. If -you ran alsaconf, you can skip this step, since alsaconf already +We've completed all the setups and prerequisites, so let's fire up ALSA. If +you ran alsaconf, you can skip this step, since alsaconf already does this for you.

-# /etc/init.d/alsasound start 
+# /etc/init.d/alsasound start

-Now that the required things have been taken care of, we need to check up on +Now that the required things have been taken care of, we need to check up on the volume as in certain cases, it is muted. We use alsamixer for this purpose.

-This is how the ALSA Mixer might look the first time you open it. Pay -attention to the Master and PCM channels which both have an MM below them. -That means they are muted. If you try to play anything with alsamixer +This is how the ALSA Mixer might look the first time you open it. Pay +attention to the Master and PCM channels which both have an MM below them. +That means they are muted. If you try to play anything with alsamixer in this state, you will not hear anything on your speakers.

- To move between channels, use your left and right arrow keys. (<- + To move between channels, use your left and right arrow keys. (<- & ->)
- To toggle mute, move to the specific channel, for example Master and press - the m key on the keyboard. + To toggle mute, move to the specific channel, for example Master and press + the m key on the keyboard.
- To increase and decrease the volume levels, use the up and down arrow keys + To increase and decrease the volume levels, use the up and down arrow keys respectively.

-Be careful when setting your Bass and Treble values. 50 is usually a good -number for both. Extremely high values of Bass may cause jarring +Be careful when setting your Bass and Treble values. 50 is usually a good +number for both. Extremely high values of Bass may cause jarring on speakers that are not designed to handle them.

-After you're all done, your ALSA Mixer should look similar to the one below. -Note the 00 instead of the MM and also the volume levels for some optimum +After you're all done, your ALSA Mixer should look similar to the one below. +Note the 00 instead of the MM and also the volume levels for some optimum settings.

-If for some reason you're unable to hear sound, the first thing to do would -be to check your alsamixer settings. 80% of -the issues lie with muted channels or low volume. Also check your Window +If for some reason you're unable to hear sound, the first thing to do would +be to check your alsamixer settings. 80% of +the issues lie with muted channels or low volume. Also check your Window Manager's sound applet and verify that volumes are set to audible levels.

-/proc is your friend. And in this case, /proc/asound -is your best friend. We shall just take a short look at how much info is made +/proc is your friend. And in this case, /proc/asound +is your best friend. We shall just take a short look at how much info is made available to us there.

-(First and foremost, if /proc/asound/cards shows your card, ALSA has 
+(First and foremost, if /proc/asound/cards shows your card, ALSA has
 picked up your sound card fine.)
 # cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [Live           ]: EMU10K1 - Sound Blaster Live!
@@ -844,11 +843,11 @@
 
 
 
-If your sound card is one of those that come with on-board MIDI synthesizers 
-and you would like to listen to some .mid files, you have to install 
-awesfx which is basically a set of utilities for controlling the AWE32 
-driver. We need to install it first. If you don't have a hardware synthesizer, 
-you can use a virtual one. Please see the section on 
+If your sound card is one of those that come with on-board MIDI synthesizers
+and you would like to listen to some .mid files, you have to install
+awesfx which is basically a set of utilities for controlling the AWE32
+driver. We need to install it first. If you don't have a hardware synthesizer,
+you can use a virtual one. Please see the section on
 Virtual Synthesizers for more information.
 
 
@@ -857,21 +856,21 @@

-You will need to copy over SoundFont (SF2) files from your sound card's driver -CD or a Windows installation into /usr/share/sounds/sf2/. For +You will need to copy over SoundFont (SF2) files from your sound card's driver +CD or a Windows installation into /usr/share/sounds/sf2/. For example a sound font file for the Creative SBLive! card would be 8MBGMSFX.SF2.

After copying over the Soundfont files, we can then play a midi file as shown. -You can also add the asfxload command to -/etc/conf.d/local.start, so that the sound font is loaded +You can also add the asfxload command to +/etc/conf.d/local.start, so that the sound font is loaded every time the system starts up.

-/mnt paths mentioned in the code listing(s) below will not -be the same in your machine. They are just an example. Please be careful to +/mnt paths mentioned in the code listing(s) below will not +be the same in your machine. They are just an example. Please be careful to change the path to suit your machine.

-You can now play midi files using a program like aplaymidi. Run -aplaymidi -l to get a list of available ports and then pick one +You can now play midi files using a program like aplaymidi. Run +aplaymidi -l to get a list of available ports and then pick one to play the file on.

timidity-freepats

timidity-eawpatches

/usr/share/timidity/

eselect

You can have more than one sound card in your system simultaneously, provided that you have built ALSA as modules in your kernel (or have installed -alsa-driver instead). You just need to specify which should be started +alsa-driver instead). You just need to specify which should be started first in /etc/modules.d/alsa. Your cards are identified by their driver names inside this file. 0 is the first card, 1 is the second, and so on. Here's an example for a system with two sound cards. @@ -1020,7 +1019,7 @@

Everyone who contributed to the earlier version of the Gentoo ALSA Guide: -Vincent Verleye, Grant Goodyear, Arcady Genkin, Jeremy Huddleston, +Vincent Verleye, Grant Goodyear, Arcady Genkin, Jeremy Huddleston, John P. Davis, Sven Vermeulen, Benny Chuang, Tiemo Kieft and Erwin.