Alsa Sound Drivers

From TheLinuxVault

Contents 1 Troubleshooting Procedure 2 Installing the Drivers 3 Compiling from Source 3.1 Quirks 3.2 Unsupported drivers

[edit] Troubleshooting Procedure

First thing you want to do before changing any ALSA settings is to make sure that your volume is unmuted! This is best done by running the command 'alsamixer' from a terminal. Make sure everything is turned up (The volume indicator can be raised by pressing the up button) and unmuted (the two letters underneath the volume bar should be "00" not "MM". this can be toggled with the m key)

[edit] Installing the Drivers

If your soundcard is not detected, theres a pretty good chance you'll need to go about installing the drivers. First of all you want to check if your sound card is supported by the alsa project. Theres a lot of cards there, so theres a pretty good chance that your particular card is supported.

If your card is supported, check with your package management system for your distro to see if there are newer packages out there that feature support for your chipset. It will save you a headache if you can find a package

[edit] Compiling from Source

This can be tricky and a little frustrating, so I would advise attempting only if you're pretty comfortable with compiling things from source.I'm a debian person, so I'll be using the debian package management tools. Use the package manager for your distro to get and install the necessary packages

• Install mercurial (its a code revision manager)

apt-get install mercurial

• Install kernel headers

apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`

• Setup a fundamental kernel module building environment

sudo apt-get install build-essential libncurses5-dev python2.5 
sudo mkdir /usr/src/alsa
cd /usr/src/alsa

• Download the drivers

sudo hg clone http://hg.alsa-project.org/alsa-driver alsa-driver
sudo hg clone http://hg.alsa-project.org/alsa-kernel alsa-kernel
sudo hg clone http://hg.alsa-project.org/alsa-lib alsa-lib
sudo hg clone http://hg.alsa-project.org/alsa-utils alsa-utils

• Install the drivers

cd alsa-driver
sudo ./cvscompile --with-cards=all --with-card-options=all    (Nota Bene, this makes all the drivers. do more research if you just want the Intel ones ;-D)
sudo make install
cd ../alsa-lib
sudo ./cvscompile
sudo make install
cd ../alsa-utils
sudo ./cvscompile
sudo make install

• Make changes to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

This is very card specific and will vary from card to card. Some cards can skip this step. For intel drivers at least, the line

options snd-hda-intel model=[CARD DESIGNATION]  (please dont take [CARD DESIGNATION] literally, you have to look up what your specific card needs here....)

Save the file

• Reboot

You should have sound now! If not, check the volume levels, and make sure your login name is under the 'audio' and 'users' groups.

[edit] Quirks

Soundcards are oftentimes related to the modem for some reason, so make sure your modem is turned on if you still have problems

[edit] Unsupported drivers

If you have the latest, bleeding edge sound card, you might not have support yet. Not to fear though, alsa is an active project, and communication with the developers will help you enable sound support. You'll want to file a bug report/feature request, and get in communication (probably via email or IRC (#alsa) ) with the developers. Chances are they'll be eager to help you out. Sit tight, twidle your thumbs, and wait for the drivers to appear in the alsa project! Good Luck!