[64studio-devel] 0.9.7 soundcard problems

[Lee Revell]

On Fri, 2006-11-17 at 23:38 +0000, Daniel James wrote:
> Hi Arthur,
> 
> > After a reboot with no changes made, the audio drivers change places:
> 
> Yes, I remember Mitsch ran into this when using multiple soundcards. If 
> you want to use the on-board sound, you have to change the module 
> loading order:
> 
> http://lists.64studio.com/pipermail/64studio-devel/2006-August/002430.html
> 
> On the other hand, if you don't need the on-board sound, you could try 
> adding the module name to the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base-blacklist 
> with an entry such as:
> 
> blacklist via82xx
> 
> ...or whatever lsmod says is driving the Via sound chipset.
> 

To get really pedantic, sound card order should not matter.  ALSA
supports addressing devices by name.

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [Audigy2        ]: Audigy2 - Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]
                      Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350] (rev.4, serial:0x20021102) at 0xe800, irq 10

So rather than "jackd -d alsa -d hw:0", you can use "jackd -d alsa -d
hw:Audigy2".

The main problems are that many ALSA apps don't do this, and that OSS
apps will just use whatever card is bound to /dev/dsp, usually the
first.  But fortunately OSS only apps seem to be going away - the latest
versions of Flash and Skype use ALSA.

> I'm guessing the file /etc/discover.d/linux-sound-base_noOSS is just 
> there to prevent OSS drivers from loading, it doesn't stop ALSA modules 
> loading. I wish you could still buy motherboards without these nasty 
> soundcards built in!

I actually just heard a report of a vendor shipping a motherboard with
integrated *USB* sound.  I have no idea what to make of that.

Lee