Quick Install
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Installing ALSA from source
This document describes installing ALSA from source code. For installing
ALSA from binary distro packages see ALSA Setup
Guide. You don't have to do this
though, there are binary packages available. If you are using Red Hat,
see http://freshrpms.net/docs/alsa/
for RPM packages. There are debian packages available, too. You can also
choose to install the drivers from source (to make sure they fit your
kernel) and install the libs, utilities etc. as binary packes.
Debian users choosing to do this should run
apt-get install libasound2 alsa-utils alsa-oss
Kernel 2.6.XXX users:
If you have a kernel from the 2.6.xxx series, ALSA is already included, so it's not necessary to do all these steps. If you have a 2.6-kernel and want to install a newer version of ALSA than the one included, check out AlsaBuild2.6.
- Always check out the latest INSTALL file!
1. Requirements
Make sure you have a kernel source tree that you've already compiled from. This should be in /usr/src/linux but the alsa configure scripts will look elsewhere with the "--with-kernel=[dir]" option when running 'configure'. The kernel must have sound support turned ON in your kernel settings (soundcore module). Any other kernel options regarding sound can be switched OFF. Of course, you need a sound card that is supported by ALSA. Check out the ALSA sound card matrix.
2. Getting the sources
You can download the sources from the front page of the ALSA home page:
http://www.alsa-project.org. I recommend
you get the drivers, the libraries, the utils and the OSS compat modules
to start with. Next, put them into some directory, e.g. /usr/src/alsa:
mkdir /usr/src/alsa
cp downloaddir/alsa* /usr/src/alsa
To unpack the files:
tar jxvf alsa-driver-xxx.tar.bz2
The same applies to the other packages you downloaded.
CVS: You can also get the newest sources from CVS. See AlsaCVS
3. Compiling and installing
Note: To avoid problems, stick to the order the modules are installed here, i.e. first the drivers, then the libs, then the rest.
To compile & install the drivers:
cd alsa-driver-xxx
./configure --with-sequencer=yes && make
make install
./snddevices
The configure command can take some options, like
--with-sequencer=yes. To get a complete list of all options:
./configure --help
Some of the most important options:
--with-kernel=dir give the directory with kernel
sources default: /usr/src/linux
--with-isapnp=yes,no,auto driver will (not) be compiled with
ISA PnP support
--with-sequencer=yes,no driver will (not) be compiled with sequencer support
--with-oss=no,yes driver will (not) be compiled with OSS/Free emulation
--with-cards=<list> compile driver for cards in <list>;
cards may be separated with commas;
'all' compiles all drivers;
Possible cards are:
dummy, virmidi, serial-u16550, mtpav,
als100, azt2320, cmi8330, [...]]
If you don't have ISA, you can safely add --with-isapnp=no. If you
only have one card (e.g. SB Live) and aren't planning to add any others,
you can add --with-cards=emu10k1 or whatever the module for your card
is called. The ./snddevices command creates the audio devices in
/dev/snd. make install and ./snddevices must be done as root, the
rest can be done as any user.
ALSA libraries
This is straightforward:
cd alsa-lib-xxx
./configure && make
make install
ALSA Utils
These include the alsamixer program and other very useful helpers.
Note: The alsamixer requires a dev packages for ncurses, for
debian/sid this is 'libncurses5-dev'.
cd alsa-utils-xxx
./configure && make
make install
ALSA OSS compat modules
cd alsa-oss-xxx
./configure && make
make install
- NB: Compiling could take a while!
4. Loading the ALSA modules
Now insert the modules into the kernel space.
modprobe snd-ens1371
modprobe snd-pcm-oss
modprobe snd-mixer-oss
modprobe snd-seq-oss
If you get an "init_module: No such device" error when you run this
modprobe command, make sure that you uninstall all the sound related
modules first. Use lsmod to check the installed modules and rmmod to
uninstall. Then modprobe the new modules. See Troubleshooting for other
solutions. To make module loading permanent, you have to add these lines
to /etc/modules.conf (for Debian users, this means you have to create a
file with these lines in /etc/modutils and the do update-modules).
Kernel 2.6 users note: module settings now go into
/etc/modprobe.conf (Debian users: just copy the module-info file from
/etc/modutils/ to /etc/modprobe.d/ and run update-modules).
Note: These next lines are valid for a machine with one SB Live!. For your settings, see the ALSA sound card matrix details for your soundcard!
# alsa/soundblaster live module settings
# (from the alsa soundcard matrix)
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
# module options should go here
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
Loading soundcard settings on startup:
The 'make install' options of the ALSA drivers creates a file
/etc/init.d/alsasound (if not, this file is also in
alsa-driver-xxx/utils and should be copied to /etc/init.d, then chmod
755) which takes care of saving and loading the mixer settings etc. on
bootup and shutdown, but you have to create links manually to let this
actually happen, otherwise your mixer settings will always be resetted
when you shut down:
% ln -s /etc/init.d/alsasound /etc/rcS.d/S59alsasound
% ln -s /etc/init.d/alsasound /etc/rc1.d/K15alsasound
% ln -s /etc/init.d/alsasound /etc/rc6.d/K15alsasound
5. Getting started
If everything worked out correctly, you can now use your sound card! So,
first of all, adjust your soundcards volume levels. All mixer channels
are muted by default. You must use a native mixer program to unmute
appropriate channels, e.g. alsamixer from the
alsa-utils package
alsamixer
Note: Some soundcards don't utilise the alsamixer program so you will need to learn how to use the amixer program. Unmute the 'Master' and 'PCM' levels and pull them up, also look for a "Headphone" slider, and if it exists pull that up as well - if everything worked out, you should be able to playback music now. If not, check out the 'Troubleshooting' section.
Troubleshooting
If modprobe snd-sb16 says that you don't have the Sound Blaster card, first try to install isapnp packages (they are named isapnptools and libisapnp-dev, on debain) then you nead to add the line "options snd-sb16 isapnp=0" to your /etc/modules.conf file if you have kernel2.4 (or to /etc/modutils/alsa file on debian and run update-modules)
If anything doesn't work, the first thing to do is to check the
FAQ and make sure you've got the latest version of ALSA.
Some special problems are listed here: If playback still doesn't work
after installation and programs give errors like 'Can't open default
sound device!' (In this case, the message was given by mpg123), try
this:
chmod 666 /dev/snd/*
and, if you have the OSS modules installed:
chmod 666 /dev/mixer* /dev/midi* /dev/dsp* /dev/sequencer*
Note: This has to be done as root.
Retrieved from "http://alsa.opensrc.org/Quick_Install"