[PlanetCCRMA] Chasing my tail with ALSA

[Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano]

> >What do you have in /etc/modules.conf?
> >Did you configure your mixer and save your mixer configuration?
> >If alsa activated to start on boot?
>
> I unmuted the soundcard with alsamixer, and used alsactl store to save 
> my settings.
> 
> Is this right?
> [mikes@localhost sbin]$ ./chkconfig --list alsasound
> alsasound       0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off

Looks fine to me. 

> options ide-cd ignore='hdc hdd'
> alias usb-controller usb-uhci
> 
> # -- Keep modules from being autocleaned
> 
> add options -k snd-card-0
> # --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
> # --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.1 ---
> alias char-major-116 snd
> alias char-major-14 soundcore
> 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
> alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
> alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1
> # --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

And again this is fine. 

> >>If I start jack, jack says on start up that I'm using a software plug, 
> >>rather than hardware, but at this point, I seem to be able to use other 
> >>jack-dependent apps, like Ardour.
> >
> >You should use the "hw" device, not the "default". In a SBLive, I think,
> >you will have to use a period of 512 or lower (not the default 1024). 
> >
> How do I set this?

"man jackd" for all the details. 
Try (as a normal user, not root):
  jackstart -R -d alsa -d hw -p 512
You may also want to try adding more periods if you have xruns, for
example "-n 3" (default is 2). 

> >>Alsa Patchbay shows only my EMU10k1 sound card, and earlier today, it 
> >>actually showed my Midispaort 8x8/s (but that was way early this 
> >>morning...) now it shows only the PCI512 soundcard.
> >
> >You have to configure (manually) alsa to use the two "cards". 

Try this:

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 0.9.0 ---
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias snd-card-1 snd-usb-audio
# --- OSS compatibility
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-slot-1 snd-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
alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss
# --- Options
options snd major=116 cards_limit=2 device_mode=0666
options snd-emu10k1 index=0
options snd-usb-audio index=1
# --- Keep modules from being autocleaned
add options -k snd-card-0
add options -k snd-card-1

Also, add "audio" and "usb-midi" to the list of blacklisted usb drivers
in /etc/hotplug/blacklist so that the OSS usb driver does not get
started on startup. 

-- Fernando