# making alsa work with SB Live

## lethe

i m hoping to get some help making alsa work with my soundblaster live sound card.

i have been following the instructions on the gentoo desktop page, and when i get to the part where i am suppposed to get a bunch of info by running amixer, instead i see this:

```

# amixer

amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory

```

i have alsa-utils 0.9.0_rc2 installed, kernel 2.4.19-rc1.  my /etc/devfsd.conf and my /etc/modules.d/alsa look identical to the ones on the page, since i have the same soundcard.  one thing, i actually had already installed alsa-utils before i did the stuff on that page, but when i found the page, and followed those instructions, i unmerged and re-emerged alsa-utils.

so, any advice is appreciated.  what causes this error, what is amixer missing?  thanks

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## pjp

Do you have sound support enabled in the kernel?  With alsa, you shouldn't.

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## lethe

well that desktop page says this:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> One note; if you've installed a new sys-kernel/linux-sources package, make sure that your Linux kernel has sound support enabled.
> 
> 

 

and this page from the alsa webpage says:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> You must compile the kernel with sound support , you do not need to select any of the other sound modules apart from sound support 
> 
> 

 

so, for alsa, i am supposed to have generic sound support in the kernel, but not any specific sound card modules?  i didn t know that it was required to not install any sound modules.  so i installed both basic sound support, and my sound card module.  do you think this is the problem?  i have discovered that i do have sound support using cat > /dev/dsp, but the alsa-utils amixer and such still don t work, so i think i am using the kernel driver.

alsa is better than the current kernel drivers, right?  so i should prefer it.  i will make a new kernel without the sound card module, and then try again with alsa-utils, and report back.  thanks for the tip.

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## metalhedd

You most definitely CAN'T Have kernel support for your card built into the kernel.  only generic sound card support.

In my experience the kernel driver for an SB Live sounded Horrible.  other people have had other experiences though.  I am currently using a kernel patched to have alsa support built right in and it sounds great.  the regular alsa 0.9 drivers sounded great too.. kernel sound was just terrible though.

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## Mr. Pointy

my /etc/modules.d/alsa

```
# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.

#/space/gentoo/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-driver/files/alsa-modules.conf,v 1.3 2002/06/24 18:05:58 agenkin Exp

# ALSA portion

alias char-major-116 snd

options snd snd_cards_limit=1

# OSS/Free portion

alias char-major-14 soundcore

##

## IMPORTANT:

## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)

## and then run `update-modules' command.

## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.

##

##  ALSA portion

alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1

options snd-emu10k1 snd_extin=0x0003 snd_extout=0x1f03 

## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371

##  OSS/Free portion

## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1

##

# OSS/Free portion - 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

##  OSS/Free portion - card #2

## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss

## alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss

## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss

alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
```

check /usr/doc/alsa-driver-0.9.0_rc2/INSTALL.gz for the snd_extin and snd_extout for your model

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## lethe

thanks for the advices.  unfortunately, it didn t seem to help.  i recompiled the kernel, this time without the soundblaster stuff checked, and i still got the error from alsa, amixer posted above.  /dev/dsp wasn t there at all, so sound was entirely broken.

my /etc/devfs.conf

```

# ALSA/OSS stuff

# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on

# the audio devices

LOOKUP          snd          MODLOAD ACTION snd

LOOKUP          dsp          MODLOAD

LOOKUP          mixer        MODLOAD

LOOKUP          midi         MODLOAD

REGISTER        sound/.*     PERMISSIONS root.audio 660

REGISTER        snd/.*       PERMISSIONS root.audio 660

```

my /etc/modules.d/alsa file:

```

# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.

# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-driver/files/alsa-modules.conf,v 1.3 2002/06/24 18:05:58 agenkin Exp $

# ALSA portion

alias char-major-116 snd

# OSS/Free portion

alias char-major-14 soundcore

##

## IMPORTANT:

## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)

## and then run `update-modules' command.

## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.

##

##  ALSA portion

## alias snd-card-0 snd-interwave

## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371

##  OSS/Free portion

## alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1

##

alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1

alias snd-card-1 snd-emu10k1

alias snd-card-2 snd-emu10k1

alias snd-card-3 snd-emu10k1

alias snd-card-4 snd-emu10k1

alias snd-card-5 snd-emu10k1

alias snd-card-6 snd-emu10k1

alias snd-card-7 snd-emu10k1

# OSS/Free portion - 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

##  OSS/Free portion - card #2

## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss

## alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss

## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss

alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

```

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## nitro322

Try recompiling one more time.  Make sure you have Sound -> Sound card support enabled as a module, as well as Sound -> OSS sound modules (don't choose any drivers from the list, but do enable OSS sound modules as a module - it gives you soundcore.o, which is needed for certain apps).  Install the new kernel and reboot.  Do a 'modprobe sound' and then try loading your ALSA drivers.  If that doesn't work, 'modprobe soundcore' and try again.  I've had ALSA working before with an SB Live!, so it's definitely possible.  If it still won't work, do you absolutely need the ASLA drivers?  I switched from ALSA to the emu10k1 drivers available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/emu10k1.  Supports everything I need, including digital out and AC3 bybass.  Just a suggestion.

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## azambuja

hello,

ive got the same problem a while ago, be sure to check this topic:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=7796&highlight=

that really should get you  out of trouble...

cheers

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