[Preston] Detection of Sound Cards

[Andrew King]

Matthew T. Atkinson wrote:

>'ellow,
>
>ALSA on Linux 2.4 works very nicely and I would recommend that you try
>it.  It's not that hard to set up on a Debian system as there is
>make-kpkg to help.  I am using Debian Sid with a 2.4.x kernel and ALSA
>works great with my SB Live (emu10k1 driver).  Here is a guide from
>Debian Planet:
>
>http://www.debianplanet.org/node.php?id=849
>
>[ Some of the packages have got more advanced and do more automatically
>for you since this was written.  Therefore, the guide may be telling you
>to do some things that you'll notice have already been done for you. 
>Sorry for the confusion; it is the best guide I know of. ]
>
>I hope that helps you get set up OK.  If you've never recompiled a
>kernel before, it can seem daunting but Debian does help a lot in this
>area.  (Seeing as you say you've used BSD, I am assuming you have
>recompiled a kernel before.)
>
>IMHO, the most important thing is that becase you're letting the ALSA
>modules do all of the sound card-related tasks, you have to disable
>almost all of the sound system found in the kernel.  You only need
>``Sound Card Support'' enabled.
>
>So in menuconfig, go to ``Sound''.  Then make sure the only option you
>have enabled is the top one ``Sound Card Support''.  I have it built in
>(not a module).  Make sure that nothing else on that page (not even the
>OSS modules -- as ALSA provides OSS emulation) is enabled.  If you've
>got this right, you should be fine.  Also, remember to add yourself to
>the ``audio'' group when it is all installed, or you won't be able to
>hear anything -- I know this from personal experience :-)!
>
>Finally, the guide mentions that you have to edit text files.  I found
>that when I installed the alsa-utils package, it set all that up for me
>(by asking a few debconf questions) so you may not have to go around
>messing with the text files.  (As I mentioned before, the guide is a bit
>out-of-date.)
>
>Oh, you'll need an ALSA compatible mixer to get the best out of your new
>setup -- apt-get install gnome-alsamixer.  If you use KDE, I'm not sure
>which package you need to install (if any), but I'm sure that someone
>around 'ere will know :-).
>
Thanks for all that!  I guess I'll go with Alsa then, and just give it a 
few gos over a week or two if it's being a pain.

I guess that since Alsa means recompiling kernels, I may as well just go 
with 2.6 for all the other advantages.  Am ok with recompiling stuff - I 
just never expect anything to work with first time (few things ever do 
with computers I find, unless I've done the exact same procedure several 
dozen times already), and obviously it all just means more time spent 
sitting in front of a computer trying to make the damn thing work 
instead of being able to go and do something useful instead - like make 
a living out of them, or go outside or something :)

It's all easy once you know how too isn't it :)

Will let you know when I've got it working.

Andrew