Alsamixer won't open default soundcard

mrground · 03-10-2008, 12:45 PM

Whenever I want to use skype, I have to tell alsamixer to capture with the microphone (rather than the CD). When I do this I type alsamixer but it gives me the wrong sound card. It works if I type alsamixer -c 0. Saying to look at card 0; however, isn't it supposed to look at card 0 anyway by default? My question is how do I tell the computer to always use the microphone to capture, and/or how do I tell alsamixer to open the zero card first?

Hammett · 03-10-2008, 12:56 PM

Run as root "alsaconf" and should automatically configure alsa to use the proper soundcard

mrground · 03-10-2008, 12:59 PM

I don't seem to have alsaconf. :-( I tried yum install but it didn't find anything.

Hammett · 03-10-2008, 04:30 PM

You're missing alsa-utils package, which provides alsaconf.

The strange thing is that you can run alsamixer, which comes with the same package.... Try install/re-install alsa-utils

mrground · 03-11-2008, 06:45 AM

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling alsa-utils. It turns out the alsaconf has been removed from alsa-utils according to https://bugs.launchpad.net/alsa-utils/+bug/29597. Do you know of another program that would work?

Hammett · 03-11-2008, 12:43 PM

I know no other program to configure the soundcard, but, alternatively, you can use a local rc file to load at startup with the commands you need to perform in order to get the right soundcard chosen by the driver.

And another solution would be to recompile your kernel and just compile the exact module you need for your soundcard. By default, the kernel is built with a lot of sound modules for a large variety of soundcards. Choosing just one, leaves the kernel with no other option but to load the proper driver.