How do I use a USB headset with Alsa?

alanware · 05-12-2015, 05:51 PM

I recently bought a usb headset. The system detects the device and I can select it from programs like vlc. Other programs like flash-player and system sounds, other programs that don't have a selection option cannot play sound to the device. Is there a way to have the sound go to both current default source and my headset?

Thanks

genss · 05-12-2015, 07:23 PM

not sure, maybe
http://www.6by9.net/output-to-multip...ces-with-alsa/
this uses dmix so it should work fine, except maybe flash

ttable is the main part, format is
ttable.input.output volume
http://alsa.opensrc.org/Asoundrc

wish i could help you more

mralk3 · 05-12-2015, 10:25 PM

* What distribution of Linux?
* What is the name/specs of your headset?
* Post the results of the 'lsusb -v' command.
* Post the results of the 'aplay --list-devices' command.

Without this information no one has any idea what to tell you to do to help.

franzen · 05-13-2015, 02:00 AM

Maybe this helps:
http://schoepfer.info/howto.xhtml#toc3

fsLeg · 05-13-2015, 02:44 AM

Problems like this have overly complicated solutions in Slackware. People here may throw rocks at me, but I'd suggest installing PulseAudio with pavucontrol, it really helps laymen to deal with multiple sound cards, especially detachable USB ones. I know it helped me with my USB microphone, something I didn't expect when decided to play with PA.

What else I can think of is setting your headset as the default playback device using asoundrc. The problem here is that your headset probably isn't always attached to your PC, so the sound may be broken when it isn't. Some udev rule that would call a script which replaces /etc/asound.conf with the correct version would help with that.

bassmadrigal · 05-13-2015, 07:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mralk3

* What distribution of Linux?

Well, considering this is the Slackware forum and he has Slackware listed as his distribution, I'm thinking it's a strong possibility that OP's running Slackware

Back to the topic... I am not sure how to get both to run simultaneously, but I do know you will need to make sure both have a consistent device number assigning by alsa. You can find more about this in the link franzen posted. This will make sure that the device IDs with alsa stay the same whether or not you have the USB headset plugged in when booting.

Are you looking to actually have audio outputted to both the headset and the laptop at the same time or just change from the laptop speakers to the headset when the headset is plugged in?

alanware · 05-13-2015, 06:00 PM

Hey, thanks for all the great replies to my question. To clarify, I am running Slackware64-current from a March 2015 time frame. I am going through the links genss linked. They seem to be exactly what I was looking for. I will post again once I have tried to implement the .asoundrc file with my devices in it.

mralk3 · 05-13-2015, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal

Quote:

Originally Posted by mralk3

* What distribution of Linux?

Well, considering this is the Slackware forum and he has Slackware listed as his distribution, I'm thinking it's a strong possibility that OP's running Slackware

Ah my bad, I was logged in from the LQ android app and the app doesn't display the forum sub section a post is in. Actually, it doesn't display much except the post title, author and replies. Haha.

dugan · 05-14-2015, 11:57 AM

I've never used a USB headset, but I assume it's seen as a USB sound card. In that case, don't use an asoundrc. Use the slots module parameter. The official documentation is here:

http://alsa.opensrc.org/MultipleCard...s.3D.22_method

If you need me to be more specific (which file to edit, etc), then I can check when I get home tonight.

And yes, this is probably a case where Pulseaudio is the better option.

Bertman123 · 05-14-2015, 12:26 PM

I use pulseaudio as I've found it much easier switching between my usb headset and the default sound card on my laptop.

alanware · 05-14-2015, 08:17 PM

Posting some results of aplay and lsusb as requested.

Logitech h390
lsusb -v
aplay --list-devices

Code:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: Headset [Logitech USB Headset], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

dugan · 05-14-2015, 10:14 PM

If you want to use your headset permanently, create the following file:

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf

Code:

options snd slots=snd-usb-audio,snd-hda-intel

alanware · 05-21-2015, 12:38 PM

Thank you all for your responses in an effort to resolve my sound configuration. I followed genss suggestion using plugins to send audio to both sound outputs at the same time. Although, I could not get his linked config to work. I did, however, find a similar article online that I was able to modify.

slack4dummies alsa: multiple output, multiple sound cards, multiple users

Everything seems to work great. I don't have the microphone working in also right now.

ReaperX7 · 05-21-2015, 08:00 PM

The mic should be controlled by alsamixer. See if it might need to be unmuted.