Getting two sound cards to work with ALSA

linuxpyro · 08-24-2005, 02:57 PM

OK, I could not find much useful info through searching the forums, and the Alsa docs aren't helpin much either.

I use an M Audio Delta 44 sound card for doing recording on my Gentoo machine. Recently I bought an SBLive card so that I could just have a simple card to play music out of and connect to my headphones. My plan is to set up the SBLive card to be the main one, and use the M Audio card for working with Ardour and Jack.

I haven't been able to get this to work however; though the SBLive comes up when I run lspci | grep audio, Alsa won't recognize it. Here's the output or lspci | grep audio:

Code:

0000:00:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy LS
0000:02:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. ICE1712 [Envy24] PCI Multi-Channel I/O Controller (rev 02)

When I try to run alsaconf, only the Delta 44 (ice1712) shows up. (I know alsaconf will only configure one card, but it seems to me like the SBLive should show up.) I have the following lines added in my /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6:

Code:

snd_emu10k1
snd_ice1712

Here is my /etc/modules.d/alsa:

Code:

# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-utils/files/alsa-modules.conf-rc,v 1.2 2004/07/18 03:40:55 dragonheart Exp $

options snd major=116 cards_limit=2

# Alsa
alias char-major-116 snd
# OSS/Free
alias char-major-14 soundcore

# SBLive
# emu10k1
# Sound Card 0
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
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

# M Audio Delta 44
# ice1712
# Sound Card 1
alias snd-card-1 snd-ice1712
alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-1-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-1-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
options snd-card-emu10k1 index=0 enable

alias snd-card-1 snd-ice1712
options snd-card-ice1712 enable

#alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
#alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
#alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

Here is my .asoundrc:

Code:

pcm.emu10k1 {
   type hw
   card 0
}

ctl.emu10k1 {
   type hw
   card 0
}

pcm.ice1712 {
   type hw
   card 1
}

ctl.ice1712 {
   type hw
   card 1
}

I am using alsa version 1.0.9, and am using it as modules, rather than compiled into the kernel. Only the ice1712 card (Delta 44) is being recognized.

Thanks for any insight.

FreeThinkerJim · 08-24-2005, 05:42 PM

Despite your configuration, it doesn't seem the module for the SB Live is loaded. Can you post the output of lsmod?

linuxpyro · 08-24-2005, 08:09 PM

Ahg, sory about that. Here's the output of lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by
snd_pcm_oss            48160  0
snd_mixer_oss          17664  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_oss            34816  0
snd_seq_midi_event      5888  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                51792  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_ice1712            60676  0
snd_ice17xx_ak4xxx      3136  1 snd_ice1712
snd_ak4xxx_adda         5568  2 snd_ice1712,snd_ice17xx_ak4xxx
snd_cs8427              8576  1 snd_ice1712
snd_i2c                 4928  2 snd_ice1712,snd_cs8427
snd_mpu401_uart         6400  1 snd_ice1712
snd_emu10k1           116100  0
snd_rawmidi            20960  2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_emu10k1
snd_seq_device          7244  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec         81468  2 snd_ice1712,snd_emu10k1
snd_pcm                82180  4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ice1712,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              21700  3 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          7620  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem            3328  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep               7712  1 snd_emu10k1
snd                    49188  16 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_ice1712,snd_ak4xxx_adda,snd_cs8427,snd_i2c,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
soundcore               7648  1 snd
realtime                8072  0
nvidia               3464796  12

I had heard that the emu10k1 was the correct driver for the SBLive cards. I just checked the Alsa matrix, though, and it lists the driver for the SB Audigy LS as the ca0106 driver. I tried loading this in, yet got a module not found error. Is this driver listed for some other card in the kernel config?

FreeThinkerJim · 08-24-2005, 09:25 PM

I just looked at my kernel config stuff, and I found the entry for the SB live in the menu, and sure enough, its the ca0106 driver that's the right one, and not emu10k1. The reason that ca0106 doesn't load is probably because it wasn't compiled with your kernel. The right option for your card's driver can be found in Device Drivers-> Sound-> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture -> PCI Devices -> SB Audigy LS / Live 24bit when you run make menuconfig. Be sure to compile it as a module.