ALSA-UTILS [0] ________________________________________________________________________________ The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) provides audio and MIDI functionality to the Linux operating system. Configuration ________________________________________________________________________________ First verify that you have alsa-utils installed: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | $ kiss b alsa-utils && kiss i alsa-utils | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ By default, ALSA routes audio to card "0" and device "0" (see /etc/asound.conf file), which may not be preferred. Luckily, we can change this behavior via local user configuration: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ~/.asoundrc, simple example | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | defaults.pcm!card 1 | | defaults.pcm.!device 7 | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ In the example, the numeric device name is specified. When multiple sound cards are in use, the device numbers could be reordered across boots, such that using a descriptive device name is preferred. You can then test your local sound card configuration with the command below: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | $ speaker-test -c 2 | | | +------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Note: Replace the "2" to match the number of channels in your sound card. Tips and Tricks ________________________________________________________________________________ - Use the following command to obtain a list of available sound card and device numbers: +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | $ aplay -L | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - A list of descriptive device names can be obtained with the following command: +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | $ cat /sys/class/sound/card*/id | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - Use the following command to open an easy to use, terminal based alsa control interface: +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | $ alsamixer | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ - More "complex" .asoundrc configuration file examples can be found on the Gentoo Wiki [1] and Arch Linux Wiki [2]. References ________________________________________________________________________________ [0] https://www.alsa-project.org/wiki/Main_Page [1] https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/ALSA [2] https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Advanced_Linux_Sound_Architecture