The Linux Sound HOWTO

Jeff Tranter, tranter@pobox.com

1. Introduction

• 1.1 Acknowledgments
• 1.2 Revision History
• 1.3 New versions of this document
• 1.4 Feedback
• 1.5 Distribution Policy

2. Sound Card Technology

3. Supported Hardware

• 3.1 Sound Cards
• 3.2 Alternate Sound Drivers
• 3.3 PC Speaker
• 3.4 Parallel Port

4. Installation

• 4.1 Installing the Sound Card
• 4.2 Configuring the Kernel
• 4.3 Creating the Device Files
• 4.4 Booting Linux and Testing the Installation
• 4.5 Troubleshooting

5. Applications Supporting Sound

6. Answers To Frequently Asked Questions

• 6.1 What are the various sound device files?
• 6.2 How can I play a sound sample?
• 6.3 How can I record a sample?
• 6.4 Can I have more than one sound card?
• 6.5 Error: No such file or directory for sound devices
• 6.6 Error: No such device for sound devices
• 6.7 Error: No space left on device for sound devices
• 6.8 Error: Device busy for sound devices
• 6.9 I still get device busy errors!
• 6.10 Partial playback of digitized sound file
• 6.11 There are pauses when playing MOD files
• 6.12 Compile errors when compiling sound applications
• 6.13 SEGV when running sound binaries that worked previously
• 6.14 What known bugs or limitations are there in the sound driver?
• 6.15 Where are the sound driver ioctls() etc. documented?
• 6.16 What CPU resources are needed to play or record without pauses?
• 6.17 Problems with a PAS16 and an Adaptec 1542 SCSI host adaptor
• 6.18 Is it possible to read and write samples simultaneously?
• 6.19 My SB16 is set to IRQ 2, but configure does not allow this value.
• 6.20 Are the SoundBlaster AWE32 or SoundBlaster16 ASP supported?
• 6.21 If I run Linux, then boot DOS, I get errors and/or sound applications do not work properly.
• 6.22 Problems running DOOM under Linux
• 6.23 How can I reduce noise picked up by my sound card?
• 6.24 I can play sounds, but not record.
• 6.25 My "compatible" sound card only works if I first initialize under MS-DOS.
• 6.26 My 16-bit SoundBlaster "compatible" sound card only works in 8-bit mode under Linux.
• 6.27 Where can I find sound applications for Linux?
• 6.28 Can the sound driver be compiled as a loadable module?
• 6.29 Can I use a sound card to replace the system console beep?
• 6.30 What is VoxWare?
• 6.31 Are Plug and Play sound card supported?
• 6.32 Sox/Play/Vplay reports "invalid block size 1024"
• 6.33 Why does the sound driver have its own configuration program?
• 6.34 The mixer settings are reset whenever I load the sound driver module
• 6.35 Only user root can record sound
• 6.36 Is the sound hardware on the IBM ThinkPad supported?

7. References