The Linux Sound HOWTO

Jeff Tranter, jeff_tranter@pobox.com

v1.15, 8 September 1996

This document describes sound support for Linux. It lists the supported sound hardware, describes how to configure the kernel drivers, and answers frequently asked questions. The intent is to bring new users up to speed more quickly and reduce the amount of traffic in the Usenet news groups and mailing lists.

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 soundcard?
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 soundcard 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