This is the Linux Sound HOWTO document. It is intended as a quick reference covering everything you need to know to install and configure sound support under Linux. Frequently asked questions about sound under Linux are answered, and references are given to some other sources of information on a variety of topics related to computer generated sound and music.
The scope is limited to the aspects of sound cards pertaining to Linux. See the other documents listed in the Other Sources of Information section for more general information on sound cards and computer sound and music generation.
Much of this information came from the Readme files provided
with the sound driver source code, by Hannu Savolainen
(hannu@voxware.pp.fi). Thanks go to Hannu and the many other
people who developed the Linux kernel sound drivers and utilities.
Thanks to the Linuxdoc-SGML package, this HOWTO is now available in several formats, including HTML hypertext (Mosaic), PostScript, and plain ASCII, all generated from a common source file.
first version; posted to SOUND channel of Linux activists mailing list only
minor updates; first version available on archive sites
converted to SGML; now available in several formats using Matt Welsh's Linuxdoc-SGML tools; appearance changed due to new format, only minor changes to content
minor tweaking of SGML; added answer on PAS16 and Adaptec1542A SCSI adaptor incompatibilities
2.5a sound driver is now in 1.1 kernel distribution; note on GUS-MAX support; other minor updates
added info on "no space on device" error; added note that Hacker's Guide is in a "hidden" directory; added question on bidirectional mode; info on "device busy" errors; other minor changes
added info on ASP and AWE32; VoxWare 2.9 is available; answer to question on using IRQ2; references to Sound and SCSI HOWTOs
added question on errors under DOS; many minor things updated to match the version 2.90 sound driver; info on DOOM; answer on reducing noise
questions on recording and clone cards
mentioned that HOWTO is available on WWW, as printed copies, and translations; info on DMA conflict with QIC tape driver; info on Sound Galaxy NX Pro and Logitech BusMouse
New versions of this document will be periodically posted to
comp.os.linux.announce. They will also be uploaded to various
anonymous ftp sites that archive such information including
sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO.
Hypertext versions of this and other Linux HOWTOs are available on many World-Wide-Web sites. You can also buy printed copies from several vendors.
If your native language is not English, you may be able to obtain a translation of this document (French and Japanese translations are in progress).
If you have any suggestions, corrections, or comments on the HOWTO, please send them to the author and I will try to incorporate them in the next release.
If you have sound related problems that are not answered in this HOWTO, feel free to send me a mail message and I will try to help.
The Linux Sound User's Guide covers all of the user visible
aspects of using sound under Linux in much more detail (approximately
40 pages). If you are interested in sound under Linux you should
definitely get this document. The current version is ALPHA 0.1, and is
available on tsx-11.mit.edu in the directory
/pub/linux/ALPHA/LDP. I will continue to maintain the
Sound-HOWTO as a concise guide for users who want to get sound up and
running, or just find out what is required, without having to read the
full user's guide.
If you have a sound card that supports a CD-ROM or SCSI interface, the Linux SCSI HOWTO and the Linux CD-ROM HOWTO have additional information that may be useful to you.
Hannu Savolainen has written a draft version of the Hacker's Guide
to VoxWare. The latest version is draft 2, and can be found on
nic.funet.fi in /pub/OS/linux/ALPHA/sound.
The following FAQs are regularly posted to the usenet newsgroup
news.announce as well as being archived at the site
rtfm.mit.edu in the directory
/pub/usenet/news.answers:
PCsoundcards/generic-faq (Generic PC Soundcard FAQ) PCsoundcards/soundcard-faq (comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard FAQ) PCsoundcards/gravis-ultrasound/faq (Gravis UltraSound FAQ) audio-fmts/part1 (Audio file format descriptions) audio-fmts/part2 (Audio file format descriptions)
The FAQs also list several product specific mailing lists and archive sites. The following Usenet news groups discuss sound and/or music related issues:
alt.binaries.sounds.* (various groups for posting sound files) alt.binaries.multimedia (for posting Multimedia files) alt.sb.programmer (Soundblaster programming topics) comp.multimedia (Multimedia topics) comp.music (Computer music theory and research) comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.* (various IBM PC soundcard groups)
The Linux Activists mailing list has a SOUND channel. To find out how
to join the mailing list, send mail to
linux-activists-request@joker.cs.hut.fi.
The files Readme, Readme.linux, and CHANGELOG
included with the kernel sound driver source code contain useful
information about the sound card drivers. These can typically be found
in the directory /usr/src/linux/drivers/sound.
The Linux Software Map (LSM) is an invaluable reference for
locating Linux software. Searching the LSM for keywords such as
sound is a good way to identify applications related to sound
hardware. The LSM can be found on various anonymous FTP sites,
including sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/LSM.gz.
At time of writing the latest Linux sound driver was version 2.90-2 and was included in the Linux kernel version 1.1.50 (and should be the same in Linux 1.2.0). This is a pre-release version of the upcoming version 3.0 driver which has a number of new features not in previous versions, some of which are disabled. While version 2.90 appears to be quite reliable, if you want a more stable driver you may prefer to use the version 2.5a sound driver provided in kernel revisions 1.1.10 through 1.1.30.
The author of the sound driver, Hannu Savolainen, typically also makes available newer BETA releases of the sound driver as kernel patches before they are included as part of the standard Linux kernel distribution.
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