Installing ALSA under Amigo/Slackware Linux

Installing ALSA under Amigo/Slackware Linux
So you think you're tough enough to install Advanced Linux Sound Architecture drivers and libraries for your sound card? Good. Let's get going!

First, go to the ALSA project homepage and click on the "Supported soundcards" link in the middle of the screen. Scroll down until you see a combo box (or a drop-down list, you name it) and choose your sound card manufacturer from the list (in my example it's C-Media for my CMI8330 sound card). Click Go. A chipset list will appear. Read the notes first. If it doesn't say your sound card is not supported, we're on the right way. Now, we need to download the Slackware ALSA packages. Use swaret/slapt-get/whatever-Slackware-update-tool-you-use or just go to the Slackware Package Browser and install the packages:

- alsa-libs-*

- alsa-oss-*

- alsa-util-*

- alsa-driver-*

I recommend installing alsa-libs, alsa-oss and alsa-util from slackware-current branch, as they are the most up-to-date ones.

'''IMPORTANT: When installing drivers, watch out for your kernel version. If you didn't upgrade it, you should install the alsa-driver package from the Slackware version you're using. If your kernel is >= 2.4.26, install the ones from 10.0, if >= 2.4.28 - go ahead with the drivers from slackware-current. Otherwise, there will be a kernel version mismatch and the drivers will just not work.'''

Having done that, come back to your manufacturer's ALSA page. Select the chipset your sound card is based on by clicking on the driver(s) name in the Driver & Docs column (in my case cmi8330). Read the Introduction section, then read the Setting up modprobe & kmod support and The .asoundrc file sections and do what's said there. After that, run alsaconf in your shell - your sound card(s) should appear on the list. Select it and confirm everything until the program terminates. Now add the following line:

/sbin/modprobe snd- 

to /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file, replacing the with the name of the driver. Don't forget to remove or comment (add a # character at the beginning of a line) your OSS driver, if you use one. If you want it to be instantly available, execute this command in your shell.

'''NOTE: If you use OSS and not unload it and try to load the ALSA driver, in 9 out of 10 cases you'll receive an error. The best thing to do is to reboot the system.'''

And that's it! You should have ALSA (with OSS emulation for non-ALSA-supporting programs) running smoothly.