Re: Alsa card activation order

[Heimdall Midgard <heimdalle@gmail.com>]

2005/11/21, Stephen Cormier <s.cormier@gmx.net>:
> On November 20, 2005 04:54 pm, Heimdall Midgard wrote:
> > I can think of two ways to fix the problem. But I want to know the
> > Debian Way(tm).
> >
> > My problem is simple. I have two sound "cards" in my computer. But I
> > want my onboard sound to be the first sound card recognized by Alsa
> > in both its /dev/dsp* (OSS emulation) and /dev/snd/pcm* (Alsa proper)
> > incarnations.
> >
> > What files in /etc/ do I need to edit to set the card activation
> > order of my two sound cards ?
>
> If using a 2.6 kernel then in the /etc/modprobe.d/ directory check to
> see where the alias is set on my install it is the sound file. Edit the
> file to look similar to this.
>
> alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
> options snd-via82xx index=0
>
> alias snd-card-1 snd-emu10k1
> options snd-emu10k1 index=1
>
> Changing the drivers to match your install putting the onboard sound
> module in the lines with 0 in them and your pci card module in the
> lines with 1. Now when booting modutils will process the file and the
> drivers should be loaded in the correct order. If using a 2.4 kernel
> then check in the /etc/modutils/aliases file and see if that is where
> your sound card is being set. If so then add the couple of lines for
> the second card and make sure your onboard is set to the 0 then run
> update-modules to have the new information entered in
> the /etc/modules.conf for use on next boot if not then check the other
> files to see where it is located and make the changes there.

Thanks. Your approach seems more elegant than the solution I had in
mind. But wouldn't any changes I make to, in my case,
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base get in the way of a fresh alsa upgrade?

I know there's an option to have dpkg not overwrite any changed files
in /etc. But that would mean I would miss installing any
policy-mandated changes. So I experimented with creating my own
configuration file and  naming it /etc/modprobe.d/01_My_Module_Hacks:

options         snd-via82xx index=0
options         snd-ymfpci index=1

I'm still not sure now where a Debian users is supposed to place
special module parameters needed to make some kernel modules work
properly. I'd surely like a pointer to any policy document. As it is
my configuration looks more and more like a mish-mash of hacks that I
have to check every time I upgrade.

--
Albert Einstein: Phantasie ist wichtiger als Wissen, denn Wissen ist begrenzt.