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birdborn

Member

Registered: 2025-07-12

Posts: 7

[SOLVED] ALSA Changing Card and Device w/ MPD

I am running mpd with ncmpcpp and almost on every other boot my playback hardware change its card and device number. Here are the two scenarios:

Scenario 1:

[user@arch ~]$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: E [Schiit Unison Modius E], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Scenario 2:

[user@arch ~]$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: E [Schiit Unison Modius E], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

As you can see the card number changes for my Schitt Modius, but this is problematic because I have to rewrite CARD and DEV in my mpd.conf file on every other boot

audio_output {
        type          "alsa"
        name          "Schitt Unison Modius E Digital Output"
        device        "iec958:CARD=1,DEV=0"
	mixer_type    "none"
}

Also here is my aplay -L

[user@arch ~]$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault
    Default Audio Device
pipewire
    PipeWire Sound Server
default:CARD=E
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=E
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=E,DEV=0
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    Front output / input
surround21:CARD=E,DEV=0
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=E,DEV=0
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=E,DEV=0
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=E,DEV=0
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=E,DEV=0
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=E,DEV=0
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=E,DEV=0
    Schiit Unison Modius E, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output

Could someone please help me configure my alsa or mpd/ncmpcpp to make it so that my Modius has a consistent card? One solution I have thought of is just to have two audio outputs that cover both scenarios, I'm unsure if this is the right way to do it though. I also think that my Modius being plugged into my USB Anker Hub could be causing the issues, but I assume there is a workaround?

Last edited by birdborn (2025-07-13 22:10:21)

birdborn

Member

Registered: 2025-07-12

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA Changing Card and Device w/ MPD

This is the second time I fixed a problem just by reading the wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanc … e_directly

I fixed the problem just by putting "iec958:CARD=E,DEV=0". Thanks to whoever wrote this beautiful wiki

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,967

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA Changing Card and Device w/ MPD

That method has some drawbacks , the kernel sound modules allow specifing a certain order (which works with everything) .

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanc … Card_index

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

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Try clean chroot manager by graysky

birdborn

Member

Registered: 2025-07-12

Posts: 7

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA Changing Card and Device w/ MPD

That method has some drawbacks , the kernel sound modules allow specifing a certain order (which works with everything) .

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanc … Card_index

Ok thank you I ended up putting 'options snd_usb_audio index=0' in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and changing it back to "iec958:CARD=0,DEV=0"

Last edited by birdborn (2025-07-14 17:01:15)