ALSA: No /dev/dsp and /dev/sound/ [SOLVED]

JackSchnippes · 2010-06-16 16:45:07

Hello Arch Community,

I'm an Arch newbie, but have several years of Debian/Ubuntu experience. I installed Arch linux on my PC and can't get ALSA working. I installed ALSA according to the Wiki page. Here's the deal:

- "/dev/dsp" and "/dev/sound/dsp" DO NOT EXIST
- I got 2 soundcards and they are being recognized correctly
- modules are loaded
- alsamixer shows my default card (T22, snd_ice1724) and displays everything as expected
- card is not muted except SPDIF (I use analog out)
- I blacklisted the OSS modules in /etc/rc.conf ( MODULES=(!snd_pcm_oss !snd_mixer_oss !snd_seq_oss) )
- I added my user to the 'audio' group
- packages alsa-utils and alsa-oss are installed
- I had pulseaudio installed, but removed it (want to use ALSA only, Card does Hardware mixing)

Pls help, I'm stuck How do I get "/dev/dsp" and "/dev/sound/dsp" ? the alsa modules should be responsible for adding those devices, right?

$ groups jack
wheel network video audio optical storage users

.asoundrc:

pcm.!default {
    type hw
    card T22
}
ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card T22
}

 $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: T22 [Terratec PHASE 22], device 0: ICE1724 [ICE1724]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: T22 [Terratec PHASE 22], device 1: ICE1724 IEC958 [ICE1724 IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CK8S [NVidia CK8S], device 0: Intel ICH [NVidia CK8S]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: CK8S [NVidia CK8S], device 2: Intel ICH - IEC958 [NVidia CK8S - IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

 $ ls -la /dev/snd/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root      300 Jun 16 18:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root     5720 Jun 16 18:34 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root       80 Jun 16 18:34 by-path
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116, 13 Jun 16 18:34 controlC0
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  7 Jun 16 18:34 controlC1
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  8 Jun 16 18:34 midiC0D0
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116, 12 Jun 16 18:34 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116, 11 Jun 16 18:34 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116, 10 Jun 16 18:34 pcmC0D1c
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  9 Jun 16 18:34 pcmC0D1p
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  6 Jun 16 18:34 pcmC1D0c
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  5 Jun 16 18:34 pcmC1D0p
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  4 Jun 16 18:34 pcmC1D1c
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  3 Jun 16 18:34 pcmC1D2p
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  2 Jun 16 18:34 timer

 $ lsmod|grep '^snd' | column -t
snd_ice1724         93404  0
snd_rawmidi         15247  1   snd_ice1724
snd_seq_device      4349   1   snd_rawmidi
snd_ice17xx_ak4xxx  1956   1   snd_ice1724
snd_ak4xxx_adda     7366   2   snd_ice1724,snd_ice17xx_ak4xxx
snd_ak4114          5941   1   snd_ice1724
snd_pt2258          2460   1   snd_ice1724
snd_i2c             3169   2   snd_ice1724,snd_pt2258
snd_ak4113          5664   1   snd_ice1724
snd_intel8x0        22200  0
snd_ac97_codec      87943  2   snd_ice1724,snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm             57767  5   snd_ice1724,snd_ak4114,snd_ak4113,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer           15629  1   snd_pcm
snd                 42562  12  snd_ice1724,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ak4xxx_adda,snd_ak4114,snd_pt2258,snd_i2c,snd_ak4113,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc      5873   2   snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm

EDIT:
some more info... just found out my message log complains a lot about the blacklisted OSS modules. short excerpt:

load-modules.sh: Not loading module 'snd-pcm-oss' for alias 'snd-pcm-oss' because its dependency 'snd_mixer_oss' is blacklisted
load-modules.sh: Not loading module 'snd-seq-oss' for alias 'snd-seq-oss' because its dependency 'snd_seq_oss' is blacklisted

Last edited by JackSchnippes (2010-06-16 22:58:19)

ChemBro · 2010-06-16 21:43:44

JackSchnippes wrote:

How do I get "/dev/dsp" and "/dev/sound/dsp" ?

You shouldn't get "/dev/dsp" with ALSA. It's "hw:0,0" for example. You can find the right sound card with "cat /proc/asound/pcm".

JackSchnippes · 2010-06-16 21:51:17

AFAIK, alsa-oss provides "/dev/dsp", too.

alsaplayer's output when I try to play a file:
"failed to configure output device...trying OSS"

Last edited by JackSchnippes (2010-06-16 21:59:01)

Themaister · 2010-06-16 21:54:34

- I blacklisted the OSS modules in /etc/rc.conf ( MODULES=(!snd_pcm_oss !snd_mixer_oss !snd_seq_oss) )
- "/dev/dsp" and "/dev/sound/dsp" DO NOT EXIST

snd_pcm_oss provides the /dev/dsp and /dev/sound/dsp stuff. Blacklisting those modules does indeed remove the devices.

alsa-oss is simply a program that hooks calls to e.g. /dev/dsp and emulates the OSS api using alsa. In that case you do not need /dev/dsp, etc.

JackSchnippes · 2010-06-16 22:54:11

@themaister: thanks for pointing that out!
I removed those modules from rc.conf and added my soundcard modules (according to wiki):

MODULES=(snd-ice1724 snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm-oss)

I now have "dev/dsp" and "/dev/dsp1", but still no "/dev/sound/dsp" (though I'm not sure if I need this).

Hmmmm... It works! I don't know what did it. I retried several steps of the wiki. The last steps I tried were adding my cards with indices to /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf and having alsaconf set up /dev/modprobe.d/sound.conf. Outputs are stille the same as in my first thread. Maybe I got mixed up along the way with pulseaudio installation/removal and blacklisting modules...

Last edited by JackSchnippes (2010-06-16 22:58:54)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-06-16 16:45:07

ALSA: No /dev/dsp and /dev/sound/ [SOLVED]

#2 2010-06-16 21:43:44

Re: ALSA: No /dev/dsp and /dev/sound/ [SOLVED]

#3 2010-06-16 21:51:17

Re: ALSA: No /dev/dsp and /dev/sound/ [SOLVED]

#4 2010-06-16 21:54:34

Re: ALSA: No /dev/dsp and /dev/sound/ [SOLVED]

#5 2010-06-16 22:54:11

Re: ALSA: No /dev/dsp and /dev/sound/ [SOLVED]

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