How to tell Puppy which sound card to use?

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer audio hardware
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maynard70
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon 04 Feb 2013, 18:03

How to tell Puppy which sound card to use?

#1 Post by maynard70 »

Hi All.

Fairly new to Linux and am Running the Puppy 0.52 USB Stick distro on a P4 Dell Optiplex. (Kernel 2.6.33.2) Works pretty well, and is plenty fast for what I need it for, just a simple internet audio player and server.

Strange probem, though... The machine came with two sound cards, one internal on the mobo and the other a PCI slot. Here's the issue - on an initial boot-up, the OS will not select one or the other card and stick with it.

To clarify... sometimes, on a boot, one card will load, and on another boot, the other will load. It's either one or the other that the OS selects - and no, both will not work at the same time. (I'm getting tired of having to switch out the audio jack!) I've tried removing the PCI slot card altogether, but when I do that, the internal mobo card won't load at all. Can't figure out why. However, once the OS finds a card and loads it, I can use the machine all day with no problems.

It's like I have to have both connected for either of them to work, and it's a crap-shoot on which one the OS will choose on every boot. I've played around with the system settings and the mixer settings, but nothing is working. I don't care which one is in use, the audio quality is the same for either one, I just need to figure out how to force the OS into finding ONE card, initializing/loading it, and staying with it, forever.

Any ideas? (Keep in mind I'm not a Linux expert, but I can follow instructions!)

Thanks... M.

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Flash
Official Dog Handler
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Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

#2 Post by Flash »

Have you considered removing one of the sound cards?

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OscarTalks
Posts: 2196
Joined: Mon 06 Feb 2012, 00:58
Location: London, England

#3 Post by OscarTalks »

The solution to the "default soundcard = random" situation with 2 soundcards is to edit the file:-

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

adding 2 lines at the end thus:-

options snd-defaultmodule index=0
options snd-secondcardmodule index=1

A couple of examples which I have to do (the text I have to add to the file) are:-

Code: Select all

options snd-hda-intel index=0
options snd-cmipci index=1
and on a different machine

Code: Select all

options snd-intel8x0 index=0
options snd-ca0106 index=1
There should be a carriage return on the end so you have started a new blank line.

You need to figure out which your 2 driver modules are for your 2 soundcards and which one you want as the default and insert the names for your machine. The default card is defined as index=0 and the second card as index=1

Look in /proc/asound/modules to see the sound modules and hopefully it should be easy to figure out which is which.
Oscar in England
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