> [switching from OSS to ALSA]
> apt-get alsa-base alsa-headers alsa-oss alsa-utils alsaplayer
> alsaplayer-alsa alsaplayer-common alsaplayer-gtk alsaplayer-oss
>
> On my debian sarge with 2.6.7-1-686 Standard Kernel.

So the Libraries and Apps are installed.

> I don't know, I expected apt to ask me to remove oss or configure
> alsa, so that all apps use it instead of oss. But no questions were
> asked and alsa was installed without a hitch and without a question.

OSS doesn't have any packages containing libs like ALSA. To use it, you only need the drivers from the kernel-image package. So there is nothing to uninstall, except maybe for output plugins of your applications.

> I tried xmms with the alsa output plugin: it didn't work. So then
> I ran alsaconf. Which has let me choose my soundcard and so I did. It
> then told me that alsa is ready to run. Nevertheless: xmms and
> alsaplayer play but no sound.
>
> I googled a bit and found that you may have to do some more things
> like:  add the following in /etc/modutils/aliases for my soundcard
> (it's an intel soundcard in an IBM Thinkpad t40p):

There is no need to do that. First, if you use Kernel 2.6, you must make the changes to /etc/modprobe.d, not /etc/modutils. Second, the debian package management and alsaconf should take care of that. On my system I have:

andreas@sirius:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm
&& /sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss
install snd-mixer /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-mixer
&& /sbin/modprobe snd-mixer-oss
install snd-seq /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-seq
&& /sbin/modprobe snd-seq-oss

andreas@sirius:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1

The only thing I had to do was to add snd-emu10k1 to /etc/modules, because without it the init script for setting the default volume failed.

> I rebooted (just to be on the save side) and started Gnome, I again
> tried to run XMMS with the alsa output plugin, but it didn't work.
> Nevertheless the OSS ouput plugin still works.

That probably means that the OSS driver module is loaded before the alsa module is loaded. That way ALSA can't work. You need to make sure that the OSS driver is not loaded. Check /etc/modules for the driver, and /etc/modprobe.d/* for entries like

alias sound-slot-0 driver

where driver does /not/ begin with snd.

> I did /etc/init.d/alsa start (and also reload and force-reload, but no
> option makes alsaplayer/XMMS work)

That will only reload the volume settings.

Andreas Janssen

> apt-get alsa-base alsa-headers alsa-oss alsa-utils alsaplayer
> alsaplayer-alsa alsaplayer-common alsaplayer-gtk alsaplayer-oss

You don't need alsa-headers unless you are a developer. You don't need alsa-oss unless you want to use ALSA's OSS compatibility drivers.

The alsaplayer* packages are rather irrelevant here; they are components of the ALSA music player and not of the ALSA drivers.

> On my debian sarge with 2.6.7-1-686 Standard Kernel.
>
> I don't know, I expected apt to ask me to remove oss or configure alsa,
> so that all apps use it instead of oss.

There are no OSS packages per se, although there are quite a few packages that are written to the OSS API. For these to work you need drivers that support that API — either the OSS drivers themselves or the ALSA OSS-compatibility drivers.

> I tried xmms with the alsa output plugin: it didn't work.

A common reason for ALSA seeming to fail to work after it is first installed is that all the output levels are set to zero. Install gamix and see if you can increase the levels above zero.

> I googled a bit and found that you may have to do some more things
> like:  add the following in /etc/modutils/aliases

You are using Linux 2.6 so /etc/modutils/ is not used. The relevant directory for you is /etc/modprobe.d/ but you shouldn't need to put anything in there other than /etc/modprobe.d/alsa which is included in alsa-base.

> I rebooted (just to be on the save side) and started Gnome, I again
> tried to run XMMS with the alsa output plugin, but it didn't work.
> Nevertheless the OSS ouput plugin still works.

Are you sure that the OSS drivers are not loaded? Check by running lsmod.

> Probably I still have oss running and that prevents alsa from doing it's
> job, but I don't know how to go on from here: how do I disable OSS, how
> enable alsa properly? What is the right way to install alsa on debian
> anyway?

If the problem is that OSS modules are loading then you need to configure whatever is loading them so that they don't do that. Discover and hotplug are the usual culprits.

A quick hack is to move the OSS drivers out of /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/sound to some location where the module loader won't find them.

Thomas Hood

Hi Andreas and Thomas,

It seems something has loaded OSS before alsa, and removing the OSS drivers from their folder as suggested has worked… It was just a matter of alsa being set to volume zero and the wrong driver being loaded.