Alternatives for sound

Doug Laidlaw

I have a Gigabyte S-series mobo with nvidia/realtek sound. For dictation, I
use a USB headset.

The only way I can switch between the two under Mdv 2008 and earlier is to
set the soundcard as "auto" in BIOS/Integrated Peripherals to use it, and
as "disabled" when I want the headset. Windows gives me the choice
under "auto".

The issue under Linux seems to be loading the correct kernel modules during
bootup. Is there a more convenient alternative? One way I can think of is
a pair of scripts to swap the modules as root user. I have heard something
about setting the order with ALSA, but it sounds as though it would still
need a reboot.

Doug.

David W. Hodgins

On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:32:05 -0500, Doug Laidlaw <doug@dougshost.invalid> wrote:

> The issue under Linux seems to be loading the correct kernel modules during
> bootup. Is there a more convenient alternative? One way I can think of is
> a pair of scripts to swap the modules as root user. I have heard something
> about setting the order with ALSA, but it sounds as though it would still
> need a reboot.

I should be just a matter of selecting which device you want to use, using
kmix, aumix, etc.

If it does require unloading/loading of modules, the scripts would have
to stop any program using /dev/snd, then the sound service, then
running modprobe -r, for each already loaded module, then modprobe the
other modules, and then restart the sound service. A bit of a pain to
do, and shouldn't be needed, but is possible.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

--
Change nomail.afraid.org to ody.ca to reply by email.
(nomail.afraid.org has been set up specifically for
use in usenet. Feel free to use it yourself.)

Doug Laidlaw

David W. Hodgins wrote:

> On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:32:05 -0500, Doug Laidlaw <doug@dougshost.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>> The issue under Linux seems to be loading the correct kernel modules
>> during
>> bootup. Is there a more convenient alternative? One way I can think of
>> is
>> a pair of scripts to swap the modules as root user. I have heard
>> something about setting the order with ALSA, but it sounds as though it
>> would still need a reboot.
>
> I should be just a matter of selecting which device you want to use, using
> kmix, aumix, etc.
>
> If it does require unloading/loading of modules, the scripts would have
> to stop any program using /dev/snd, then the sound service, then
> running modprobe -r, for each already loaded module, then modprobe the
> other modules, and then restart the sound service. A bit of a pain to
> do, and shouldn't be needed, but is possible.
>
> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>
Thanks David. With the BIOS set to "auto" and with the headset plugged in,
both drivers are available from Kmix - theoretically. The problem seems to
be that the USB headset needs OSS emulation, and that seems to get in the
way of the Nvidia driver. I haven't checked with Knoppix recently.
Knoppix is usually pretty good with detecting audio, but it was no better
last time I looked.

Doug.