Alsa Sound Configuration

intel-hda setup

I like being able to play multiple audio steams at the same time through one sound card.

First, run (as root):

# system-config-soundcard

This will create a /etc/asound.conf file based on your soundcard (mine is the intel-hda card).

(this is what mine looked like:)

#Generated by system-config-soundcard, do not edit by hand
#SWCONF
#DEV 0
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.ctl.card 0

After running the above command, I had to add some dmix (software sound mixing) settings to my /etc/asound.conf ¹⁾:

We basically just customize our default sound card's pcm settings (my default card is card 0). Notice that I customize pcm.card0 and then add a pcm.dmixer (which is referenced in pcm.card0)

Make sure you set the pcm “hw:0,0” in the pcm.dmixer configuration area to match your default card

#Generated by system-config-soundcard, do not edit by hand
#SWCONF
#DEV 0
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.ctl.card 0

pcm.card0 {
        type plug
        slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dmixer {
        type dmix
        ipc_key 1025
        slave {
                pcm "hw:0,0"
                period_time 0
                period_size 4096
                buffer_size 16384
                periods 128
                rate 44100
        }
        bindings {
                0 0
                1 1
        }
}

fc6, fedora, linux

¹⁾ http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/asoundrc.php?module=hda-intel