Beyond Linux® From Scratch (System V Edition) - Version 12.0

Chapter 44. Multimedia Libraries and Drivers

alsa-tools-1.2.5

Introduction to ALSA Tools

The ALSA Tools package contains advanced tools for certain sound cards.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS 12.0 platform.

Package Information

ALSA Tools Dependencies

Required

alsa-lib-1.2.9

Optional

GTK+-2.24.33 (to build echomixer, envy24control and rmedigicontrol), GTK+-3.24.38 (to build hdajackretask) and FLTK-1.3.8 (to build hdspconf and hdspmixer)

Installation of ALSA Tools

[Note]

Note

When installing multiple packages in a script, the installation needs to be done as the root user. There are three general options that can be used to do this:

  1. Run the entire script as the root user (not recommended).

  2. Use the sudo command from the Sudo-1.9.14p3 package.

  3. Use su -c "command arguments" (quotes required) which will ask for the root password for every iteration of the loop.

One way to handle this situation is to create a short bash function that automatically selects the appropriate method. Once the command is set in the environment, it does not need to be set again. 

as_root()
{
  if   [ $EUID = 0 ];        then $*
  elif [ -x /usr/bin/sudo ]; then sudo $*
  else                            su -c \\"$*\\"
  fi
}

export -f as_root

First, start a subshell that will exit on error: 

bash -e

Now, remove a tool that needs Qt2 or 3 and two unneeded files (for the BLFS instructions below): 

rm -rf qlo10k1 Makefile gitcompile

The ALSA Tools package is only needed by those with advanced requirements for their sound card. The tools can be built all together at once, but if only a subset is needed, you need to cd into the directory of each tool you wish to compile and run the commands. Here, we present instructions to build all tools.

Install all ALSA Tools by running the following commands: 

for tool in *
do
  case $tool in
    seq )
      tool_dir=seq/sbiload
    ;;
    * )
      tool_dir=$tool
    ;;
  esac

  pushd $tool_dir
    ./configure --prefix=/usr
    make
    as_root make install
    as_root /sbin/ldconfig
  popd

done
unset tool tool_dir

Finally, exit the shell that was started earlier: 

exit

Contents

Installed Programs: as10k1, cspctl, dl10k1, echomixer, envy24control, hda-verb, hdajackretask, hdajacksensetest, hdspconf, hdsploader, hdspmixer, hwmixvolume, init_audigy, init_audigy_eq10, init_live, lo10k1, ld10k1, ld10k1d, mixartloader, pcxhrloader, rmedigicontrol, sbiload, sscape_ctl, us428control, usx2yloader, and vxloader
Installed Library: liblo10k1.so
Installed Directories: /etc/hotplug, /usr/include/lo10k1, /usr/share/ld10k1, and /usr/share/sounds

Short Descriptions

as10k1

is an assembler for the emu10k1 DSP chip present in the Creative SB Live, PCI 512, and emu APS sound cards. It is used to make audio effects such as a flanger, chorus or reverb

cspctl

is an SB16/AWE32 Creative Signal Processor (ASP/CSP) control program

echomixer

is the Linux equivalent of the Echoaudio console application from Echoaudio. It is a tool to control all the features of any Echoaudio soundcard. This includes clock sources, input and output gains, mixers, etc

envy24control

is a control tool for Envy24 (ice1712) based sound cards

hdajackretask

is a GUI to make it easy to retask your jacks - e g, turn your Mic jack into an extra Headphone, or why not make them both line outs and connect them to your surround receiver

hda-verb

is a small program to send HD-audio commands to the given ALSA hwdep device on the hd-audio interface

hdspconf

is a GUI to control the Hammerfall HDSP Alsa Settings. Up to four hdsp cards are supported

hdsploader

is used to load the firmware required by the Hammerfall HDSP sound cards

hdspmixer

is the Linux equivalent of the Totalmix application from RME. It is a tool to control the advanced routing features of the RME Hammerfall DSP soundcard series

hwmixvolume

allows you to control the volume of individual streams on sound cards that use hardware mixing

init_audigy*

are tools used to initialize Creative Sound Blaster Audigy-series cards

init_live

is a tool used to initialize Creative Sound Blaster Live cards

ld10k1

is the server of a EMU10K{1,2} patch loader for ALSA

lo10k1

is the client of a EMU10K{1,2} patch loader for ALSA

dl10k1

loads config dumps generated by lo10k1 and ld10k1

ld10k1d

is an init script for the ld10k1 patch loader

mixartloader

is a helper program to load the firmware binaries onto the Digigram's miXart board sound drivers. The following modules require this program: snd-mixart. These drivers don't work properly at all until the certain firmware files are loaded, i.e. no PCM nor mixer devices will appear

pcxhrloader

is a helper program to load the firmware binaries onto Digigram's pcxhr compatible board sound drivers. The following modules require this program: snd-pcxhr. These drivers don't work properly at all until certain firmware files are loaded, i.e. no PCM nor mixer devices will appear

rmedigicontrol

is a control tool for RME Digi32 and RME Digi96 sound cards. It provides a graphical frontend for all the sound card controls and switches

sbiload

is an OPL2/3 FM instrument loader for the ALSA sequencer

sscape_ctl

is an ALSA SoundScape control utility

us428control

is a Tascam US-428 control program

usx2yloader

is a helper program to load the 2nd Phase firmware binaries onto the Tascam USX2Y USB sound cards. It has proven to work so far for the US122, US224 and US428. The snd-usb-usx2y module requires this program

vxloader

is a helper program to load the firmware binaries onto the Digigram's VX-board sound drivers. The following modules require this program: snd-vx222, snd-vxpocket, snd-vxp440. These drivers don't work properly at all until the certain firmware files are loaded, i.e. no PCM nor mixer devices will appear