Re: [linux-audio-user] .asoundrc for dummies

Lee Revell wrote:
> Normal users should never have to understand .asoundrc syntax or use
> an .asoundrc at all. The best advice you can give is to forget there is
> any such thing as an .asoundrc, and consider it an ALSA bug if their
> soundcard does not do the right thing without one.

I for one couldn't get ALSA to work with an USB-mic for recording and
my regular onboard sound card for playback without one.

I still do not fully understand what that little file does exactly, but
overrides the default setting, setting an asym-type and defines playback and
capture PCMs. I still do not know why slave.pcm is defined the way it is defined
and not within {} brackets as it says in the alsa wiki. I would NEVER have been
able to figure out the syntax all by myself. :)

I know that back in the days, when men were men and wrote their own device
drivers, this was not a very big problem. But now are the days of the point-
and-click-user that does not aspire to grow a unix-beard just to get their sound
system to work, and I would like to help them understand just a tiny bit of the
general picture, not going too deep into the realms of ALSA developers. ;)

The first line in what I've written so far about the .asoundrc is (translated):
"You generally do not need a /etc/asound.conf or .asoundrc file to get things
working correctly." So, that advice is already given, as I took it from the alsa-wiki.

There are plenty of resources doing fairly advanced things with .asoundrc on
several sites around the web, but nothing that bridges the leap between utter
ignorance and .. well, whatever you guys call yourselves. ;)

But anyway, thanks for the answer, I'll just have to dig in and grow a beard. :)

Regards,
Mathias
Received on Fri Oct 20 12:15:02 2006