[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#282602: SoundBlaster Live! and multi-card support in Alsa

[Stephen Kitt]

Hi,

All the discussion so far reminds me of another possibility, rather
than just a "conflict" of some type between snd_bt87x and
snd_emu10k1. Couldn't the symptoms be the result of Alsa's multi-card
support?

The difference the submitter saw was that when his Bt878 was handled
by Alsa, some programs using his SB Live! failed. This could happen
if snd_bt87x is loaded first, and thus becomes sound card 0 - by
default OSS requests will go there, as will Alsa requests to
"default", which could explain the various symptoms. (I don't know
what snd_bt87x's OSS support is like.)

It may be worth checking the contents of /proc/asound/cards. If
"Live" isn't card 0, fixing it is fairly straightforward: on every
sound card module in Alsa, the index option specifies the position in
the list of cards. With a 2.6 kernel, adding a file in
/etc/modprobe.d with the following contents

options snd-emu10k1 index=0
options snd-bt87x index=1

or adding the index options to existing files specifying options for
those modules, and reloading all the modules, should fix things...

(Assuming of course the problem with the conflict between
kernel-image's and alsa-modules' modules is resolved.)

Regards,

Stephen