the usual alsa troubleshooting commands

Some commands I use to get alsa going like I want it to.

Get the names of the sound cards:

peter@ubustu:~$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
HDMI
HDMI_1
M1010
M2x2
BCR2000

Get the names of the snd modules for the cards:

peter@ubustu:~$ cat /proc/asound/modules
0 snd_hda_intel
1 snd_hda_intel
2 snd_ice1712
3 snd_usb_audio
4 snd_usb_audio

Set the default soundcard: (this is obsolete)

peter@ubustu:~$ asoundconf set-default-card M1010

Edit the alsa-base file:

peter@ubustu:~$ sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Alternative ways, get more info about the sound cards:

peter@ubustu:~$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [HDMI ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfe8e8000 irq 19
1 [HDMI_1 ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfe9ec000 irq 19
2 [M1010 ]: ICE1712 - M Audio Delta 1010
M Audio Delta 1010 at 0xe800, irq 21
3 [M2x2 ]: USB-Audio - MidiSport 2x2
M-Audio MidiSport 2x2 at usb-0000:00:12.1-1, full speed
4 [BCR2000 ]: USB-Audio - BCR2000
BEHRINGER BCR2000 at usb-0000:00:12.1-2, full speed

peter@ubustu:~$ cat /proc/asound/pcm
00-03: ATI HDMI : ATI HDMI : playback 1
01-03: ATI HDMI : ATI HDMI : playback 1
02-00: ICE1712 multi : ICE1712 multi : playback 1 : capture 1

peter@ubustu:~$ lspci | grep udio
01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RS780 Azalia controller
02:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RV620 Audio device [Radeon HD 34xx Series]
05:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. ICE1712 [Envy24] PCI Multi-Channel I/O Controller (rev 02)

Get info about your alsa driver version and kernel:

peter@ubustu:~$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.16.
Compiled on Dec 2 2008 for kernel 2.6.24-23-rt (SMP).

Info about USB devices:

peter@ubustu:~$ lsusb
[snip]
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0763:1002 Midiman (= the M-Audio Midisport 2x2)
[snip]
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 04b4:6830 Cypress Semiconductor Corp. USB-2.0 IDE Adapter (= the Behringer BCR2000)
[snip]

Alsa configuration files:

~/.asoundrc
user-specific ALSA library configuration file

~/.asoundrc.asoundconf
file containing asoundconf-managed parameter settings

asoundconf manual:

peter@ubustu:~$ man asoundconf

Now I won't forget these anymore, if you've know other commands that I forgot about, please be welcome to leave them in the comments.

Edit: here's a nice diagram to show the structure of how ALSA works: