The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) provides audio and MIDI functionality to the Linux operating system 0.
First verify that you have alsa-utils installed:
$ kiss b alsa-utils
$ kiss i alsa-utils
By default, ALSA routes audio to card “0” and device “0” (see /etc/asound.conf file), which may not be preferred. Luckily, we can change this behavior via local user configuration:
~/.asoundrc, simple example:
defaults.pcm!card 1
defaults.pcm.!device 7
In the example, the numeric device name is specified. When multiple sound cards are in use, the device numbers could be reordered across boots, such that using a descriptive device name is preferred.
You can then test your local sound card configuration with the command below:
$ speaker-test -c 2
Note: Replace the “2” to match the number of channels in your sound card.
Use the following command to obtain a list of available sound card and device numbers:
$ aplay -L
A list of descriptive device names can be obtained with the following command:
$ cat /sys/class/sound/card*/id
Use the following command to open an easy to use, terminal based alsa control interface:
$ alsamixer
More “complex” .asoundrc configuration file examples can be found on the Gentoo Wiki 1 and Arch Linux Wiki 2.