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1 NOTES ON KERNEL OSS-EMULATION
2 =============================
3
4 Jan. 22, 2004 Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
5
6
7Modules
8=======
9
10ALSA provides a powerful OSS emulation on the kernel.
11The OSS emulation for PCM, mixer and sequencer devices is implemented
12as add-on kernel modules, snd-pcm-oss, snd-mixer-oss and snd-seq-oss.
13When you need to access the OSS PCM, mixer or sequencer devices, the
14corresponding module has to be loaded.
15
16These modules are loaded automatically when the corresponding service
17is called. The alias is defined sound-service-x-y, where x and y are
18the card number and the minor unit number. Usually you don't have to
19define these aliases by yourself.
20
21Only necessary step for auto-loading of OSS modules is to define the
22card alias in /etc/modprobe.conf, such as
23
24 alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1
25
26As the second card, define sound-slot-1 as well.
27Note that you can't use the aliased name as the target name (i.e.
28"alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0" doesn't work any more like the old
29modutils).
30
31The currently available OSS configuration is shown in
32/proc/asound/oss/sndstat. This shows in the same syntax of
33/dev/sndstat, which is available on the commercial OSS driver.
34On ALSA, you can symlink /dev/sndstat to this proc file.
35
36Please note that the devices listed in this proc file appear only
37after the corresponding OSS-emulation module is loaded. Don't worry
38even if "NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG" is shown in it.
39
40
41Device Mapping
42==============
43
44ALSA supports the following OSS device files:
45
46 PCM:
47 /dev/dspX
48 /dev/adspX
49
50 Mixer:
51 /dev/mixerX
52
53 MIDI:
54 /dev/midi0X
55 /dev/amidi0X
56
57 Sequencer:
58 /dev/sequencer
59 /dev/sequencer2 (aka /dev/music)
60
61where X is the card number from 0 to 7.
62
63(NOTE: Some distributions have the device files like /dev/midi0 and
64 /dev/midi1. They are NOT for OSS but for tclmidi, which is
65 a totally different thing.)
66
67Unlike the real OSS, ALSA cannot use the device files more than the
68assigned ones. For example, the first card cannot use /dev/dsp1 or
69/dev/dsp2, but only /dev/dsp0 and /dev/adsp0.
70
71As seen above, PCM and MIDI may have two devices. Usually, the first
72PCM device (hw:0,0 in ALSA) is mapped to /dev/dsp and the secondary
73device (hw:0,1) to /dev/adsp (if available). For MIDI, /dev/midi and
74/dev/amidi, respectively.
75
76You can change this device mapping via the module options of
77snd-pcm-oss and snd-rawmidi. In the case of PCM, the following
78options are available for snd-pcm-oss:
79
80 dsp_map PCM device number assigned to /dev/dspX
81 (default = 0)
82 adsp_map PCM device number assigned to /dev/adspX
83 (default = 1)
84
85For example, to map the third PCM device (hw:0,2) to /dev/adsp0,
86define like this:
87
88 options snd-pcm-oss adsp_map=2
89
90The options take arrays. For configuring the second card, specify
91two entries separated by comma. For example, to map the third PCM
92device on the second card to /dev/adsp1, define like below:
93
94 options snd-pcm-oss adsp_map=0,2
95
96To change the mapping of MIDI devices, the following options are
97available for snd-rawmidi:
98
99 midi_map MIDI device number assigned to /dev/midi0X
100 (default = 0)
101 amidi_map MIDI device number assigned to /dev/amidi0X
102 (default = 1)
103
104For example, to assign the third MIDI device on the first card to
105/dev/midi00, define as follows:
106
107 options snd-rawmidi midi_map=2
108
109
110PCM Mode
111========
112
113As default, ALSA emulates the OSS PCM with so-called plugin layer,
114i.e. tries to convert the sample format, rate or channels
115automatically when the card doesn't support it natively.
116This will lead to some problems for some applications like quake or
117wine, especially if they use the card only in the MMAP mode.
118
119In such a case, you can change the behavior of PCM per application by
120writing a command to the proc file. There is a proc file for each PCM
121stream, /proc/asound/cardX/pcmY[cp]/oss, where X is the card number
122(zero-based), Y the PCM device number (zero-based), and 'p' is for
123playback and 'c' for capture, respectively. Note that this proc file
124exists only after snd-pcm-oss module is loaded.
125
126The command sequence has the following syntax:
127
128 app_name fragments fragment_size [options]
129
130app_name is the name of application with (higher priority) or without
131path.
132fragments specifies the number of fragments or zero if no specific
133number is given.
134fragment_size is the size of fragment in bytes or zero if not given.
135options is the optional parameters. The following options are
136available:
137
138 disable the application tries to open a pcm device for
139 this channel but does not want to use it.
140 direct don't use plugins
141 block force block open mode
142 non-block force non-block open mode
143 partial-frag write also partial fragments (affects playback only)
144 no-silence do not fill silence ahead to avoid clicks
145
146The disable option is useful when one stream direction (playback or
147capture) is not handled correctly by the application although the
148hardware itself does support both directions.
149The direct option is used, as mentioned above, to bypass the automatic
150conversion and useful for MMAP-applications.
151For example, to playback the first PCM device without plugins for
152quake, send a command via echo like the following:
153
154 % echo "quake 0 0 direct" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
155
156While quake wants only playback, you may append the second command
157to notify driver that only this direction is about to be allocated:
158
159 % echo "quake 0 0 disable" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/oss
160
161The permission of proc files depend on the module options of snd.
162As default it's set as root, so you'll likely need to be superuser for
163sending the command above.
164
165The block and non-block options are used to change the behavior of
166opening the device file.
167
168As default, ALSA behaves as original OSS drivers, i.e. does not block
169the file when it's busy. The -EBUSY error is returned in this case.
170
171This blocking behavior can be changed globally via nonblock_open
172module option of snd-pcm-oss. For using the blocking mode as default
173for OSS devices, define like the following:
174
175 options snd-pcm-oss nonblock_open=0
176
177The partial-frag and no-silence commands have been added recently.
178Both commands are for optimization use only. The former command
179specifies to invoke the write transfer only when the whole fragment is
180filled. The latter stops writing the silence data ahead
181automatically. Both are disabled as default.
182
183You can check the currently defined configuration by reading the proc
184file. The read image can be sent to the proc file again, hence you
185can save the current configuration
186
187 % cat /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss > /somewhere/oss-cfg
188
189and restore it like
190
191 % cat /somewhere/oss-cfg > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
192
193Also, for clearing all the current configuration, send "erase" command
194as below:
195
196 % echo "erase" > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/oss
197
198
199Mixer Elements
200==============
201
202Since ALSA has completely different mixer interface, the emulation of
203OSS mixer is relatively complicated. ALSA builds up a mixer element
204from several different ALSA (mixer) controls based on the name
205string. For example, the volume element SOUND_MIXER_PCM is composed
206from "PCM Playback Volume" and "PCM Playback Switch" controls for the
207playback direction and from "PCM Capture Volume" and "PCM Capture
208Switch" for the capture directory (if exists). When the PCM volume of
209OSS is changed, all the volume and switch controls above are adjusted
210automatically.
211
212As default, ALSA uses the following control for OSS volumes:
213
214 OSS volume ALSA control Index
215 -----------------------------------------------------
216 SOUND_MIXER_VOLUME Master 0
217 SOUND_MIXER_BASS Tone Control - Bass 0
218 SOUND_MIXER_TREBLE Tone Control - Treble 0
219 SOUND_MIXER_SYNTH Synth 0
220 SOUND_MIXER_PCM PCM 0
221 SOUND_MIXER_SPEAKER PC Speaker 0
222 SOUND_MIXER_LINE Line 0
223 SOUND_MIXER_MIC Mic 0
224 SOUND_MIXER_CD CD 0
225 SOUND_MIXER_IMIX Monitor Mix 0
226 SOUND_MIXER_ALTPCM PCM 1
227 SOUND_MIXER_RECLEV (not assigned)
228 SOUND_MIXER_IGAIN Capture 0
229 SOUND_MIXER_OGAIN Playback 0
230 SOUND_MIXER_LINE1 Aux 0
231 SOUND_MIXER_LINE2 Aux 1
232 SOUND_MIXER_LINE3 Aux 2
233 SOUND_MIXER_DIGITAL1 Digital 0
234 SOUND_MIXER_DIGITAL2 Digital 1
235 SOUND_MIXER_DIGITAL3 Digital 2
236 SOUND_MIXER_PHONEIN Phone 0
237 SOUND_MIXER_PHONEOUT Phone 1
238 SOUND_MIXER_VIDEO Video 0
239 SOUND_MIXER_RADIO Radio 0
240 SOUND_MIXER_MONITOR Monitor 0
241
242The second column is the base-string of the corresponding ALSA
243control. In fact, the controls with "XXX [Playback|Capture]
244[Volume|Switch]" will be checked in addition.
245
246The current assignment of these mixer elements is listed in the proc
247file, /proc/asound/cardX/oss_mixer, which will be like the following
248
249 VOLUME "Master" 0
250 BASS "" 0
251 TREBLE "" 0
252 SYNTH "" 0
253 PCM "PCM" 0
254 ...
255
256where the first column is the OSS volume element, the second column
257the base-string of the corresponding ALSA control, and the third the
258control index. When the string is empty, it means that the
259corresponding OSS control is not available.
260
261For changing the assignment, you can write the configuration to this
262proc file. For example, to map "Wave Playback" to the PCM volume,
263send the command like the following:
264
265 % echo 'VOLUME "Wave Playback" 0' > /proc/asound/card0/oss_mixer
266
267The command is exactly as same as listed in the proc file. You can
268change one or more elements, one volume per line. In the last
269example, both "Wave Playback Volume" and "Wave Playback Switch" will
270be affected when PCM volume is changed.
271
272Like the case of PCM proc file, the permission of proc files depend on
273the module options of snd. you'll likely need to be superuser for
274sending the command above.
275
276As well as in the case of PCM proc file, you can save and restore the
277current mixer configuration by reading and writing the whole file
278image.
279
280
281Unsupported Features
282====================
283
284MMAP on ICE1712 driver
285----------------------
286ICE1712 supports only the unconventional format, interleaved
28710-channels 24bit (packed in 32bit) format. Therefore you cannot mmap
288the buffer as the conventional (mono or 2-channels, 8 or 16bit) format
289on OSS.
290
291USB devices
292-----------
293Some USB devices support only 24bit format packed in 3bytes. This
294format is not supported by OSS and no conversion is provided by kernel
295OSS emulation. You can use the user-space OSS emulation via libaoss
296instead.
297