Setting Up Sound Cards

Most sound cards are detected automatically and configured with the appropriate values. In YaST, use Hardware+Sound if you want to add a problematic sound card that could not be configured automatically or change the default settings. It is also possible to set up additional sound cards or switch their order.

	Probing for Old Sound Chips
If you know a legacy sound board is installed in your computer and YaST was not able to find a sound board, when probing, let YaST probe for old chips. In the pop-up that appears after having unsuccessfully probed for sound chips, choose which legacy chips to probe and click Yes, probe.

If YaST cannot detect your sound card automatically, proceed as follows:

Click Add to open a dialog in which to select a sound card vendor and model. Refer to your sound card documentation for the required information. Find a reference list of sound cards supported by ALSA with their corresponding sound modules in /usr/share/doc/packages/alsa/cards.txt and at http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/.
Make your choice and click Next.
In the Sound Card Configuration dialog, choose the configuration level in the first setup screen:
Quick automatic setup
You are not required to go through any of the further configuration steps and no sound test is performed. The sound card is configured automatically.
Normal setup
Adjust the output volume and play a test sound.
Advanced setup with possibility to change options
Customize all settings manually.
Click Next to continue.
In Sound Card Volume, test your sound configuration and make adjustments to the volume. You should start at about ten percent to avoid damage to your hearing or the speakers. A test sound should be audible when you click Test. If you cannot hear anything, increase the volume. Press Next+Finish to complete the sound configuration.

If you want to change the configuration of a sound card, go to the Sound Configuration dialog, select a displayed Card Model and click Edit. Use Delete to remove a sound card altogether.

Click the Other popup menu to customize one of the following options manually:

Volume...: Use this dialog for setting the volume.
Play Test Sound: Use this option for testing the sound system.
Start Sequencer: Check this option for playback of MIDI files.
Set as the Primary Card: Click Set as the Primary Card if you want to adjust the order of your sound cards. The sound device with index 0 is the default device and thus used by the system and the applications.
PulseAudio Configuration...: Enter this dialog if you want to disable the PulseAudio sound system in case you want to use something else system-wide.

If you use a Creative Soundblaster Live, Audigy or AWE sound card, copy SF2 SoundFonts™ to your hard disk from the original Soundblaster driver CD-ROM with Install SoundFonts. The SoundFonts are saved in the directory /usr/share/sfbank/creative/.

The volume and configuration of all sound cards installed are saved when you click Finish. The mixer settings are saved to the file /etc/asound.conf and the ALSA configuration data is appended to the end of the files /etc/modprobe.d/sound and /etc/sysconfig/hardware.