Hardy 8.04 & OSS4 (Alternative to ALSA)

[Yellow Pasque]

Reverting to ALSA
If, for some reason, you want to go back to ALSA, here is the procedure: (I tested this myself on my test system)

sudo soundoff
sudo dpkg -r oss-linux
sudo dpkg-reconfigure linux-sound-base
sudo apt-get -y install libesd-alsa0 alsa-oss alsa-base libsdl1.2debian-alsa
gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

The preceding command opens your blacklist file in the text editor. Delete all the lines from "blacklist snd-seq" down to the end of the file (make sure the last line in the file refers to a snd module and was not added by another program).
Restart the PC.
Now, re-install ALSA kernel modules with this script: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=820959
Go to System -> Preferences -> Sounds and select Autodetect or ALSA
Any applications that you configured for OSS should be changed back to ALSA, although they should work with the alsa-oss wrapper.

Optionally, you can setup and configure PulseAudio. I have no experience with this, but I have seen guides for it (use search). If you do, remember to install the Pulse-compatible libflashsupport package:

sudo apt-get install libflashsupport

[itsjareds]

Ok, a few questions:

1. My sound doesn't go into the headphones when they're plugged in. It just plays out of the computer. Any way to fix that? Before, when I was using ALSA, it only went through the headphones and not the computer

2. How do I get it to work via the volume control?

[coolen]

Are they actually coming through your headphones, or just not muting your speakers?

OSS doesn't have jack sensitivity. To get around this, I wrote a few simple scripts to toggle/mute/unmute the internal speakers, and used xbindkeys to create shortcuts.

#! /bin/bash

if [[ $(ossmix -c | head -n 2 | grep ON) == '' ]]
then ossmix jack.int-speaker.mute ON
else ossmix jack.int-speaker.mute OFF
fi

This may not work for you. It depends on the fact that my internal speakers occupy the first two lines of output. May be useful to you, though.

For the volume control, did you follow the instructions in the first addendum? I had to reboot to get it all working.

[beerfan]

Temüjin,

I am following your guide step by step in preparation to replace ALSA with OSS. I notice that Ubuntu uses a modular blacklist system with OSS currently blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss so you should probably update your guide to say something like the following.

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss
sudo ln -s /lib/linux-sound-base/noALSA.modprobe.conf /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-alsa

This would make reverting easier.

[beerfan]

HOLY MOLY

I was getting extremely tired of the hissing noise coming out of my speakers in Ubuntu Hardy with that garbage that comes installed by default. I now have OSS4 installed and I'm listening to some music in Rhythmbox and I cannot believe the difference. I'm not really an audiophile but the difference is incredible. When there's no sound playing my speakers are silent and when music is playing the quality is amazing.

I still have some things to resolve apparently (volume controls) but it'll be worth it. I was ready to face complete silence rather than continue suffering from the hissing noise.

[Yellow Pasque]

Temüjin,

I am following your guide step by step in preparation to replace ALSA with OSS. I notice that Ubuntu uses a modular blacklist system with OSS currently blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss so you should probably update your guide to say something like the following.

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss
sudo ln -s /lib/linux-sound-base/noALSA.modprobe.conf /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-alsa

This would make reverting easier.

This is part of what dpkg-reconfigure linux-sound-base does.

[beerfan]

[Edit: False alarm. After rebooting I now have a mixer]

My issues to resolve are bigger than I thought.

I have sound in Rhythmbox and VLC. However, I have no mixer device.

sudo ossdetect -v
Detected Nvidia High Definition Audio (MCP55)
Detected Generic USB audio device (BETA)

ossinfo
No /dev/mixer device available in your system.
Perhaps Open Sound System is not installed or running.

The first time I installed the deb it complained that some drivers could not be removed and suggested rebooting. I did that and the installation proceeded but seemed to not install correctly due to mpd running and being able to unload ESD or something. Even so, sound was working in those apps.

Since then I have manually uninstalled oss-linux-4.0 and reinstalled. It reported no errors after installing this time. However, I still have no mixer device.

[beerfan]

I can't imagine going back to ALSA now that I've heard the difference in the OSS4 drivers. I've created an entry on Ubuntu Brainstorm to promote supporting OSS4 in Intrepid.

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/12127/

Go hit it if you care. I don't know if that Brainstorm actually works but I guess it can't hurt.

[SeaJey]

kde 4.1 mini-howto:

Execute in terminal:

mv /usr/lib/oss/lib/libsalsa.so.2.0.0 /usr/lib/oss/lib/libsalsa.so.2.0.0.bak
ldconfig

Install latest gstreamer and plugins from ubuntu ppa:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gstreamer-team/ubuntu hardy main
Also uninstall gstreamer-alsa (for sure)

Move gstreamer to the first place in phonon-backends list in "Sound" section of "System Settings".

And sound is magically working now! Volume control at application level too.
Tested with juk-kde4 and dragon player.

Some issues still remain:
Sound configs can be changed only via ossxmix or ossmix.
qtconfig says that there is no gstreamer phonon-backend at all - but it could be only (k)ubuntu trouble.

[Yellow Pasque]

Hey SeaJey, is kmix working for you?