Sienna Rhodes
Most users control the volume on their Debian systems through the GUI. However, there are situations where you might want to do it from the command line. ALSA, or the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, provides audio support for most Linux distributions and is likely what your Debian system uses to manage audio. ALSA is a part of the Linux kernel that provides an interface to the kernel audio drivers. PulseAudio is a sound server that sits between ALSA and user applications, providing easy automatic sound configuration for users. It is installed by default in most Debian desktop environments. JACK is another sound server API aimed at professional usage that provides real-time, low-latency connections for audio and MIDI between applications.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Sound playback, recording, and mixing interface | ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) |
| ALSA | Part of Linux kernel that provides an interface to kernel audio drivers; also a userspace library ("alsa-lib") |
| ALSA utilities package | Alsamixer and Amixer utilities |
| Alsamixer | Provides a graphical representation of sound cards installed on the system and lets you view and control the properties of these cards |
| Alsamixer views | Playback, Capture, and All |
| Sound server | PulseAudio, PipeWire, JACK |
| PulseAudio | Installed by default in most Debian desktop environments |
| PulseAudio function | Accepts sound input from one or more sources and can mix and redirect those sources to one or more sinks |
| PulseAudio modules | Available for xmms and mplayer |
| PulseAudio issues | Dummy output, echo |
| ALSA sound drivers | snd-mixer-oss, snd-mixer-pcm, snd-mixer-seq |
| ALSA commands | aplay -l, alsactl store/alsactl restore |
| ALSA configuration | Run a kernel with the correct sound drivers for your sound card |
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What You'll Learn
Install ALSA utilities
ALSA, or the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, is a software framework and part of the Linux kernel that provides an application programming interface (API) for sound card device drivers. It can be divided into two components: the kernel API, which provides access to your sound card for higher-level sound servers and applications, and a userspace library that provides more general functions like effects, mixing, and routing.
The Alsa-utils package contains both the Alsamixer and Amixer utilities. This package is available in the official Debian repositories and can be installed through the command line using the apt-get command.
To install the ALSA utilities package, first log in as root by entering 'su' and then the password for root. Now, you are authorized to add/remove and configure software on Debian. Next, enter the following command in the terminal to update the local repository index with that of the Internet:
> apt-get update
This helps you in installing the latest version of the software available online. Once the local repository is updated, you can install the ALSA utilities package by running the following command:
> apt-get install alsa-utils
Hit 'Y' and then enter to confirm the installation. The process may take some time depending on your Internet speed.
Once installed, you can use utilities like Alsamixer to control the audio properties of your sound cards. Alsamixer provides a graphical representation of the sound cards installed on your system and allows you to view and control their properties. To open the Alsamixer interface, simply run the following command:
> alsamixer
By default, the Alsamixer interface opens in the Playback view, allowing you to control options related to sound playback. You can switch to the Capture view by pressing F4 to view properties only related to sound capturing. To view properties related to both sound capturing and playback, you can switch to the 'All' view by pressing F5.
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Check sound card
To check your sound card in Debian, you can use ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) tools. ALSA is a part of the Linux kernel that provides an interface to the kernel audio drivers and is used by most Linux distributions.
To check your sound card, open the Alsamixer interface. This will open in the Playback view, allowing you to control options related to sound playback. To view properties related to sound capturing, switch to the Capture view by pressing F4. To view properties related to both sound capturing and playback, press F5 to switch to the 'All' view.
Alsamixer provides a graphical representation of the sound cards installed on your system, allowing you to view and control their properties. You can use the F6 control to view and edit the properties of another sound card installed on your system.
To see the chip identification of your sound card, independently of any driver, use the command `lspci -v`. This will display information about your audio device, such as the kernel driver in use.
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Switch sound card views
The ALSA-utils package contains both the Alsamixer and Amixer utilities, which can be used to control the audio properties of sound cards. Alsamixer provides a graphical representation of the sound cards installed on your system and lets you view and control the properties of these cards.
When you open the Alsamixer interface, it opens in the Playback view. This means that you can only control options related to sound playback from this view.
To view properties related to sound capturing, you can switch to the Capture view by pressing F4 while Alsamixer is open.
To view properties related to both sound capturing and playback, you can switch to the 'All' view by pressing F5 while Alsamixer is open.
To switch back to the Playback view, press the F3 button. To view or edit the properties of another sound card installed on your system, use the F6 control while Alsamixer is open. The Sound Card menu will appear, and you can move up and down the menu and then hit Enter to select another card.
The scontrols command lets you view the list of controls you can manage.
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Use PulseAudio
PulseAudio is a network-capable sound server program that comes installed by default in most Debian desktop environments. It is a sound server that sits between ALSA and user applications, aiming to provide easy automatic sound configuration for users.
PulseAudio is configured to automatically detect all sound cards and manage them. It takes control of all detected ALSA devices and redirects all audio streams to itself, making the PulseAudio daemon the central configuration point. The daemon should work mostly out of the box, only requiring a few minor tweaks.
PulseAudio has no default settings for surround sound support. To enable all channels, edit the file /etc/pulse/daemon.conf: uncomment default-sample-channels (i.e., remove the semicolon at the beginning of the line) and set it to 6 if your system is 5.1 or 8 if it is 7.1. After making the changes, restart PulseAudio.
PulseAudio can be controlled using the pavucontrol package, which allows you to make volume adjustments for the entire system or per application. It also allows you to change "mixer" settings like headphone output, mic level, input device, and stereo versus surround sound profiles. Most desktop environments have their own control panels for configuring PulseAudio, often called something generic like "Sound Settings".
If you want to disable PulseAudio temporarily to run an application that accesses your audio devices directly, you can use the pasuspender utility. Run "pasuspender -- yourapplication [yourapplicationoptions]" and configure your application to access your audio devices directly. While you run pasuspender, other applications won't be able to use PulseAudio, but when you quit the application, the default behaviour of PulseAudio will be restored.
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Configure sound playback
Sound playback, recording, and mixing in Debian are provided by the ALSA kernel interface, usually in combination with a sound server. To configure ALSA, you may need to run alsactl init as root. The Alsa-utils package contains both the Alsamixer and Amixer utilities. This package is available in the official Debian repositories and can be installed through the command line using the apt-get command.
To launch the Alsamixer interface, which allows you to view and control the properties of your sound cards, run the following command in your terminal:
Alsamixer
When you open the Alsamixer interface, you will see it in the Playback view, which means you can only control options related to sound playback from this view. To view properties related to both sound capturing and playback, you can switch to the 'All' view by pressing F5 while Alsamixer is open. To switch back to the Playback view, press F3.
If you are using PulseAudio, a sound server that sits between ALSA and user applications, you can adjust the volume for the entire system or per application using pavucontrol, an optional package for PulseAudio. PulseAudio can also be configured to echo audio back through Configure -> Settings -> Audio Output -> Loopback test.
If you are unable to switch to another sound device in Debian, you can try the following:
- Check that your sound card is visible, enabled, and selected as the default in the Configuration tab of the audio mixer.
- Disable any other output devices and only enable the desired output.
- Check that your sound card is detected by ALSA: aplay -l.
- Check that a driver/module is loaded for your sound card using lspci -knn.
- Check if your sound card requires additional firmware.
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Frequently asked questions
You can control sound in Debian using the ALSA utilities package, which includes Alsamixer and Amixer. Alsamixer provides a graphical representation of your sound cards and allows you to control their properties.
The ALSA utilities package can be installed through the command line using the apt-get command.
You can use the PulseAudio Device Chooser (padevchooser) to switch between sound devices. PulseAudio is a sound server that comes installed by default in most Debian desktop environments and allows you to configure the source and volume of your audio devices.
You can use the pasuspender utility to temporarily disable PulseAudio. Run the following command: pasuspender -- yourapplication [yourapplicationoptions]. While pasuspender is running, other applications won't be able to use PulseAudio, and you can configure your application to access your audio devices directly.
To allow a new user to play audio, use the following command: 'adduser USER_NAME audio'. The user will need to log off and on again for the changes to take effect.
