Seamus and list,
On Sun, Oct 27, 2024 at 4:51 PM Seamus de Mora via Alsa-user <alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm a bit confused about where & how 'alsa' fits in the "sound system"
on my Linux computers.
Why not have a read of this Wikipedia article?
I struggled for a long time to get sound working on my computers. I
finally heard of 'pipewire', and finally I can now play music on my
systems.
Once you've read the ALSA article above, you might follow the link in it to the Wikipedia pipewire article.
ALSA is the lowest level component of the Linux sound system, a part of the kernel.
Things like pipewire are sound servers that sit on top of ALSA and provide a greater range of functionality.
I'm now been using 'cmus' for a few months, and very much enjoying that!
However, I've been comparing the configuration between two of my Linux
systems (one has 'cmus' installed, the other uses 'mpg123'), and the
differences are absolutely baffling to me.
Those are different music players. In general music players use some kind of lower level sound capability; could be ALSA or pipewire or others.
You don't specify which configuration files you're reviewing that baffle you, so it's hard to help clear things up.
Both systems are Debian-based, using the 'bookworm' release. One is a
"Raspberry Pi Zero 2W", the other a "Raspberry Pi 3A+". I opted for the
"Lite" version (aka headless) of the OS as these are lightweight
computers. The "sound system" consists of a single Bluetooth speaker for
each system.
Initial questions are these:
1. What role does 'alsa' play on my systems?
2. Is alsa's role determined at all by the installation of 'pipewire'?
3. Why would two identically-installed OS (on the Pi Zero & Pi 3A+; both
with 'pipewire') have such different sound configurations?
4. Is there any intelligible documentation that discusses these questions?
The answers to the above questions should be more clear after reading the suggested articles.
I also generally like the Arch Linux Wiki for the breadth of information provided. This could be useful:
You might also find these useful
--
Chris Hermansen · clhermansen "at" gmail "dot" com
C'est ma façon de parler.
C'est ma façon de parler.
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