CODEWITHSUNDEEP
audioalsanixnixospulse
user3416536
user3416536

Reputation: 1469

Nixos default audio device

I'm trying to configure the default audio device on a NixOS host.

My alsa devices are thus:

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC1220 Analog [ALC1220 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 1: ALC1220 Digital [ALC1220 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I don't have HDMI or digitaul audio devices; I just want to use the regular ALC1220 Analog device.

I currently have AUDIODEV=hw:1,0 set in my environment (for sox), and alsa-audio-device=sysdefault:CARD=Generic in my vlcrc. That works, but it is obviously user- and app- specific, and is a pain for declaritiveness (declarity?).

It seems that it should be something I can set at the host level, e.g., by setting 

sound.extraConfig =
  ''
    pcm.!default {
      type hw
      card Generic
    }
  '';

in my configuration.nix, or possibly configuring pulseaudio.

I have sought help in the NixOS Wiki (ALSA, Pulse), on other sites such as ArchLinux, Pulse documentation, and other sites like StackOverflow (e.g., stackexchange), but I can find nothing that actually works.

I have tried the above, and variants thereof; and also tried with & without Pulse; but I have found nothing that works.

Simply being able to sound audio to all the devices on that card would be jolly good, too.

As always, any pointers gratefully recieved.

Update: here is my /etc/asound.conf

pcm_type.pulse {
  libs.native = /nix/store/a3v4gh5lbb2g8fizq9xh8nbdp8qrvs6r-alsa-plugins-1.1.6/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pulse.so ;

}
pcm.!default {
  type pulse
  hint.description "Default Audio Device (via PulseAudio)"
}
ctl_type.pulse {
  libs.native = /nix/store/a3v4gh5lbb2g8fizq9xh8nbdp8qrvs6r-alsa-plugins-1.1.6/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_ctl_pulse.so ;

}
ctl.!default {
  type pulse
}

(and that module is real):

$ ls -l /nix/store/a3v4gh5lbb2g8fizq9xh8nbdp8qrvs6r-alsa-plugins-1.1.6/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_ctl_pulse.so
-r-xr-xr-x 1 root root 33512 Jan  1  1970 /nix/store/a3v4gh5lbb2g8fizq9xh8nbdp8qrvs6r-alsa-plugins-1.1.6/lib/alsa-lib/libasound_module_ctl_pulse.so

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2713

Answers (1)

Matt
Matt

Reputation: 607

This problem is most likely due to pulseaudio comandeering the default device, despite listing it in ~/.asoundrc.

The best solution to override pulse's comandeering of the default device with an alsa hook. To do this, edit your ~/.asoundrc with the following contents at the top :

@hooks [
    {
        func load
        files [
            "~/.asoundrc"
        ]
        errors false
    }
]

You can then add you default device as required, probably something like the following in your case :

pcm.!default {
        type hw
        card "Generic"
}

ctl.!default {
  type hw
  card "Generic"
}

Upvotes: 0

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