Proc Files of ALSA Drivers
==========================
Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
General
ALSA has its own proc tree, /proc/asound. Many useful information are
found in this tree. When you encounter a problem and need debugging,
check the files listed in the following sections.
Each card has its subtree cardX, where X is from 0 to 7. The
card-specific files are stored in the card* subdirectories.
Global Information
cards
Shows the list of currently configured ALSA drivers,
index, the id string, short and long descriptions.
version
Shows the version string and compile date.
modules
Lists the module of each card
devices
Lists the ALSA native device mappings.
meminfo
Shows the status of allocated pages via ALSA drivers.
Appears only when CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y.
hwdep
Lists the currently available hwdep devices in format of
pcm
Lists the currently available PCM devices in format of
timer
Lists the currently available timer devices
oss/devices
Lists the OSS device mappings.
oss/sndstat
Provides the output compatible with /dev/sndstat.
You can symlink this to /dev/sndstat.
Card Specific Files
The card-specific files are found in /proc/asound/card* directories.
Some drivers (e.g. cmipci) have their own proc entries for the
register dump, etc (e.g. /proc/asound/card*/cmipci shows the register
dump). These files would be really helpful for debugging.
When PCM devices are available on this card, you can see directories
like pcm0p or pcm1c. They hold the PCM information for each PCM
stream. The number after ‘pcm’ is the PCM device number from 0, and
the last ‘p’ or ‘c’ means playback or capture direction. The files in
this subtree is described later.
The status of MIDI I/O is found in midi* files. It shows the device
name and the received/transmitted bytes through the MIDI device.
When the card is equipped with AC97 codecs, there are codec97#*
subdirectories (described later).
When the OSS mixer emulation is enabled (and the module is loaded),
oss_mixer file appears here, too. This shows the current mapping of
OSS mixer elements to the ALSA control elements. You can change the
mapping by writing to this device. Read OSS-Emulation.txt for
details.
PCM Proc Files
card*/pcm*/info
The general information of this PCM device: card #, device #,
substreams, etc.
card*/pcm*/xrun_debug
This file appears when CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y and
CONFIG_PCM_XRUN_DEBUG=y.
This shows the status of xrun (= buffer overrun/xrun) and
invalid PCM position debug/check of ALSA PCM middle layer.
It takes an integer value, can be changed by writing to this
file, such as
# cat 5 > /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/xrun_debug
The value consists of the following bit flags:
bit 0 = Enable XRUN/jiffies debug messages
bit 1 = Show stack trace at XRUN / jiffies check
bit 2 = Enable additional jiffies check
bit 3 = Log hwptr update at each period interrupt
bit 4 = Log hwptr update at each snd_pcm_update_hw_ptr()
When the bit 0 is set, the driver will show the messages to
kernel log when an xrun is detected. The debug message is
shown also when the invalid H/W pointer is detected at the
update of periods (usually called from the interrupt
handler).
When the bit 1 is set, the driver will show the stack trace
additionally. This may help the debugging.
Since 2.6.30, this option can enable the hwptr check using
jiffies. This detects spontaneous invalid pointer callback
values, but can be lead to too much corrections for a (mostly
buggy) hardware that doesn't give smooth pointer updates.
This feature is enabled via the bit 2.
Bits 3 and 4 are for logging the hwptr records. Note that
these will give flood of kernel messages.
card*/pcm*/sub*/info
The general information of this PCM sub-stream.
card*/pcm*/sub*/status
The current status of this PCM sub-stream, elapsed time,
H/W position, etc.
card*/pcm*/sub*/hw_params
The hardware parameters set for this sub-stream.
card*/pcm*/sub*/sw_params
The soft parameters set for this sub-stream.
card*/pcm*/sub*/prealloc
The buffer pre-allocation information.
AC97 Codec Information
card*/codec97#*/ac97#?-?
Shows the general information of this AC97 codec chip, such as
name, capabilities, set up.
card*/codec97#0/ac97#?-?+regs
Shows the AC97 register dump. Useful for debugging.
When CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is enabled, you can write to this file for
changing an AC97 register directly. Pass two hex numbers.
For example,
# echo 02 9f1f > /proc/asound/card0/codec97#0/ac97#0-0+regs
USB Audio Streams
card*/stream*
Shows the assignment and the current status of each audio stream
of the given card. This information is very useful for debugging.
HD-Audio Codecs
card*/codec#*
Shows the general codec information and the attribute of each
widget node.
card*/eld#*
Available for HDMI or DisplayPort interfaces.
Shows ELD(EDID Like Data) info retrieved from the attached HDMI sink,
and describes its audio capabilities and configurations.
Some ELD fields may be modified by doing `echo name hex_value > eld#*`.
Only do this if you are sure the HDMI sink provided value is wrong.
And if that makes your HDMI audio work, please report to us so that we
can fix it in future kernel releases.
Sequencer Information
seq/drivers
Lists the currently available ALSA sequencer drivers.
seq/clients
Shows the list of currently available sequencer clients and
ports. The connection status and the running status are shown
in this file, too.
seq/queues
Lists the currently allocated/running sequencer queues.
seq/timer
Lists the currently allocated/running sequencer timers.
seq/oss
Lists the OSS-compatible sequencer stuffs.
Help For Debugging?
When the problem is related with PCM, first try to turn on xrun_debug
mode. This will give you the kernel messages when and where xrun
happened.
If it’s really a bug, report it with the following information:
- the name of the driver/card, show in /proc/asound/cards
- the register dump, if available (e.g. card*/cmipci)
when it’s a PCM problem,
- set-up of PCM, shown in hw_parms, sw_params, and status in the PCM
sub-stream directory
when it’s a mixer problem,
- AC97 proc files, codec97#/ files
for USB audio/midi,
- output of lsusb -v
- stream* files in card directory
The ALSA bug-tracking system is found at:
https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug/
