The Linux BootPrompt HOWTO

8. The Sound Drivers

Note that there was a rewrite of a lot of the sound core and related drivers. The older stuff is generally called `OSS' and the newer is called `ALSA'. The intention is to drop the OSS stuff eventually. To avoid name conflict, the ALSA stuff generally has `snd-' as a prefix to all the boot parameters.

Note that each driver has its own individual boot argument (very old kernels used a shared sound=). Also, generally no defaults are set at compile time (i.e. you must supply a boot argument for older non-PNP ISA cards to be detected.) Your best source of information for your card is the files in linux/Documentation/sound/.

8.1 Individual Sound Device Driver Arguments

ALSA ISA drivers

snd-dummy= Dummy soundcard

snd-mpu401= mpu401 UART

snd-mtpav= MOTU Midi Timepiece

snd-serial= Serial UART 16450/16550 MIDI

snd-virmidi= Dummy soundcard for virtual rawmidi devices

snd-ad1816a= ADI SoundPort AD1816A

snd-ad1848= Generic driver for AD1848/AD1847/CS4248

snd-als100= Avance Logic ALS100

snd-azt2320= Aztech Systems AZT2320 (and 2316)

snd-cmi8330= C-Media's CMI8330

snd-cs4231= Generic driver for CS4231 chips

snd-cs4232= Generic driver for CS4232 chips

snd-cs4236= Generic driver for CS4235/6/7/8/9 chips

snd-dt019x= Diamond Technologies DT-019x

snd-es1688= Generic ESS AudioDrive ESx688

snd-es18xx= Generic ESS AudioDrive ES18xx

snd-gusclassic= Gus classic

snd-gusextreme= Gus extreme

snd-gusmax= Gus Max

snd-interwave= Interwave

snd-interwave-stb= Interwave

snd-opl3sa2= Yamaha OPL3SA2

snd-opti93x= OPTi 82c93x based cards

snd-opti92x-cs4231= OPTi 82c92x/CS4231

snd-opti92x-ad1848= OPTi 82c92x/AD1848

snd-es968= ESS AudioDrive ES968

snd-sb16= SoundBlaster 16

snd-sbawe= SoundBlaster 16 AWE

snd-sb8= Old 8 bit SoundBlaster (1.0, 2.0, Pro)

snd-sgalaxy= Sound galaxy

snd-wavefront= Wavefront

OSS drivers

ad1848= AD1848

adlib= Adlib

mad16= MAD16

pas2= ProAudioSpectrum PAS16

sb= SoundBlaster

uart401= UART 401 (on card chip)

uart6850= UART 6850 (on card chip)

opl3= Yamaha OPL2/OPL3/OPL4 FM Synthesizer (on card chip)

opl3sa= Yamaha OPL3-SA FM Synthesizer (on card chip)

opl3sa2= Yamaha OPL3-SA2/SA3 FM Synthesizer (on card chip)

ALSA PCI Drivers

snd-ali5451= ALi PCI audio M5451

snd-als4000= Avance Logic ALS4000

snd-cmipci= C-Media CMI8338 and 8738

snd-cs4281= Cirrus Logic CS4281

snd-cs46xx= Cirrus Logic Sound Fusion CS46XX

snd-emu10k1= EMU10K1 (SB Live!)

snd-ens1370= Ensoniq ES1370 AudioPCI

snd-ens1371= Ensoniq ES1371 AudioPCI

snd-es1938= ESS Solo-1 (ES1938, ES1946, ES1969)

snd-es1968= ESS Maestro 1/2/2E

snd-fm801= ForteMedia FM801

snd-intel8x0= Intel ICH (i8x0) chipsets

snd-maestro3= ESS Maestro3/Allegro (ES1988)

snd-korg1212= Korg 1212 IO

snd-rme32= RME Digi32, Digi32/8 and Digi32 PRO

snd-nm256= NeoMagic 256AV and 256ZX

snd-rme96= RME Digi96, Digi96/8 and Digi96/8 PRO/PAD/PST

snd-rme9652= RME Digi9652 audio interface

snd-hdsp= RME Hammerfall DSP

snd-sonicvibes= S3 SonicVibes

snd-trident= Trident 4DWave DX/NX & SiS SI7018

snd-via82xx= VIA South Bridge VT82C686A/B/C, VT8233A/C, VT8235

snd-ymfpci= Yamaha DS1/DS1E

snd-ice1712= ICEnsemble ICE1712 (Envy24)