OSS4

Installation
Currently, OSS4 is not in the main repository. As such, you need to install if from an overlay. We assume you are using portage, and have layman installed. Add the oss-overlay,

Now you can use portage to install OSS4 by,

or, if you want the development version,

Testing
When OSS is started for the first time, the volume is set to 100%, which if you use built-in speakers with no own volume control, is extremely loud. Before testing, lower the volume to a reasonable level to avoid ear damage. Of course, if you have analog amplification outside of your computer (e.g. a stereo system or good active speakers), you should never change listening volume in software, to avoid quality loss. In this case, remember to check those external volume controls.


 * Lower the volume in software:


 * Test OSS by running:

You should be able to hear music during the test process. If there is no audio, run the ossmix commands again with larger numbers to increase the volume

Adding USE flags
First, add the and  USE-flags in. Then recompile affected applications,

Flash plugin
Emerge ,

Skype
Emerge skype-oss,

Other applications
If you can't get sound from an application not listed here, try looking at the Configuring Applications for OSSv4 page.

Understanding why problems arise
If you have a HDAudio sound device, it's very likely that you will have to adjust some mixer settings before your sound works.

HDAudio devices are very powerful in the sense that they can contain a lot of small circuits (called widgets) that can be adjusted by software at any time. These controls are exposed to the mixer, and they can be used, for example, to turn the earphone jack into a sound input jack instead of a sound output jack.

However, there is a side effect, mainly because the HDAudio standard is more flexible than it perhaps should be, and because the vendors often only care to get their official drivers working.

Then, when using HDAudio devices, you often find disorganized mixer controls, that doesn't work at all by default, and you are forced to try every mixer control combination, until it works. You'll probably want to setup a program to record/play continously in the background (e.g. ossrecord - | ossplay - for recording or osstest -lV for playing), while changing mixer settings in ossxmix in the foreground.

How to solve
Open ossxmix and try to change every mixer control in the middle area, that contains the sound card specific controls, as explained in the previous "The mixer" section.


 * Raise every volume control slider.
 * In each option box, try to change the selected option, trying all the possible combinations.
 * If you get noise, try to lower and/or mute some volume controls, until you find the source of the noise.

Please note again that you do not need to change any controls in the top area nor in the bottom area, as they are virtual vmix-related mixer controls.

Troubleshooting other issues

 * If you get distorted sound, try lowering some volume control sliders.


 * If you need to change the default sound card, look at here.


 * If you have another issues, try searching or asking for help at the 4front forums.

= Tips and Tricks =

Using multimedia keys with OSS
If your multimedia keys don't work by default, read the Using multimedia keys with OSS page.

Other tips

 * Starting ossxmix minimized to tray on desktop startup.
 * Recording sound output of a program.

Introduction
You can instruct alsa-lib to use OSS as its audio output system. This works as a sort of ALSA emulation.

Note, however, that this method may introduce additional latency in your sound output, and that the emulation is not complete and doesn't work with all applications. It doesn't work, for example, with programs that try to detect devices using ALSA.

So, as most applications support OSS directly, use this method only as a last resort.

In the future, more complete methods may be available for emulating ALSA, such as libsalsa and cuckoo.

HOW-TO

 * Install the alsa-plugins package.


 * Edit /etc/asound.conf</tt> as follows.

pcm.oss { type oss device /dev/dsp } pcm.!default { type oss device /dev/dsp } ctl.oss { type oss device /dev/mixer } ctl.!default { type oss device /dev/mixer }

Thanks to ArchWiki