`deva-ctrl-sb.so`

Driver for Sound Blaster 16 and compatible sound cards.

You must be root to start this driver.

Syntax:

Direct invocation (also causes a new io-audio process to start):

io-audio -dsb ioport=port,irq=req,dma=ch,dma1=ch &

Mounting (requires that io-audio is already running):

mount -Tio-audio -oioport=port,irq=req,dma=ch,dma1=ch \
/lib/dll/deva-ctrl-sb.so &

Options:

dma=ch: The primary DMA channel to be used. The value of ch may be 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, or 7. The default value is 1.
dma1=ch: The secondary DMA channel to be used. The value of ch may be 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, or 7. The default value is 0.
ioport=port: Specifies the base I/O port for Sound Blaster commands. The value of port is usually 0x220, 0x240, 0x260, or 0x280. The default value is 0x220.
irq=req: The interrupt request line specified by req cannot be shared. The default value is 10.

Description:

The deva-ctrl-sb.so shared object is a DLL for the io-audio manager. It uses the API described in the Audio Developer's Guide.

While deva-ctrl-sb.so is running, you can use applications with sound, and those that control the sound-system (e.g. mixer).

Graphics drivers run at a higher priority than applications, but they shouldn't run at a higher priority than the audio, or else breaks in the audio occur. You can use the on command to adjust the priorities of the audio and graphics drivers.

Errors:

When an error occurs, deva-ctrl-sb.so sends a description of the error to the system logger (see slogger).

Caveats:

Some sound cards listed as being Sound Blaster compatible default to another mode (e.g. some ESS 18xx series (not ESS 1869), OPTi 931, Yamaha OPL3-SA). These cards will not work with this driver.