Difference between OSS and alsa?

gentooian · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2024 6:40 pm Post subject: Difference between OSS and alsa?

Maybe I'm just deaf but I do not notice a difference in sound quality between OSS and alsa. Ive got a sound blaster live mp3+. Im not complaining though, it sounds great eather way.

So what are the differences?

Ephemeral · Member Joined: 26 Jun 2024 Posts: 475 Location: UK

I notice the difference between windows and linux sound wise on my Terratec Aureon Sky. Unfortunately windows is sounding better at the moment. I need to configure my linux a bit better somehow.

gentooian · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2024 7:32 pm Post subject:

Are you using OSS or alsa?

nukes · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2024 11:35 pm Post subject:

The difference between OSS and ALSA is the following:
ALSA depends on a few user-space things, like mixer control for one. It requires programs to run at startup so your mixer levels aren't zero'd.
OSS only allowed one program to access the sound card at the same time. Hence the sound servers we're all stuck with now. ALSA allowed multiple programs access, because it sort of has a sound server built in. It's also backwards compatible with the OSS API, and will still support multiple processes.

Ephemeral: Try using the OSS drivers. Some of them (such as the Intel ICH, or the SIS 7012) do a better job than their ALSA counterparts. Smile

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Gentoo; 2.6.11 2.6.17.7 + patches
Debian sid 2.6.13

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