Installation :


To do this, we must begin by determining our version of alsa as follows :



cat /proc/asound/version

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.20.


To avoid problems during the upgrade of Alsa-utils, we need to stop it with the following command :


sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop


We must then install the necessary tools to compile along with the kernel headers :

sudo apt-get -y install build-essential ncurses-dev gettext xmlto

sudo apt-get -y install linux-headers-`uname -r` libncursesw5-dev


Then, we go in our personal folder and download alsa-driver, alsa-lib and alsa-utils :


cd ~

rm -rf ~/alsa* ~/.pulse*

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/driver/alsa-driver-1.0.21.tar.bz2

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.0.21a.tar.bz2

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.0.21.tar.bz2


After that, we create a new folder for the compilation and
installation of the 3 files. Then, we move the 3 tar files that we just
downloaded in this folder :


sudo rm -rf /usr/src/alsa

sudo mkdir -p /usr/src/alsa

cd /usr/src/alsa

sudo cp ~/alsa* .


Unpack the 3 tar files :


sudo tar xjf alsa-driver*

sudo tar xjf alsa-lib*

sudo tar xjf alsa-utils*


We compile and install alsa-driver :


cd alsa-driver*

sudo ./configure

sudo make

sudo make install


We compile and install alsa-lib :


cd ../alsa-lib*

sudo ./configure

sudo make

sudo make install


We compile and install alsa-utils :


cd ../alsa-utils*

sudo ./configure

sudo make

sudo make install


If like me, you got this error during the last “sudo ./configure” :


checking form.h presence... yes

checking for form.h... yes

checking for new_panel in -lpanelw... no

configure: error: panelw library not found


You will need to add those symbolics links (only if you got the error) and restart the installation from the last “sudo ./configure” :


sudo ln -s libpanelw.so.5 /usr/lib/libpanelw.so

sudo ln -s libformw.so.5 /usr/lib/libformw.so

sudo ln -s libmenuw.so.5 /usr/lib/libmenuw.so

sudo ln -s libncursesw.so.5 /lib/libncursesw.so


Then, we remove the 3 tar files in our personal folder that are not anymore necessary :


rm -f ~/alsa-driver*

rm -f ~/alsa-lib*

rm -f ~/alsa-utils*


Then, just restart your computer and your alsa version should be 1.0.21!


You can verify that you have now indeed have this version of alsa :


cat /proc/asound/version

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.

Compiled on Oct 15 2009 for kernel 2.6.31-14-generic (SMP)


Just to be sure everything is well configured, execute this command :


sudo alsaconf


and reboot again!