handyfloss

OK, I made a fresh install of Debian Etch on my home computer, and a sound problem appeared. My computer has a soundcard integrated in the ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard (best piece of hardware I ever bought, this mobo), but I use a spare Sound Blaster Live! I took from my previous computer, so I want the sound to come out of the latter, not the former.

However, the kernel modules to control the on-board soundcard seem to get loaded first, and sound output defaults to it. There could be more elegant solutions, but mine was to copy the following in the /etc/rc.local file (this file gets executed after the /etc/init.d/ services started at boot time):

modprobe -r snd_intel8x0
modprobe -r snd_emu10k1
modprobe snd_emu10k1
modprobe snd_intel8x0

What these lines do is remove the module for the on-board sound (intel8x0), then the SBLive! one (emu10k1), then reload them, but the SBLive! one first.