Alsa without alsactl

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

Hi all,
I know that alsa need alsactl from alsa-utils, issue command # alsactl init to identify sound card, initiate alsa settings and setup default mixer levels.
Obviously /var/lib/alsa is a non-existent folder and non permanent being /var symlinked to /tmp so after each boot I should issue alsactl init or alsactl -f /location/of/asound.state restore.
Of course each of that commands could be executed automatically on boot by rc.local or a script enabled in init.d but...
Now the question is ...
how to have alsa configured on boot without issuing any command of alsactl?
I thought someting like using the defaults alsa configuration files or maybe deleting configs for other audio hardware available with the same kmodule....
In other words what exactly do alsactl or in which way it does?
Thanks to all

2

alsactl is not commonly used on OpenWrt. I don't think you need anything from alsa-utils in order to make sound work, though it is good to have alsamixer and amixer around. Upon bootup the kernel drivers should initialize without any userspace intervention.

Call amixer from whatever script starts up your audio application to make sure the levels are at a known state.

I just tested removing alsactl from the system with chmod -x and my little project to bridge a SIP phone system to PA speakers still works.

3

Thanks for you replay,
In my case after boot audio hardware isn't initialized (right module already installed), and without alsactl init doesn't works, or to better explain mpd is able to change pcm audio level as configured, with alsa utils installed using alsamixer is shown that variation, again with alsamixer increasing all others levels any sounds is reproduced (mpd is playing).
At least issuing alsactl init all goes but after a reboot is all in the former status. I added in mpd starting script the creation of /var/lib/alsa and there the creation of a symlink to asound.state that I stored in /etc, and then alsactl restore (without that folder and the symlink or issuing only alsactl init instead of resume return a 99 or 104 error but works ).