Where can I find alternate sound hardware?
 

The builtin audio jack finally failed completely. Years ago the audio of a previous computer failed; I bought a usb audio device (no brand name, model zx554, $1.56 on eBay). When I plugged it in then Linux created a new audio device, /dev/dsp1 (/dev/dsp0 was the builtin), which I could use as the target of the audio software.

Now Linux no longer creates any /dev/dsp devices and I can't find anything else to identify the usb audio device. lsusb identifies it (0c76:1605) but nothing changes in /dev

Hi...

The reason (or my guess as to) why can be found in the first answer here...

I'm not sure what you would need to do in ALSA to get it to work, if that's possible in this case. You may need to find another device that is Linux compatible. :(

If you'd like to get a replacement, according to John here the model listed here works well in Ubuntu 12.04. Perhaps that would include other distributions. :)

Regards...

You misunderstand. The old version of the kernel created a /dev/dsp because that's how it created software devices for hardware devices. The new version of the kernel does it differently. I want to know what it is. I cited the old example not because I want to do it that way but to explain how it used to work, just as background. I should have asked in kernel.

I guess

for

won't help either?

http://www.linuxnix.com/find-sound-c...-in-linuxunix/

I finally figured out how to build the modules necessary to make the device work. Files for it now show up in /dev/snd and /proc/asound; I can set its levels with alsamixer and configure it with alsactl. Unfortunately my system sends sounds only to the builtin device. The light on the device flashes when first it receives a sound. It works in Windoze.

How do I get my system to send it sound? Make it the default device? I usually use mplayer; I've tried sox and aplay.

I haven't figured out how to make the usb-audio device the default or get the system to send it sounds (principally warning beeps) but I have figured out how to get mplayer to address it (-ao hw), though not other sound software. Either they're too old or I can't figure out their man pages.