Method for switching playback from one soundcard to another

[darkcity]

Greetings

I have a built in a soundcard VIA 8237 and a USB Audiobox.

I have found a method for switching playback from one card to another. Unfortunately it doesn't work on the fly, the audio app must be restarted for it to take effect (tested with Slacko 5.3.1 using Firefox and aplay).

It involves writing to /etc/asound.conf

NOTE assumes /etc/asound.conf contains only two lines, something like:
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 0

Please back up /etc/asound.conf before using code and or tinkering.


for switching soundcard 0, device 0 the bash code using sed-

Code: Select all

#switch to soundcard 0, device 0
asoundconf=/etc/asound.conf
sed -i '1s/.*/defaults.pcm.card 0/' $asoundconf
sed -i '2s/.*/defaults.pcm.device 0/' $asoundconf

for swtiching soundcard 1, device 0 the bash code using sed-

Code: Select all

#switch to soundcard 1, device 0 
asoundconf=/etc/asound.conf
sed -i '1s/.*/defaults.pcm.card 1/' $asoundconf
sed -i '2s/.*/defaults.pcm.device 0/' $asoundconf

I've written a script that toggles between card 0 and card 1, its very basic, improvements and suggestions welcome

Ref.
http://ptspts.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/ho ... -have.html
http://alsa.opensrc.org/MultipleCards