Updating ALSA on Raspbian Stretch

Posted on by max

This post shows how to update ALSA [1] on Raspberry Pi running Raspbian Stretch. As of writing this post (Dec. 9th 2018) the latest ALSA version is 1.1.7.

 

Setup (parentheses indicate my environment)

  • Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi 3 B+) running Raspbian Stretch (Nov. 2018)
  • Speaker connected to Raspberry Pi’s 3.5 mm audio jack

 

Steps
1. Checking Preinstalled ALSA Version
1-1. First, let’s check the current ALSA version.

aplay --version

The result should be like below. In this example (Raspbian Stretch 2018 Nov. version), the preinstalled ALSA version is 1.1.3.

$ aplay --version aplay: version 
1.1.3 by Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz>

2. alsa-lib Installation [2]
2-1. Download alsa-lib.

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/lib/alsa-lib-1.1.7.tar.bz2

2-2. Extract the directory.

tar xvjf alsa-lib-1.1.7.tar.bz2

2-3. Move to the extracted directory.

cd alsa-lib-1.1.7

2-4. Configure.

./configure

2-5. Build and install.

make && sudo make install

 

3. Curses Library Installation
ALSA requires a curses library.

3-1. Update the package list.

sudo apt-get update

3-2. Install “libncursesw5-dev”.

sudo apt-get install libncursesw5-dev -y

 

4. alsa-utils Installation [3]
4-1. Download alsa-utils.

wget ftp://ftp.alsa-project.org/pub/utils/alsa-utils-1.1.7.tar.bz2

4-2. Extract the directory.

tar xvjf alsa-utils-1.1.7.tar.bz2

4-3. Move to the extracted directory.

cd alsa-utils-1.1.7

4-4. Configure.

./configure --disable-alsaconf --disable-bat --disable-xmlto --with-curses=ncursesw

4-5. Build and install.

make && sudo make install

 

5. Verification
5-1. Check ALSA version.

aplay --version

The result should be like below. In this example, ALSA was updated from 1.1.3 (see step 1-1) to 1.1.7.

$ aplay --version
aplay: version 1.1.7 by Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz>

5-2. Make sure ALSA is working by using speaker-test [4]. If everything is fine, you should be able to hear the wav sound from the connected speaker.

speaker-test -t wav

5-3. Press ctrl-c to stop the speaker-test.

 

References
[1] Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) project homepage
[2] alsa-lib-1.1.7 – Linux From Scratch!
[3] alsa-utils-1.1.7 – Linux From Scratch!
[4] Using ALSA’s speaker-test utility

 

 

 

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13 Comments

  2. Trying to update to 1.2.1 (and 1.2.2) from 1.1.9 but i get this error when i run ./configure on alsa-utils:

    checking for snd_tplg_new in -latopology… no
    configure: error: No linkable libatopology was found.

    Up to version 1.1.9 i can compile with no problems but trying to compile utils from 1.2.1 get me this error. I get no errors compiling alsa-lib. Any help apreciated.

    1. Hi,
      Same error on fresh install of raspberry PI 4 :

      checking for snd_tplg_new in -latopology… no
      configure: error: No linkable libatopology was found.

      Distributor ID: Raspbian
      Description: Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
      Release: 10
      Codename: buster

      1. Hi guys,

        Thanks for sharing your results. I just checked by myself but I don’t see any error and I was able to update from 1.1.8 to 1.2.4 with Raspberry Pi OS Aug. 20th 2020 version on Raspberry Pi 4.

        $ aplay --version
        aplay: version 1.2.4 by Jaroslav Kysela

        1. Hello Max,

          I’m using DietPi (5.10.0-v7+) and I’m getting the exact same problem trying to update from 1.1.8 to 1.2.4
          “checking for libatopology (sound headers version > 1.1.9)… yes
          checking for snd_ctl_open in -lasound… yes
          checking for snd_tplg_new in -latopology… no
          configure: error: No linkable libatopology was found.
          ”
          I also can upgrade to 1.1.9

          Any help would be appreciated.
          Jean

        1. Running Raspbian Lite / Buster with linux 5.10.11-v7l+

          lib compiles and makes great. all libraries accounted in /usr/lib

          but still:
          same issue over here from 1.1.9 > 1.2.4 utils and/or > 1.2.2 tools

          really stumped at finding the source of this problem and the link directives to at least manually point the ./config to libatopology.la so …

          links above are possibly outdated / or i am not sure how to resolve with this info.

    2. I solved it by adding –disable-alsatest to the ./configure line. Not sure if I broke something or not by doing this but so far it seems to work. I now have both lib and utils at version 1.2.4.

      Thanks for a great guide max!

  4. Everything appeared to progress as I went through the steps, yet the final step of :
    make && sudo make install

    resulted in:
    make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.

    To self-identify, I am an idiot when it comes to programming this Pi. It does not appear in any of the previous steps that I had any issues or failures. Should I try this command in another directory than:
    pi@StretchPi-Raspb:~/alsa-utils-1.1.7 $

    My Pi I am attempting to update is:
    PRETTY_NAME=”Raspbian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)”
    NAME=”Raspbian GNU/Linux”
    VERSION_ID=”9″
    VERSION=”9 (stretch)”
    VERSION_CODENAME=stretch
    ID=raspbian
    ID_LIKE=debian

    And current ALSA is v1.1.3

    Any help/suggestions?

    Thanks.

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