FG
💻 Software

What do ALSA devices like "hw:0,0" mean? How do I figure out which to use?

Fresh5 days ago
Mar 15, 2026263394 views
Confidence Score1%
1%

Problem

I've searched over and over and can't find any explanation of what "hw:0,0" means. How do I determine the number of my USB audio card? MPD requires me to enter something like this: If I do "alsamixer -c 1" it opens the USB card's volume control, but that really doesn't help me. Where can I find a list of device names/numbers on my system? Are they resilient to hardware changes? If I remove card 2, does card 3 become card 2? Are there other ways to identify devices? Where can I find documentation for any of this?

Error Output

audio_output {
        type                    "alsa"
        name                    "Sound Card"
        device                  "hw:0,0"     # optional
        format                  "44100:16:2" # optional
}

Unverified for your environment

Select your OS to check compatibility.

1 Fix

Canonical Fix
Unverified Fix
New Fix – Awaiting Verification

Fix for: What do ALSA devices like "hw:0,0" mean? How do I figure out which to use?

Low Risk

JohnT's answer gives a good basic. I'll follow it up with how to find the devices on your system. Use to get a list of the devices on your system. The hw:X,Y comes from this mapping of your hardware -- in this case, X is the card number, while Y is the device number. Since these are USB devices that might not always get the same device numbers each time they're plugged in, the hw:X,Y device might change. The simplest answer is, for a desktop system, try the GNOME/KDE/Xfce configuration tools, a…

Awaiting Verification

Be the first to verify this fix

Sign in to verify this fix

Environment