Glad to see the ALSA guide got reworked. I have a few comments which I'd like to be considered: lspci obviously won't list USB or ISA sound cards. It should be mentioned that this is only for PCI-based sound devices. It should also be mentioned that most 'onboard' sound chips are PCI-based. In the kernel configuration section, there should be a comment about the importance of building the sound stuff as modules. (This then allows you to use use alsaconf later on, which is a godsend) There's no mention of switching existing applications to use ALSA rather than OSS (using ALSA is much more efficient and will eliminate most "my mp3s are skipping under load" problems). There's no mention of the ALSA USE flag. It would be nice to have a section talking about dmix and how it compares/constasts to sound servers such as artsd/esd Also, if you have any idea why so many users run into the problem where loads of unknown symbols with ALSA modules, it would be nice to add a troubleshooting section about this. I have no idea what causes this though...
(In reply to comment #0) > lspci obviously won't list USB or ISA sound cards. It should be mentioned that this is only for PCI-based sound devices. It should also be mentioned that most 'onboard' sound chips are PCI-based. True. How would one get info on USB cards? lsusb? What about ISA (zilch idea about that, the world still uses ISA? :P ) > In the kernel configuration section, there should be a comment about the importance of building the sound stuff as modules. (This then allows you to use use alsaconf later on, which is a godsend) This is why we recommend building stuff as modules. There is a note that says we go the modules way, but doesn't say this makes life easy..does make sense to say that too. > There's no mention of switching existing applications to use ALSA rather than OSS (using ALSA is much more efficient and will eliminate most "my mp3s are skipping under load" problems). There's no mention of the ALSA USE flag. Valid point. > It would be nice to have a section talking about dmix and how it compares/constasts to sound servers such as artsd/esd No idea bout either, could someone else help with this? > Also, if you have any idea why so many users run into the problem where loads of unknown symbols with ALSA modules, it would be nice to add a troubleshooting section about this. I have no idea what causes this though... Any of our other kernel team members would have an idea? I don't have any personally...
lsusb would probably help you out on the USB side. ISA is much harder, as far as I know you just have to know what you have. Its also pretty essential that you use alsaconf, because you have to load the module with 3-4 cryptic parameters which alsaconf handles automagically. I'll do the dmix thing if nobody else volunteers. No promises when I'd get round to it though.
(In reply to comment #2) > lsusb would probably help you out on the USB side. We'll just add a note. I don't have USB to test with...same with ISA... > ISA is much harder, as far as I know you just have to know what you have. Its > also pretty essential that you use alsaconf, because you have to load the module > with 3-4 cryptic parameters which alsaconf handles automagically. True. We already recommend alsaconf, will do so more strongly. > I'll do the dmix thing if nobody else volunteers. No promises when I'd get round > to it though. Sure.
(In reply to comment #1) > (In reply to comment #0) > > lspci obviously won't list USB or ISA sound cards. It should be mentioned that > this is only for PCI-based sound devices. It should also be mentioned that most > 'onboard' sound chips are PCI-based. > > True. How would one get info on USB cards? lsusb? What about ISA (zilch idea > about that, the world still uses ISA? :P ) Heh. I used to have an ESS 688 ISA card a very very long time ago. Maybe we can point the user to some other docs on the web instead of giving instructions on setting up ISA - it'll only bloat the document, and is not likely to be helpful to most readers. Possible docs to point to: http://www.roestock.demon.co.uk/isapnptools/ {README & FAQ} http://www2.linuxjournal.com/article/3269 http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Sound-HOWTO/x320.html
Good news. The ALSA 1.0.9 libraries feed all output through dmix by default, even if you have not configured it, so no extra work is needed here. So you can ignore that point for now.
Thanks for the input guys, changes are now in CVS!
