Bug 563760 (fails_with_ALSA) – [TRACKER] Command-line cd players without alsa support are unusable on recent sytems

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: CONFIRMED ---

[Description Teika kazura 2015-10-22 08:26:48 UTC]

Summary: There're several command-line cd player packages which don't use alsa/oss, but they may be obsolete on recent hardwares. They don't produce any sound on 2 PCs I tried. At least, ewarn is necessary.

Platform: amd64
Packages I tested:
media-sound/cdcd-0.6.6-r2
media-sound/cdplay-1.0
media-sound/cdtool-2.1.8
media-sound/dcd-0.95
media-sound/mcdp-0.4b
media-sound/takcd-0.10

Explanation:
Theses packages make use of ioctl, not only to play, stop, but also for volume control etc, and that's all; they don't use alsa, nor oss. (OSS is an old interface, replaced by alsa.) "cdcd" relies on media-libs/libcdaudio rather than direct ioctl, but it doesn't matter much.

Some of these softwares _do_ report ioctl errors if any, but all run without any problem for me, _except that_ the speaker remains silent. (Of course I can play CDs with mplayer, banshee, etc.)

I believe my ALSA mixer setting is ok; no channel is mute.

According to a forum post by NeddySeagoon, this kind of code is indeed obsolete; in old days cdrom players were connected to sound card, and provided analogue playback:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7779714.html?sid=007ddb5790df9fcad4d57c2ce6c9b228#7779714

Bug #386275 complains too on media-sound/cdcd. (I rather chose to open a new bug report, because the problem is not specific to one specific package. Sorry if you think it's a dup.)

Debian already deleted mcdp, which was "completely unusable":
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=709909
(But cdcd is still in sid, and cdtool in the stable.)

Some netBSD (sorry) bug reports look similar:
http://gnats.netbsd.org/45678
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-bugs/2011/11/25/msg025040.html

Proposal:
These packages can be deemed "obsolete" in some sense. At least that fact should be ewarn-ed. [1] OTOH if there exist PCs where these packages work, then they can remain in the portage tree. (I asked at Gentoo forum to test these packages, but none responded.) Anyway I will respect developers decision.

media-sound/cdtool can be handled separately, since it has some cddb related tools, aside from commands to play CDs.

Thanks beforehand, Gentoo devs.
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[1] In fact, I think we need a better function of ebuild (1), "eask" or something, such that prints a message and asks the user's agreement when "emerge --ask" is used; for "emerge --pretend", it prints the message, too; otherwise, it prints the message at an early stage, and reprints it at pkg_postinst or elsewhere.

When important changes or complex configuration changes accompany after emerge, then that should be informed to the users by "eask", too. (E.g. USE flag definiton changes. Also something like udev change of the network interface name about a year ago. Actually it was IIRC announced by eselct-news, because many rely on udev. I mean that kind of changes which is specific to some package, should be foretold by "eask".) Obviously you want to schedule such emerge for the time when you can spare time, don't you? :)

If you want, I'll open a new bugzilla entry to ask for this function.


Reproducible: Always

[Comment 1 Teika kazura 2017-03-03 11:48:31 UTC]

I tried them on another PC, and they don't work.
Most modern hardwares do not support these packages, I think.

[Comment 2 Teika kazura 2020-12-29 23:37:31 UTC]

@Jonas Stein: Thanks a lot for your diligence.