es18xx - 1869 not working, debugging ALSA drivers

[kasper@303.nu]

Hi,

I've been trying to get ALSA running on my Compaq Armada 3500 for quite a 
while now. The soundchip is a es1869, which is supposed to be supported by 
the es18xx driver. It only works 1 out of 10 times though - and I figured out 
when it works and when it doesn't... But that didn't help me much until now, 
I tried to force it to always use the working mode, but that didn't work 
out...

The OSS driver is working properly, but I use the Soundblaster driver, which 
is only half-duplex, and in fact, it's a different mode of the soundchip.

I've been trying to debug the driver, but it's not really my thing... Maybe 
there are some handy tricks to debug ALSA drivers? Or is it just:
1) change the source
2) compile the source
3) see if it works (by loading the module.. and playing some audio)
4) if it doesn't work restart with 1)

Are there tools to control soundchips without using this laborious cycle? Some 
kind of framework to check out the stuff that is written in the chip's 
datasheet?

greetz,
Kasper


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