"test" models in Intel HDA (and probably some other drivers)

[Rimas Kudelis <rq@akl.lt>]

Hello,

This message is about Intel HDA driver, but it may apply to other
drivers too.

Currently, a few codecs for HDA (ALC880 and ALC260, in particular) have
model configurations, named "test", that enable the user to use (almost)
any possible control widget in their mixer. This is very useful for
people with new and untested laptops, for example, that are sometimes
left muted or hardly controllable when the driver is loaded with a
different "model" argument.

The problem I see here is that those "test" models are only available as
a debug feature, which is compiled into the driver only when 
CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is defined. I think it would be much more useful to
always enable them. On one hand, this wouldn't get in anybody's way, if
you don't want it (i.e. you would simply never autodetect this model),
while on the other hand, you could just as easily make this model the
default for laptops (everything is up to your policy). And in case you
wouldn't want to clutter the mixer interface by default, this "test"
model would still silently be available for people like me, having
absolute silence with all the other configs. This is what is currently
happening with many Acer laptop users around the world.

Jonathan Woithe said he supports my idea. Takashi, what's your opinion
about it? Would you commit a patch fixing this problem to the CVS?

best regards,

Rimas Kudelis


-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files
for problems?  Stop!  Download the new AJAX search engine that makes
searching your log files as easy as surfing the  web.  DOWNLOAD SPLUNK!
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=103432&bid=230486&dat=121642