From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Takashi Iwai Subject: Notes on 1.0.8-rc1 (and post-rc1) Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 18:23:53 +0100 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 (generated by SEMI 1.14.5 - "Awara-Onsen") Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Return-path: Sender: alsa-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net Errors-To: alsa-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: To: alsa-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Cc: alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net List-Id: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org Hi, as you might have already noticed, ALSA 1.0.8-rc1 was released recently. Some major changes are listed below... Drivers: - ioctl32 fixes The broken ioctl32 on 2.6 kernels is fixed. - Hotplug support vxpocket, vx222 and mixart can use hotplug to load firmware. The old mechanism is activated only when the fw loader is disabled on kernel. echoaudio drivers (added after rc1) _require_ the kernel fw loader. - Audigy2 Value support - audigyls driver was renamed to ca0106 It supports SB Live 24bit, too - Hwdep-PCM support on usb-usx2y (for JACK) - Resume/suspend fixes - New drivers: pcxhr, sun-dbri - Fix OOps on vxpocket - Fix invalid HDSP pointers - Lots of cleanups Lib: - Suppress (some of) non-fatal error messages See NOTES for details. Utils: - Improvements on alsamixer See manpage. Tools & firmware: - Hotplug support (for vx and mixart) And, after rc1 release, many changes have been applied to CVS. The below are some of them. - Fix PPC OOps on OSS emulation - Fix control device creation with udev - AC97 code cleanups (including new quirk support) - Addition of echoaudio drivers (The drivers need the firmware loader support on kernel.) - Experimental softvol PCM plugin The last one may need a bit more explanation. This plugin is for the boards equipped with codecs which have no volume controls (e.g. some c-media codecs). The plugin can add a new user-defined control and apply the volume attenuation. The typical usage is like below: pcm.svol { type softvol slave.pcm hw:0 control { name "PCM Playback Volume" } } After you put this to ~/.asoundrc, run "aplay -Dsvol foo.wav". Then the PCM volume is created (if not exists yet). Note that the volume element will appear first after you run this softvol PCM. Don't forget to raise the volume. For the practical use, the combination with dmix would make your life often easier. You can override the "default" PCM like below: pcm.!default { type plug slave.pcm { type softvol slave.pcm dmix control { card hw:0 name "PCM Playback Volume" } } } Caveats: the new control is not restored correctly with alsactl after reboot. This will be fixed in future. Also, note that softvol supports only S16 format. Takashi ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/