Alsa & 2.6 kernel

Alsa & 2.6 kernel

[Mark Knecht]

Hi,
   Are there any instructions for building Alsa for a 2.6 kernel? I see the
make xconfig app now shows Alsa as an option, but grepping through the
Gentoo development-sources kernel tree I'm not discovering the actual code
or even a drivers/sound directory. Do I need to add this myself, or is there
some other way to go about this?

   I'm not likely to do this, but there were some questions on the Gentoo
lists, so I got interested.

Thanks,
Mark




-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf

SOLVED = RE: Alsa & 2.6 kernel

[Mark Knecht]

I see that in the Gentoo kernel tree (and maybe all 2.6 kernels)
linux/drivers/sound has moved to linux/sound.

Sorry for wasting bandwidth.

- Mark

> -----Original Message-----
> From: alsa-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net
> [mailto:alsa-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net]On Behalf Of Mark Knecht
> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 10:51 AM
> To: Alsa-Devel
> Subject: [Alsa-devel] Alsa & 2.6 kernel
>
>
> Hi,
>    Are there any instructions for building Alsa for a 2.6 kernel?
> I see the
> make xconfig app now shows Alsa as an option, but grepping through the
> Gentoo development-sources kernel tree I'm not discovering the actual code
> or even a drivers/sound directory. Do I need to add this myself,
> or is there
> some other way to go about this?
>
>    I'm not likely to do this, but there were some questions on the Gentoo
> lists, so I got interested.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>
>
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
> Welcome to geek heaven.
> http://thinkgeek.com/sf
> _______________________________________________
> Alsa-devel mailing list
> Alsa-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-devel
>
>




-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf

Re: SOLVED = RE: Alsa & 2.6 kernel

[Takashi Iwai]

At Wed, 24 Sep 2003 14:24:29 -0700,
Mark Knecht wrote:
> 
> I see that in the Gentoo kernel tree (and maybe all 2.6 kernels)
> linux/drivers/sound has moved to linux/sound.

the OSS drivers are located now on linux/sound/oss.
the other sound directories correspond to ALSA's alsa-kernel tree
(except for alsa-kernel/include -> linux/include/sound, and
 alsa-kernel/Documentation -> linux/Documentation/sound/alsa).


Takashi


-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf

RE: SOLVED = RE: Alsa & 2.6 kernel

[Mark Knecht]

> At Wed, 24 Sep 2003 14:24:29 -0700,
> Mark Knecht wrote:
> >
> > I see that in the Gentoo kernel tree (and maybe all 2.6 kernels)
> > linux/drivers/sound has moved to linux/sound.
>
> the OSS drivers are located now on linux/sound/oss.
> the other sound directories correspond to ALSA's alsa-kernel tree
> (except for alsa-kernel/include -> linux/include/sound, and
>  alsa-kernel/Documentation -> linux/Documentation/sound/alsa).
>
>
> Takashi
>

Takashi-san,
   Thank you very much for the response. It is helpful.

   Would I be correct that if I had a 2.6 level kernel and wanted to use the
newest Alsa from CVS, then I would:

1) Download CVS to my machine in it's own directory
2) Replace what is currently in linux/sound with the CVS source EXCEPT for
the oss directory which I would leave alone.
3) Build the kernel with Alsa sound support and no OSS support
4) Use Alsa to do OSS emulation like I do today in modules.conf

   In linux/sound there are a few other files - Kconfig, etc. If these are
not supplied by Alsa CVS, then I would leave them in linux/sound to perform
whatever function they perform today.

   Does this sound about right? I may try it out one of these days.

Thanks,
Mark




-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf

Re: SOLVED = RE: Alsa & 2.6 kernel

[Takashi Iwai]

At Thu, 25 Sep 2003 07:45:08 -0700,
Mark Knecht wrote:
> 
> > At Wed, 24 Sep 2003 14:24:29 -0700,
> > Mark Knecht wrote:
> > >
> > > I see that in the Gentoo kernel tree (and maybe all 2.6 kernels)
> > > linux/drivers/sound has moved to linux/sound.
> >
> > the OSS drivers are located now on linux/sound/oss.
> > the other sound directories correspond to ALSA's alsa-kernel tree
> > (except for alsa-kernel/include -> linux/include/sound, and
> >  alsa-kernel/Documentation -> linux/Documentation/sound/alsa).
> >
> >
> > Takashi
> >
> 
> Takashi-san,
>    Thank you very much for the response. It is helpful.
> 
>    Would I be correct that if I had a 2.6 level kernel and wanted to use the
> newest Alsa from CVS, then I would:
> 
> 1) Download CVS to my machine in it's own directory
> 2) Replace what is currently in linux/sound with the CVS source EXCEPT for
> the oss directory which I would leave alone.
> 3) Build the kernel with Alsa sound support and no OSS support
> 4) Use Alsa to do OSS emulation like I do today in modules.conf
> 
>    In linux/sound there are a few other files - Kconfig, etc. If these are
> not supplied by Alsa CVS, then I would leave them in linux/sound to perform
> whatever function they perform today.
> 
>    Does this sound about right? I may try it out one of these days.

yes.  alsa-kernel tree includes the all files (including Kconfig)
except for OSS driver codes under oss directory.

please remember the difference of alsa-kernel and alsa-driver trees.
for 2.6.x kernel, only alsa-kernel tree is used.

also, you can build on alsa-drivers as well as 2.4.x (i fixed this
yesterday).  but in this case, note that the kernel configuration will
override the local configuration of alsa-driver (provided by configure
script).
for example, if you turn off the ALSA support on 2.6.x kernel config,
you cannot build on alsa-drivers tree properly at all.
this causes often problems when CONFIG_SND_DEBUG mismatches between
kernel and alsa-driver trees.

also, when the kernel is compiled with MODVERSION, you'll have many
compile warnings on alsa-driver tree, due to redefinition of symbols.
but you can ignore them in general.


ciao,

Takashi


-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf

RE: SOLVED = RE: Alsa & 2.6 kernel

[Mark Knecht]

Takashi-san,
   Thanks very much. It's making more sense.

   A couple of questions are embedded below. I think you only need to answer
then if you think I'm confused which is a definite possibility. ;-)

> >
> >    Does this sound about right? I may try it out one of these days.
>
> yes.  alsa-kernel tree includes the all files (including Kconfig)
> except for OSS driver codes under oss directory.

Oops! I thought I was clear up to this, so I want to double, double check.
When you say 'OSS driver codes' here, you are speaking of the real OSS that
is not part of Alsa, correct? I have not ever built (TTBOMK) real OSS Sound
support, and don't want to do so now. I do want 'OSS Emulation' that is
offered by Alsa. I get this from the Alsa code and not from anything in the
OSS directory, correct?

The right answer (in my mind) is that I should be able to delete the oss
directory in linux/sound, not enable OSS Sound support when I configure the
kernel, and still get OSS emulation support from Alsa. I hope I have not
been incorrect about this.

>
> please remember the difference of alsa-kernel and alsa-driver trees.
> for 2.6.x kernel, only alsa-kernel tree is used.

Right! The 'drivers' portion of the 2.4 series kernel is now located in
/linux/sound. I see my hdsp.c driver under pci. If I needed to do an HDSP
9652 update, I would take Thomas's work and place it in the
linux/sound/pci/rme9652 directory and rebuild the kernel and kernel modules.

>
> also, you can build on alsa-drivers as well as 2.4.x (i fixed this
> yesterday).  but in this case, note that the kernel configuration will
> override the local configuration of alsa-driver (provided by configure
> script).
> for example, if you turn off the ALSA support on 2.6.x kernel config,
> you cannot build on alsa-drivers tree properly at all.
> this causes often problems when CONFIG_SND_DEBUG mismatches between
> kernel and alsa-driver trees.

Certainly. Of course, I'm not a programmer, but I cannot understand why and
end-user like me would want to turn off Alsa support in the kernel but still
build a driver. I'm trying to be a good citizen. Just give me Alsa and my
driver and I'll be happy! ;-)

>
> also, when the kernel is compiled with MODVERSION, you'll have many
> compile warnings on alsa-driver tree, due to redefinition of symbols.
> but you can ignore them in general.

Way beyond me, I think, but thanks for the info. Maybe it will sink in
later.

Cheers,
Mark




-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf

Re: SOLVED = RE: Alsa & 2.6 kernel

[Takashi Iwai]

At Thu, 25 Sep 2003 11:27:04 -0700,
Mark Knecht wrote:
> 
> > >
> > >    Does this sound about right? I may try it out one of these days.
> >
> > yes.  alsa-kernel tree includes the all files (including Kconfig)
> > except for OSS driver codes under oss directory.
> 
> Oops! I thought I was clear up to this, so I want to double, double check.
> When you say 'OSS driver codes' here, you are speaking of the real OSS that
> is not part of Alsa, correct? I have not ever built (TTBOMK) real OSS Sound
> support, and don't want to do so now. I do want 'OSS Emulation' that is
> offered by Alsa. I get this from the Alsa code and not from anything in the
> OSS directory, correct?

right.

 * linux/sound/oss = the old good real OSS drivers, which was located
                     at linux/drivers/sound on 2.4 tree.
                     (i mean here OSS is not genuine OSS by 4front but
                      so-called OSS/Free or OSS/Kernel.)

 * linux/sound/core/oss = ALSA OSS emulation modules, namely,
                     snd-pcm-oss and snd-mixer-oss modules.

in addition, in linux/sound directory, you'll find two files which
were originally in linux/drivers/sound on 2.4 kernel: sound_core.c and
sound_firmware.c.  since these files are the common base for both ALSA
and OSS, they are put there.  and they can be found in alsa-kernel
tree, too, indeed.

> The right answer (in my mind) is that I should be able to delete the oss
> directory in linux/sound, not enable OSS Sound support when I configure the
> kernel, and still get OSS emulation support from Alsa. I hope I have not
> been incorrect about this.

oh, don't remove the contents under linux/sound/oss.  since the kernel
configurator needs the files (at least linux/sound/oss/Kconfig), you
should keep them as they are.

> >
> > please remember the difference of alsa-kernel and alsa-driver trees.
> > for 2.6.x kernel, only alsa-kernel tree is used.
> 
> Right! The 'drivers' portion of the 2.4 series kernel is now located in
> /linux/sound. I see my hdsp.c driver under pci. If I needed to do an HDSP
> 9652 update, I would take Thomas's work and place it in the
> linux/sound/pci/rme9652 directory and rebuild the kernel and kernel modules.
> 
> >
> > also, you can build on alsa-drivers as well as 2.4.x (i fixed this
> > yesterday).  but in this case, note that the kernel configuration will
> > override the local configuration of alsa-driver (provided by configure
> > script).
> > for example, if you turn off the ALSA support on 2.6.x kernel config,
> > you cannot build on alsa-drivers tree properly at all.
> > this causes often problems when CONFIG_SND_DEBUG mismatches between
> > kernel and alsa-driver trees.
> 
> Certainly. Of course, I'm not a programmer, but I cannot understand why and
> end-user like me would want to turn off Alsa support in the kernel but still
> build a driver. I'm trying to be a good citizen. Just give me Alsa and my
> driver and I'll be happy! ;-)

:)

well, if you want to try an experimental driver on 2.6, too, you'll
need build alsa-drivers tree.  as long as you need only the drivers
already existing on linux kernel tree, this is not necessary.


HTH.

ciao,

Takashi


-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf

RE: SOLVED = RE: Alsa & 2.6 kernel

[Mark Knecht]

>
> right.
>
>  * linux/sound/oss = the old good real OSS drivers, which was located
>                      at linux/drivers/sound on 2.4 tree.
>                      (i mean here OSS is not genuine OSS by 4front but
>                       so-called OSS/Free or OSS/Kernel.)
>
>  * linux/sound/core/oss = ALSA OSS emulation modules, namely,
>                      snd-pcm-oss and snd-mixer-oss modules.
>
> in addition, in linux/sound directory, you'll find two files which
> were originally in linux/drivers/sound on 2.4 kernel: sound_core.c and
> sound_firmware.c.  since these files are the common base for both ALSA
> and OSS, they are put there.  and they can be found in alsa-kernel
> tree, too, indeed.

Good description. Thanks.

>
> > The right answer (in my mind) is that I should be able to delete the oss
> > directory in linux/sound, not enable OSS Sound support when I
> configure the
> > kernel, and still get OSS emulation support from Alsa. I hope I have not
> > been incorrect about this.
>
> oh, don't remove the contents under linux/sound/oss.  since the kernel
> configurator needs the files (at least linux/sound/oss/Kconfig), you
> should keep them as they are.

Certainly. I was speaking more figuratively. I wouldn't actually remove
anything having to do with OSS, but wanted to be more clear what is what.

> :)
>
> well, if you want to try an experimental driver on 2.6, too, you'll
> need build alsa-drivers tree.  as long as you need only the drivers
> already existing on linux kernel tree, this is not necessary.

I built and booted the Gentoo 2.6.0-test5 development kernel last night. It
brought up Alsa, according to the boot time list of things going on. lsmod
showed only about 4 drivers loaded, where as with 2.4 I'm used to seeing
about 15. I think possibly I did not build in support for both my onboard
sound chip as well as the HDSP 9652, and I think the USB options didn't work
correctly as my UPS was not discovered at boot time and the apcupsd daemon
did not start.

I'll look at all of this in the upcoming week or two and see if I can get
2.6 actually working.

Thanks for your time and for sharing your experience.

- Mark




-------------------------------------------------------
This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek
Welcome to geek heaven.
http://thinkgeek.com/sf