Re: BUG in 2.6.22-rc2-mm1: Parts of Alsa sound architecture broken

[Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>]

On Tue, Jun 05 2007, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> At Tue, 5 Jun 2007 15:25:07 +0200 (MEST),
> Jan Engelhardt wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > >> > >Well, I find the change of CONFIG_SND to menuconfig is fine, too.
> > >> > >But CONFIG_SND_PCI_DRIVERS and others don't make much sense to me.
> > >> > >How is it useful at all?
> > >> > 
> > >> > Hah, I just tell you some of my own experience.
> > >> > In summer 2003, I bought the last new machine, and it got these
> > >> > shiny new ports they like to call USB. :)
> > >> > I did not have much use for it, but I left it on - you never know
> > >> > what standard next is the big win of the decade. And actually,
> > >> > it did not took long (well, summer 2005) to get my first USB device.
> > >> > Still, I am hell as sure I do not have USB-based sound devices
> > >> > anytime soon, so it would be cool to deactivate the whole usbsound
> > >> > menu at once. I think I said that in the patch description, did not I?
> > >> 
> > >> But it's not cool to add an extra config item just for that, too.
> > >> And, the structure of menuconfig-if-endif is uglier than menu-endmenu.
> > >> That's why I feel a bit uneasy, although all these are a matter of
> > >> taste...
> > >
> > >Forgot to mention about another annoying drawback.  Because of the new
> > >CONFIG_SND_*_DRIVERS, you'll have to re-select all belonging
> > >CONFIG_SND_*, even via config oldconfig.  Putting the dependency on
> > >the top seems to reset the values defined in the old .config.
> > 
> > Well, *I* (previously) submitted patches with  "default y", but Jens 
> > Axboe [http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/5/12/164] disagreed heavily enough to 
> > stop that practice.
> 
> Hm, I guess Jens didn't know about this side-effect.
> 
> When I don't set "default y", I'll be asked for each belonging item
> even though I chose "y" manually for the top config
> (CONFIG_*_DRIVERS).
> 
> Strangely, setting "default y" has no this effect...

That sounds like a bug in the kconfig system. I still think default y is
an *awful* idea, but you can read why in the thread referenced above.

-- 
Jens Axboe