Various problems using ALSA drivers in 2.5.5-pre1.

Various problems using ALSA drivers in 2.5.5-pre1.

[Miles Lane]

Hello,

I have the linux hotplug scripts installed.  When I built
the drivers as modules, they did not autoload, as they should
have.  Are you working to make the drivers register themselves
during the boot process so that they are autoloaded without
having to hack the modules.conf file?

I have applied the patch the gets /proc/asound working.
In my most recent attempt, I have compiled the ALSA drivers
into the kernel.  I would like to use the native ALSA drivers,
but am not sure how to configure my devices to make this
happen.  I use esound on GNOME and play CDs.

One question I have is how to go about getting the ALSA
utilities and tools to build.  They require alsa-lib, which
appears to require alsa-drivers.  This is a problem, because
I don't want to install the out-of-kernel ALSA drivers in
addition to the in-kernel ones.

It seems to me that there is a need for several things to happen,
now that ALSA is in the development kernel:

1)  You need to update your web documentation to guide users
in configuring ALSA who are testing the ALSA support in
the development kernel.

2)  You need to include updated ALSA configuration and usage
information into the linux/Documentation tree in the 2.5 kernel
tree.

3)  You need to update documentation in the utils and tools
packages to include information about how to build and use
there utilies when using the 2.5 kernel drivers.

4)  You may need to overhaul your tools and utilities build
processes so that alsa-drivers is not required.

Here are my options:

CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_RTCTIMER=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=y
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_DEBUG=y
CONFIG_SND_DEBUG_MEMORY=y
CONFIG_SND_DEBUG_FULL=y
CONFIG_SND_DEBUG_DETECT=y
CONFIG_SND_EMU10K1=y

In my kernel log, I see no sign that my EMU10K1 card is detected.

Here is what an OSS driver in an earlier kernel logged when it
detected my card:
-----------------------------

cat /proc/asound/devices:

   1:       : sequencer
   0: [0- 0]: ctl
   4: [0- 0]: hardware dependent
   8: [0- 0]: raw midi
  19: [0- 3]: digital audio playback
  26: [0- 2]: digital audio capture
  25: [0- 1]: digital audio capture
  16: [0- 0]: digital audio playback
  24: [0- 0]: digital audio capture
   9: [0- 1]: raw midi
  10: [0- 2]: raw midi
  33:       : timer

-----------------------------

  cat oss-devices:
   1:       : sequencer
   8:       : sequencer
   2: [0- 2]: raw midi
  12: [0-12]: digital audio
   3: [0- 3]: digital audio
   0: [0- 0]: mixer
  13: [0-13]: raw midi

-----------------------------

cat pcm:
00-00: emu10k1 : EMU10K1 : playback 32 : capture 1
00-01: emu10k1 mic : EMU10K1 MIC : capture 1
00-02: emu10k1 efx : EMU10K1 EFX : capture 1
00-03: emu10k1 : EMU10K1 FX8010 : playback 8

cat cards:
0 [card0          ]: EMU10K1 - Sound Blaster Live!
                      Sound Blaster Live! at 0xff80, irq 5

-----------------------------

cat sndstat:
Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v0.9.0beta10 emulation code)
Kernel: Linux turbulence.megapathdsl.net 2.5.5-pre1 #5 Sat Feb 16
01:22:40 PST 2
002 i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers:
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config:
Sound Blaster Live! at 0xff80, irq 5

Audio devices:
0: EMU10K1 (DUPLEX)

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices:
0: EMU10K1 MPU-401 (UART)

Timers:
7: system timer

Mixers:
0: mixer00



Feb 11 10:48:44 turbulence kernel: Creative EMU10K1 PCI Audio Driver,
version 0.7, 17:00:23 Sep  6 2001
Feb 11 10:48:44 turbulence kernel: emu10k1: EMU10K1 rev 7 model 0x8031
found, IO at 0xff80-0xff9f, IRQ 5

Re: Various problems using ALSA drivers in 2.5.5-pre1.

[Takashi Iwai]

Hi Miles,

At Sat, 16 Feb 2002 19:24:25 -0800,
Miles Lane wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I have the linux hotplug scripts installed.  When I built
> the drivers as modules, they did not autoload, as they should
> have.  Are you working to make the drivers register themselves
> during the boot process so that they are autoloaded without
> having to hack the modules.conf file?
 
Please note that the complicated configuration of /etc/modules.conf is
mainly for auto-loading of modules and multiple cards.
That is, ALSA can work without hacking modules.conf if you use only
ALSA native applications.  Furthermore, if you load OSS emulation
modules manually you don't need hacking modules.conf for OSS devices,
too.  And both ALSA and OSS modules can coexistent at the same time
if you configure properly (of course for different cards, I mean).


> I have applied the patch the gets /proc/asound working.
> In my most recent attempt, I have compiled the ALSA drivers
> into the kernel.  I would like to use the native ALSA drivers,
> but am not sure how to configure my devices to make this
> happen.  I use esound on GNOME and play CDs.
 
IIRC, esound doesn't support ALSA yet officially..
So it will be anyway through OSS emulation.

> One question I have is how to go about getting the ALSA
> utilities and tools to build.  They require alsa-lib, which
> appears to require alsa-drivers.  This is a problem, because
> I don't want to install the out-of-kernel ALSA drivers in
> addition to the in-kernel ones.
 
No, you don't need extra alsa-driver source.
To build alsa-lib, the kernel source including alsa (more exactly,
header files) will be enough.
There is a configure option, --with-kernel and --with-soundbase,
to specify the place of alsa header files.  Please check
alsa-lib/INSTALL file.


> It seems to me that there is a need for several things to happen,
> now that ALSA is in the development kernel:
> 
> 1)  You need to update your web documentation to guide users
> in configuring ALSA who are testing the ALSA support in
> the development kernel.
 
yep.

> 2)  You need to include updated ALSA configuration and usage
> information into the linux/Documentation tree in the 2.5 kernel
> tree.
 
yes, that would be better..

> 3)  You need to update documentation in the utils and tools
> packages to include information about how to build and use
> there utilies when using the 2.5 kernel drivers.
 
it's already in INSTALL.

> 4)  You may need to overhaul your tools and utilities build
> processes so that alsa-drivers is not required.
 
already done.


ciao,

Takashi