Hi,
Arjan asks that we move everything to use libasound rather than esound or OSS. Because ALSA lets multiple apps output sound at once, esound isn't really needed; the only functionality we lose is that remote apps can't play sound on the local system, but that functionality was pretty hosed with esound anyway.
I don't have a sense of how many things are accessing OSS/esound directly, or how much work is involved here.
Havoc
Havoc Pennington (hp@redhat.com) said:
Arjan asks that we move everything to use libasound rather than esound or OSS. Because ALSA lets multiple apps output sound at once, esound isn't really needed; the only functionality we lose is that remote apps can't play sound on the local system, but that functionality was pretty hosed with esound anyway.
Well.... ALSA by default only lets multiple apps output *up to the number of HW channels the card has*.
Doing more requires configuration.
Bill
On Sun, 2004-05-30 at 23:36, Bill Nottingham wrote:
Well.... ALSA by default only lets multiple apps output *up to the number of HW channels the card has*.
I've been told that all interesting cards have at least 2 channels (maybe more?)
Doing more requires configuration.
Configuration we can do by default?
Havoc
On Mon, 31 May 2004, Havoc Pennington wrote:
On Sun, 2004-05-30 at 23:36, Bill Nottingham wrote:
Well.... ALSA by default only lets multiple apps output *up to the number of HW channels the card has*.
I've been told that all interesting cards have at least 2 channels (maybe more?)
Guess that needs configuration too. Right now I'm using ALSA on my laptop, don't know how many channels, but only one application can play, and the other sounds are *queued* until the current one stops.
Doing more requires configuration.
Configuration we can do by default?
A couple of months back I configured an ALSA mixer, but after a few seconds of playback, it used to get stuck for no reason. Of course it may have been fixed by now. And oh, it needs applications being configured to use that software mixer device instead of default ALSA device for playback (xmms, gaim, etc).
Havoc
--behdad behdad.org
Behdad Esfahbod escribió:
A couple of months back I configured an ALSA mixer, but after a few seconds of playback, it used to get stuck for no reason. Of course it may have been fixed by now.
I'm using software mixing w/ALSA here. Haven't tested it that much, but so far so good. And it takes only a ~/.asoundrc file.
And oh, it needs applications being configured to use that software mixer device instead of default ALSA device for playback (xmms, gaim, etc).
Well, someone posted a few days ago a tip on the fedora-list on how to make the software input & output devices the default. That's the one I'm using, and as long the applications are configured to use ALSA, they end using the sw mixing. I tested it w/ XMMS, Xine and the system sounds in Gnome, it works and I didn't have to tweak anything but just the ~/.asoundrc.
I don't have this thread off hand, but I guess if you search the fedora-list it will pop up.
I think it's a nice default to include... but it needs more testing, though. f.i., I don't know if there's any performance hit by doing this (I suppose there is)
Regards,
Mariano Draghi escribió:
Behdad Esfahbod escribió:
(...)
And oh, it needs applications being configured to use that software mixer device instead of default ALSA device for playback (xmms, gaim, etc).
Well, someone posted a few days ago a tip on the fedora-list on how to make the software input & output devices the default.
Here, this is the thread: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2004-May/msg00989.html (it was on the devel-list)
I'm using exactlty that .asoundrc
On Mon, 2004-05-31 at 15:36, Mariano Draghi wrote:
I'm using software mixing w/ALSA here. Haven't tested it that much, but so far so good. And it takes only a ~/.asoundrc file.
Ah geez, there's a .asoundrc... and the file format looks like some made-up custom hack... grumble. ;-) Hopefully not an indication that someone is punting things that should just work onto the end user.
Well, someone posted a few days ago a tip on the fedora-list on how to make the software input & output devices the default. That's the one I'm using, and as long the applications are configured to use ALSA, they end using the sw mixing. I tested it w/ XMMS, Xine and the system sounds in Gnome, it works and I didn't have to tweak anything but just the ~/.asoundrc.
We really have to make the default whatever _works_, end user configuration requirements in this area are pretty much unacceptable... if software mixing is the only way to get mixing 100% of the time, and we want to avoid the software mixing when hardware mixing is possible, alsa will just have to be smart enough to auto-determine when hardware mixing is possible and automatically fall back to software otherwise. Or some other sane automatic policy.
In the meantime can we just pop the systemwide default over to software mixing?
Havoc
Havoc Pennington (hp@redhat.com) said:
On Sun, 2004-05-30 at 23:36, Bill Nottingham wrote:
Well.... ALSA by default only lets multiple apps output *up to the number of HW channels the card has*.
I've been told that all interesting cards have at least 2 channels (maybe more?)
Not really. Cards are getting dumber, not smarter. Especially in the boring desktop audio space (think i810_audio.)
Doing more requires configuration.
Configuration we can do by default?
Potentially.
Bill
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Mariano Draghi