[alsa-devel] ALSA versions versus kernel versions
Daniel Griscom
griscom at suitable.com
Mon Jan 28 16:50:04 CET 2013
At 4:28 PM +0100 1/28/13, Takashi Iwai wrote:
>At Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:10:18 -0500,
>Daniel Griscom wrote:
>>
>> I never got a response to my query,
>
>... because you're hanging your post to an utterly irrelevant thread?
>It's the second time, so I guess the previous time wasn't an
>accident.
How so? Is there a hidden email field that tracks threads independent
of the thread titles? If so, my apologies: my (antique) email client
must be doing things behind my back.
> > not even an RTFM (although I'm
>> pretty sure this isn't in the M). So, in case anyone else is
>> wondering, here's what I've since found:
>>
>> - The kernel packages do NOT limit themselves to taking an entire
>> released ALSA package. In particular, the 3.6.X series has a number
>> of improvements and changes that aren't in the latest (year old)
>> alsa-driver 1.0.25 package. I'll guess that they're taken directly
>> from the alsa GIT repository, but it's hard to know.
>
>The 1.0.25 *released* tarball is what was released. It won't change.
>The tarball created from the latest GIT is called "snapshot".
>
>And note that the alsa-driver version number has been already
>deprecated in the recent kernel. The confusing number 1.0.25 was
>dropped, finally.
Ah. Is there somewhere I could find out information such as this?
>In short, forget about alsa-driver released packages. Stick with the
>driver included in your kernel, or use alsa-driver snapshot tarball
>(but carefully).
>
>> - The alsa-driver package installs items that are NOT a part of the
>> kernel package. The alsasound startup script and the ALSA headers are
>> the examples I've found so far, but there may be more items.
>
>They are no longer necessary stuff, but kept there since they are
>mostly harmless. You can run "make install-modules" to install only
>modules.
Is the installed /etc/init.d/alsasound not needed? It seems to do a
number of tasks when starting and stopping.
How do I install the ALSA headers without installing the rest of the
(obsolete) contents? "make install-headers" inside alsa-driver-1.0.25?
And, does alsa-driver install anything else outside of the kernel modules?
> > - When installed, the alsa-driver package installs its modules into
>> the currently running kernel's directories. So, if you want to have
>> the latest system, you need to install the kernel, reboot into that
>> kernel, install alsa-driver, reinstall the kernel, and reboot again.
>> Ugh.
>
>Hm, did you read INSTALL file? The installation to an update (or
>extra) directory is suggested. Pass a proper --with-moddir configure
>option.
> > <rant>
>> ALSA's Achilles heel has always been its documentation, whether for
>> developers (the Doxygen-generated documents are at times comically
>> uninformative) or for end-users (e.g. the lack of information such as
>> the above). Please: those of you in the know, spend some time
>> documenting this powerful and confusing system. Yes, you know how to
>> use it, but isn't the goal to have it support the thousands/millions
>> of audio users out there, and not just the dozen or so core ALSA
>> developers?
>> </rant>
>
>You seem to overestimate the numbers. I dream of dozen of core
>developers, too.
>
>Speaking of implicit feedback: it's been since 3.5, but lots of bug
>fixes are found in 3.7. So better to use 3.7, I guess.
>
>
>HTH,
>
>Takashi
>
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Dan
>>
>>
>> At 4:12 PM -0500 1/17/13, Daniel Griscom wrote:
>> >We're working to build a consistent Linux audio environment for our
>> >embedded audio product,with known versions of both ALSA and the
>> >kernel (we're specifically considering kernel 3.6.6). We are not
>> >clear, however, exactly what version of the ALSA kernel-space tools
>> >are included with the kernel, nor are we clear on exactly what each
>> >ALSA package is used for.
>> >
>> >In order to simplify any responses, I'll give my best guess as to
>> >what's included in the kernel and each ALSA package: let me know
> > >where I went wrong.
>> >
>> >
>> >So, am I right that...
>> >
>> >- Kernel 3.6.6 includes exactly alsa-driver-1.0.25 (I'm actually
>> >guessing not, but let me know.)
>> >
>> >- alsa-driver-1.0.25 is all included in the kernel release, and
>>can be ignored
>> >
>> >- alsa-lib is the user-space library that we complile our tools
>> >against, and that communicates with ALSA in the kernel through the
>> >device and /proc tree (required)
>> >
>> >- alsa-utils are various generic ALSA command line tools, such as
>> >amixer, aplay, alsaconf, etc (required)
>> >
>> >- alsa-tools are various more obscure tools and loaders (probably
>> >not required)
>> >
>> >- alsa-firmware are binary drivers for various third-party products
>> >(probably not required)
>> >
>> >- alsa-plugins are plugins for various ALSA needs (e.g. Jack)
>> >(probably not required)
>> >
>> >- alsa-oss is the OSS compatibilty layer (not required)
>> >
>> >- pyalsa is the Python bindings for ALSA (not required)
>> >
>> >
>> >And, some final questions:
>> >
>> >- What version of ALSA and the kernel are needed to fully support
>> >implicit feedback?
>> >
>> >- Given our audio focus, what version kernel would you recommend?
>> >
>> >
>> >Thanks,
>> >Dan
>>
>> --
>> Daniel T. Griscom griscom at suitable.com
>> Suitable Systems http://www.suitable.com/
>> 1 Centre Street, Suite 204 (781) 665-0053
>> Wakefield, MA 01880-2400
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>> Alsa-devel mailing list
>> Alsa-devel at alsa-project.org
>> http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel
>>
--
Daniel T. Griscom griscom at suitable.com
Suitable Systems http://www.suitable.com/
1 Centre Street, Suite 204 (781) 665-0053
Wakefield, MA 01880-2400
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