Klaus Schulz wrote:

Stan.

You don't seriously expect me to show this document to a

standard Linux

User!!

Well yes for some users, but mostly it was for your use. When the user asks you questions, you use the information in the document to give them advice of what to do. Perhaps you could extract the user doable parts for your own use and to send to users.

I think we have slightly different perceptions of what a standard linux user is. ;-)

From my perspective, your perception is that a standard linux user uses linux like a windows user uses windows, an appliance.

I think a standard linux user has some IT background, or at least some IT interest. They aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty. If they were a car owner, they know how to open the hood and can point to a spark plug and the battery, know how to fill the window washer fluid and radiator, check the oil.

In other words your standard linux user is a driver, mine drives but does his own standard maintenance.

I suspect that both types are linux users. I read about people whose grandmothers use linux so it must work like that (they do all the setup and maintenance for them).

This is designer talk!

Not all of it. I'm thinking you got freaked by the technical tone and your eyes glazed over. But much of the information there could be understood and implemented by a high school student (a bright high school student, but a high school student). Try reading it, just skip those sections that seem too technical to you. I think you'll be surprised at how much information you get out of it.

The normal user needs a manageable guideline.

That's you. :-) Actually, the normal user should never ever see these issues. HD audio should work the way AC97 works. It just works. It is having teething pains.

Is there a(n) (up2date and reliable!!) database of

Codecs, PCs and its

interface implementations and testrecords somewhere? Let me know there is one.

There is sort of one, in the alsa-driver source package of alsa. It is in alsa-kernel/Documentation/ALSA-Configuration.txt

Of course, the ultimate source is the source code itself, but I will concede that that is beyond the capabilities of standard linux users.

My role: I am just gathering the problems over there http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=962695 I am making sure that the mixer issue is clarified over

there at

Ubuntuforums as well as the model-id part. Beyond that everything else will

exceed my capacities. Maybe now, but I suspect you will get proficient with time. Another alternative is to open problem records to alsa when you have issues you can't resolve. They will need the alsa-info.sh output in them for the developers to use. I don't know how effective that will be, but at least a record will be kept.

The model-id part, if you read Takashi's document, sounds

IMO pretty fluffy.

You can't expect a user to try all model-ids, to find the

right one.

You need to set up a database for that. Expecting the

normal user to fiddle

around with module options, is also not what I'd honestly expect

from a 2009 Linux

sound layer.

Do a search for alsa-info.sh in the document. That is a script that runs to extract all relevant sound information from the PC of the user. The codec information is there, and it will show the model ID it determined. I don't think it is beyond a linux user to run alsa-info.sh and look at the information if told where to look.

Sorry for sounding maybe a bit harsh. But the issues of

"My headphone jack

is not working" "My speakers are not working" "I got noise on my speakers" "I can't use my digital out"

asf asf somehow

have to get under control. It is obvious that a normal user can not handle this.

I happen to agree. Almost all of the issues in linux sound are related to HD audio these days. As the document points out, not all of these are alsa issues. It explains how to resolve them if they are resolvable within alsa. And it points to how to open a problem record to alsa and what to include in it. Again, the alsa-info.sh output should be there.

A reliable, well maintained database and user

documentation would be a IMO

a nice starting point.

Yes, it would. But that takes time and effort. It isn't so much the initial effort, it is the ongoing maintenance effort. And it requires in depth knowledge of alsa. The people who have that knowledge spend their time developing alsa.

THX Klaus