[alsa-devel] [PATCH 1/5] allow up to 32 PCM devices

[Takashi Iwai]

At Wed, 12 May 2010 12:20:33 +0200,
Clemens Ladisch wrote:
> 
> Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > Wu Fengguang wrote:
> > > > Jaroslav Kysela wrote:
> > > > > I don't agree to have only 4 slots for soundcards in the static minor 
> > > > > numbering. Maybe the driver should be converted to use subdevices or we 
> > > > > might drop the static minor number allocation at all (it might have only 
> > > > > impact for old distros).
> > > 
> > > Jaroslav, will there be so many sound cards in one system?
> > 
> > In the old time, yes.  Now we have less and less PCI slots.
> > In theory, we may have lots of USB audio devices, though :)
> 
> I implemented CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS because people had been asking
> for more than eight cards.  (And by now I have lots of cards too,
> although my computer probably isn't very typical.)
> 
> Anyway, static numbering is needed only for systems without udev/devfs,
> and there we shouldn't change it for backwards compatibility.  The HDA
> driver already requires kernels >= 2.6, so I don't see a problem with
> requiring CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS to get all HDMI outputs.

Right.  We can make it dependent.


> > Another possible solution would be to change the minor number
> > assignment to a really dynamic one.  So far, due to legacy /dev/aload
> > and co, we have some static restriction per card basis.
> 
> What restriction would that be?  With CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS, we
> don't allocate minors that would be used by /dev/aload*, but there are
> no restrictions on the number of cards or devices.

Ah, OK, I misread the mapping of SNDRV_MINOR_CONTROL and GLOBAL.


thanks,

Takashi