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Re: [Gnewsense-dev] OSSv4 default sound on parkes?


From: Karl Goetz
Subject: Re: [Gnewsense-dev] OSSv4 default sound on parkes?
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:59:20 +0930

On Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:09:36 +1000
Steven McDonald <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Sun, 15 Aug 2010 13:43:51 +0930
> Karl Goetz <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > How much work will it be for us? It sounds like a non trivial
> > change.
> > 
> 
> To be honest, it all depends on whether applications like Firefox and
> family want to play nice with OSS. Best case scenario, the kernel
> modules are easily merged into the Linux-libre sources, we find a
> user-friendly sound widget that suppots OSS, and all application
> software just works with little to no modifications. Worst case
> scenario, the kernel modules don't fit into the kernel sources easily
> and need to be built as a separate package, we need to create a brand
> new mixer from scratch, and Firefox simply refuses to work without
> major changes (in this case, I think it's definitely an idea to drop).

Thats a big 'it depends' :]

> > > * It is not included in the Linux source. At present, using it
> > > requires building it as a kernel module separately.
> > 
> > bit disadvantage, especially if its not going to be shipped by
> > debian with squeeze.
> > 
> 
> Debian ships the kernel modules in source code form, to be built by
> DKMS. I haven't yet got DKMS to actually build them successfully on my
> machine, and in any case this would be inconvenient if it were the
> default. I started to merge the OSSv4 drivers into Linux-libre in
> place of the deprecated OSSv3 today, and so far at least this part
> looks promising; I've written the relevant kernel configuration file
> and Makefile, and I expect to get it to build successfully within a
> week at most.

ok.

> > > * I do not know of any user-friendly mixer widget that supports
> > > OSS. The OSSv4 source distribution itself comes with a program
> > > called ossxmix, which is exceptionally ugly and features
> > > unintuitive controls.
> > 
> > Big negative.
> > 
> 
> Once I've finished merging the OSSv4 modules into the kernel, I'll
> look into this issue. With any luck, one already exists, but if not
> I'll look to either modify ossxmix to make it more user friendly, or
> modify a user friendly ALSA widget to make it support OSS. After that
> point, the only thing standing in our way would be any application
> software that doesn't work with OSS.

right.

> > > Given these advantages and disadvantages, I propose the following
> > > solution to including OSSv4 as the default sound backend in
> > > gNewSense 3.0 "parkes" (with ALSA available at the user's option,
> > > of course), which I am willing to hack on with the development
> > > community's go-ahead:
> > 
> > At this stage you don't have my support - this sounds like a lot of
> > extra work to carry, for no direct benefit.
> > kk
> > 
> 
> I'll post again to the list when I have finished merging OSSv4
> drivers into Linux-libre and creating an OSSv4 mixer widget. At the
> very least, these would be useful things to submit upstream (although
> I don't know if Linus is interested in OSSv4). At such point, I will
> provide an assessment of how well application software interacts with
> OSSv4.

ok. I'm still doubtful we'll include it as a default, but don't let me
stop you doing your testing :)
kk

-- 
Karl Goetz, (Kamping_Kaiser / VK5FOSS)
Debian contributor / gNewSense Maintainer
http://www.kgoetz.id.au
No, I won't join your social networking group

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