On Tue, 9 Jun 2009 23:09:45 -0400Lee Revell <rlrevell@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 9:18 PM, Jamie Lokier<jamie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:> > But that doesn't explain why new kernels every few months behave so> > differently on my Intel HDA laptop.> >> > Because a patch that makes sound work on one laptop can break sound on> another laptop. Due to the design of HDA, the only way to guarantee> this won't happen is to regression test each patch on every single> make and model of PC on the market.> Which just tells there should be one driver per motherboard/laptop,and nothing will get broken. I.e. ALSA + kernle chose a wrong architecture, and specifically, kerneldevelopers chose a _very_ _wrong_ approach declaring their disregard ofstable binary API. > > Hopefully someone will produce laptops that use standard-ish USB sound> > internally sometime, like they already do with Bluetooth, Wifi and> > memory card readers.> >> > Those are not 100% standardized either. Hardware vendors like it this> way, it allows them to market the "value added" features of their> systems ;-)> > > Certainly I'll be testing my next laptop with distro CDs before buying> > it, if the next one comes with Intel HDA. In theory HDA is a good> > idea but it's a mess in practice.> >> > It's not even a good idea in theory. HDA was designed by Intel and> Microsoft. The HDA "spec" allows so much variation from one model to> the next that even on Windows, a vendor driver is usually needed to> make sound work. In theory the BIOS is supposed to tell a generic> driver how the audio is internally wired up on a given chipset. In> practice vendors skip this step because it's cheaper to put that info> in the .ini file of the vendor's Windows driver. Oh, so the info _does_ _exist_ in .ini file ?! And isn't the file a textone ? And if so, can't it just be extracted from Windows driver CD or fromthe manufacturer website, parsed, and the info used to make ALSA driver work ? > > It's almost as if HDA was designed to make sound support on non> Microsoft OSes as difficult as possible. But we all know Microsoft> would never do a thing like that ;-)> > Lee> Of course, Linux developers will never admit wrong approach - see thecomments above. Not that Microsoft and Intel are innocent, but still ... --Sergei. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Crystal Reports - New Free Runtime and 30 Day TrialCheck out the new simplified licensing option that enables unlimitedroyalty-free distribution of the report engine for externally facing server and web deployment.http://p.sf.net/sfu/businessobjects_______________________________________________Alsa-user mailing listAlsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
