Currently there is no alsa installed in the custom distro, so there won't be any overwritting. :) I just don't want to install the version of alsa I'm compiling into my running version of Kubuntu because I'd rather use software from it's package repositories to avoid the headaches mentioned by everyone. :) There should be no mixing of the software I'm compiling with Kubuntu other than what gets "installed" for packaging in the staging directory (/opt/staging/alsa). There are no .deb packages being used or created with the custom distro. Currently whatever is being compiled in the staging directory (/opt/staging/...) simply gets tar'ed and moved to the root of the custom distro (e.g. /opt/staging/alsa/bin on Kubuntu becomes /bin on custom distro). I'm just using Kubuntu as the OS to compile and build on. The more I read the replies, I'm thinking that everyone thinks I'm trying to modify a Kubuntu installation which is not the case. The custom distro uses busybox, resides in the RAM, and contains several other large differences. This is nowhere near me taking an existing distro and installing some (additional) software. :) It's being built from the ground up using my Kubuntu installation as the OS to build the packages. Once I'm further along, I'll begin using the custom distro to build the packages, but for right now, it's much easier to use Kubuntu due to the simplicity of using their software repository to satisfy any compile time requirements.
Since I'm not overwritting the alsa installed on the Kubuntu system, I don't think there's a need for --prefix. I think I just need to be able to have the 'configure' script look for the compiled alsa-lib package in the /opt/staging/alsa directory while compiling only. Using --prefix will make the software always look in the /opt/staging/alsa directory on the custom distro - which isn't the real location as there isn't an /opt/staging/... directory.
Regarding the kernel, since I'm using a relatively recent kernel (2.6.33), should I just be compiling the alsa-utils package then and not worry about alsa-lib or alsa-driver? Which alsa package(s) are included within the kernel source?
Thanks,
Dave
On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 9:28 AM, James Shatto <wwwshadow7@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well many source packages default to /usr/local/
Many distros default to /usr/
And the distros IGNORE /usr/local/ unless otherwise told. It's not a
compile thing, it's a runtime thing. Of course you could always run
things with the full paths /usr/local/bin/alsamixer and such. But if
you add the location in $PATH, it'll find it. But if you use the
default /usr/local/ it might look for and load the distros version
from /usr/ first.
So I generally overwrite the distro's versions. i.e. make install and
--prefix=/usr. Versus building debs and installing it that way which
is the "preferred" way to do thing. But mainly because I can never
recall the fakeroot debian/binary stuff to make debs off the top of my
head. And I don't always have networking setup to google it at the
stage that I'm installing alsa. But I don't do enough from source
stuff to really consider my setup a different distro. Just customized
per say. If only for the optimization of not having to look through
1,000 drivers for the 1 that is actually used. And media players with
CPU specific optimizations are always nice.
As a side note, alsa is in the 2.6 kernel tree. Are we on 2.8 yet?
So if you compile a recent kernel, you automagically get a recent alsa
version with it. Or if your distro offers a recent kernel. It's done
for you. No need to re-invent the wheel as previously said. But
sometimes your distro doesn't package things in a way that you want to
use them. i.e. Timidity with sequencer support. Jackd with sequencer
support. Alsa with OSS emulation. And other fine tuning type needs.
Or your distro is on such an ancient kernel, that stuff just doesn't
work at all given the lack of age of your hardware versus the copious
amounts of age in your kernel version.
- James
On 6/20/11, David Henderson <dhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thanks again for the continued help James. I knew '--prefix' was a
> 'configure' option, but thought one would use it when permanently
> installing the software to a non-standard directory on the system.
> Since this software is being compiled on a temp system and "installing"
> to a staging directory, wouldn't the 'DESTDIR' be a better option to use
> while compiling the software so it can be packaged and installed on the
> custom distro?
>
> Thanks for the tips on the kernel headers and configure parameters. :)
>
> Dave
>
>
> On 06/19/2011 07:06 PM, James Shatto wrote:
>> --prefix is a ./configure option.
>>
>> If you're going to apply the new alsa to an existing distro kernel and
>> not a custom from source one. You'll likely need to install the
>> kernel-headers package for that kernel and distro. And may need to
>> manually move the old version of alsa (or remove). Plus that whole
>> depmod thing.
>>
>> $ dpkg -l '*kernel*headers*'
>>
>> Which resolves to linux-kernel-headers in debian. Which is a psuedo
>> package for:
>> linux-libc-dev
>> 2.6.26-26lenny3
>> and of course 2.6.26-26lenny3 resolves to linux-tree-2.6.26lenny3
>>
>> so:
>> # apt-get install linux-libc-dev linux-tree-2.6.26-26lenny3
>> (in debian 5.0 / lenny)
>>
>> If it's a custom one, just don't make clean after making the kernel.
>> It should reside in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/ or something like
>> that. BITD, this would just be a symlink to/from /usr/src/linux and
>> was what early alsa assumed by default.
>>
>> Depending on what multimedia features you need. You might want
>> --with-sequencer=yes and --with-oss=yes and a --driver=<your card>
>> options on your alsa-driver compile. Without those =no might be
>> assumed. And you might compile ALL drivers which could take a really
>> long time. Less so these days, but BITD, the better part of a day it
>> seemed.
>>
>> It really depends on what you want interacting with your sound card.
>> Timidity and other synth like software requires the
>> --with-sequencer=yes if your card doesn't have native midi abilities
>> (most don't these days). And various pulse-audio and browsers and
>> other things that just need --with-oss=yes or things might not work as
>> expected, if at all. Little things that you'll find out one way or
>> another as you learn your way around.
>>
>> HTH,
>> - James
>>
>>
>> On 6/19/11, David Henderson<dhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> Hi James, thanks for your help too. :) I'll provide replies in the same
>>> fashion given.
>>>
>>> A) I don't want to overwrite the Kubuntu installation files as I'm
>>> compiling this version of alsa for my own distro. I would prefer to use
>>> Kubuntu's pre-packaged software within itself. So since the compiled
>>> version of alsa will be going into /opt/staging/alsa, should I include
>>> "--prefix=/opt/staging/alsa" as the parameter to "configure"?
>>>
>>> B) I'll assume at this point, that no matter what version of the Linux
>>> kernel is being used, it's still required to install the alsa-driver
>>> package. That being said, I'm going to run into the same problem as "A"
>>> above since the version of Kubuntu I'm using to build the custom distro
>>> isn't using the same kernel version. So what "configure" option do I
>>> have to pass in order for alsa to see the source code of the custom
>>> distro's kernel version?
>>>
>>> C) So far, so good, but I'll keep that in mind. :)
>>>
>>> D) Thanks for the URL, but this is a project that I've wanted to do for
>>> the last 5-7 years and now I have the ability to do so. Not only that,
>>> but knowing details at this level of building an OS can also help with
>>> my job - so I get a two fold benefit. :) Otherwise, I'd definitely
>>> follow your advice! lol
>>>
>>> Thanks again for your help, I look forward to hearing back from you.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>
>>> On 06/19/2011 04:36 PM, James Shatto wrote:
>>>> A) If you want to overwrite your existing distro's versions, you
>>>> probably want the --prefix=/usr option on your ./configure commands.
>>>> If not, be sure to change your $PATH to look at /usr/local FIRST.
>>>>
>>>> B) Compile alsa-lib first, alsa-driver second. Most compile options
>>>> only need --prefix=/usr if you want to override the default of
>>>> /usr/local. But alsa-driver requires extra parms depending on what
>>>> you want. Some packages are only tool sets, so make -f Makefile? And
>>>> use them from where you made them, or copy/move them to more common
>>>> $PATH's.
>>>>
>>>> C) You might have versioning conflicts depending on what you're trying
>>>> to mix and match. libc and other things might not work well together
>>>> unless you're running the latest and greatest of every component. And
>>>> even that is problematic some of the time.
>>>>
>>>> D) unless you have a lot of time to waste, or just need the learning,
>>>> I'd recommend going with existing distros. There's enough of them
>>>> that one might suit your current needs. www.distrowatch.com
>>>>
>>>> HTH,
>>>> - James
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 6/19/11, David Henderson<dhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>> Thanks for the reply Pierre. I checked into the blfs book, but it
>>>>> merely says "these five chapters will cover alsa" and then gives you a
>>>>> basic "type configure&& make". This is obviously not going to answer
>>>>> the questions below. :) Any other thoughts?
>>>>>
>>>>> Dave
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 06/19/2011 11:22 PM, Pierre Lorenzon wrote:
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It looks like to me such questions are well answered in the
>>>>>> blfs book. I personnaly think that the latter is a very good
>>>>>> tool to build his own custom distro.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Bests
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Pierre
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> From: David Henderson<dhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>>> Subject: First post
>>>>>> Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 14:41:08 -0400
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi everyone! I'm currently expanding my knowledge of GNU/Linux to
>>>>>>> include building packages from scratch towards an overall goal of a
>>>>>>> custom distro. So far, I have a nice base for a command line OS, but
>>>>>>> want to expand into the multimedia aspect. Alsa was my first (only?)
>>>>>>> choice for the audio portion, but I'm running into problems. The
>>>>>>> alsa
>>>>>>> site is somewhat overwhelming to newbies and is easy to get lost. I
>>>>>>> have a few questions below from which I hope I can find help. All
>>>>>>> contributions are greatly appreciated. :)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>> Dave
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 1) Currently I have downloaded alsa-driver, alsa-lib, and alsa-utils
>>>>>>> packages. Is there an order in which these packages need to be
>>>>>>> compiled
>>>>>>> and installed?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 2) I'm currently running the relatively new Linux kernel 2.6.33 so do
>>>>>>> I
>>>>>>> need the alsa-driver package?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 3) I've been able to successfully compile the alsa-lib package and
>>>>>>> install it in the custom distro. When I try to compile the
>>>>>>> alsa-utils
>>>>>>> package, I constantly get the error:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> checking for libasound headers version>= 1.0.16... not present.
>>>>>>> configure: error: Sufficiently new version of libasound not found.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm actually using an existing Kubuntu installation to build the
>>>>>>> packages for my custom distro. As a result, after I compiled the
>>>>>>> newer
>>>>>>> alsa-lib, I didn't install the package into the Kubuntu OS, but
>>>>>>> rather
>>>>>>> a
>>>>>>> staging directory (/opt/staging/alsa). I'm sure the reason this is
>>>>>>> failing is because it's probably looking for /usr/lib/... or some
>>>>>>> other
>>>>>>> default location. How do I tell the configure script for the
>>>>>>> alsa-utils
>>>>>>> to look in the staging directory for the header files it needs?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>>> Editing and ensure content is compliant with Accessibility Checking.
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>
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