Hello everyone,
As I mentioned here about a month ago, right now Harddrake and also the
Mandrake Install Program default to using OSS Lite/Kernel drivers for SB
Live! cards. This driver is okay, but lacks MIDI synth support.
In Mandrake 8.1 rerunning Harddrake post-setup would switch over to ALSA
(which supports MIDI synth), however in 8.2 the only way to get ALSA support
is to manually edit the modules.conf file. This would be disasterous for
someone who isn't familar with modules.conf, but had been instructed on the
mandrake-expert/newbie lists (as many had been) to simply rerun Harddrake on
the sound card to get ALSA (and hence MIDI synth support).
I've been talking with a MDK developer (Danny Tholen) who is involved with
Harddrake, and he said it may be possible to add an option to Harddrake to
allow the user to choose between OSS/Lite and ALSA. Due to the fact that the
ALSA driver is very stable, and offers additional features, I would like to
suggest that this option be added to Mandrake 8.2 final.
As I originally noted using ALSA as default would be best IMO, since it
offers MIDI synth support, however, if that is not possible, at least
allowing a way for a user to easily switch to ALSA would be a very good
alternative.
Best,
Tim
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Timothy R. Butler [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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