Some background: The primary use of libao here is at Xiph is in various apps that have to know what the hardware is doing, eg, Squishyball. The problem with plug devices like 'default' is that you could request 192kHz 24 bit and ALSA will say 'sure!' and resample it down to 32kHz 8 bit because, you know, ALSA. And the app has no way of knowing that happened. And in a listening test, that would be annoying at best, disastrous at worst.
So, that's the primary reason libao tries to go to hardware devices whenever possible. Frankly, direct use of ALSA is deprecated on modern the modern desktop except for specialized purposes-- like going as directly to hardware as possible. ALSA is not a modern, general purpose audio substystem (not by itself). Dmix does not change that, Dmix is not a substitute for Pulse, and I can't fix the deep limitations inherent in trying to use Dmix for things it just can't do. Yes, this situation sucks-- but upstream I'm opting for the solution that annoys me the least right now. Better suggestions are always welcome. If there is really a way to fix this that doesn't shoot my own primary use of libao, I'll definitely implement it. ...maybe libao should be running LDLIB and parsing/swapping in custom .asoundrc files on the fly...? Monty -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
