On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 8:10 PM, Derek Smithies <[email protected]> wrote: > On 21/06/11 19:41, Robert Fisher wrote: >> When will Linux and sound finally work reliably? >> >> I was happily using a mic plugged into my mobo with kernel 2.6.32 >> >> When the kernel was upgraded to 2.6.38 the mic stopped working. >> Suspecting hardware first I tried everything I (and Google) could think >> off before finally accepting defeat and using the mic in the USB webcam. >> >> Tonight my system (Linux Mint Debian Edition) was upgraded to Linux >> 2.6.39-2-amd64 and it seems my external mic now works again. >> > Having been in the telephony line of work for a decade now, I certainly > share > your frustrations. > > You may be intrigued to note that > Alsa - awful linux sound architecture > > alsa - rhymes with ulcer > > pulse - particularly useless linux sound engineers > > my perception is that the needs of "1 or 2" users for high quality sound > with low latency and > lots of controls
Nah thats another layer, jack! > has lead to the development of a linux sound > architecture that is way over the > top complex for the zillions of users who just want sound in/out the > mic/speaker. > > The presence of multiple scripts, in different locations (some locations > being non standard) > to do sound has made it difficult to get pulse working, when pulse is > installed over the top of alsa. This was the big > problem experienced by users when Ubuntu made pulse the standard. > > Once you get pulse going - it is good. I have a program here that can > open 10 simultaneous channels of audio to the > sound system - each channel writing different audio. pulse handles this > ok... > > The biggest defect in pulse is that the design is not multi card aware. > On a laptop (for example) you have the hardware > sound card, and the usb headset. To send some sounds to the sound card, > and others to the headset is not easy. Some say, > just write some fancy logic in alsa config language, and then it all > works - I am yet to find decent documentation for what all those entries in /etc/asound.conf or ~/.asoundrc do. I tend to copy the work of others and adapt to my needs. Every doc I find assumes a level of knowledge that is not easy to come by. >which proves that linux is not for the newbie.. > Sound is, of course, pretty fundamental to a multimedia system, and I have learned the most about linux sound from the mythtv-users mailing list. Of course we now have more complexity with everyone in that space wanting audio over hdmi. And codecs that are new like HD codecs. The alsa mailing list is open and regularly spammed (there is some weird reasoning like it needs to be open so it can tie into lkml or something). It is consequently not worth subscribing to, or it wasn't last time I tried. _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
