ubuntu-audio-dev team mailing list archive

[Daniel Chen <seven.steps@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 4:04 PM, David Henningsson
<launchpad.web@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> * Alsa-plugins-pulse have been buggy for a long time. I've traced down
> one important bug (LP: #485488) but there's still the startup race /
> obsolete underrun thing to fix (LP: #464008). I've asked twice on the
> pulse mailinglist for comments/solutions but haven't got an answer, so
> probably they're as unsure as I am of the best way to fix/workaround it...

We should test Jaroslav's duplicate-wakeups fix first.

I'll devote some cycles to the latter bug report this coming week.

> * I'm curiously observing the Jack-in-main process. Will Jack reach main
> in time to be properly tested with Lucid? There are quite a few
> applications in main (not only pulseaudio) with a Jack backend, will
> they be recompiled and tested with Jack support in time for Lucid?

The jack-in-main bug report has been filed (#510481); Luke and I have
both worked on and reviewed it, so now it's awaiting approval from
Martin.

Xine and PulseAudio at least will gain this backend immediately for testing.

> * The logout sound. Still not working for me. It's not that having a
> logout sound is a very important feature to me, it's more like this
> long-standing bug is saying to us that we can't even get the simple
> things right... (Even though fixing it turns out to be harder than it
> seems at first glance.)

There are reports that the symptom can't be reproduced with a new
user. I've never been able to reproduce it with a fresh user; YMMV.

> * Another process locking the sound card: Daniel has sorted out the
> slmodemd problem. Timidity is still unsolved; I got a report that the
> solution suggested does not work. It has been discussed at the
> pulseaudio mailinglist but no good solution has come up.

Should we be considering a timidity->fluidsynth migration, then?

> * Advanced mixer (volume control): A lot of people still need alsamixer
> and that is not going away for Lucid, I'm afraid. Gnome's switch to
> pulseaudio causes a regression in that regard. I wish there was an
> "advanced" button in g-v-c which brought up the original ALSA mixer.

I don't know if an extra button in the GUI will do much; there are
certainly UI arguments either way. Perhaps we should ask the Ubuntu
Desktop team to evaluate reenabling the non-pulse mixer perspective in
a separate binary package for 10.04.

> * Volume range anomalies: Hardware dependent, due to buggy drivers (or
> hardware). I believe Daniel does some work in fixing those as they come up.

The HDA ones are fairly straightforward; the AC'97 ones are a bear.
But yes, I patch them [the former ones] as they're reported.

> * Alternate channel mappings needed for ICE1712: According to Daniel's
> blog post, that would be fixed for Lucid, but I don't actually know the
> status.

Actually needs some alsa-lib love; I've added this to the top of my
queue this week.

> * Cards needing non-free firmware: An interesting one I added recently.
> I've been talking to the maintainer of linux-firmware and hopefully most
> of alsa-firmware will go into linux-firmware soon (some of it is already
> there). Since Ubuntu swallows linux-firmware without much hesitation,
> that'll reduce the need for alsa-firmware.

We need to be clear that the alsa-source binary package (used with
module-assistant) generated by alsa-driver has non-Free drivers
stripped:
  * Removed because of DFSG violations:
    - alsa-kernel/pci/cs46xx/cs46xx_image.h
    - alsa-kernel/pci/cs46xx/imgs
    - alsa-kernel/pci/korg1212/korg1212-firmware.h
    - alsa-kernel/pci/maestro3.c
    - alsa-kernel/pci/ymfpci/ymfpci_image.h

> I think it works pretty well with the apport-collect information, it
> gives enough information to give a diagnosis in many cases. However, we
> also have the answers on launchpad which don't get the attention they
> deserve. We need the apport-collect information there as well, and I
> also think we should set ubuntu audio team as answer contacts for the
> packages it receives bug notifications for. What do you think?

I think the ubuntu-audio-dev team may be more appropriate, as it's a
more focused group of individuals.

Best,
-Dan