Check out my first novel, midnight's simulacra!

Sound Software

From dankwiki
Revision as of 09:41, 30 September 2008 by Dank (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Sound on Linux is the absolute biggest bunch of bullshit ever.

Kernel

  • Determine: are there still ALSA hardware drivers inferior to their OSS equivalents? Assuming no...
  • OSS emulation: kernel, library, or neither?
    • Kernel: snd_pcm_oss, snd_mixer_oss, snd_seq_oss provide /dev/dsp, /dev/seq, /dev/mixer
    • Library: aoss sets LD_PRELOAD to include libaoss.so
    • Neither: force fail on attempts to use OSS
      • Might be better if OSS-only code is old and crappy, as suggested by OSS-only nature, as it'll eliminate such code. Might also be better if OSS compatability introduces any kinds of issues. Might be worse if OSS code is better-written than ALSA code alternatives, and OSS compatability introduces no problems.
  • What the fuck ought go in /etc/asoundrc? It's a complete enigma.

Sound Servers

  • pulseaudio -- crashes mpd every time I try to use it (no longer true as of Fall 2008)
  • To drive ALSA through pulseaudio by default:
pcm.!default {
	type pulse
}

ctl.!default {
	type pulse
}
  • jack -- low-latency, professional software; it frightens me
  • esd -- deprecated, replaced by pulseaudio's esd-compat module

See Also