Re: [gentoo-user] Interesting install experience

[Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org>]

Allan Gottlieb wrote:
> *Very* interesting.  Please let us know when the documentation is
>  available.  I have build everything into the kernel (including alsa)
>  and so far it is working well, but I haven't stressed audio.  What
>  problems should I be looking for and do you advise rebuilding the
>  kernel with alsa as modules even if we don't experience trouble with
>  everything built in?  (I should have said all but nvidia built in).

It's fine to build ALSA into the kernel if you are happy to configure it,
which usually isn't too much hassle anyway.

The reasoning behind compiling ALSA as modules is that it then gives you the
option of using 'alsaconf'.

alsaconf is a great little utility, which, providing you have built the
modules, will configure pretty much any sound card for you, set up the system
for autoloading the relevant modules and saving/restoring volume, and unmuting
the channels.

I came across it when i was attempting to get an ISA sound card going in an
old computer. It just didn't work when built into the kernel or loading the
module manually. I discovered alsaconf, which did some weird probing, and 20
secs later informed me of 4 cryptic parameters that were needed to pass to the
module in order to find the sound card, as well as doing everything else I
described above.

Recently at work, I built *all* alsa drivers as modules, and proceeded to test
30-40 sound cards that we had lying around. ALSA supported every one of them
that wasn't so broken that it stopped the PC booting, and alsaconf made it
dead easy even with the older PCI cards and the ISA ones too.

So, the advantage of building ALSA modules is that you can use alsaconf, which
in most cases makes initial configuration a little bit simpler, and in some
cases is a complete lifesaver.

You might be interested in our recently revamped ALSA guide:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

And also, if you are interested in the upcoming kernel config doc, then you
can add yourself to the CC list on http://bugs.gentoo.org/94955

Daniel
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