Re: [gentoo-user] Interesting install experience

[Allan Gottlieb <gottlieb@nyu.edu>]

At Thu, 14 Jul 2005 20:33:23 +0100 Daniel Drake <dsd@gentoo.org> wrote:

> 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.

thank you for the lucid explanation.

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

It is indeed much improved since I last used it.

> 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

Done.

Thanks again,
allan
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