ALSA update to 1.0.24

[uggla]

I have some (minor) issues with my intel sound. Noticed a newer version at http://www.alsa-project.org/

[curaga]

We in general use the alsa modules from the kernel. Do you mean the utils?

[Jason W]

My opinion was at this point to leave the alsa libs/utils alone until TC 4.x, but there should be no harm in an update, I think the last update went pretty seamlessly. 

Since we would be using the same kernel drivers, I am not sure it would really make a difference with hardware issues.

[uggla]

Ok, I thought it was contained in a separate kernel module. Is the kernel only updated with every major release of tc?

[Jason W]

Yeah, the kernel is normally only upgraded with each major TC release.

There is the alsa-driver source (modules) with each alsa release, and they release a little more often than our kernel updates, perhaps that approach can be considered for the future to allow more frequent alsa driver updates. 

[andrewb]

@Jason

Module updates could be useful.  Have you seen my post at?:

http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=11015.0

SO far as I understand hwdep is a config option at compile time. It may be usefyl for future Alsa extensions to include this so that hda-analyzer & other tools can be used without recompilation being required.

[Jason W]

Ok, that is something that will be considered on next build.

[andrewb]

I compiled the alsa 1.0.24 modules & tried using them on my netbook (eeepc 900ax). The new modules reported the correct chip (ALC269). The current extension in the repository reports the chip as ALC259. Additional PCM & capture devices were recognised.

It looks like an update might be worthwhile to cope with some of the chipsets in current use. The 900ax I have is a year old & even then the technology level in it was not bleeding-edge. The 900ax was the sub Au$200 8.9 inch eeepc available about a year ago.

If an update is done can the modules please be compiled with hwdep support. Even with the updated modules I still have issues with the microphone input. Hdaanalyzer requires the hwdep device files to work. I have hdaanalyzer working, though the gui is a bit flaky (scroll bars not working properly, window contents lost when the window overlaid with another & then brought back to the front - is this more likely just a GTK problem?)

[curaga]

hwdep is included in the coming 4.0 build.

[Jason W]

andrewb-

I will build and upload an alsa-driver package that can be used as an alternative to the in kernel package.  It will need to be installed first before any alsa stuff, whether by placing it higher in onboot.lst or by installing it first with the appbrowser.  That way it will prevent the alsa-modules-'uname -r' package from getting also loaded which will conflict with this one.  I will state that in the info file also.

[andrewb]

Thanks.

I have tried it & get the following:

tc@box:~$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hwdep               3004  0
snd_pcm                37628  0
snd_timer              10564  1 snd_pcm
snd                    26200  3 snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               2640  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          4016  1 snd_pcm
tc@box:~$ sudo modprobe snd_hda_intel
modprobe: can't load module snd_hda_codec (kernel.tclocal/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-codec.ko.gz): unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter

I had some similar problems when I compiled & used the modules yesterday. It's late here & I can't remember the details.

[Jason W]

The snd_hda_intel module modprobed fine here, but I don't have that hardware.

I am assuming that you don't also have the other alsa-modules extension loaded, as it can cause conflict with this one.

[curaga]

dmesg will tell you which symbol.

[uggla]

Will there be a 64bit version as well?

[Jason W]

Not by me at least, as I don't have the hardware.