[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#240125: The new broken world of 2.6, ALSA, and hotplug.

[Eduard Bloch]

#include <hallo.h>
* Scott Robinson [Tue, Mar 30 2004, 04:44:43PM]:
 
> #1) Hotplug has recently started automatically loading drivers via PCI
> enumeration in its init script. This alone has caused a variety of problems.
> 
> Assuming hotplug doesn't load the OSS drivers first (#238694), it goes ahead
> and loads all the appropriate ALSA drivers... but misses OSS emulation.

And this cannot be solved via an "above alsa-base ..." command somewhere
in the modprobe configuration files, no?

> The module dependencies are generated by alsa-base.

Why? I always hated this static hocus-pocus to load modules in the
alsa-base script, and used my own set of modules in /etc/modules (plus
post-inst commands to load volume settings, later the aumix init
script). If hotplug manages it the module loading now, fine.

> #2) ALSA's init script is executed after hotplug. The mixer settings are
> then "restored."
> 
> The wrong settings will be applied if your card order changes due to
> hotplug.

Then fix this script. It should not depend on the order of drivers
loading. This drawback in Linux (no simply useable ways to get a
name/id/... from the loaded driver for certain _known_ hardware) simply
sucks. I am glad that the Linux developers have recently understood it,
though the way they choosed has some rough edges and needs time to
become mature.

> #3) ALSA's init script then detects that the drivers are already loaded, and
> assumes this is because ALSA was compiled statically in to the kernel.

Another reason why I hated this script. Either it did not do things that
I expected or it did something wrong.

Summary: I welcome the new changes towards to more flexibility, however
they should made be in a way that bothers as few users as possible.
Asking via debconf to disable the ALSA's init script insanity would be
the first step.

Regards,
Eduard.
-- 
Wer aufrecht seinen Weg sucht, stets seinem Gewissen verantwortlich,
dem dürfen wir unsere Achtung nicht versagen, er mag mit uns oder
gegen uns gehen.
		-- Robert Bosch