[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#680304: alsa-base: Broken module autoloading when snd-seq unavailable

[Kevin Locke]

Package: alsa-base
Version: 1.0.23+dfsg-4
Severity: normal
Tags: patch

Dear Maintainer,

When using a custom kernel configured without the snd-seq module
(ps3_defconfig), the snd-ps3 module fails to load during startup.  I
tracked the error down to the following entries in the udev log (note
that ps3:9:0 is an alias for snd-ps3):

[12.414312] [431] spawn_read: '/sbin/modprobe -b ps3:9:0'(err) 'libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:924 command_do: Error running install command for snd'
[12.414368] [431] spawn_read: '/sbin/modprobe -b ps3:9:0'(err) 'ERROR: could not insert 'snd_ps3': Operation not permitted'
[12.414632] [431] spawn_wait: '/sbin/modprobe -b ps3:9:0' [435] exit with return code 1

I assume this is due to "/sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq" at the end of
the install command returning non-0 exit status, and indeed by
changing that line to include a terminal ":", like the two below it,
the problem is resolved and snd-ps3 autoloads during startup without
issue.

Although the Debian-packaged kernels all include snd-seq (AFAIK), I
would like you to consider supporting use with custom kernels that do
not include this module where it doesn't introduce an excessive
maintenance burden.

The attached patch solved the issue for me.

Thanks,
Kevin

P.S.  Running `modprobe snd-ps3` or `udevadm trigger --action=add
--sysname-match=ioc0_02` after boot both successfully load the module,
so I am unsure why modprobe is sensitive to the install command return
value early and not later... so it's possible there is more to this
story than I am aware of.


-- Package-specific info:
--- Begin additional package status ---
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii  libasound2:pow 1.0.25-3       shared library for ALSA applications
--- End additional package status ---
--- Begin /proc/asound/version ---
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.25.
--- End /proc/asound/version ---
--- Begin /proc/asound/cards ---
 0 [PS3            ]: PS3 - PS3
                      PS3 sound
--- End /proc/asound/cards ---
--- Begin /dev/snd/ listing ---
total 0
crw-rw---T 1 root audio 116,  0 Jul  4 14:49 controlC0
crw-rw---T 1 root audio 116, 16 Jul  4 14:49 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw---T 1 root audio 116, 33 Jul  4 14:49 timer
--- End /dev/snd/ listing ---

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: powerpc (ppc64)

Kernel: Linux 3.4.4-kevinoid2 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages alsa-base depends on:
ii  linux-sound-base   1.0.23+dfsg-4
ii  module-init-tools  8-2
ii  udev               175-3.1

Versions of packages alsa-base recommends:
ii  alsa-utils  1.0.25-3

Versions of packages alsa-base suggests:
ii  alsa-oss    1.0.25-1
pn  apmd        <none>
pn  oss-compat  <none>

Versions of packages libasound2 depends on:
ii  libc6              2.13-33
ii  multiarch-support  2.13-33

Versions of packages libasound2 suggests:
pn  libasound2-plugins  <none>

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf changed [not included]

-- no debconf information

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