ALSA 1.0.16-rc1 Released

In the first development release for the new year and the ALSA 1.0.16 branch, version 1.0.16-rc1 of the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) is now available. This is the first new ALSA release in over three months, but it arrives with a lengthy change-log for this Linux kernel sound component. Among the many changes that had interested us with ALSA 1.0.16-rc1 were build fixes for the Linux 2.6.24 kernel, two dozen changes to the ALSA core, the rewritten C-Media CMI8788 Oxygen driver, emu10k1 clean-up, and just under 80 changes to the HDA Codec (and more changes to the HDA drivers). Of course, there are also many changes to other ALSA drivers, ALSA library, and other sound components.

Last month we had tested the new ALSA snd-oxygen driver with the CMI8788-based Razer Barracuda AC-1 and had experienced positive results. The HDA codec in ALSA 1.0.16-rc1 supports HDMI audio with the RV600 series (Linux HDMI with ATI article), VIA VT1708B support, Realtek ALC889/ALC267/ALC269 support, device ID support for the MacBook sound card, and a number of other HDA additions.

The ALSA emu10k1 driver, which is for the Creative Sound Blaster sound cards, has a general code clean-up and other minor changes. Unfortunately, the X-Fi series from Creative Labs has yet to be supported by ALSA (or any open-source sound driver) and it doesn't look like the support will arrive in time for ALSA 1.0.16. Creative Labs does provide an X-Fi Linux driver, but it's closed-source, is very late, only in beta, and only supports 64-bit Linux.

The complete change-log for ALSA 1.0.16-rc1 is available from the ALSA Project Wiki. ALSA 1.0.16-rc2 is already planned for release next week.