Linux Sound To Be Improved In 3.9 Kernel

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Sound To Be Improved In 3.9 Kernel

Takashi Iwai has mailed in the sound updates for the Linux 3.9 kernel. This Git pull has the much anticipated HDA Intel audio re-work...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTMwODM

[yourfriendarmando]

Does this mean surround sound is back on laptop chipsets?

I certainly hope this will help pulseaudio reenable surround sound options among the stereo output settings.

[V!NCENT]

I certainly hope this will help pulseaudio reenable surround sound options among the stereo output settings.

Well, here's Canonical's take on it:

So far, so good. If it weren?t for the fact that hardware often does not work exactly as advertised. The parser algorithm for reading the codec layout and creating a working kernel driver out of it, must now take all codecs from all vendors into account. The old vendor-specific parser might have done things in one way and the new parser might do things a different way, causing the audio to be routed differently.

As an example, assume the codec is broken in such a way that it advertises two audio paths, but in practice only one of the paths actually works. The new parser might then route the audio differently from the old one ? and as a result it will look like audio should really work, in theory. In practice, there is nothing but silence. Another example could be that maybe the new driver will power down different parts of the codec in different order than the old driver did, causing your speakers to click.

So yeah.

And this should also shut up the PulseAudio haters who claim that PA (which has nothing to do with drivers, duh!) sucks. It's funny how PulseAudio can just work with one soundcard and fail with the other. Cognitive error, as called in psychology

[yourfriendarmando]

Well, here's Canonical's take on it:

So yeah.

And this should also shut up the PulseAudio haters who claim that PA (which has nothing to do with drivers, duh!) sucks. It's funny how PulseAudio can just work with one soundcard and fail with the other. Cognitive error, as called in psychology

I can't hate PulseAudio, it was actually kind of cool being able to switch Stereo and Surround sound modes, as well as my bluetooth routing, all without the app intervening. I figured it had to be at the driver level, and unfortunately realtek doesn't make easily compilable sound drivers. Oh well, I'll look into USB audio when I need the extra movie umph.