ALSA 1.0.25 Is Out With Many Linux Audio Changes

[curaga]

Just in case you're not aware, OSS4 has per-app volume control.

[r1348]

Of course I have heard of pulseaudio. In fact, if you read my last sentence from the original post, it states that I indeed use pulseaudio. But that doesn't change my opinion that for something as basic as proper volume control I should not need to use a complex sound server. I think that is just ridiculous and it's not even that well supported with all apps (yes, I know you can route alsa output through pulseaudio an then back to alsa - which is even more insane).

Additionally, pulseaudio is only around for a few years now. Before that the situation was just as awful and without a possible workaround. I remember hearing about dmix and really looking forward to it back then - but that was a disappointment as well.

It just doesn't fit into my brains that in 2012 it is impossible to have a simple, usable linux sound architecture that actually does what users need (I don't think I'm special in using 2 or 3 programs with sound output at once).



Games shouldn't need own volume controls (except for mixing their own different outputs, but I believe even that capability should be handled by a sane sound system). And I definitely do not see it as a "small perk" and "not all that necessary". It's not just games, it's listening to music and being able to adjust it's volume without changing the volume of notification sounds (pidgin, konversation, etc) at the same time. But oh well, as I said before, apparently most users don't view it that way, it must be just me who goes nuts when not being able to turn down music volume when watching a short youtube clip.



PS: Oh, a nice anecdote btw: when I first tried to get pulseaudio working, I asked some questions in a channel on freenode - and they couldn't believe I wanted to use pulseausio, they asked at least 5 times if I really really really want to do this - but of course they didn't know another solution for my needs either.

I still don't see why you don't want to use Pulseaudio. Just because some dudes on IRC told you not to?
Seriously, I use Pulseaudio since it was first integrated in Fedora, and I never had a problem with it. I know there were rough edges at the beginning (specially on Ubuntu) but most of the bugs have been sorted out.
Also, I think it's a cleaner design to leave drivers to alsa, and mixing/routing to Pulseaudio. As you said, dmix turned out to be a disappointment, ask yourself why.

[theli]

anyone knows which kernel version this alsa release will be built in?

[mazumoto]

Have you seriously not heard of PulseAudio?

Of course I have heard of pulseaudio. In fact, if you read my last sentence from the original post, it states that I indeed use pulseaudio. But that doesn't change my opinion that for something as basic as proper volume control I should not need to use a complex sound server. I think that is just ridiculous and it's not even that well supported with all apps (yes, I know you can route alsa output through pulseaudio an then back to alsa - which is even more insane).

Additionally, pulseaudio is only around for a few years now. Before that the situation was just as awful and without a possible workaround. I remember hearing about dmix and really looking forward to it back then - but that was a disappointment as well.

It just doesn't fit into my brains that in 2012 it is impossible to have a simple, usable linux sound architecture that actually does what users need (I don't think I'm special in using 2 or 3 programs with sound output at once).

Maaaaybe because most games have their own volume controls...? As do most non-game apps in general... Really, the ability to control individual app volume isn't all that necessary. It's just a small perk.

Games shouldn't need own volume controls (except for mixing their own different outputs, but I believe even that capability should be handled by a sane sound system). And I definitely do not see it as a "small perk" and "not all that necessary". It's not just games, it's listening to music and being able to adjust it's volume without changing the volume of notification sounds (pidgin, konversation, etc) at the same time. But oh well, as I said before, apparently most users don't view it that way, it must be just me who goes nuts when not being able to turn down music volume when watching a short youtube clip.



PS: Oh, a nice anecdote btw: when I first tried to get pulseaudio working, I asked some questions in a channel on freenode - and they couldn't believe I wanted to use pulseausio, they asked at least 5 times if I really really really want to do this - but of course they didn't know another solution for my needs either.

[TheBuzzSaw]

I guess there are still no independent volume controls for each application.
How this doesn't seem to bother most people is completely beyond me. The ability to tune down a game slightly while playing some music with an audio player and still being able to clearly hear people talking on teamspeak or skype and not missing pidgin sound notifications is essential for me.

But no, not the way alsa works, I have to use pulseaudio for that. Insanity if you ask me.

Maaaaybe because most games have their own volume controls...? As do most non-game apps in general... Really, the ability to control individual app volume isn't all that necessary. It's just a small perk.

[cumulus007]

I guess there are still no independent volume controls for each application.
How this doesn't seem to bother most people is completely beyond me. The ability to tune down a game slightly while playing some music with an audio player and still being able to clearly hear people talking on teamspeak or skype and not missing pidgin sound notifications is essential for me.

But no, not the way alsa works, I have to use pulseaudio for that. Insanity if you ask me.

Have you seriously not heard of PulseAudio?

[Milos_SD]

I have a problem compiling alsa-utils 1.0.25. Here is the problem:

./configure --prefix=/usr
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether NLS is requested... yes
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for ld used by GCC... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for shared library run path origin... done
checking for CFPreferencesCopyAppValue... no
checking for CFLocaleCopyCurrent... no
checking for GNU gettext in libc... yes
checking whether to use NLS... yes
checking where the gettext function comes from... libc
checking for cross-compiler... gcc
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking dependency style of gcc... (cached) gcc3
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for ALSA CFLAGS... 
checking for ALSA LDFLAGS...  -lasound -lm -ldl -lpthread
checking for libasound headers version >= 1.0.24... found.
checking for snd_ctl_open in -lasound... yes
checking for snd_ctl_elem_add_enumerated... no
configure: error: No user enum control support in alsa-lib

I check with google, and on a alsa mailing list it says to check if there is snd_ctl_elem_add_enumerated defined in /usr/include/alsa/control.h and there is. I don't know what can be the problem here.

Can someone help me to get this thing working?

[mazumoto]

I guess there are still no independent volume controls for each application.
How this doesn't seem to bother most people is completely beyond me. The ability to tune down a game slightly while playing some music with an audio player and still being able to clearly hear people talking on teamspeak or skype and not missing pidgin sound notifications is essential for me.

But no, not the way alsa works, I have to use pulseaudio for that. Insanity if you ask me.

[bulletxt]

Great. I really appreciate the Alsa team for bringing great audio quality drivers to linux!

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ALSA 1.0.25 Is Out With Many Linux Audio Changes

ALSA, the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, last saw a major update in February of 2011. That changed this morning when ALSA 1.0.25 was released, which is a big feature release...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTA0ODA