Re: [ibm-acpi-devel] Adding a alsa mixer interface to ibm-acpi

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@hmh.eng.br>]

On Mon, 12 Mar 2007, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> The problem I state here is only the usability.  The implementation is
> no matter at all.  When you look at KDE/GNOME, you'll find that the
> mixer applets really suck if you have multiple devices.  It's

Then, it is time for them to fix their broken-as-designed applets.  ALSA has
supported multiple devices since way too long for mixer applets to have any
valid excuse to not handle multiple cards sanely.

> especially confusing if the outputs from two different devices are
> identical...

So no two devices with the same control set.  That makes sense, and cuts
down the choices a bit.

Anyway, I thought about the issue for quite a while, and the above point
about the KDE/GNONE applets and no duplication of controls just gave me the
last pieces of the puzzle:

1. It *is* separate hardware, it has nothing to do with whatever might be
the embedded soundcard and codecs, except that it sits between them and the
speakers and line-out jacks.

2. It controls more than just the embedded soundcard, it also controls the
PC squeaker (independently of the embedded soundcard being able to control
that or not), and also the firmware ACPI/APM/alarm beep generator.

Therefore, it should go in a different card.  That works just fine, it
requires no new API in ALSA, it follows the kernel standard for these things
(if it is a separate device, export it as a separate device), and it makes a
lot more sense from the system's point of view.

A non-broken ALSA mixer applet will just let you add itself twice to the
applet bar: once to control the thinkpad mixer, and the other to control the
embedded soundcard.  Or it will allow you to pick your favourite set of
controls out of those available from every card in the system.

The above makes too much sense.  I must have forgotten something, it can't
be that simple.  Would someone be so kind and point out why the above will
just not work well in real life?

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT
Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your
opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys-and earn cash
http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV