Regression in winealsa (message only?)

James Courtier-Dutton James at superbug.co.uk
Tue Mar 29 15:17:57 CST 2005


Jeremy White wrote:
> Hi Paul,
> 
> I see the same behavior after Robert's change to use plug:hw:0
> (and removing my settings in ~/.wine/config).
> 
> The attached patch 'fixes' the problem for me; can you try it?
> 
> However, to be honest, the real issue is that I don't really
> understand what's going on.  It appears as though the
> plug: devices are legitimate PCM device names, but that you
> can't use them for the control interface.  If that's true,
> then this patch is correct.  I just can't find any sensible
> Alsa document to give me comfort that this is right.
> 
> I'd appreciate affirmation of this or a pointer to better
> Alsa doco <grin>.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Jeremy
> 

I am an alsa developer, what exactly is the problem?
For normal stereo playback use: "plug:front"
For 5.1 playback use: "plug:surround51"
For stereo capture (record) use: "plug:front"
For mixer control interface use: "hw"

The alsa api is an abstraction layer. One defines in an alsa config file
what "plug:front" actually talks to. Then any alsa applications can then
talk to same device name, even though the underlying hardware might have
different features.

As a generaly rule, don't use "hw" anywhere in the sound channel's
device name.

If you have more than one sound card, things are a bit different:
First card:
Stereo playback: "plug:front:0"
surround51 playback: "plug:surround51:0"
Stereo capture: "plug:front:0"
Mixer: "hw:0"

For second card:
Stereo playback: "plug:front:1"
surround51 playback: "plug:surround51:1"
Stereo capture: "plug:front:1"
Mixer: "hw:1"

For third card:
Stereo playback: "plug:front:2"
surround51 playback: "plug:surround51:2"
Stereo capture: "plug:front:2"
Mixer: "hw:2"

etc.

Now the user might want to edit their alsa config files, so ideally wine
should allow for multiple device names to be entered for each card.




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