[gst-devel] ALSA mixing

[Jan Schmidt]

<quote who="Ronald S. Bultje">

> Hi dudes,
> 
> I just fixed alsa-mixer in gnome-volume-control (yay!) and similar apps
> (gst-rec, ...).

This was in deep need. Thanks, Ronald :)

> Some questions:
> * is it normal that it shows so little tracks (I'm missing PCM or other
> master volume tracks)?

Uh, no... you should have at least those. I always have had.

> * why are the names so long (= ugly, e.g. "External Amplifier Power
> Down", "Mono Output Select")? It makes the window large...

They're being descriptive. Perhaps we wrap the text in the UI 
for gnome volume control after Gnome UI freeze is past.

> * why are there some tracks where I can't move the volume up?

Because they're enable/disable tracks, I understand. All you can do is
mute/unmute them.

> * some of the icons (images above tracks) in gnome-volume-control are
> all wrong (e.g. "Headphone" has a phone icon). Most tracks have no icon
> at all. Anyone wanna fix that? Or are we too late in the code freeze?

We're way late in the UI freeze, but we can target 2.6.1

> * any reason why alsasrc/alsasink are a GstAlsa instead of a
> GstAlsaMixer? In OSS, this is different. Consequence is that for OSS,
> gst-rec can change volume, but for ALSA, it can't.

No idea.

There is a deficiency in that alsamixer opens /dev/pcm* when all it really 
wants is access to the mixer in /dev/control*. This means that 
a) If rhythmbox (or anything else) is playing, then gnome-volume-control 
can't open the mixer. 
b) If gnome-volume-control is open I can't play in rhythmbox. 
This is going to cause strange bug reports, so I'll try and look at it 
before 0.8 goes out (ie, tonight or tomorrow)

There is a similar problem in ossmixer too, I think, opening /dev/dsp?.

Cheers,
J.
-- 
Jan Schmidt                                  thaytan at mad.scientist.com

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