[pulseaudio-tickets] [PulseAudio] #619: Autodetection always shows one device per sound card but sometimes could have more tha one

[PulseAudio]

#619: Autodetection always shows one device per sound card but sometimes could
have more tha one
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  Reporter:  howl         |       Owner:  lennart          
      Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  reopened         
 Milestone:               |   Component:  module-hal-detect
Resolution:               |    Keywords:                   
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Comment(by howl):

 Replying to [comment:14 lennart]:
 > Now, the big problem here is that we cannot auto detect whether spdif
 and analog are exclsuive to each other or not. Currently we try every
 combinatin of input and output and if it works add it to our list of
 working profiles. However, if we change this logic to also test every
 combination of analog out and spdif out then we have a problem: we cannot
 distuingish the case where the card supports hw mixing but only one output
 at a time and where the card supports two simultaneous and independant
 outputs. That means on some hardware we'd expose a profile "spdif out +
 analog out" which would actuallly mix and output to one, or to both
 outputs. And we certainly don't want to expose that.

 First I will tell you that your approach is failing with this, with your
 auto profiles make by combination I can select "Output Digital Stereo
 (IEC958) + Input Digital Stereo (IEC958)", when the same alsa-mixer has
 and switch to turn the iec958 in output or capture mode, then your system
 to detect if profiles combination works fails, al least is some hardware
 like the one included in M3N78-VM, I said this before.

 http://pulseaudio.org/attachment/ticket/619/pulse-config-example.jpg

 The idea is start selecting the sound card to configure, then the output
 (this could be called device as we could configure also inputs). We could
 enable or disable the selected output and also set the number of channels
 of it. The test button doesn't need explanation, something like speaker-
 test. The Remap button could be used for situations like the one we have
 with the hdmi now a days, you press the Remap button and then the first
 speaker starts to sound, then the user must click the corresponding
 speaker in the picture, when finished the mappings should be ok. An
 interactive and easy way to remap a device, the remap could be saved in
 /usr/share/pulseaudio/... in a file called "devicename.conf" with the
 corresponding rules to be applied only to the pertinent device.

 This could prevent other issues, for example with the profiles when you
 are playing sound in Analog for example and select another self-made
 profile that have multiple outputs including the Analog that is already
 with applications active on it, sometimes applications lost the stream
 sometimes not, with the system I'm proposing this shouldn't happen, if I
 want to Enable HDMI should not affect the other outputs.

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Ticket URL: <http://pulseaudio.org/ticket/619#comment:16>
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