[pulseaudio-discuss] PulseAudio and functionality in OSS 4.1

[Lennart Poettering]

On Thu, 15.01.09 10:36, Jonah Libster (jonahlibster at yahoo.com) wrote:

Hi!

> Folks, I've been seeing some problems with PulseAudio and
> functioning with OSS 4.1. I've had far better experience with my

[...]

> bit confrontational on both sides. I could be wrong of course. Each
> is saying its a problem with the other. I suspect there is an
> element of truth in both. I was sent a reply to a ticket saying that
> "no one was interested" in doing any patchwork to get oss 4.x
> working with pulseaudio. I trust this is not as extreme as the
> comment sounds, as there are those who see the benefits of the OSS
> Drivers, especially on high end hardware. 

I think you misunderstand how Free Software works. Free Software is
generally about scratching your own (or your employer's) itches. It is
generally not a place where random people can come and wish something
and get that implemented for free by some enthusiasts. People of
course can express their wishes, but it is up the people actually
coding things how they set their priorities.

Now, people have been asking for OSS4 support. That is tracked in bug
#247. However noone capable has yet shown up to actually do something
about it. That's what I call "noone was interested" -- That does not
mean howeer I would not be willing to merge a patch or give hints how
to fix the issue -- in fact I even explained in that bug report what
the problem is which needs to be fixed in PA's OSS support. However
due to lack of documentation on OSS's side and the fact that noone sat
down to fix the code things are still unchanged.

So, fixing #247 requires external contribution, since the issue is not
a priority to any of the pa devs.

This situation has been explained in the bug report btw.

> I mysaelf am one of those
> who given the state of ALSA, is not prepared to go to poor sound on
> high grade hardware and no one should have to. Its an opportunity to
> show off the best PulseAudio has to offer. (and on a high end linux
> based audio appliance that is saying something)

This is nonsense. OSS4 doesn't cut it. I think I expressed and
explained my criticism of OSS4 often enough, so I am not going to
repeat myself here.

> I was wondering what it would take to get one of your people to
> start some work on this. Linux is at a stage it could do even more
> serious damage to MS than it already has, but sound quality is still
> an issues. I myself had had issues with Alsa that OSS fixes but
[...]
> I'm now writing you,the developers of PulseAudio. What will it take
> to get this bridge filled in with OSS 4.x and establish better
> cooperation between you and 4Front, or whomever is doing work for

Again, that's not how thing work. 

I am always happy to take patches and give hints how to fix things,
but OSS4 support is nothing I am going to work on myself. My TODO list
is already stacked enough.

Waiting for patches,

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering                        Red Hat, Inc.
lennart [at] poettering [dot] net         ICQ# 11060553
http://0pointer.net/lennart/           GnuPG 0x1A015CC4