Re: Re (2): names for sound devices

2012-09-03 Thread Camaleón
On Mon, 03 Sep 2012 10:11:37 -0700, peasthope wrote:

> From: Camaleon 
> Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2012 14:00:21 + (UTC)
>> You mean the name enclosed in brackes, the card identifier?
> 
> Yes, the names "SI7012", "default" and "default_1".
> 
>> I don't know ... your final goal ...
> 
> Aiming to have sound work.  =8~)

Oh, then I my first thought was wrong. I thought you simply wanted to 
rename the devices because of some obscure reason >:-)

> [Old boring background story.
> Two desktop PCs running Squeeze.  Each machine has the mainboard audio
> chipset, a USB C-Media headset and USB C-Media speakers. On one system
> audio mostly works.  On the other system, Skype and Twoinkle work but
> never a sound from VLC or from Iceweasel.]

Then you will have to Google by "vlc linux sound device" or something in 
that shape :-P

(hint: vlc --aout="..." ---alsa-audio-device="...")

> Seems that unambiguous identification of devices is a necessary
> condition for sound functionality.  The possibility of multiple sound
> devices is acknowledged in the documentation now; so the situation is
> improving.

Well, yes. When you have different sound cards/devices you have to:

1/ Choose the system's default one.

2/ Change the device for every application where you want to use a 
different card other than the default.

IIRC, this has been discussed several times here, in this mailing list. 
There's a good doc about it here:

How can I change the default ALSA device?
http://alsa.opensrc.org/FAQ026

>> http://alsa.opensrc.org/Udev
> 
> Much more information than http://wiki.debian.org/SoundFAQ; which has
> one less sentence now that a dead link is gone.  Will study and see what
> can be gleaned.
> 
> Incidentally, in the days of the ISA bus, "sound card" was appropriate
> terminology.  Today, referring to a little USB audio adapter or a chip
> set on a system board as a "card" mokes no sense.  

Well, those modern USB audio devices (like the headsets) can be more 
powerful than most of the Intel HDA embedded chipsets :-P

> Time to adopt a realistic term.  "Audio adapter" or "audio device"? 
> One chunk of hardware can have multiple "devices" making "audio device"
> too ambiguous. "Audio adapter" isn't a good term for an onboard
> chipset. Any ideas for a good term?

I think it's still needed to differentiate between the hardware 
(physical) device (USB external card, pci card, USB headset...) and the 
used chipset so the old nomenclature is fine with me (sound card/sound 
device and sound card/device chipset).

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón


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Re (2): names for sound devices

2012-09-03 Thread peasthope
From:   Camaleon 
Date:   Mon, 3 Sep 2012 14:00:21 + (UTC)
> You mean the name enclosed in brackes, the card identifier?

Yes, the names "SI7012", "default" and "default_1".  

> I don't know ... your final goal ...

Aiming to have sound work.  =8~)  

[Old boring background story.
Two desktop PCs running Squeeze.  Each machine has the mainboard 
audio chipset, a USB C-Media headset and USB C-Media speakers.  
On one system audio mostly works.  On the other system, Skype and 
Twoinkle work but never a sound from VLC or from Iceweasel.]

Seems that unambiguous identification of devices is a necessary 
condition for sound functionality.  The possibility of multiple 
sound devices is acknowledged in the documentation now; so the 
situation is improving.

> http://alsa.opensrc.org/Udev

Much more information than http://wiki.debian.org/SoundFAQ; which 
has one less sentence now that a dead link is gone.  Will study 
and see what can be gleaned.

Incidentally, in the days of the ISA bus, "sound card" was appropriate 
terminology.  Today, referring to a little USB audio adapter or a chip 
set on a system board as a "card" mokes no sense.  Time to adopt a 
realistic term.  "Audio adapter" or "audio device"?  One chunk of hardware 
can have multiple "devices" making "audio device" too ambiguous.  
"Audio adapter" isn't a good term for an onboard chipset.  Any ideas 
for a good term?

Thanks,  ... Peter E.



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