Re: [patch 1/1] pc-speaker: add SND_SILENT

["Dmitry Torokhov" <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>]

On 3/23/06, Stas Sergeev <stsp@aknet.ru> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> > OK, you need to tell me again what snd_pcsp and what exactly it
> > functions are, because I am confised at the moment.
> It is a PCM emulation driver - like any other ALSA PCM driver
> it can play a digital sound, emulating the 5bit PCM stream
> on a 1bit PC-Speaker device. (actually it pretends to be a
> 16bit stereo device, but what it produces is a 5bit mono sound)
>
> > If it is just for
> > playing sounds/music through PC speaker then I don't understand why
> > you want to disable pcspkr driver - if people don't like terminal
> > beeps they can disable it.
> The problem is that when the snd_pcsp is playing, the terminal beeps
> will "destroy" it, as they reprogram the PIT channel 2. So I need a
> way to disable pcspkr while the PCM is playing, but re-enable it as
> soon as the PCM output stopped.

So what you actually need is a mediator module controlling concurrent
access to the speaker hardware from both pcspkr and snd_pcsp and
making sure that one does not disrupt the other. This is completely
outside of the scope of the input subsystem tough.

> This only means people won't hear the terminal beeps while they "listen
> to the music", but this is not as big problem as disabling these beeps
> completely when snd_pcsp is selected in the config.

You are right, I misunderstood the purpose of snd_pcsp. Still the best
solution would be to allow beeps to come through if user keeps them
enabled.

--
Dmitry