Re: [PATCH 2/2] sound: make OSS device number claiming optional

[Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>]

At Wed, 5 Aug 2009 11:26:49 +0100,
Alan Cox wrote:
> 
> > As far as I understand, the current problem is that ALSA core becomes
> > dependent when you build with CONFIG_SND_*_OSS config, even if you
> > load no snd-*-oss modules and use only ALSA-native ones.  It's because
> > the OSS device registration is done through the ALSA snd module.
> > Thus, loading ALSA modules always results in loading soundcore
> > module, too.
> 
> That isn't a bug, but a feature.

Not really :)  The soundcore is only for OSS device files.  As long as
you use only ALSA-native APIs, you don't need it.  But, currently it's
loaded and initialized just because of the module dependency.  This is
no bug but also not an intended feature.

> > So... instead of hacking around soundcore stuff, splitting off the OSS
> > (soundcore) dependency from ALSA snd module could be another solution?
> > Then soundcore doesn't have to be loaded unless you load snd-*-oss or
> > any real OSS modules.
> 
> This makes it worse.

Well, the only regression would be the case where you create static
/dev/dsp (or else) devices and let auto-loading through sound-slot-*
or sound-service-*-* aliases.  Of course, this still works if you
load soundcore in some way.

What I suggested in the above is to cut off an unneeded dependency
between soundcore and ALSA-native stuff instead of hacking soundcore.
It won't change anything else, so everything else can coexist as
before.


Just my $0.02, though...

Takashi