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Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:45:14 +0200
Message-ID: <s5hzlaemtdx.wl%tiwai@suse.de>
From: Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>
To: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Cc: Colin Guthrie <cguthrie@mandriva.org>, Tejun Heo <teheo@suse.de>,
       Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>, Al Viro <viro@ftp.linux.org.uk>,
       Linux Kernel <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] sound: make OSS device number claiming optional
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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