|
NetBSD General Other questions regarding NetBSD which do not fit in any of the categories below. |
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
|||
A new sound server for NetBSD
Hello everybody,
I want to make the point with you about NetBSD audio in 2016. What do we have on other operating system ? Windows and OSX have their own sound server providing a way to mix different sounds. GNU/Linux have ALSA (sub-module) and also PulseAudio (sound server over ALSA). Both of them provide a way to mix audio when you need to listen to, for example, speak on a VOiP software and play a game. FreeBSD have their own OSS compatibility layer (not sure at all how do they do) OpenBSD have their own sound server called sndio What about NetBSD ? Actually, NetBSD has nothing else but the OSS sub-module directly connected to softwares that claim for audio. It simply mean that if a software is using sound, no other software will be able to use it : the audio device will be "busy". So what should we do ? I think we should simply make a little layer, a little sound server between softwares and sub-module, very discret, compatible with mixerctl, audioctl, audiocfg etc... and directly included in the kernel for everyone. I don't think this is an impossible task and even sure it mustn't be hard (I'm not even sure we need to create something for that). So I am here to ask to people who may have knowledges or ideas to make this possible and help to improve NetBSD experience for newcomers and people who want to use NetBSD for multimedia and desktop usage Thank you for reading my message, I appreciate it |
|
|||
Here is a dated solution to the OP.
If you want to take a shot at an alternative implementation, you may want to look at NetBSD libao |
|
||||
Quote:
http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=8810 If you don't want to read this is a brief summary
Let me repeat my statement. The lack of the audio server is the least of NetBSD problems. The whole project is on the life support. Last edited by Oko; 20th November 2015 at 10:27 PM. |
|
|||
Quote:
So if we had the very last version of OSS, we could have mixing sound natively just like FreeBSD ? NetBSD project has far greater problems than the sound server ? So it is not a reason to work on the sound server ? Oko, this solution isn't really a solution : "esdplay" as described in the tutorial is only used to play a file, not to start softwares with esound (when, for example, "padsp" in front of a software will start it with PulseAudio sound server) or maybe I didn't understand how to use EsounD... |
|
|||
Quote:
Quote:
|
|
|||
esd
Quote:
But esd was deprecated long time ago. Linux systems use pulseaudio instead. Furthermore, not all multimedia apps in NetBSD supports esound. VLC and adobe-flash as examples. |
|
||||
Quote:
Last edited by Oko; 21st November 2015 at 04:52 AM. |
|
||||
If I remember correctly, and I may not, this had to do with licensing. Linux does its best to stick with GPL stuff and I don't know if the license changed or never was, but I believe that was part of the driving force behind the change, OSS wasn't GPL. . Of course, then I was young(er--but not young) and more sarcastic so one of my comments was that as alsa started as muted by default, it was probably developed by kids watching porn in their parents' basements.
As for pulseaudio, those who are really into sound seem to think that nowadays it does a better job, but for my needs, I don't know. I'm able to more or less avoid it on most installs, but have, to be honest, found it handy at times when a recalcitrant HDMI card wouldn't give me sound. I actually thought of installing it last night on a FreeBSD laptop that, for some odd reason, wouldn't work with headphones. In the end I did a fresh install and headphones worked. (Obviously, not the ideal solution for anything important, but this is a machine where I constantly install stuff, delete, and reinstall.) TL;DR One reason, supposedly, that Linux switched from OSS to alsa had to do with GPL licensing. |
|
|||
Few days ago I started to improve NetBSD support within PulseAudio. My goal is to add there a module for the native audio(4) device.
|
|
|||
PulseAudio currently isn't buildable on: Atari Amiga and VAX. You can install it on Sparc64.
You need a different mixer for these platforms. For example you can play with libao on Atari and Amiga. |
|
||||
Quote:
Not a single NetBSD developer use NetBSD in her/his day job. On the another hand the livelihood of every interviewed OpenBSD developer depends on the OpenBSD and it was in most cases the only OS they use at work. That is scary. How do you expect other people like me who run UNIX for living to use NetBSD when people who are core developers are not using it at work? I know I am over the top again. I am going to shut up. Admins don't have to ban me again. Last edited by Oko; 23rd November 2015 at 05:02 AM. |
|
|||
Quote:
Quote:
|
|
||||
This is the wrong thread, but I really would like to see an honest list of weaknesses of NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and perhaps various Linux distributions.
That would help to make the right choice of OS upfront. Also, it might make coders to jump in. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Underlegend Networks - NetBSD free shell server | muflon | Off-Topic | 1 | 8th September 2015 01:53 PM |
[Link][HowTo] Setting up an 8TB NetBSD file server | s0xxx | Guides | 0 | 20th August 2011 10:42 AM |
Recording sound with external sound card | backrow | OpenBSD General | 5 | 21st August 2009 08:17 PM |
Convertin A Ubuntu ssh/ Samba server to NetBSd | FloridaBSD | FreeBSD General | 6 | 24th May 2008 09:35 AM |