[linux-audio-user] Problem possibly RT related?

[Lee Revell]

On Sun, 2006-01-01 at 18:03 -0800, Noah Roberts wrote:
> On 1/1/06, Lee Revell <rlrevell at joe-job.com> wrote:
> > On Sun, 2006-01-01 at 17:06 -0800, Noah Roberts wrote:
> > > the new ones had a different "Conexant" chipset that didn't have any
> > > viable Linux drivers - all alpha mode...
> >
> > It's also difficult to say what constitutes a "viable driver".  Most
> > people consider that a driver is viable if it supports the basic
> > functions of the device, like playing audio, sending/receiving packets
> > or displaying images on the screen.  Then you have a shrill minority who
> > consider a driver non-viable, broken or useless if it doesn't support
> > EVERY single little feature of the hardware or do everything the Windows
> > driver does.
> >
> > I guess my point is YMMV as always ;-)
> 
> My definition of non-viable is crashes a lot, doesn't work at all (as
> in this case), or is missing key features, and in the case above it
> was two weeks of waiting before I could even get video w/o audio from
> that card.  I did some modifications myself to make it even get video
> from the composite input.  It probably works now...I put the thing up
> and its been gathering dust for about a year or more.
> 

Yeah that's a key thing to watch out for with Linux drivers: never
assume that a device is supported because the previous generation of
that device was supported - you have to match the model numbers
carefully.  There's no substitute for a first person account that the
device works.

Lately I've even heard that some wireless vendors will change the
chipset in a way that breaks the old driver without changing the model
number at all.

Lee