On Mon, 19 Nov 2001, Takashi Iwai wrote: > Yep, I know it. But it's not what I meant.. > > rme9652 allocates a memory with an extra module which is persistent > even after restarting the ALSA system (i.e. rcalsasound restart). > But with the pcm_memory solution, the former memory chunk has been > lost in reloading the driver, since it belongs to the ALSA core and > must be unloaded/reloaded when the ALSA is restarted. And this will > eventually lead to memory allocation error.
Like the 16-bit DMA allocation problems with ISA cards. The kernel OSS driver has an option to allocate a fixed buffer on boot so memory framentaion will not effect the ability to get a contiguous block of memory. If the OSS core is built into the kernel then this block can be reserved easily and then any OSS drivers built as modules can be loaded/unloaded as often as willed with no problems. (You guys probally know all this.) It would be nice to offer such a feature with ALSA too if it can be effected in the same way. But since ALSA supports more than just 2 channel sound cards, at bit depths more than 16, the size of the pre-allocated space may vary. So either a compile time and/or modprobe command line option to specify the amount would be nice. Also something to think about is multiple cards that need buffer space. > Well, usually this isn't a problem -- when not so quite often the ALSA > system is restarted. However, for example, on my system, on which is > very frequently the driver is switched, memory allocation likely > fails. I just thought that this possibly hits his case, too. Doesn't really effect me. Once everything is working nicely I'll just load the modules at boot and be done with it (heck once ALSA is in the kernel I'll go back to building static kernels with no module support at all). But most people aren't like me, and some people are the total opposite (like you developers) and the ability to have a fixed buffer is a real plus. -Chris -- Two penguins were walking on an iceberg. The first penguin said to the second, "you look like you are wearing a tuxedo." The second penguin said, "I might be..." --David Lynch, Twin Peaks _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
