audio driver enhancements

Okay, I've got some audio drivers that are basically ready to go, but which I'm trying to decide whether to integrate or not. Part of the problem is that integration of new drivers is a somewhat expensive process, and if there is no demand for some some of these, then I'd rather go do other things.

So, another straw poll. If you have one of these devices and you want a driver to test with, please let me know.

1. Cirrus-Logic/Crystal CS 4281 -- driver is ready to go, stereo only
2. FM-801 -- I think the driver will work, but don't have hardware at the moment to prove it.
3. C-Media 8738/8768 surround sound support (stereo already supported in OpenSolaris) -- this will probably be integrated at some point, but I can share binaries now if someone wants them.

Other drivers I can supply with just a modicum of effort, if there is demand:

1. Yamaha YMF-7 series -- driver not yet ready, but now I have hardware to work on it, if there is demand
2. C-Media 8788 - driver mostly ready, but no hardware, and its expensive hardware to purchase.

Note that I will be doing the driver for the oft-requested EMU10K (Audigy/SB Live!) devices very very soon. Don't bother asking me again about it; its pretty high on my priority list. Likewise, X-Fi is very very desired, but will probably be quite a while longer in coming due to lack of specs. Various VIA chips (Envy24HT, etc.) are in the pipe as well.

And of course, Sun Ray audio is very high priority. Stay tuned for more on that.

ohloh.net statistics

I notice that OpenSolaris has very few "users" listed on ohloh.net. Lets bump it up. If you use OpenSolaris, why not go ahead and create an account on ohloh.net, and indicate "I use this" for OpenSolaris.

While you're there, if you're grateful, you could grant kudos to your favorite developers. And if you have any contributions of your own (pushes to ON), go ahead and claim those to (search for your name or login in the "people")... it bumps your rank, and makes your "kudos" worth more when you deign to give them out.

ESS Solo-1 (audiosolo) integrated

I just integrated audiosolo -- it should be in build 125. :-) I think this driver might have set a new record for integration into ON. I started work on it Sunday afternoon, and integrated into ON on Tuesday evening. Proof that not all integrations into ON have to take forever. (Granted if this were NetBSD it probably would have integrated on Monday morning instead of tonight...)

Crazy Sunday -- ESS Solo-1

I got kind of bored on Sunday afternoon, and decided to do a port from FreeBSD of the driver for the ESS Solo-1 card. (I got one of these cards shipped to me by mistake from a vendor that didn't know the difference between different chips.)

It was getting late on Sunday, but I was almost ready to test. I resolved that when the system panic()'d, I'd call it a night and go get some sleep.

Amazingly, the system never panic()'d. I think this is the first time that I've brought up a new device driver (with a lot of new code!) without crashing the system at least once. (Usually its significantly more than that!) Hence, this may be the only device driver I know of that is both functional, and has never been the cause of a system crash.

Well, I wound up continuing to hack during testing -- never did make it to bed, and now its pretty much done. I'll post test binaries if someone else wants them. I still have to test suspend/resume and quiesce. There is also a bug where the record channels are swapped. This stumped me for several hours until I finally realized that my channel remapping facility in Boomer isn't supported for input channels, only for output (playback). Guess I'll have to go back and add that feature in to Boomer. (Its a small change, and now I've got a need for it.)

The driver is called "audiosolo", and will only be supported for x86 systems (the hardware can't address past the upper 24-bits of memory, so its useless on SPARC). Its only capable of 16-bit stereo record and playback, but these cards are apparently still sold as very low-cost budget add-in boards. (They are also found on some systems.) Look for ES1938 on the chip.

If you want the driver, let me know and I'll ship out some binaries. It will probably go into the next build or so, as I have time to get through the C-Team paperwork. I'm not meant to be working this during the "day job", as I have other priorities at present. But it might be a nice bonus for someone anyway. :-)

NWAM and MII toxicity in build 123

Just a quick note.... we've discovered a problem where NWAM may not function if you have certain devices which use the "mii" module in build 123 of OpenSolaris. Hopefully the fix for this problem will be integrated today into build 124.

The problem is that NWAM won't see your wired "interfaces" as down, and as a result, won't default to using wireless.

Affected devices are afe, iprb, atge, dmfe and the yge beta test. The CR on this is CR 6880492. A webrev of the fix is available for the curious.

audiop16x driver integrated

From the HEADS UP message:

The push of CR 6878663 (PSARC 2009/384) introduces support for audio for certain Creative Sound Blaster Live! devices. If you have such a device, you can now enjoy audio playback and record support using your audio device. This driver includes 5.1 surround sound support.

Devices supported are identifiable by the PCI id pci1102,6, and are Sound Blaster Live! models SB0200 and SB0213. They have a chip labeled "EMU10K1X" (note the "X") on them. These were primarily marketed as Dell OEM versions of the Sound Blaster Live! family.

Enjoy!

audiols integrated

I've integrated the audiols driver into build 124 (actually I think this might have been the first push into snv124 -- thanks to jmcp for approving it so quickly!) From my HEADS UP message:

The push of CR 6875005 introduces support for audio for Creative Audigy LS devices. If you have such a device, you can now enjoy audio playback and record support using your audio device.

Devices supported are identifiable by the PCI id pci1102,7. Known compatible devices include Creative Audigy LS, Creative Audigy SE, Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit, and Creative X-Fi Extreme Audio.

This driver includes 5.1 surround sound support.

Bugs for this driver should be filed in bugster using solaris/audio/driver-audiols.