snd_envy24(4) and snd_envy24ht(4) MFC

[Alexander Leidinger]

Quoting "Konstantin Dimitrov" <kosio.dimitrov at gmail.com> (Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:42:51 +0200):

> maybe i should comment on the current status of the snd_envy24(4),
> snd_envy24ht(4) and snd_spicds(4) too, but to be honest i don't know
> from where exactly to start and where exactly to finish, because there
> are so many aspects of that question, so the mail will probably be
> very long, but hope it will contains valuable information for the
> current status and the future of the envy24 drivers under FreeBSD.

Very valuable. Thanks! I will add some of this stuff to the wiki.

> in short i agree with all previous opinions - from user point of view
> the behaviour of snd_envy24(4) and snd_envy24ht(4) (and snd_spicds(4))
> is stable enough, however they are highly experimental drivers and
> need serious cleaning up, but at this stage, that should be the last
> concern. last, but not least, the lack of more people working on the
> envy24 drivers, i'm still the only one who is working on them, is very
> serious problem, that tremendously slows down the progress and i will
> try to explain below why.

Note: despite the fact of the amount of work he describes, I think
volunteers should not be scared. Even a small contribution is
appreciated. For example take a look at the datasheets Konstantin
collected and add some parts which are not implemented yet on already
supported chips (e.g. use the new mixer API and connect all mixers
there, add initial MIDI support, or whatever).

> snd_envy24ht(4) already has support for more than 10 cards, including
> all cards made by Terratec and M-Audio, that are based on VT172x.
> however, support for cards, that are made by the third major
> manufacturer of Envy24-based cards -  ESI and their consumer division
> Audiotrak is fell behind, because their cards are hard to find outside
> Korea and Japan, which is sad, because IMHO they made the best
> Envy24-based cards out there.
> 
> maybe if we ask Terratec, M-Audio and ESI/Audiotrak they will provide
> hardware to FreeBSD project, but anyway i don't how to do that. any
> ideas/experience in such direction?

Typically the person interested in this needs to find someone at the
company which is willing to listen to him. He has to describe the
issues and to ask nicely for support. For example they could give you
hardware, or they provide the necessary technical details so you don't
need the hardware (and this safe time with the reverse engineering
part). Sometimes it helps if you can provide some numbers so that they
see that they can make more money if they provide you with the
information you need. Unfortunately http://www.bsdstats.org/ only lists
one envy device and 13 envy chips without a driver connected currently.
So we don't have a large number to convince them. But I didn't had a
look at how many other soundcards are present there, so maybe there is
a way to show that there are a lot of potential customers.

Another idea is to tell them that e.g. Intel is paying developers to
develop (network) drivers for FreeBSD as it not only allows to get
money from additional users, but also serves as a base to provide
working drivers without any bad legal strings (e.g. GPL infection) to
OEMs. For Intel this seems to be one major reason they are employing
developers which work on BSD drivers.

Apart from that: tell me the exact model names you want and I put a call
for donation up on our donations page for you.

Bye,
Alexander.

-- 
A $300.00 picture tube will protect a 10c fuse by blowing
first.
http://www.Leidinger.net  Alexander @ Leidinger.net: PGP ID = B0063FE7
http://www.FreeBSD.org     netchild @ FreeBSD.org  : PGP ID = 72077137