Alsa tools and firmware

[Tim Mayberry]

Hello all,

It seems the alsa-tools package in fedora extras is crippled as I
found out a little while ago
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=186858 and there
is no alsa-firmware package in FE.

This is a bit of a problem for people like myself who use audio
devices that need firmware to be loaded into the device before it can
be used. In the past I used the planet CCRMA alsa packages and more
recently I built and installed the alsa-tools and alsa-firmware
packages from source tarballs because at the time planet CCRMA didn't
support FC5.

Although I greatly appreciate the work of Fernando and others at
CCRMA, I don't really like the idea of replacing the whole alsa stack
when as far as I'm aware it isn't really necessary. I believe the
alsa-firmware package is not available in FE because of policy,
assuming that is still the case it would mean that the alsa-firmware
package would need to be hosted in an external repository.

I'm not aware of a precedent of a package in the Fedora Extras
repository depending on a package in an external repository but it
doesn't sound like a good idea if it can be avoided. In this case it
can by removing the crippled alsa-tools package from Fedora Extras and
keeping it an external repository along with the alsa-firmware
package.

I'm not sure if this would be the best solution or if there are issues
that meant it wouldn't be possible but I would like to help in making
it easier for Fedora to support these devices as getting them to work
at the moment is frustrating(at least to me) and beyond the capability
of what I would expect from the "average user".

Thoughts and ideas welcome...

Tim.

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

Am Dienstag, den 09.05.2006, 16:31 +1000 schrieb Tim Mayberry:

>  It seems the alsa-tools package in fedora extras is crippled as I
>  found out a little while ago
>  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=186858 and there
>  is no alsa-firmware package in FE. 
That partly my fault.

>  This is a bit of a problem for people like myself who use audio
>  devices that need firmware to be loaded into the device before it can
>  be used. In the past I used the planet CCRMA alsa packages and more
>  recently I built and installed the alsa-tools and alsa-firmware
>  packages from source tarballs because at the time planet CCRMA didn't
>  support FC5. 
The old plan was to move alsa-firmware to livna. The current plan is to
solve the problems with alsa-firmware and ship what can be shipped.
Someone (Legal, FESCo) simply has to say what files from alsa-firmware
are okay for Extras, and what not. The last I heard was this:

----

>  I maintained some alsa-firmware in the old fedora.us days. During
> the
>  transition to Fedora Extras the package got "lost" -- it was unclear if
>  the files in it were okay for the official Fedora Extras. See
>  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=143249#c3
>  
>  We dropped it then and forwarded the issue to legal. It got lost or was
>  forgotten, I can't remember. But I'd like to get this solved now that
>  someone asked for a Extras package of alsa-firmware in bugzilla. 
>  
>  So, where were the problems? Here is the main one:
>  
>  > $ file ./mixartloader/miXart8.elf 
>  > ./mixartloader/miXart8.elf: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, PowerPC or cisco 4500,
> version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, not stripped 
That is a pretty big problem.

Some of this is probably ok for FE, but only those bits which are not
libraries or binaries.

----

I got distracted at that point -- so there is no real list what's oky
for Extras and what not.

>  Although I greatly appreciate the work of Fernando and others at
>  CCRMA, I don't really like the idea of replacing the whole alsa stack
>  when as far as I'm aware it isn't really necessary. I believe the
>  alsa-firmware package is not available in FE because of policy,
>  assuming that is still the case it would mean that the alsa-firmware
>  package would need to be hosted in an external repository. 
Livna is willing to help here for those bits that can't be in Extras.

>  I'm not aware of a precedent of a package in the Fedora Extras
>  repository depending on a package in an external repository  [...] 
Not possible.

>   In this case it
>  can by removing the crippled alsa-tools package from Fedora Extras and
>  keeping it an external repository along with the alsa-firmware
>  package. 
We should split alsa-firmware -- the "mostly free" parts should land in
Extras, the others in Livna. Are you interested in doing this. I simply
have no time for it ATM, never really was interested this alsa-firmware
stuff and I don't even have hardware to test. Are you interested in
driving this forward? You can of course count on my help.

CU
thl

[Greg DeKoenigsberg]

Sounds like the fundamental question to be answered is whether 
alsa-firmware can be packaged in Extras-land.  From the bug, looks like 
Thorsten is on it.

--g

-------------------------------------------------------------
Greg DeKoenigsberg || Fedora Project || fedoraproject.org
Be an Ambassador || http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
-------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, 9 May 2006, Tim Mayberry wrote:

>  Hello all,
>  
>  It seems the alsa-tools package in fedora extras is crippled as I
>  found out a little while ago
>  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=186858 and there
>  is no alsa-firmware package in FE.
>  
>  This is a bit of a problem for people like myself who use audio
>  devices that need firmware to be loaded into the device before it can
>  be used. In the past I used the planet CCRMA alsa packages and more
>  recently I built and installed the alsa-tools and alsa-firmware
>  packages from source tarballs because at the time planet CCRMA didn't
>  support FC5.
>  
>  Although I greatly appreciate the work of Fernando and others at
>  CCRMA, I don't really like the idea of replacing the whole alsa stack
>  when as far as I'm aware it isn't really necessary. I believe the
>  alsa-firmware package is not available in FE because of policy,
>  assuming that is still the case it would mean that the alsa-firmware
>  package would need to be hosted in an external repository.
>  
>  I'm not aware of a precedent of a package in the Fedora Extras
>  repository depending on a package in an external repository but it
>  doesn't sound like a good idea if it can be avoided. In this case it
>  can by removing the crippled alsa-tools package from Fedora Extras and
>  keeping it an external repository along with the alsa-firmware
>  package.
>  
>  I'm not sure if this would be the best solution or if there are issues
>  that meant it wouldn't be possible but I would like to help in making
>  it easier for Fedora to support these devices as getting them to work
>  at the moment is frustrating(at least to me) and beyond the capability
>  of what I would expect from the "average user".
>  
>  Thoughts and ideas welcome...
>  
>  Tim.
>  
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>