tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71985588317823480482024-02-20T10:29:51.305-05:00Musings on maintaining UbuntuHerein lie notes regarding Ubuntu development.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-57162894315171377292013-04-08T15:02:00.001-04:002013-04-15T01:46:35.461-04:00Fixing build failures for 13.04<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the pleasures (and privileges) of Free Software is transparency in consistency, here meaning it's fairly painless to <a href="http://people.ubuntuwire.org/~wgrant/rebuild-ftbfs-test/test-rebuild-20130329-raring.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">see where stuff fails to build in Ubuntu</a> and to be able to <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2013-March/036992.html" target="_blank">help in fixing those failures</a>.<br />
<br />
Let's get 13.04 into shape!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-52380627728435111882011-08-04T09:38:00.005-04:002011-08-04T10:10:51.910-04:00Cabals and membership boardsIt both heartens and saddens me that <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2011-August/033811.html">Chase's proposal</a> to amend the <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DeveloperMembershipBoard">Developer Membership Board</a>'s approval process has met with seeming vehemence and accusations. The participants in the discussion <a href="http://www.perl.org/">have</a> <a href="http://www.debian.org/">all</a> <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/">contributed</a> <a href="http://kde.org/">invaluable</a> <a href="http://python.org/">resources</a> to Free Software, and it is wonderful that this dialog is taking place, because any vibrant community will continually evaluate its relevance and efficacy. Unfortunately, some of the responses have become accusatory and detract from the thrust of the conversation. Please, let's continuously - and gratefully - give and accept constructive criticism.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-40195890055884488242011-08-03T16:57:00.014-04:002011-08-03T17:09:00.983-04:00Patch Pilot report: 2011-08-03 (approximate)Reviewed and uploaded to Oneiric:<br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/acpi/1.5-3ubuntu1">acpi 1.5-3ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/smbldap-tools/0.9.5-1ubuntu1">smbldap-tools 0.9.5-1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/multimon/1.0-5ubuntu1">multimon 1.0-5ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/monobristol/0.60.3-1ubuntu1">monobristol 0.60.3-1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/djbdns/1:1.05-8ubuntu1">djbdns 1:1.05-8ubuntu1</a><br /><br />Triaged and marked not relevant for Oneiric:<br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/592843">muttprint</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/805265">ladcca</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/516946">pdumpfs</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/509362">mpc</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/511502">dvi2dvi</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-14420661615066996922011-07-30T13:32:00.010-04:002011-07-30T13:57:16.013-04:00Patch Pilot report: 2011-07-30 (approximate)Reviewed and uploaded to Oneiric:<br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/wmii/3.9.2+debian-3ubuntu1">wmii 3.9.2+debian-3ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/psycopg2/2.2.1-1ubuntu3">psycopg2 2.2.1-1ubuntu3</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/libmatthew-java/0.7.3-1ubuntu1">libmatthew-java 0.7.3-1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/daemontools/1:0.76-3ubuntu3">daemontools 0.76-3ubuntu3</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/scanbuttond/0.2.3.cvs20090713-5ubuntu1">scanbuttond 0.2.3.cvs20090713-5ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/mtr/0.80-1ubuntu1">mtr 0.80-1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/fail2ban/0.8.4+svn20110323-1ubuntu1">fail2ban 0.8.4+svn20110323-1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/java2html/0.9.2-4ubuntu1">java2html 0.9.2-4ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/gogoc/1:1.2-4ubuntu1">gogoc 1.2-4ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/coherence/0.6.6.2-5ubuntu1">coherence 0.6.6.2-5ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/uw-imap/8:2007e~dfsg-3.1ubuntu3">uw-imap 2007e~dfsg-3.1ubuntu3</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/tcc/0.9.25-9ubuntu1">tcc 0.9.25-9ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/nethogs/0.7.0-3ubuntu1">nethogs 0.7.0-3ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/multicd/1.7.3-1ubuntu1">multicd 1.7.3-1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/eyed3/0.6.17-1ubuntu1">eyed3 0.6.17-1ubuntu1</a><br /><br />Triaged and marked not relevant for Oneiric:<br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/667952">libwibble</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/642942">gdal</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/620860">lua-xmlrpc</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/626457">prototypejs</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/636201">mt-daapd</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/600538">kdiff3</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-12423039988142786362011-07-27T00:10:00.004-04:002011-07-27T00:16:33.620-04:00Patch Pilot report: 2011-07-26 (approximate)Reviewed and uploaded to Oneiric:<br />base-files 6.4ubuntu3<br />bibus 1.5.1-3ubuntu1<br />cricket 1.0.5-13ubuntu1<br />icecc 0.9.6-1ubuntu1<br />lashwrap 1.0.2-0ubuntu7<br />lomoco 1.0beta1+1.0-5ubuntu4<br />rp-pppoe 3.8-3ubuntu1<br />tig 0.17-1ubuntu1<br /><br />Reviewed and marked not relevant for Oneiric:<br />tclxml<br />sociAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-15502006189112730112011-07-20T14:42:00.008-04:002011-07-20T15:05:14.327-04:00Patch Pilot report: 2011-07-20Reviewed and uploaded to Oneiric:<br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/793901">tictactoe 0.8.1-5ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/799190">pct-scanner-scripts 0.0.4-3ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/789691">gpredict 1.3-1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/786682">coolkey 1.1.0-8.1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/785495">sbackup 0.11.4-0ubuntu4</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/781612">bcfg2 1.1.1-3ubuntu3</a><br /><br />Reviewed, updated SRU information and uploaded to -proposed:<br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/771786">w-scan 20091230-1ubuntu0.1, 20100316-3ubuntu0.1 and 20101001-1ubuntu0.1</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/788085">wackamole 2.1.1-3.1ubuntu0.10.04.0, 2.1.1-3.1ubuntu0.10.10.0 and 2.1.1-3.1ubuntu0.11.04.0</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/730633">lash 0.6.0~rc2-5ubuntu0.1</a><br /><br />Reviewed and closed as not-applicable in Oneiric:<br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/758333">fusion-icon</a><br /><a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/754357">tigr-glimmer</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-89000306664996456982011-07-19T08:03:00.005-04:002011-07-19T08:44:38.067-04:00Patch Pilot report: 2011-07-19 (approximate)Reviewed and uploaded to Oneiric:<br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/pm-utils/1.4.1-8ubuntu1">pm-utils 1.4.1-8ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/base-files/6.4ubuntu2">base-files 6.4ubuntu2</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/acoustid-fingerprinter/0.3~20110715-0ubuntu1">acoustid-fingerprinter 0.3~20110715-0ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/distcc/3.1-4ubuntu2">distcc 3.1-4ubuntu2</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/tesseract/2.04-2.1ubuntu1">tesseract 2.04-2.1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/vim-addon-manager/0.4.3ubuntu1">vim-addon-manager 0.4.3ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/fusecompress/2.6.git913897f4-1ubuntu1">fusecompress 2.6.git913897f4-1ubuntu1</a><br /><a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/oneiric/+source/sweep/0.9.3-4ubuntu1">sweep 0.9.3-4ubuntu1</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-9380369809701794492011-06-06T14:00:00.005-04:002011-06-06T14:04:25.782-04:00Please support the Ada Initiative<div style="width: 305px;"><a href="http://adainitiative.org/2011/06/seed-100-funding-round-open/"><img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://files.adainitiative.org/seed100/progress-small.png" alt="The Ada Initiative Seed 100 campaign: donate in June to support women in open technology and culture" height="73" width="300" /></a><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://adainitiative.org/2011/06/seed-100-funding-round-open/#donate">Donate</a> to the Ada Initiative’s <a href="http://adainitiative.org/2011/06/seed-100-funding-round-open/">Seed 100 campaign</a> to support women in open tech and culture!</p></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-18443618878282828432010-12-02T14:51:00.005-05:002010-12-02T15:04:10.898-05:00Low-hanging fruit? We have plenty!<a href="http://doctormo.org/2010/12/01/have-we-run-out-of-easy-fixes/trackback/">Martin asks</a> whether we've exhausted the low-hanging fruit. From my myopic lens, <span style="font-style: italic;">emphatically no</span>. Despite dwindling available resources for Ubuntu (and FOSS, generally) development, I've <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/677652">continued</a> to <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/682199">contribute</a> <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/683695">a spattering</a> <a href="http://pulseaudio.org/milestone/0.9.22">of fixes</a>. Doing so is pretty simple, and I'm happy to walk people through the process.<br /><br /><a href="http://harvest.ubuntu.com/">But don't take</a> <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/community">my word for it</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-2394545721429243822010-11-27T14:14:00.003-05:002010-11-27T14:33:32.882-05:00Fixing a Linux regression defect<a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/682199">This bug</a> is an excellent example of the continual (aka "seemingly endless") process of verifying that hardware works correctly with Ubuntu (and more broadly, current versions of Linux). Briefly, in mid-May 2007, <a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=272a527c04c0c4f548232f1ec7d2d72bfdab4384">a patch</a> was committed to <a href="http://www.alsa-project.org">upstream ALSA</a> adding support for a particular machine. At the time that the patch was merged, support for certain BIOSes was quite suboptimal. Fast forward to late-November 2010, and a user's "sound no longer works," i.e., playback is inaudible through both speakers and headphones jack when using Ubuntu Maverick. In the realm of kernel code, particularly drivers, certain high-profile subsystems move relatively quickly, and given the vast amount of PC hardware, it's nearly impossible to verify that every released version of Ubuntu (much less upstream Linux) doesn't regress some hardware support. It's a difficult and <a href="http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/79436">thankless job</a>, but <a href="https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev">someone</a> has to do it.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-32966087609300840582010-11-26T13:39:00.006-05:002010-11-26T16:08:37.491-05:00Fix the $@%* bug already (aka "the long-overdue mentoring posts")I meant to post yesterday, but <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/11/24/international-day-elimination-violence-against-women">volunteering</a> and cooking for <a href="https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Thanksgiving">Thanksgiving</a> were higher priorities. Without further ado...<br /><br />Recently I dove into the <a href="http://askubuntu.com/">Ask Ubuntu</a> pond, and as always it's wonderful seeing so many open source contributors assisting each other with goodwill. I deal in defect (aka "bug") reports mainly, and some of the Ask Ubuntu posts seem to be disguised as such reports. When I come upon these posts, I try to <a href="http://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/257/how-does-ask-ubuntu-work">redirect the posters toward the debugging process</a> so that we can resolve the underlying defects. Certain areas in the Ubuntu software stack are notoriously difficult to troubleshoot, and to that end I'm going to document a recent attempt to resolve the user's defect report so that we have some sort of "institutional knowledge transfer." Please feel free to raise pertinent questions and suggestions in the comments.<br /><br />Here is a <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bugs?field.tag=hda-jack-sense">common symptom</a>: "<a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/677652">my laptop's speakers don't mute when I insert headphones</a>." We call this class of bug "jack sense" ones, and it's nearly always a sound driver defect, so it belongs in the "<a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver">alsa-driver (Ubuntu)</a>" component in Launchpad. Because the defect has both hardware (sound controller and codec) and software (alsa-driver) portions, we must <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/677652/comments/4">obtain sufficient information</a>. For new<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>defect reports, we request that the reporter use either the <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">ubuntu-bug alsa-base</span></blockquote> command or follow a <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/AlsaInfo">more thorough but tedious</a> debugging procedure. For existing bug reports, we request that the reporter use the <blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">apport-collect bugnumber</span></blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;"></span> command or follow the script in the alternate debugging procedure.<br /><br />Once we've received the requested debugging information, we need to <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/677652/+attachment/1740447/+files/Card0.Codecs.codec.0.txt">inspect the sound codec slot's state</a> (aka "codec dump"). Conexant parsers live in <span style="font-style: italic;">sound/pci/hda/patch_conexant.c</span> in the [kernel] source code. Note the Vendor ID, because it refers to the specific function in the parser, so in this case we look at the <span style="font-style: italic;">patch_cxt5066()</span> function. Of particular importance is the node ID associated with the headphone jack. This is referred to in the "codec dump" as having "[Jack] HP" in the description string. In this Conexant variant, we're looking thusly at NID 0x19.<br /><br />Now, a note regarding the current Conexant parsers: there is no automatic BIOS-based setup, and in this way they diverge pretty spectacularly from the Realtek and IDT/Sigmatel ones; emerging Conexant ones are more like Realtek and IDT/Sigmatel. Because there isn't an "auto" model, all entries have to be hard-coded. In the case of <span style="font-style: italic;">patch_cxt5066()</span>, the default model is<span style="font-family: monospace;"> </span>CXT5066_LAPTOP ("laptop" model quirk) and uses <pre>spec->init_verbs[0] = cxt5066_init_verbs;</pre>to initialize the codec. <span style="font-family: monospace;"></span><span style="font-style: italic;">cxt5066_init_verbs[]</span> has this snippet corresponding to NID 0x19:<br /><pre> /* not handling these yet */<br /> {0x19, AC_VERB_SET_UNSOLICITED_ENABLE, 0},</pre>which means that to properly enable jack sense for the reporter's machine we need to add a function to handle <a href="http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ZIgDau-mIesJ:download.intel.com/standards/hdaudio/pdf/hda034-a2.pdf+download.intel.com/standards/hdaudio/pdf/hda034-a2.pdf&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiJvEHEy_FvZTJFrmKZb0nlOAPQTT6UvYPvjznnEnVwZNBrhsKgCiB8NzvdKrBslmAoOSaCuoTXHTAtKlsToqIbjHnRdpImxXz7GeEoRu9TSedR4DCDlLrthZBiAF5lIAABa2_a&sig=AHIEtbQieKxVF3xbIlemk438OKb_RLEi5w">intrinsic unsolicited responses, specifically Presence Detect</a>. Luckily, a <a href="http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=048e78a5bc22c27410cb5ca9680c3c7ac400607f">patch</a> courtesy of <a href="https://launchpad.net/~diwic">David Henningsson</a> landed earlier this summer adding this very functionality, so we only need to <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/alsa-driver/+bug/677652/comments/15">check that the proper NIDs are referenced</a>, and upon confirmation then <a href="http://launchpadlibrarian.net/59416210/0002-ALSA-hda-Use-hp-laptop-quirk-to-enable-headphones-au.patch">generate a one-line patch</a> to enable jack sense for the bug reporter's machine.<br /><br />You may notice astutely that I've worded the above process differently from how it appears chronologically in the bug report. The more one works with a particular kernel subsystem (or any software, really) the more readily one is aware how [often] bugs are resolved. In this case, sound driver development moves rapidly, so it's often in the reporter's interest to be using the latest code. Also, <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReviewersTeam/ReviewGuide#Workflow">patch tagging and reviewing</a> are important.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-32213753441500771692010-05-15T04:35:00.009-04:002010-05-15T15:26:42.428-04:00UDS-Maverick recap<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UDS-M">UDS-M</a> is bittersweet. It is the last summit I attend due to additional work commitments that will remove me from Ubuntu development, but more significantly it is the first summit where the future gardeners, maintainers, and developers of the audio infrastructure in Ubuntu and derivatives gathered and <a href="http://identi.ca/notice/31852028">discussed</a> how we can drive user experience improvements. In fact, the phenomenal <a href="http://akgraner.com/">Amber Graner</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gvTeI6-bms">asked me a few questions</a> to that end, and a few things that I neglected to mention are that:<div><br /></div><div>* Canonical has some real rock stars ramping up enablement and proactive quirking efforts on the <a href="http://www.alsa-project.org/">ALSA</a> front, so Linux distributions will see significant improvement in vendor support for audio in the 12.04 LTS time frame;</div><div>* we might see a streamlined method of switching between <a href="http://pulseaudio.org/">PulseAudio</a> and <a href="http://jackaudio.org/">JACK</a> via indicator-sound on the Ubuntu desktop;</div><div>* Maverick will see the complete <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/579300">removal of native OSS support from our linux packages</a> with <a href="http://userweb.kernel.org/~tj/ossp/">OSS proxy</a> being used instead.</div><div><br /></div><div>As always, we'll continue to apply <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates">stable release updates</a> to supported releases (particularly the most current LTS), to address high profile bug reports against the audio stack, and to maintain helpful presences on the varied mailing lists.</div><div><br /></div><div>It has been one heck of a five-year ride. <a href="https://undacuvabrutha.wordpress.com/2010/05/14/a-case-for-modifying-the-ubuntu-release-schedule/">Thanks for all the fish</a>.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-89098056717177319872010-04-06T14:18:00.008-04:002010-04-06T14:33:33.932-04:00Public service announcement: Read the original bug reporter's summary before adding unrelated commentsI find that I'm wasting considerable time trawling through bug reports where comments not from the original reporter indicate experiences involving very different software configurations. For instance, person A files a bug against pulseaudio on default Ubuntu, and you see very similar symptoms on default Kubuntu and thus proceed to add some comments to the bug report.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">File a separate bug</span>.<br /><br />The bug reporter's symptoms don't involve Phonon at all, but yours do. You've just splattered over an otherwise useful timeline, which generally makes me want to take a <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bom_mot/2376763476/sizes/l/">long springtime walk</a> instead of fixing the actual bug. Thanks for understanding.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-51756510748966288782010-04-02T03:32:00.010-04:002010-04-02T03:50:39.194-04:00Public service announcement: When in doubt, don't splatter your apport info into an existing ALSA bug reportFolks -<br /><br />Please, please <span style="font-weight: bold;">don't</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">apport-collect -p alsa-base foo</span> (or <span style="font-style: italic;">apport-collect foo</span> in 10.04 LTS) into a bug report that you didn't file unless a <a href="https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev/+members#active">member of the audio dev team</a> explicitly requests it. What we end up with are reports that start from the original reporter as "my laptop's internal mic doesn't work" and end with dozens of unrelated comments from other people along the lines of "my laptop's internal speakers are too loud".<br /><br />Here's the gist: your symptoms may be eerily similar, but your audio hardware often is quite different, which means that <span style="font-weight: bold;">resolving the original reporter's bug symptoms should only affect that reporter's hardware</span>. Of course, if you have identical hardware, then your symptoms will be resolved in your own bug report, too. If you didn't file the original bug report, please just file a new one. Thanks for understanding.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-60317817802025986872010-02-07T17:50:00.015-05:002010-02-07T18:28:34.745-05:00Pre-Year of the TigerFirstly, lots happening on the Ubuntu 10.04 audio front:<br /><blockquote>* <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-January/030009.html">daily builds of stable alsa-driver snapshots</a> (thanks, Brad!);<br />* massive alsa-lib and alsa-plugins debugging (thanks, David!);<br />* continued alsa-driver/linux quirking;<br />* uploads of latest stable alsa*, libsdl1.2 (including direct seeding of the pulse backend in the Ubuntu desktop seed), openal-soft, and pulseaudio source packages;<br />* re-addition of HDA power down for Sigmatel/IDT in pm-utils-powersave-policy 0.3.</blockquote><br /><br />Some very positive Canonical goings-on have occurred, too, but that's the purvey of others. Also importantly, fellow community members are stepping forward to help triage Ubuntu audio bugs. You gals/guys are too numerous to list individually, but rest assured that your efforts (even if you're new to bug triaging!) are much appreciated. Thanks for helping make Lucid rock!<br /><br />Secondly, John Poelstra <a href="http://poelcat.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/turn-death-by-meeting-into-life-by-agenda/">recently wrote a fantastic piece on chairing effective meetings</a>. The points are so entirely lucid (bad pun I know) that I can't believe that I hadn't used them!<br /><br />In fact, the revitalized <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DistrictOfColumbiaTeam">DistrictOfColumbia LoCo team</a> meetings have begun using them. Brian has been <a href="http://ubuntutrap.blogspot.com/2010/01/ubuntu-dc-loco-meeting-minutes-01-30.html">doing</a> <a href="http://ubuntutrap.blogspot.com/2010/02/ubuntu-district-of-columbia-loco.html">a bang-up job</a> posting summaries in lieu of a configured mootbot to keep us accountable. Members of the LoCo team are working on a screencast/video to demonstrate archive-uploadable <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam">activities at jams</a> using <a href="https://launchpad.net/bughugger">Bug Hugger</a>, <a href="https://launchpad.net/lernid">Lernid</a>, and <a href="https://launchpad.net/groundcontrol">Ground Control</a>. I'll be doing a portion on fixing alsa-driver/linux bugs.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-81034437229220095822009-12-31T01:05:00.005-05:002009-12-31T01:22:24.727-05:00Heads up: powerdown changes to alsa-base in Lucid/10.04If you don't normally follow the Ubuntu development lists, <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com">it's a good time to begin</a>. Yesterday I uploaded alsa-driver 1.0.22.1 to Lucid which, among other things, contains my extensions to power down various parts of the HDA controller and codec after a configurable idle period. Work is far from complete, and <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2009-December/029874.html">I could use your help</a> to make sure your sound hardware is well-supported in 10.10.<br /><br />In summary:<br />"Just to clarify in case it's not already obvious: my having uploaded alsa-driver 1.0.22.1 in no way affects the default Lucid install of the kernelspace ALSA driver (aka alsa-kernel). It remains 1.0.21. Anyone wishing to build modules of 1.0.22.1 can do so using module-assistant and alsa-source. And, until Takashi returns, that approach will be more current than using the daily snap from the 27 Dec.<br /><br />So, the current state of Lucid contains:<br />alsa-kernel 1.0.21 (as shipped in linux 2.6.32-9.13-generic)<br />alsa-lib 1.0.22 + Fix-S24_3LE-softvol-distortion.patch (bdf80)<br />alsa-plugins 1.0.22"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-22155028581363499002009-12-07T23:22:00.002-05:002009-12-07T23:30:11.059-05:00Lucid development: audio for Alpha 1Things that won't land for Lucid Alpha 1:<br /><br />Steady progress on Analog Devices HDA suspend/resume additions/fixes in pursuit of powerdown objectives;<br /><br />Fix for PulseAudio bailing on HDA softmodems.<br /><br />On the other hand, they will land sometime soonish. In fact, the latter fix is available for <a href="https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev/+archive/ppa">testing in Karmic</a> from the ubuntu-audio-dev PPA.<br /><br />(As always, thanks for understanding that I have a limited amount of free time to do this stuff.)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-17822324605095160362009-11-19T06:33:00.004-05:002009-11-19T07:01:36.615-05:00How not to configure default settings for sound applications<a href="http://doctormo.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/recordmydesktop-cheesed-sound/trackback/">You're absolutely right, Martin</a>: recordmydesktop did the wrong thing and screwed your sound experience in Ubuntu. Fortunately, it's really <a href="https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/recordmydesktop/+filebug/+login">straightforward to fix</a>:<br /><br />--- recordmydesktop-0.3.8.1.orig/src/rmd_types.h<br />+++ recordmydesktop-0.3.8.1/src/rmd_types.h<br />@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@<br />#ifdef HAVE_LIBASOUND<br /> #include <alsa h=""><br /><br />- #define DEFAULT_AUDIO_DEVICE "hw:0,0"<br />+ #define DEFAULT_AUDIO_DEVICE "default"<br />#else<br /> #include <sys h=""><br /> #include <sys h=""></sys></sys></alsa>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-575576858791249082009-11-18T11:55:00.008-05:002009-11-18T12:40:52.727-05:00Flailing against the light, or why bad things happen to good users<a href="http://tycheent.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/pulseaudio-revisited/">Seriously, Craig</a>, I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't stop to ask members of this perceived conspiracy how to disable PulseAudio before flaming away, but as you say, it is most definitely your "right" to flame away. And, as Jordan mentioned in your blog post's comments, it was (and is) hardly MOTU's decision to tie PulseAudio more tightly into the GNOME desktop. That decision was upstream GNOME's. Not Ubuntu's. Not Fedora's. Not openSUSE's. Not Gentoo's. Not Debian's. Not Mandriva's.<br /><br />In other words, it would take a non-trivial amount of work to remove the PulseAudio dependency from GNOME, and then Ubuntu would get to carry the delta *and* respond to defect reports.<br /><br />Let's put this in perspective: there are two people working on audio in Ubuntu. One of them is employed by Canonical, and he isn't 100% time on audio. The other one cares enough to trawl through vitriol and drivel to respond to requests, demands, rants, and apathy -- on his lunch breaks and spare time -- to unbreak a resounding mess. If it's insufficiently clear, you're preaching to the choir, and your ultimatum is pathetically misdirected.<br /><br />Now let's be constructive:<br /><br />Firstly, PulseAudio *can* be made to go away in Karmic. I've <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2009-October/009531.html">written about it before</a>, but I guess the naysayers are too busy flailing about how much PA sucks. Some caveats with the approach given: you'll need to use one of alsamixer, amixer (both command line tools shipped by default in the alsa-utils package), alsamixer-gui, aumix, and so on. You'll lose live per-application (per-stream) migration. You'll lose per-application volumes. And you'll lose other things, but they're hardly consequential enough to list here.<br /><br />Secondly, the loss of system sounds is not a PulseAudio issue. It's a window manager issue. There's even <a href="https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/compiz/+bug/301174">a defect report</a> about it.<br /><br />Thirdly, PulseAudio *has* to use ALSA. PulseAudio is not a replacement for ALSA and never will be, because one of ALSA's primary functions is enable hardware. It's a sound driver. PulseAudio is not a sound driver; it's a program that uses sound drivers. If you're expecting PulseAudio to replace ALSA, go ahead and throw that idea out the window.<br /><br />Fourthly, where are your defect reports for PulseAudio and ALSA in Karmic?<br /><br />Lastly, no one is forcing you to upgrade to the latest Ubuntu hotness. Some people still use Dapper; others, Hardy. A great many people don't use Ubuntu at all. If you don't enjoy Ubuntu's direction, why not attend the Lucid <a href="http://summit.ubuntu.com/uds-l/">developer summit</a> and work with people there to resolve some issues?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-12983543668546972052009-10-29T19:37:00.010-04:002009-10-29T20:14:59.243-04:00Caveats for audio in 9.10Here follows an update for 9.10 to this month's <a href="http://drowninginbugs.blogspot.com/2009/10/caveats-for-audio-in-ubuntu-karmic-beta.html">earlier caveats</a>:<br /><br />If you use Ubuntu:<br /><ul><li>Use Karmic's kernel, not Jaunty's. A lot of you with Realtek and IDT/Sigmatel HDA codecs are being bitten by /boot/grub/grub.cfg not being updated properly, resulting in Jaunty's 2.6.28 kernel being used instead of Karmic's 2.6.31. Jaunty's kernel has pretty subpar performance for PulseAudio, and you <span style="font-style: italic;">should not incorrectly blame PulseAudio</span>.</li><li>Check that slmodemd is not running if you're seeing a dummy/null sink in the volume control applet. Arguably PulseAudio's module-udev-detect should allow the device instead of bailing when detecting it, and an approach is under discussion for future versions. In the meantime, you can either instead load module-detect in /etc/pulse/default.pa (or ~/.pulse/default.pa) or kill slmodemd.</li><li>Install linux-backports-modules-alsa-karmic (then reboot) if you have a very new computer, because that package enables audio on quite a few very new laptop models and contains much improved support for microphone auto-switching.</li><li>Use a temporary <a href="https://launchpad.net/bugs/178442">alternate channel mapping</a> for PulseAudio if you have an ice17xx-based sound card. Please be aware that <span style="font-style: italic;">the fault lies with alsa-lib not PulseAudio</span> and will be addressed in 10.04 LTS.</li><li>Configure PulseAudio to <a href="https://launchpad.net/bugs/461062">ignore your sound driver's misreported dB information</a> if you experience "overdriven" sound.</li><li>Attach a <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log">verbose PulseAudio runtime log</a> to your PulseAudio bug report.</li><li>Attach an <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ALSA/JackSense">ALSA codec dump</a> to your linux bug report if jack sense (e.g., connecting headphones mutes internal laptop speakers) does not seem to function properly.</li></ul>As always, thank you for helping improve Ubuntu!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-53431733452766172242009-10-13T23:50:00.008-04:002009-10-14T00:09:07.954-04:00The perils of saving sound card state; and why apologizing is good.Bad news: I <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/449589">broke</a> <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/450612">alsa</a>-<a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/450652">utils</a> in Karmic.<br /><br />Good news: I <a href="https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev/+archive/ppa/+sourcepub/768757/+listing-archive-extra">fixed</a> it tonight. Please report your results.<br /><br />Honestly, I tested the previous upload on Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Xubuntu before committing to bzr -- even on different hardware! It just goes to show that I make dumb mistakes, so, sorry about that.<br /><br />Mo' bett' news: many thanks to the awesome Tim Gardner, who imported alsa-driver stable (snapshot from 20091012) into ubuntu-karmic-lbm.git, which means that all you poor saps with eeePCs and HP dvs and Dell Studios will finally have less suck for audio. Granted, it will require installing linux-backports-modules-karmic in a week or so...<br /><br />In other news (what?! there're more kinds?!), it really is decent to apologize when I make mistakes. <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/isisthescientist/2009/10/gender_stereotypes_and_mr_isis.php">This guy</a> is a real gem, that is all.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-18177982394182028362009-10-01T20:42:00.008-04:002009-10-01T22:54:26.849-04:00Caveats for audio in Ubuntu Karmic BetaIn the wake of the Ubuntu <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2009-October/000125.html">Karmic Beta release</a>, here are some audio gotchas on my radar:<br /><br />* Volumes being erroneously <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/418620">set to 0 and/or muted upon reboot/shutdown</a><br />** We'll address this in Lucid by altering how alsactl store is called. For Ubuntu, there's arguably no need to actually call alsactl restore; PulseAudio handles volume state on its own. Granted, the approach will take some fleshing out, as we need to handle Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, ...<br /><br />* <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-media/+bug/322909/comments/29">Default PulseAudio behaviour causes overdriven audio</a> due to hardware inanity<br />** Thanks to some wonderful (sarcasm) hardware integration, we can work around this issue by using the patch mentioned in the comment. Please note that <span style="font-weight:bold;">this patch will not be turned on for Karmic</span>, because doing so will result in a very poor user experience for many more HDA users whose hardware are not quite so craptastic.<br /><br />* Internal/External microphone selection is broken for many HDA users<br />** Well-known upstream, being addressed for Lucid, patches too invasive for Karmic, etc.<br /><br />* Extremely high CPU usage by PulseAudio with third-party applications (Skype, I'm looking at you)<br />** Use the PulseAudio-aware beta of Skype<br /><br />Finally, last post I described populating the <a href="http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-utils.git;a=tree;f=alsactl/init;hb=HEAD">alsactl init database</a>. There are a few things of which one should be aware:<br /><br />* Too quiet or too loud is usually a driver (i.e., linux) bug<br />** We can work around this in alsa-kernel/linux, so the first place we check is linux, not alsa-utils. In the rare case it is not a driver bug, we resort to alsactl init patches.<br /><br />* You can clone the upstream alsa-utils git tree and submit patches directly<br />** (Next post, I'll cover how to do it.)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-7405321734801038022009-09-21T09:52:00.012-04:002009-09-21T10:36:03.186-04:00Atlanta Linux Fest 2009 and CrowdsourcingA couple months ago, upon reading the tentative speaker schedule for <a href="http://atlantalinuxfest.org/">Atlanta Linux Fest 2009</a>, I was surprised at the Canonical omnipresence. There was personal trepidation regarding how such a presence may be interpreted, and sure enough, <a href="http://spot.livejournal.com/310804.html">I wasn't alone</a>. Certainly in <a href="http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Ecrimsun/presentations/audio/download/crimsun%40errno-20090919124040-xwvlj2xbcfri5lg2/audio_madness_alf.od-20090919124020-6du44684bme8h0km-1/Audio_Madness_ALF.odp">my talk</a>, I kept the vast majority of the physical speech focused on current FOSS and mentioned Ubuntu only in the confines of what we've done poorly and how we're resolving those shortcomings.<br /><br />For instance, one of the most difficult things to "get right" in a default (clean) install is configuring various audio settings. A <a href="http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/felten/improving-governments-user-interface">great analogous post</a> by Ed Felten really made me reconsider the command line as the preferable interface for troubleshooting.<br /><br />Many parts of Ubuntu are contributed by volunteers (thank you!) like myself. There seems to be a considerable amount of bad blood in the Linux community regarding what Canonical "doesn't do". We all need to do a better job of thanking our fellow volunteers and remembering that corporate overlords do not drive everything.<br /><br />That said, I enjoyed the brief moments spent at this year's ALF (had to leave early to return to work), particularly the thoughtfulness of all the organizers (please thank them!) and attendees.<br /><br />See you this weekend at <a href="http://ohiolinux.org/">Ohio LinuxFest</a>!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-14238855611234467492009-09-17T07:37:00.005-04:002009-09-21T10:20:10.709-04:00Limited liability, or how not to develop Karmic using KarmicKarmic has been wonderfully jumpy these past few days. I must have some sick fascination with broken systems, as my presentation at this year's <a href="http://www.ohiolinux.org/schedule.html">Ohio LinuxFest</a> will focus on developing Karmic while running Karmic. Not just that, but this Saturday I'll briefly discuss Linux audio at <a href="http://atlantalinuxfest.org/node/31">Atlanta Linux Fest</a>.<br /><br />Now for the real meat in this post. For Karmic+1, I want Ubuntu to lead the charge in populating alsa-utils's init db.<br /><br />Currently we do some pretty braindead things in alsa-utils's initscript, namely forcibly iterate over an entire set of static mixer element strings and values and attempt to set all detected audio devices to a specific state. Well, it's rather unlikely that my Logitech USB headset will have a Creative Audigy-specific "Audigy Analog/Digital Output Jack", yes?<br /><br />Of course, that's just one badness, but the driving factor is to be able to conditionally set volumes on system start (for non-PulseAudio configurations) based on the machine's SSID. This approach largely resolves the "Gee, I have an Audigy X that requires the jack toggle to be muted to get audible analog output but person Y with an Audigy Z requires it to be unmuted" debacle.<br /><br />So where do you come in? With current HDA codecs, using a static setting of 80% for PCM is pretty fragile. Some hardware sounds really overdriven at that setting, and others are barely audible. We need your SSID (lspci -nv|grep -A1 040[13]) and your preferred volumes! More in the following weeks.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7198558831782348048.post-31442382537841922752009-07-27T22:21:00.013-04:002009-07-27T23:05:05.561-04:00"Meanwhile, in real life"...Firstly, I have been neglecting my Ubuntu Karmic objectives due to a sudden fit of productivity in $dayjob. I expect this lapse to be completed after the <a href="http://www.blackhat.com/html/bh-usa-09/bh-us-09-main.html">Black Hat USA</a> briefings. (That said, if you're headed to that Sin City and have Ubuntu sound problems, find me, and we can eliminate the debugging roundtrips.)<br /><br />Secondly, I am <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2009-July/009134.html">working</a> <a href="https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2009-July/009159.html">through</a> the powerdown issues for the remaining HDA (controllers and) codecs besides Sigmatel/IDT. The Analog Devices and Realtek ones are pains in my rear.<br /><br />Lastly, some words on respect. I tend toward forcefulness - sometimes misled but mostly well-intentioned - and note that, rather than blow much hot air about the (emotional) fitness of Mono or the blatant sexism in many environments (not just FOSS), to frame the issues as obstinate juvenile mutterings reduces them to the bottom line: <span style="font-style:italic;">I (we) disrespect other people</span>. I (we) should stop being an idiot(s). But rather than argue who needs to stop what, I am going to eradicate the tomfoolery and shenanigans that I have internalised. It's really simple: people notice when I (we) take time to help them with Ubuntu. People notice when I (we) take time to note that I (we) don't agree with sexism in presentations. For me, Ubuntu is about leading through maturity.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10116138560878231487noreply@blogger.com0