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Aureal 3D Developing Linux Drivers
Guy Saban writes "I've just received news that Aureal 3D plans on releasing Linux drivers for their Vortex sound cards in February. These cards have a good reputation for quality sound and 3D effects. The A3D technology for creating realistic acoustic effects has become a favorite among many. Apparently 4Front Technologies are working on drivers for the Vortex 1 and 2 chipsets under Linux through their OpenSound package.
"
> Ahhh, but you forget something - because Linux is GPL open source, any closed company can take
> the Linux kernel, and design an open source binary compatibility layer.
And then the people who hold the copyright to the GPL code in linux will sue them. Linus himself has been cool to people trying to do binary modules for official Linux kernels, but he has threatened people that tried to make their own special kernel just to interface with a binary module.
Case in point: MOSIX.
>And then the people who hold the copyright to the GPL code in linux will sue them. Linus himself has been cool to people trying to do binary modules for official Linux kernels, but he has threatened people that tried to make their own special kernel just to interface with a binary module
Have you ever even read one word of the GPL? It FORBIDS _exactly_ what you are suggesting - suing people for designing an OPEN SOURCE patch (which is what I said). Once you release something under the GPL that is it man, your only option is to design a NEW version and re-release it with a new license. But all the old code that was downloaded under the GPL remains GPL. And I don't see Linus deciding to stop the GPL on linux, do you?
If I want to fork the entire Linux kernel (or even just part) RIGHT NOW, and create something different, I can. I might not be able to call it Linux if it isn't 99% linux still, but I certainly could call it l1nux, or Lynux, or whatever else I like.
Gawd, get with it man! Just look at X11R6 - See how it was going to be forked because the Open Source group decided to quit keeping it truly free (as in speech). There wasn't a damn thing they could do about it. Sure they could write up a new license, and release their new closed version - but why? They would just cause hardship on everyone else. So they changed their mind, eventually.
Wow... It suprises me anyone could think the GPL means what you think it means. God help us all...
Linus can "threaten" all he likes, but it is nothing more than hot air. He can get mad, even ask his lawyers to send nasty letters, but these don't mean jack-squat. He has NO REAL CONTROL over the released Linux kernels in the legal sense anymore, other than to stop closed source programs being written INTO the kernel itself. PERIOD!
Yeah, I'm talking about you, MORON moderator - you'll get what is coming to you next time you post a valid opinion that bucks the trend.
Did you find a untruthful statement in my post (no, because there are none). Did you find my post was against your personal beliefs and or ethics (yes, that is quite obvious).
I will now use this previous post as evidence that moderators are morons, and will post it EVERY time some other idiot moderator hurts someone else by impressing their ideals on someone else. I have it bookmarked.
yes, screw OSS. I am not paying for a lousy for their lousy binary. Soundcard support should be free!!!
When you going to learn meathead?
You have to explain yourself because if a moderator don't understand your post, you are going down!
Actually A3D hardware has lagged the A3D API a bit... Vortex1 didnt do hardware acceleration for the HRTF filtering, and Vortex2 didnt do hardware acceleration for the wave tracing. AFAICS Vortex1 is basically just an ordinary soundcard without any DSP features on board.
Aureal has started selling their reference cards as the SQ1500 (Vortex 1), SQ2500 (Vortex 2), and soon the SQ3500. The SQ3000 is a Vortex 2 card, but the audio chip is aprox. what the P3 is to the P2. The Sq3500 will support A3d 3.0 and such nifty features as hardware Mp3 decoding and volumetric audio sources. Aureal claims that the hit on a standard Vortex 2 card will not be very noticable when using non-accelerated 3.0 functions. John Marzulli
I threw out my Vortex and bought an SB Live just a couple weeks ago. No, I'm not going to return my SB; in fact, I'm pretty happy with it. For me, what Aureal did was too late and way too little. They only did this because Creative is supporting Linux; they don't show any commitment to Linux.
Something is better than nothing, but I certainly dont want every company thinking "hey I can pretty much do buessinuess like I always did and still please the OSS kiddies, lets forget about open source"
It should be very clear to every company that its a suboptimal solution. I hope in the future most hardware will be designed such that they can at least release the specs without compromising their IP. For instance, NVIDIA doesnt need to release their OpenGL driver as open source... but the fact that their specs arent open is a definite black mark. Or for instance Aureals future card with DSP, I dont expect them to give the source for the wavetracing accelerator they implement in the DSP but I would like to know how to program the DSP myself etc.
MOSIX is GPL.
Can you comment if any soundcard with Vortex1 and Vortex2 is supported by Aureal on BeOS?
It was allready on ars. Go and get them here http://linux.aureal.com/
A link to http://linux.aureal.com/ was already posted on Voodooextreme. They actually have drivers! Its as close to closed source you can get without actually having binary drivers though. They use an abstraction layer between the kernel and the real driver.
I wonder if Linux will allow this in the kernel...
Linux (xBSD's too, but Linux especially because of the GPL) is a big driving force behind getting more open hardware. I dont think its already time to get cynical and start giving praise for closed source drivers in the expactation that open source one's are a utopia.
There are plenty of manufacturers who have open hardware specs. IMO the amount of their IP wich is compromised by it is minimal, let us just make it clear that the IP issue's are less important than potential sales for their hardware due to open source drivers.
This is better than nothing but still not good enough.
All this closed source stuff makes me wonder about the true reason. Yes, it certainly has to do with Intellectual Property issues. What I started to think was if there might be some issues of less intelligence. If they GPL the whole source, then everyone will see how they've solved different problems and if some(many?) of the solutions are less intelligent they might lose some respect. And certainly they will try reuse as much code as possible from their drivers for some other DoS like non-operating system. (Might this be the reason why other companies seem less linux-friendly)
Man, this is silly. A3D cards came out over 2 years ago, and they finally throw Linux a bone. I doubt this is enough to make any Linux users come back to Aureal, since I'm sure they all went out and bought Trident/SB Live's by now.
Put an extra layer of abstraction between your driver and the kernel and open source that and keep the rest closed, simple solution. One I hope gets discouraged...
The current drivers are just plain old audio, no A3D support yet. However, they are currently working on it. Better yet, they are currently also porting their A3D 3.0 engine over to Linux. This may mean future A3D releases on Linux around the same time as Windows. It seems like Aureal sees this as the way to trump Creative for providing open source drivers first -- and I, for one, think it could _really_ pay off. 3D audio support for Linux, how about that...
Ahhh, but you forget something - because Linux is GPL open source, any closed company can take the Linux kernel, and design an open source binary compatibility layer.
:-)
That one company can then maintain that just that single section of code (instead of all the separate single binary drivers), and update just that single section of code - and have only binary only modules, compiled just the single time.
Although the patch might not be accepted into the standard kernel tree, it wouldn't be too hard to design an "easy install" wrapper around the patch.
Any company that plans to support a lot of hardware in a closed source way might think in the same way.
This is going to cause more problems than you could imagine - all these patch programs patching every companies binary compatibility layer into the kernel. And they might just be incompatible - or badly designed.
My suggestion - get on it and make a binary compatibility standard before someone else does it for you.
Don't ask me to do it either - I'm not a real programmer.
Just my 2 cents.
When I install the drivers make install10 I get the error /lib/.../au8810.o: init module: Device or Resource busy What does that mean, and how can I fix it? I disabled the pnp on the board, and my board is the 10 and is supported like they say on the site. Benjamin Meyer
One point I'd like to add: apparently there are more factors than just the kernel version. SMP-ness and even the compiler used matter as well.
--
Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
I was able to do a side by side comparison with my PC with an sblive value and my brother's new Athlon (yes I sold him on the athlon :) with vortex 2 card and there's no doubt about it-sblive sounds so much better for midi
---
Maybe I'm a bit behind the times, or am I just ahead for noticing that the linux Aureal drivers are already available from http://linux.aureal.com? After attempting to reverse engineer soundblaster compatiblilty from their DOS driver and not getting much further than a snap, crackle, and pop (TM) or two for my efforts, I'm happier than a hooker in $240 worth of pudding that they're finally available.
The FAQ says they'll also be porting their A3D 3.0 to linux.
Are SB Live drivers now in the kernel tree, or is it that the source is merely downloadable from Creative? Just curious.
--
I don't know anything about ALSA, but the SBLive! driver supports multiple audio streams in OSS.
Q.
I hope so...
:). I use ALSA
Even tho I don't have an A3d card, I may consider getting one when I upgrade
(probably fairly soon, even tho my computer is pretty new
because my sound card (Trident 4Dwave DX) isn't supported by OSS-Free. But
I don't care about OSS any more - I say screw 'em. I'm not going to PAY for
drivers when I can get better ones for free. ALSA supports multiple audio
streams SEAMLESSLY - and AFAIK OSS does not.
So who cares about OSS any more? Alsa is just plain BETTER. And it's free
(speech) as well.
Not fully anyway, and not the parts that matter.
:)
Let's look at the actual source and binaries included (i.e. excluding Makefiles and text notes):
>vortex.c driver source file
This is basically a reworked AudioPCI ES1371 driver. Have a look at it. It's little more than a kernal interface to the files listed below.
>asp30.o object file containing Au8830 core
>asp10.o object file containing Au8810 core
>asp20.o object file containing Au8820 core
These are the actual guts of the driver that do all the work. And they don't come with source. This is a big downside as far as I'm concerned. One of the major reasons I wanted open-source drivers is so that I can hack in support for an S/PDIF input.
The asp30.o file contains the text string "EnableSpdifIn" so presumably the code's done. The Xitel storm platinum (the card I have) is Aureal's reference design so they've obviously tested the S/PDIF input already. If I had the source I'd probably have S/PDIF input going in a few hours.
Oh well, I bought a used AudioPCI because it *does* have open source drivers *now*. I'm going to hold out a little while longer for Aureal and see if they do finally get their act together, otherwise I'll have a Vortex 2 card for sale cheap
Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
Well, I have a Vortex 2 right now and don't feel like changing it. However, if I had to buy a new soundcard at this poing, knowing what I do now, it would definately NOT be an Aureal card.
Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
This is great news... now I can use my Turtle Beach Montego A3DXstream (Vortex 1 8820 chipset) in my gaming box! I was stuck with my old Ensoniq VIVO90 that I paid $10 to OSS for the drivers (since the PNP version don't work so well with the free drivers), but now I can toss away my last legacy card in that box!
Whew, first I get rid of Win98, now I can get rid of ISA... I'm having a good time with this.
"We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - Major Mike Shearer, UK
1: Aureal has promised this crap already and hasn't delivered (remember this article?). If this is 'much sooner than you think,' they can save their ad dollars. I only have one because it came in my Dell, and I think with this track record I'm not spending MY money on their stuff (the Dell is a work box).
2: From the readme.txt in the drivers section of linux.aureal.com:
This driver has been tested on the following distributions:
Red Hat 6.0, kernel version 2.2.5-15.
Red Hat 6.1, kernel version 2.2.12-20.
Red Hat 6.1, kernel version 2.2.13.
Hey Aureal! REDHAT ALONE DOES NOT LINUX MAKE. They may (probably will) work under the wondrous Slack7 I use, among others (debian? mandrake SuSE?) but to ignore these segments at a minimum is shortsighted, at a maximum is just plain stupid and shitty.
3: Binaries. What more needs to be said (though I understand source is coming, so that can be forgiven).
I like the sound from the Dell and the fact it appears to do duplex output.. but this dragging-of-the-feet for linux support has me considering against any Aureal hardware for future purchases.
-'fester
This is great news since it makes linux more
respectable as a gaming platform.
It does raise the issue of kernel versions (again)
Modules compiled for one version of the kernel
won't necessarily work for other versions. I can
imagine that it could be a nightmare for a company
to support multiple versions of a binary-only
driver. Linus has repeatedly said (quite rightly
from an OS standpoint) that he makes no guarantees
of binary compatibility between versions. He
will work hard to ensure source compatibility
though.
Yes, binary only sucks but giving source/register
level information can give away IP to compeditors.
Perhaps an optional binary compatibility layer
should be introduced into the kernel. It may not
be quite as fast as a 'native' version, but hey
thats the price you pay for a binary only multiple
version driver.
Steve.
Actually I wasn't talking about binary level
compatibility. I suggested the possibility
of a binary compatibility _layer_.
That is: use a set of functions to read values
from kernel structures instead of accessing
the values directly. One cause of problems
occur when structure sizes or layouts change.
Of course, if the interface changes there might
not be a lot you can do.
Looking at some previous posts it seems that
aureal have taken this approach - a binary
driver and open source glue between the kernel
and driver.
I suggest a standard 'glue layer' could be a
good idea.
Steve.
From the Aureal Linux FAQ:
The current driver distribution contains both source and object files. Access to Vortex hardware is provided by object files, while the code that interfaces to the Linux kernel is provided in source form. This allows the driver to be recompiled by the customer to support new kernel distributions. We are working on a full source distribution of the driver including chip documentation.
Chris Hagar
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." - Thomas Jefferson
I heard rumors that Aureal was going to develop Linux drivers for their Vortex2 cards, and I saw a Diamond MX300 for near half the price of the SoundBlaster Live! Value I bought, but I was tired of hearing rumors and seeing disclaimers like "no guarantee of non-Win95 support" on manufacturers' web sites. So I went out and got that SB Live!. Now I don't have to worry about binary-only drivers, non-official support, etc. It's nice having hardware that's entirely supported in the kernel (or, at least, after the distribution patches the kernel).
I don't know about everyone else, but this news worries me. Sure, its good in the short term, Linux get a great 3D sound API, but do you realize that this means for Linux? It means, soon, there will be a bunch of imcompatible, competing APIs. It happened to windows too. There were all these APIs like A3D, Sensura, Dolby, then Microsoft (not everything they do sucks) released DirectSound3D. Not only was it competitive, it really leveled the playing field. Now, instead of HAVING to buy an Aureal card for a new gaming system, one could choose from SBs, Ensoniqs, Orchids, etc. (ie. NON propriatory hardware) The end result is all the fantastic sound cards out now. The same thing happened with 3D. OpenGL was not established on windows, and when 3dfx came out with Glide, it grabbed a stranglehold immediatly. How could it not, there were no other APIs. Then Microsoft saved the day and brought out D3D. Sure it sucked, but it meant that people could choose from different graphics cards. When I bought my computer, there were many options. I could buy a Diamond Monster 3D with Voodoo chipset, an Orchid Righteous 3D with Voodoo chipset , or a Canopus Pure3D with Voodoo chipset. Now I can buy a GeForce if I want extreme performance, a Savage 2000 if I'm looking for cheap performance, or a G400MAX for feature filled performance. But I don't see how these things will happen with Linux. When 3dfx tried to capture Linux 3D with glide, it didn't really succeed because of Mesa. But there is no "mesa" of 3D sound. I hear ALSA is doing something, but it may take so long to come out that Linux may be in for a period of intense API competition. The solution is simple, but one I doubt the Linux people will take. (Look at GNOME and KDE! We shouldn't have THAT level of imcompatibility in one OS) It would be to create a unified Linux API. A so called LinuxX if you will. Take ALSA's work and modify it to be DirectSoundish so it can be accelerated on existing DirectSound cards. And sound is only the nearest threat. By looking at windows history, force feedback is next, (first came glide, then A3D, then iForce) so get working on that standardized joystick API. Oh, how history repeats itself.
PS- The first person who argues that making a standardized API is not the Linux "way" gets a "living in la la land award of the day." Competing window systems is one thing. Things can be ported from KDE to GNOME fairly simply, but editing some code and recompiling. Were talking about acceleration. Competing acceleration APIs is bad because it screws the user having to decide which API to spend his money oon, then potentially losing it when that API sinks. Not to mention the fact that until there is a global standard, most app developers won't use it. Until Direct3D no apps were hardware accelerated because only 3dfx users could then use the game. But after D3D it is hard to find a non-accellarator required game on the shelves. Same for 3D Sound and ForceFeedback.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Come on. If I hear ONE more Linuxite bitching about GPL I'll crack. Who is most qualified to write drivers for hardware. The hardware manufacturers. I would think if companies could make closes source drivers and that if there was a standard driver API, then linux would have a lot more support now. And this thing that some body posted about linux being a "dynamic entity." When translated into english it means that linux has a piece of shit driver API. On purpose, but still a piece of shit. My major bitch with open source drivers is that many things may work, but they don't work well. Or parts of the card work, but not all of it. And why are we even writing drivers for these companies? Doesn't Linux have sufficiant hype that companies do it out of their own will? What used to be a great aid to linux, open source drivers, in an age when it did not have commercial support has now become a handicap. Face it, in Windows, drivers get update often. My 2 year old Riva 128 still has new drivers coming out for it. And by the time they do stop coming, they are more or less done; stable, tweeked, etc. Only crappy companies (ahem, ATI) write crappy drivers. And usually those products are crappy themselves so it doesn't matter. So keep the OS open source, and let the driver manufacturers do as they please. Drivers after all, are NOT part of the OS. (I know they compile into the kernel, but thats a UNIX bug.)
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I am defining "they" as hardware manufacturers.
This would allow a larger audience (*BSD) to include the driver with the OS. It is not as if Creative is going to take the driver and make their own version of it.
The ALSA web site is at:
www.alsa-project.org
All they ask is for enough specs to write a good device driver. They don't need blueprints for the card. So all the companies need to do is supply some specs and help to ALSA, only a few companies seem willing to do even this small task. Do they not want to sell more hardware!? Seems not.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and so on...
Finally I can format my Windows 98 partition. The only reason, why I still have W98 is my Terratec sound card. I hope that the driver will support wavetables.
The first release is already out. They put out the news through a bizarre "exclusive" arrangement with linux.com. You can get hold of them on http://linux.aureal.com. They've followed the usual binary + "open source" shim pattern. However, they are promising a full source distribution with chip doc.
A3D support is on the way too but, unsurprisingly, there's no mention of any open sourcing. Even so, this is good. One more key resource for games support under Linux....
The only real disappointment (for me) is that multi-processor support isn't the initial release.
Don't get your hopes up too high. Not only is the driver !source, what they did was to ship the Windows driver binaries and put a wrapper around them.
From asp30.o:
Software\Aureal\Vortex\AU8810\ControlPanel
Looks suspeciously like a Windows Registry entry, doesn't it? Not to mention the fact that the final binary is **148K** in size!
AMEN! I've been limping along with those crippled OSS drivers for way to long. They sound like AM in an airport tunnel. I had to throw my old Awe64 back in so I'd have sound under Q3.
I started with nothing and have most of it left.
# Makefile for Vortex au88xx driver
#
# Copyright (c) 1999 Aureal Inc.
#
# Environment:
# AUCHIP - AU8830 (default), AU8820, or AU8810
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
The faq on the linux.aureal.com webpage:
Is the source code to the driver available? How about chip specifications?
The current driver distribution contains both source and object files. Access to Vortex hardware is provided by
object files, while the code that interfaces to the Linux kernel is provided in source form. This allows the driver to be recompiled by the customer to support new kernel distributions. We are working on a full source distribution of the driver including chip documentation.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this make the future source code release GPL-ed too?
--
/* Manuël Beunder, web master of the Linux SB Live! page: http://www.euronet.nl/~mailme
.
I just had a quick look at their site, but it looks like Aureal is going to release the source code later as well, besides the partially binaries they've now released..
there was something about "support for multiple processors" being under development, but on my ABIT BP6 motherboard with two Celerons it worked OK so far.
Real life is overrated.
from the OSS (open source sound) commercial product if you had the newer vortex chips. the 8820 and 8830 are partially supported already. I bought a Magicsound PCI sound card and it has a vortex 8810 sound chip and this chip is NOT supported by OSS. I asked and received a polite reply from the gentleman that wrote most of the sound card software presently in linux. I can only hope that aureal will support the 8810 chip so I can finally get further away from that darn Win 4.01, (otherwise knows as Win98). I am a game meister and though I am a cheapo when it comes to buying hardware I still enjoy the effects of 3d sound. Up to this point linux has not had drivers for my old mako sound card or my new aureal sound card. I will await with baited breath the arrival of drivers from aureal.
Jumping to correct solutions slowly is better than jumping to incorrect solutions quickly.
These drivers, if not GPL, are usually unstable and becomes obsolete in the long run. The Linux kernel is a dynamic entities and if they decided to drop the support 6 months or a year down the road, you will have a dead soundcard. I much rather go with GPL supported sound card, any day.
- Etam
I've been using the open sound system beta drivers for my Turtle Beach Montego A3D for some time now...
I will be VERY happy to try the http://linux.aureal.com drivers tonight...
I can't WAIT to get a good fully implemented driver for my sound card...
Eh...
Anyone have the URL for Aureal's beta drivers?
-- Rev.
Not all companies can, or will release their drivers as fully open source, that is a fact.
if, as you are suggesting, the only options which companies are going to be given is open, or nothing, I fear that could be very detrimental to future companies considering releasing drivers which support linux.
I waited to long for Aureal to come to their senses. I was tired of quake3 and mp3's not working correctly with my MX300. I am happy Aureal has released the drivers. However, using GPL'd drivers (ALSA) and my sblive value makes my life much better today and makes me sleep better :)
according to This FAQ, the driver isn't open source, but they're working on it.
Krishna
I'm curious if these drivers support SMP kernels. I bought an SB Live instead of the Vortex because all the Windows NT drivers that Aureal have released show freaky stuff on multiprocessing machines, like long delays, samples being cut off in the middle, or blue screens. There's now supposedly a beta driver that tries to fix that but I haven't seen confirmations that it works. I'm wondering if their Linux driver has been tested for this too.
Same thing from me. I bought an Aureal card, couldn't get it to work, so I took it back and got a Creative card. And I sent e-mail to Aureal telling them they lost a sale cause they didn't support Linux.
:)
I think stuff like that adds up and they're getting the message.
I'm not sure I understand what is so terribly difficult for someone in that company to simply recompile the modules for every kernel rev that comes out. It's not like that we have a new kernel rev every day. Gee, how terrible: someone actually has to type 'make' every other month, or so
Actually, things depend also on the kernel configuration.
For example, modules compiled for SMP kernels won't work on non-SMP kernels and vice-versa, and this is not the only issue. Someone on the kernel mailing list estimated that one should offer something in the order of tens of different binaries for a single module for various configurations.
It shouldn't be too problematic to put up a page with a form to choose different configurations for some kernel versions (and perhaps compile it on the fly before downloading), but it's still a pain for the inexperienced user who don't know even what a module is loaded in first instance and expects its installation process to just recognize as much hardware as possible, otherwise he gets stuck.
My 0.02 Euro.
It is GPL, I have the driver but haven't tried it yet. I'll have to remove my GUS and put my Montego back in. Hopefully it won't send a nasty pop to my speakers like the GUS drivers.
The source code is included. The filename is vortex.c, which is a ~64KB file. A Makefile is also included (`make compile` will recompile your driver).
There are a lot of people here complaining that it's closed source, etc.
They are wrong, very wrong. Aureal have done exactly what we wanted. We now have completely GPLed drivers, which appear to be much better than the OSS I bought a while back (cannot record, no gameport support, much etc.).
I just took a closer look, and the source for the .o files is not included.
I guess I jumped the gun. My apologies.
They are promising full source, though.
Check out this link.
Here's a "quote":
(Emphasis mine).
Last I recalled, GPL happens to be open source.
Now I wonder how long it'll take to be distributed in the kernel releases.
4Front have had drivers for Vortex in OpenSound for the last half a year, and they worked quite well for the week one is allowed to test them. The OpenSound package + Aureal drivers costed $30 however, so you might as well have bought a Soundblaster PCI 128 (yes, the Aureals are better, but the OpenSound drivers don't have any of the features anyways).
Now Aureal have finally come through and released real drivers for the kernel (better late then never, but still to late to be easily forgiveable). According the the email they sent me about this (I have been hounding them about the lack of Linux drivers for a while) they will go on to OpenSource the drivers as well (I think the page says as much).
-
We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.
Has anybody else here had that kind of experience leading to the use of some other sound cards besides Aureal's stuff?
When the heck will the A3D sound stuff work with Q3A? I thought that's more of a vestige from the programming with the Windows edition of Q3A, knowing that Aureal didn't do a thing for the A3D 3D sound stuff for linux yet.
--
What does this mean for ALSA support? Will the drivers released by Aureal give use the information we need to develop our own?
Salmon, Broads & Beer
Northwest journal fo
I've tried the drivers w/ 2.2.15pre3 and they seem to work ok. I've got sound and no oopses yet :p
The driver requires soundcore ("Sound card support") which can be compiled as module.
The drivers made by 4front seem less stable (three oopses for me) and also cost money.
Looking forward to seeing A3D in the future, and hopefully 100% Open Source drivers.
There was a thread on binary module compatibility on linux-kernel last month.
The short summary is this: it ain't gonna happen. Search the mailing list archives for the details.
I'm not sure I understand what is so terribly difficult for someone in that company to simply recompile the modules for every kernel rev that comes out. It's not like that we have a new kernel rev every day. Gee, how terrible: someone actually has to type 'make' every other month, or so.
This seems to me to be very logical. If you want to keep your module source closed, you can go ahead and do that, but then it becomes your sole responsibility to maintain your binary-only driver.
It seems that companies simply are looking for a free lunch. They want to keep their source closed, but then they also don't want to actively maintain their driver. Well, that's just not going to fly. If you want someone else to make sure that your module works in the next kernel rev, and you don't want that to be your responsibility, well, that's fine, but you'll have to open your source. Seems a fair tradeoff to me.
--
I'm one of the people that was harassing (no, not really, actually politely emailing) back and forth with Aureal tech and management people at least a year ago trying to convince them to release Linux drivers and/or specs to write drivers. It actually does make a difference... admittedly, we have Creative to thank for this in a way, since releasing, then Open Sourcing the SB Live drivers forces Aureal's hand, it only forces Aureal's hand BECAUSE they know there is a significant undercurrent of interest in using Linux with their products BECAUSE people like myself and others have been lobbying them for ages. Too bad I trashed my Aureal Vortex 6 months ago in favor of an SB Live. :) Guess Aureal should have moved faster...
There are plans to support other operating systems besides Windows 9x and Windows NT. Currently, we are working on WDM drivers, but plans are already underway on working with different companies on Linux and BeOS drivers. We have been in contact with Be on getting supporting for the Vortex chipsets, and hopefully will follow through on that shortly.
There are no definite plans or release dates scheduled for these drivers, however, and there are no guarantees.
I's sure glad some folks out there deliver without expressed guarantees. The drivers can be found at Aureal
Never knock on Death's door:
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
There are binary tarballs available:
linux.aureal.com
I haven't tried them yet, though.
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