[CM] snd and ALSA

[Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano]

> > If alsa is linked statically into snd then if alsa is not present in
> > the system snd will autoswitch to using oss. If alsa is dynamically
> > linked, snd will not be able to start if alsa is not installed.
>
> > In my snd rpms I create a separate package for an "oss only" snd
> > that does not include alsa at all.
>
> Hmm, I really don't want to link to it statically, and I don't
> necessarily want to make an extra package for alsa (it would be 2
> packages actually, gtk and motif).

Same here, snd-motif, snd-motif-oss, snd-gtk, snd-gtk-oss. A
pain but works fine and gives users choice.

> So I guess I'm outta luck here ;-)
>
> No, seriously, couldn't there be a run time configure option to switch
> between alsa and oss? I guess it's not so trivial, otherwise somebody
> would probably have done that already...

That would involve some sort of dynamically loaded "i/o
plugin" system so that the shared library linking happened at
run time. I have no idea on how to do that, most probably not
that difficult (once you know how :-) but quite low in my list
of "things I would really like to do". It would probably
involve a big reorganization or rethinking of the snd audio
i/o code as well. At this point snd is one executable and
whatever it has to link to dynamically has to be installed for
snd to run.

-- Fernando