Subject: HAL2 ALSA driver prerelease

From: Ulf Carlsson <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 02:13:53 -0400

Hi,

I have released a preview of the forthcoming HAL2 ALSA driver, don't expect too
much out of it. You can not play mp3 directly without a patched mp3 player. They
all assume that you use big endian. I hope I don't violate any GPL license
agreements by don't uploading the SPRMS of ALSA. Everything but
alsa-hal2-driver-0.3.0-0.1.tgz and alsa-dirver-0.3.0-pre5-1.mipseb.rpm is taken
directly from the ALSA CVS tree which you can find more information about at
http://alsa.jcu.cz/.

Things it can do:
o 44100 kHz
o 16 bit
o Little endian
o Stereo 

Things it can't do (yet):
o Everything else than 44100 kHz
o Big endian
o Mono (Oups)
o Perfect audio quality
o Mixing

If you still want to try to play some music go through the following steps:

1. Compile an Indy kernel with soundcore.o compiled as a module.

2. Install the alsa precompiled rpm packages you get from
   ftp://linus.linux.sgi.com/pub/linux/mips.

3. Insert the modules, in the order: soundcore.o snd.o snd-pcm.o snd-pcm1.o
   snd-mixer.o snd-timer.o snd-pcm1-oss.o snd-hal2.o snd-card-hal2.o

4. Generate a .wav file with mpg123, either directly on the Indy or on your PC.

5. Play the .wav file with aplay -m -w.

6. Tell me if it works!

- Ulf