Talk:FAQ
From the ALSA wiki
TODO
- Link from old FAQ pages to this page (use template
{{FAQ_reorganized | [[FAQ#<question encoded> | FAQ#<question>]]}}). done (except pages on #2) - The following pages have not been included to the new FAQ page, or not all of their content. It should be moved to the new faq page, to another existing page or a new page.
- The following questions are unanswered:
- How does the move to udev with the 2.6 kernels change the configuration methods?
- How can I create a virtual device that can switch between one of several different soundcards during playback (without interruption)?
- MIDI timing is very unstable. How can I improve that?
- Is there an alsa plugin I can use to normalize my audio output volume?
- How can I use alsa with shoutcast/icecast to create a "fake" sound card on one (sound-card-less) machine that I can listen to on another machine?
- Many answeres are of bad quality.
FAQ056
moved from Talk:FAQ056 -- I configured dmix but still get unable to open slave or Device or resource busy
Some more detail?
It is told in the article that;
- For example under Debian/GNU Linux it is possible that you have installed ESD for /dev/dsp instead of ALSA; replace libesd0 with libesd-alsa0
Well, it is nice to know that, thanks for the information. But wouldn't be nicer to give some detail about how and where to find libesd0 and replace it with libesd-alsa0? Or at least, pointing a documentation which mentions the subject?
Ali 07:14, 24 February 2007 (EST)
Discussion
markc 01:16, 29 December 2005 (EST): I'm just wondering if the changes you are suggesting for the FAQ could somehow be incorporated into a total redesign of the front page index ? In some ways, this whole Wiki is a FAQ for ALSA. Perhaps the FAQ page itself could really be a specialised list of links to more or less regular pages within the Wiki. pzad has copied the original set of pages across (thanks) and you have suggested a more all-on-one page layout. One concern is putting too much info on any one page. This causes the web server itself to be under more strain than really need be so breaking up pages into smaller sections of index pages that then point to focused pages of interest is preferred to huge all-in-one indexes plus content... wherever possible anyway.
I'm just thinking that any effort put into some overall indexed hierarchy strategy could perhaps extend all the way through to incorporating what would otherwise be sections for a FAQ as well.
In any case, front page or FAQ, I think some consideration to categories would be most useful, so as we move pages they end up in a more natural and obvious section of the overall site structure.
Saul 18:54, 28 December 2005 (EST): This page needs some major editing but I wish to discuss the overall approach before going further. I am of the opinion that a FAQ should contain frequently asked questions and that many of the questions in this article should be removed (anything addressing a specific soundcard, for example). I am not saying such questions shouldn't be in the Wiki, but a FAQ should address the majority of the issues.
- markc: Totally agree. The current FAQ was a simple 1/2 useful hack to allow editable entries in the wiki to be become a standalone static page. It started with a few entries and just grew. I'm keen to understand MediaWiki well enough to create an extension to do something similar, to write out HTML and plain text static files that could be viewed online or downloaded (the plain text one could be included with ALSA based audio projects etc).
I also think there are a couple of FAQs here that might be better served by a GLOSSARY and individual definition pages (e.g., "What is a mixer?", "What is an XRUN?", etc.).
- markc: Well the FAQ section of this site could be wholly devoted to what you are suggesting (ie; not an FAQ about the how to use the site but purely about ALSA).
Some of the questions should be reworded to be more generic and to better fit the categories. I should hope that, given a good description of configuration setup issues, questions such as "How do I get Quake3 to work on a Compaq Presario with an Ensoniq 1370?" should disappear.
- markc: Yes, a lot of pages are spontaneous creations without any guidance from the system for new editors to know any better.
Finally, I think OSS issues should be kept as a separate section. If ALSA is the standard and OSS is to be orphaned, questions about OSS should become "less frequently asked" in the future. :-)
- markc: Perhaps just a single section somewhere for OSS issues so they are isolated away from ALSA issues, but still available. It might take years for OSS to completely disappear.
Obviously these are just my opinions and I do not wish to delete any important information that appears in this article (hence my making it "FAQ:Proposed").
- markc: Very pleased that you are interested enough to make these suggestions. At this point in time, particularly, the whole site layout and structure is up for discussion and change. If there are no suggestions then the old site will gradually end up being copied across with only wiki markup changes. That would be a pity and partly the reason for not automating the transfer is to encourage a rethink of the sites structure... if significant changes are made to the new sites structure then manually reinstating old content within the new layout makes more sense. You, or anyone, are welcome to try out anything, as long as you feel it will make a genuine improvement for the users and developers of ALSA based applications. We always have the simple structure of the old site to fall back on so now is the time to try anything new and different.
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Moving "I can't record from my microphone" information to Record from mic, because this page is huge. -- Glasserc 15:51, 12 June 2007 (EST)
