[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#574593: Please don't make a device without playback capability the default.

[Daniel Burrows]

Package: alsa-base
Version: 1.0.21+dfsg-2
Severity: normal

  I have a USB webcam plugged into my computer that I use occasionally.
It's a USB audio device, but as alsaconf succinctly puts it:

    This sound device does not have any playback controls.

  Sometimes (presumably depending on the timing of module loads) alsa
decides to make this my "first" sound card.  Unfortunately, most
programs seem to assume that the first sound card is where their sound
should go.  You could argue that these programs are broken, but it seems
to be a widespread problem and it would be nice if alsa avoided this
configuration.

  A simple heuristic to avoid this problem would be to say that only
devices with playback capability can become the default device (unless
of course nothing has playback capability, I suppose).

  (yes, I have tracked down how to force the USB device to not be the
   default; however, it would be nice to not force every user who owns
   a consumer webcam to go through this process)

  Daniel

-- Package-specific info:
--- Begin additional package status ---
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name           Version        Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
ii  libasound2     1.0.22-2       shared library for ALSA applications
--- End additional package status ---
--- Begin /proc/asound/version ---
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
--- End /proc/asound/version ---
--- Begin /proc/asound/cards ---
 0 [VT82xx         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA VIA VT82xx
                      HDA VIA VT82xx at 0xbfffc000 irq 17
--- End /proc/asound/cards ---
--- Begin /dev/snd/ listing ---
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      60 Mar 18 21:07 by-path
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 8 Mar 18 21:07 controlC0
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 7 Mar 18 21:07 hwC0D0
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 6 Mar 18 21:07 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 5 Mar 18 21:07 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 4 Mar 18 21:07 pcmC0D1p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 3 Mar 18 21:07 seq
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 2 Mar 18 21:07 timer
--- End /dev/snd/ listing ---

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-2-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages alsa-base depends on:
ii  linux-sound-base           1.0.21+dfsg-2 base package for ALSA and OSS soun
ii  lsof                       4.81.dfsg.1-1 List open files
ii  module-init-tools          3.12~pre1-1   tools for managing Linux kernel mo
ii  udev                       151-2         /dev/ and hotplug management daemo

Versions of packages alsa-base recommends:
ii  alsa-utils                    1.0.22-1   Utilities for configuring and usin

Versions of packages alsa-base suggests:
pn  alsa-oss                      <none>     (no description available)
pn  apmd                          <none>     (no description available)
ii  oss-compat                    0.0.4+nmu3 OSS compatibility package

Versions of packages libasound2 depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.10.2-6   Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib

-- no debconf information