Kernel Log: What's coming in 2.6.29 - Part 7: Audio, FireWire, USB, Video and more

"Audio and video
This development cycle once again saw hundreds of major and minor changes to the Alsa framework and drivers (including 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). According to information in the kernel, audio support in Linux 2.6.29 is now at the level of Alsa 1.0.18a, but it will in fact include many of the changes in the current 1.0.19 Alsa driver version. These include, for example, the driver for HD audio codecs being split into multiple files. As a consequence, in future, when compiling the audio drivers as a module, different, generally vendor-specific modules, will be responsible for HD audio codecs. However, these will no longer need to be loaded manually -- rather the driver for the HD audio device will automatically detect which codec is connected and request the respective module.

"Audio quirks Linux users with audio hardware which only works properly with the assistance of specific parameters, e.g. "model=6stack-digout" when loading "snd-hda-intel", should send this information, along with the hardware used, to the Alsa development team. They can then add to their whitelists, so that future Linux kernels will automatically use the required parameters. This will not only benefit the development team, but will also save all Linux users with the same hardware a little time by making audio hardware "just work"."

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