[[PageOutline]]
= Uniaud for OS/2 & eCS =
This is the development home for uniaud, the Universal Audio Driver for eCS and OS/2. The Uniaud
project consists of 2 separate drivers, Uniaud16.sys and Uniaud32.sys.
== Uniaud32 ==
Uniaud32.sys is the actual audio driver that connects to the hardware and makes it work. It
consists of a modified ALSA core and some OS/2 specific pieces which make it load and run on an OS/2
system. Different major versions of Uniaud32 are based on different versions of ALSA. For example,
Uniaud32 versions 1.9.x are based on ALSA 1.0.21, and Uniaud32 versions 2.1.x are based on ALSA 1.0.23.
== Uniaud16 ==
Uniaud16.sys is the interface between MMOS2 and Uniaud32.sys. Uniaud16 does not talk to the audio
hardware. It is just an interface translator, buffer manager, and may do some resampling. Uniaud16.sys
has its own version number. Do not confuse Uniaud16's version number with Uniaud32's version number.
= Downloading Binary Distributions =
The "Complete Install Package" is used to install Uniaud on a system that doesn't already
have Uniaud installed. The "Update Package" has both the Retail build
and the Debug build of drivers in it. If you already have Uniaud installed on your system,
you can download either the "Complete Install Package" or the "Update Package" zip file and just copy uniaud16.sys
and uniaud32.sys over your existing files.
It is not recommended to run the Debug build unless you are testing a specific problem and need to
produce a detailed log. Because of the time needed to output the verbose messages in the debug
build of the drivers, the debug builds may exhibit some problems that are not present in the
retail builds. The debug builds are known to have these problems:
* A "pop" noise at the end of a sound
* pause/resume can hang the audio stream
* skipping forward and/or back in a stream can hang the audio stream
* changing the volume while a stream is playing can hang the audio stream
* Playing short sounds in rapid succession can hang the audio stream
A hanging audio stream caused by one of these problems can manifest as stopped audio, or as looping audio.
If you see any of these problems AND you are using the debug build of the drivers, please understand that
the problem could be because you are using the debug build. You should try the retail build of the
drivers before reporting any of these problems.
There is currently one version of Uniaud16, and there are two versions of uniaud32. This is because some
people have reported problems with the version of Uniaud32 that is based on the latest version of ALSA.
So we are making available two packages for download until we can fix the problems in the new ALSA version.
Both contain the same Uniaud16, but one has a version of Uniaud32 based on the older ALSA, and one has a
version of Uniaud32 based on latest version of ALSA. Both packages have all the latest fixed in Uniaud16,
and both packages have all the latest fixes in the OS/2 specific sections of Uniaud32. The only
difference is the ALSA version.
There are known problems with Uniaud32 version 2.1.x:
* A "pop" at the end of sounds
* Broken Uniaud API
{{{
#!html
}}}
= A Note About Repeating System Sounds =
Even though many people think that the Repeating System Sound problem has something to do with Uniaud, THIS IS NOT TRUE. The repeating system sounds problem has nothing at all to do with Uniaud, but instead is caused by SND.DLL and as such will not be addressed here. Please log into [http://www.ecomstation.com eComStation.com] and see ticket number 2874 in the BugTracker for the resolution to the Repeating System Sounds problem.
= Getting the sources =
In addition to [/browser browsing] the sources here, you can check out the
[http://svn.netlabs.org/repos/uniaud sources]
with your favorite subversion client.
Keep in mind that, unlike [http://www.nongnu.org/cvs/ cvs], tags and branches are
ordinary directories in subversion.
With the typical subversion repository layout, it is
rather easy to checkout more than you
probably intend to. To pull just the trunk version, use something like
{{{
mkdir uniaud32
cd uniaud32
svn checkout http://svn.netlabs.org/repos/uniaud/GPL/trunk .
}}}
and
{{{
mkdir uniaud16
cd uniaud16
svn checkout http://svn.netlabs.org/repos/uniaud/OCO/trunk .
}}}
To update your workspace with the current repository content, use
{{{
cd uniaud32
svn update
}}}
= Building the drivers =
Once you have the sources, [wiki:Building building] the uniaud drivers is relatively straight-forward. You will need the following development tools:
- [http://www.openwatcom.org OpenWatcom] 1.7a or later. (Do not use 1.9 due to inline assembly problems)
- ilink 5.0 from IBM, or, if using wlink, you need lxlite to bring it down to size.
- The DDK.
- For ACPI builds, the [http://en.ecomstation.ru/projects/developer/?action=acpi ACPI toolkit].
= Distributing builds =
Public distribution packages always contain both Uniaud16.sys and Uniaud32.sys.
See [ReleaseProcedures Release Package Procedures] for how we go about this.
There is not usually be a reason to publicly release Uniaud16 or Uniaud32 by itself.
When distributing builds of Uniaud16 or Uniaud32 privately to a few people to test, a good practice, to avoid confusion with the public releases, is to change the "fixpak level" to the svn revision number, e.g. "!r380". If it does not match any revision number, perhaps because you are testing before committing, you may want to distinguish it with a word like "TESTCASE" or "CUSTOM". None of these labels for private builds should be committed to the svn repo. It is also helpful to set the HOSTNAME environment variable to a unique word that can trace the build back to you if your build system's hostname doesn't already.
Uniaud32 is GPL, so for license compliance any test builds that are distributed privately should not only specify the svn revision number, but also include a patch against that revision if anything differs. This is easily acquired with:
{{{
svn diff > my_uni32_from_r380.patch
}}}
The experimental branches each follow very different conventions. See the explanation of the [VersioningInfo Branches and Versioning Info of Uniaud32] for details about working with them.
= Debugging and such =
Since the drivers are under development, issues are expected. See [DebuggingAndSuch debugging hints] for a guide to techniques and tools that can make solving them easier (we hope).
= Alsa Resync =
Uniaud derives some of its functionality from the [http://www.alsa.com Alsa] project.
This mean we periodically [AlsaResync resync] our sources with the latest ALSA sources.
This provide both aditional device support as well as defect fixes.
= Submitting Tickets =
You must be logged into TRAC to create tickets. Please login with your [http://www.netlabs.org Netlabs] login id. If you do not have a login id, you can request one at http://www.netlabs.org/en/site/member/member.xml. If you have troubles acquiring a [http://www.netlabs.org Netlabs] login id send an e-mail to [mailto:community@netlabs.org Netlabs Community Mailing List].
When you create a new ticket, please remember to always attach the uniaud log.[[BR]]
You can create the log we need, by downloading this package:[[BR]]
[ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/uniaud/UniLog.zip][[BR]]
Please attach the zip file it creates to your ticket.
= Information for End Users =
More information regarding selection, installation, and basic testing may be found on the [EndUserInfo End User Info] page.
= Mailing lists =
Access to the mailing lists is available both via e-mail and news.
* [mailto://uniaud-dev-subscribe@netlabs.org Uniaud Developers Mailing List]
* [mailto://uniaud-user-subscribe@netlabs.org Uniaud Users Mailing List]
* [http://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.netlabs.uniaud.general Uniaud Users Newsgroup]
* [http://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.netlabs.uniaud.devel Uniaud Developers Newsgroup]
= Credits =
* Vlad Stelmahosky
* Pavel Schtemenko
* Paul Smedley
* Rich Jerant
* Steven Levine
* Mike Greene
* Allan Holm
* Andy Willis
* Brendan Oakley
* Roderick Klein
* David Azarewicz
If we forgot anyone, please let us know. It was unintentional.
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