Btw, I've seem some wm8731 lock-ups indeed. We should properly solve the issue or add a workaround to the driver itself, instead of bringing everything to userland (which indeed would not solve the problem... just make a "stop and start again" procedure easier).
Anyway, if you really want to get rid of ALSA, lemme know, I also want, I just did not have the time to understand which interfaces to keep kernel side and how to interact to userland.
- Rafael
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On 9/4/23 11:22, Rafael Diniz wrote:
Hi all,
This is the kind of feedback I am looking for. Thanks.
My thinking was that the WM8731 is only used by the sBitx software, so it doesn¡¯t need to be part of the OS.
You would lose the ability to easily "genlock" (tru hwtimer aloop module parameter) the alsa loopback to the actual wm8731 alsa device. I tried a bit to get rid of alsa, and it would be a not small work.
FWIW, I think the battery backed RTC should be setting the system clock, so it¡¯s time would be available to all programs, and I have modified my RPi configuration accordingly.
I am assuming that if you had a user space driver for the WM 8731, you could load the standard BCM audio driver in config.txt (dtparam=audio=on) and use other audio outputs on the RPi, for example the AV or HDMI jacks for stereo output (for dual receive or output from other programs). It also might allow the code to properly initialize the codec. I have seen times where the receiver appears dead or receives multiple copies of the same signals that are not where the radio is tuned, and a reboot or power cycle fixes it. I am assuming that the linux driver did not properly reset the codec.
I don't see any reason why you can not use other ALSA devices. You can - just make sure the order they are brought up so not to confuse userland.
- Rafael
