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bin/pcsndrv-0.6.readme
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bin/pcsndrv-0.6.readme
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Alternate Sound-driver for Linux. Version 0.6
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=============================================
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Copyright (C) 1993, 1994 Michael Beck
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This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
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Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
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Introduction
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============
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The PC-Speaker part of this device-driver based on auplay-0.2 by Rick Miller
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and the /dev/audio implementation by Dirk Verworner. The /dev/pcmixer part
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based on the mixer-implementation of the 'real' sounddriver distributed by
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Hannu Savolainen. Special thanks to Mark J. Cox.
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This version supports the following devices :
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/dev/pcsp - the raw data device
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/dev/pcaudio - the SUN-audio device
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/dev/pcmixer - the mixer-device
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You can 'assign' a output-device to /dev/pcsp. That's why I call it
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now the 'Alternate Sound-driver'. Supported output-devices:
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Stereo-on-One (designed by Mark J. Cox), this is autodetected during
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kernel-startup and selected by default
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PC-Speaker is selected if no Stereo-on-One was found
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Mono DAC on one lp-port
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Stereo DAC on two lp-ports
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/dev/pcsp supports the /dev/dsp ioctl calls (set speed, stereo, samplesize,
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getblocksize). You can vary the sample speed, the driver converts it
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to its real samplerate and return the right value for the others,
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so you can use the .MOD-player to play AMIGA .MOD files by using the
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-o option (or install a symbolic link).
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For instance if PC-Speaker is your output-device
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str32 -o /dev/pcsp popcorn.mod
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will play the file thru PC-Speaker. Because the real speed is now taken
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depending on your cpu-speed, you should set the samplespeed not higher than
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this value (use the pcsel-utility in this package to get this speed).
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DACs support real samplerate from 4000 Hz up to the measured maximal samplerate
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(Someone has a Pentium ?). Please get the str-program from the sound-package
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distributed by Hannu Savolainen, in the snd-driv-?.?.tar.z archive.
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I enclose vplay, a utility to play .VOC, .WAV and raw data files thru /dev/dsp.
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Read the Readme in pcsnd-kit directory for features.
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If you have a Stereo-on-One or two DACs
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str32 -o /dev/pcsp -S popcorn.mod
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will play the file in Stereo thru the printer-port!
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Volume-Control is given thru /dev/pcmixer (which is compatible to /dev/mixer).
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So use the mixer-utilities enclosed in snd-utils-???.
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NEW: Automatical speed detection
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================================
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This version automaticly measures the time needed for execution of
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the timer-interupt and calculate the highest real samplerate which
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is possible at this speed.
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If this samplerate is too slow (<12500), the driver is disabled!
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You get a message and hear a ugly 2-tone beep.
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This is a new feature, so you can override the detection by using
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a kernel-command parameter like 'pcsp=17500', or switch it off
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during kernel-configuration.
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However, this is NOT RECOMMENDED, because the automatical detection
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configure the driver to use not more than 90% cpu-time, so it
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should crash your computer (I know it's funny to play with the TURBO-key).
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Because this version use a own IRQ-delivery, the driver is speeded up
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and hopefully work at least at 386DX-25.
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[ Pressing TURBO and disabling both caches on my 486 gives my around 6 ]
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[ Bogomips. This is the speed of a 386DX-33 and the driver works ]
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[ reasonable at this speed. However, MOD-players aren't satisfied. Sigh.]
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The 'Interval Mode' introduced in 0.5 is gone away, it doesn't solve
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the speed-problem on 386 and reduce the quality on 486.
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However, you may reduce the selected samplerate, but can't set it above
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the measured maximum!
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Please mail me if speed-detection doesn't work on your machine or
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the driver hang your machine with automatical speed detection!
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The bad news
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============
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It's more for fun and may or may not satisfy your opinion of a 'SOUND DRIVER'.
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It plays samples and AMIGA .MOD-files ok on my machine (if no diskaccess
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is done). The quality of playing heavyly depends on your PC-Speaker (and
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maybe on the electronic noise produced by your computer equipment). The aim
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was to produce something of 'standard audio device', don't expect too much.
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Slow machines seems to produce more noise.
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Stereo-on-One and DAC's havn't problems with mices, but during diskaccess
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they "slow down" (sigh).
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There is no communications between this driver and other drivers using lp?.
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Declaring a printer as a DAC should produce nothing, but I'm not sure about
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all parallel devices. So caryfully configure the usage of your lp-ports.
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WARNING: This driver do some really bad things (for *nix - systems, DOS-
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programs do that during the initialisation :-). It reprogram the timer-
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interupt which is the heard of multitasking on every (real) system.
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This version shouldn't crash a slow machine because the speed-detection,
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but there is NO WARRANTY!
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Ok, let's follow the good things.
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Changes from 0.5
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================
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- automatic speed detection!
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- speeded up by using a special interrupt delivery (the promised
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"another way"), this include some more patches
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- support for adjtimex(), but not tested
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- can be switched off and configured by commandline (pcsp=off),
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not very useful but now possible
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- driver is switched off if both buffers are empty, this short extremly
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the time of a "gap", not perfect but useful, thanks to Alistar MacDonald
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- removed useless 'INTERVAL MODE'
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- utility enhancement; pcsel -v now updates the mixer values if
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/dev/mixer is installed
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- removed some little bugs and include some panic() calls if something
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goes wrong with the timer-int, hopefully you never see this
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- acts more like /dev/dsp
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Changes from 0.4
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================
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- the PC-Speaker samplerate can be changed in 'Fixed Mode' or can be
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selected in the intervall from ??? - 18356, for higher or lower rates
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the old oversampling method is used
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- the driver now stop the output if both buffers are empty, this
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reduce the gaps and speed things up if programs open the driver
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permanently
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- a little bugfix in the SYNC-ioctl and some Warnings removed
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- bugfix for exclude /dev/mixer support
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Changes from 0.3
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================
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- the (real) samplerate for PC-Speaker is now 18356; I only eleminate
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the twofold oversampling which was stupid
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- Volume-Control for PC-Speaker: Using another way of playing thru
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PC-Speaker, samples are much louder (like players under DOS), so this
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feature was usefull (for me)
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- dev/pcmixer support: Only the Master-Volume is supported, nevertheless
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it works in the suspected manner for Stereo-devices, Mono-devices use
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the left volume, PC-Speaker use the mean of left and right
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- vplay now have the option -o device, and some bugfix
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- pcsel bugfix, and support for volume-control if /dev/pcmixer is disabled
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(in that case you can only change the volume of PC-Speaker)
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Changes from 0.2a
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=================
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- Support Mark J. Cox Stereo-on-One DAC which plays Stereo, use only one
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lp-port, can be autodetect and produce better quality than my SB 1.0
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(really if no heavy diskacces :-(
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- Support simple DACs on one or two lp-ports (this allows Stereo)
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- Support version 2 /dev/dsp ioctl's (use #ifdef SOUND_VERSION to determine
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between the version, this is choosen for compability with version 2 of
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the sounddriver, look in the vplay-code for a (bad) example) or use
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the new format in the hope it will not be changed in the future
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- the pcsp.h file is now sys/pcsp.h like soundcard.h
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- Restoring the timer 2 mode to square-wave generator after device release
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(this is needed for dosemu)
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- interrupt starts after first data was written / stopped after a
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SNDCTL_DSP_RESET
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- Some speed enhancement by optimizing the interrupt-routine (after I
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look on the assembler-output I think it would be hard to get significant
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more).
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It runs better on bigger machines :-(. Sorry, but it'a a cyclehog.
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Installation
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============
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Install the archive and read linux/drivers/pcsnd/README.
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To install the utilities, run make in the pcsnd-kit subdirectory.
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Utilities
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=========
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This package should work with most utilities written for Hannu Savolainen's
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sounddriver using /dev/dsp or /dev/audio (tested with str, mixer, xmix,
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xvmixer, someone wrote me it works with xboing, a game which support
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-sound option). Simply get them!
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If your output-device is the PC-Speaker, you should set the default values
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to mono, 8 bit and up to 18356 Hz for best performance (the first two
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cannot be changed, but /dev/pcsp supports samplespeed from 4000 to 22222 Hz,
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however this is converted to a value lower than 18356). DACs may be set
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to Stereo and they support real samplerates (more than 22222, but this
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is only usable on a 'really hot' machine, so I don't change the limit).
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The pcsel program which allows configuring the /dev/pcsp by setting
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output-device, Stereo, samplespeed, real samplerate, volume and lp-port.
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The vplay-program to play CREATIVE LABS Voice files, Microsoft WAVE files
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and raw data files is included.
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Try:
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cat enterpri.raw >/dev/null (load it in the cache for best performance !!!)
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vplay -s 9321 enterpri.raw
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to check the driver (output should be different from white noise :-).
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Read the README in the pcsnd-kit directory.
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Using the driver
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================
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All programs using this driver should include <sys/pcsp.h>. If you
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don't have the soundcard-driver the file <sys/soundcard.h> is
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created by the pcspinstall script and consists of the line:
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#include <sys/pcsp.h>
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Use this include if you want write programs which work with both drivers
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(because using the same ioctl, your program will run on "right" soundcards
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if you use /dev/dsp and install the symbolic links, this method is prefered).
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The devices are opened exclusively. When another program tries to open the
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driver returns EBUSY. Not more than one of the devices can be open at the
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same time (except /dev/pcmixer, you can only open one mixer, because I
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could not imagine about using more, write me if you need more mixers).
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Note that if your output-device is PC-Speaker :
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1.) While a program have opened /dev/pc*, your console cannot 'beep'
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(the 'ressource' is busy).
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2.) Some programs running as root may stop the output if they reprogram
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timer 2 (dosemu with speaker = native currently don't and other I don't
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know [auplay of course] :-).
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Audio output
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============
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The /dev/pcsp can be used in digitized voice applications. This device
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can be accessed with programs like cat or dd. The default speed is
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8000 Hz and can be changed by SNDCTL_DSP_SPEED ioctl() -call.
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For example:
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samplespeed = 11025;
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ioctl(fd, SNDCTL_DSP_SPEED, &samplespeed);
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setting the sample speed to 11025 Hz
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The device driver has 2 buffers for audio output. When a program makes
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a write to the device, all bytes will be copied to a buffer and
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played in the timer-interrupt. While the first buffer is being played,
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the process may write to the other buffers. If no buffers are free,
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process has to wait.
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For optimal performance, you should write full blocks to the device.
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Writing too short blocks can result in a silence gap. Too long writes will
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cause unnecessary process switches.
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The size of a block can be obtained with a SNDCTL_DSP_GETBLKSIZE.
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For example:
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ioctl(fd, SNDCTL_DSP_GETBLKSIZE, &blksize).
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(if you have the "real" /dev/dsp, it's the same procedure, write me
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if you find incompatibilities)
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The HARDWARE
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============
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Please read Mark J. Cox' file HARDWARE.DOC which is included with his kindly
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permissions if you want to know how simple you can built DACs and the famous
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Stereo-on-One device! (Oh, it's a DOS-file for those who have problems
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looking at it with vi, I simple start DosEmu and use DOS-vi ;-)
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TODO
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====
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Could someone test the adjtimex() now? Currently, using /dev/pcsp
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for a while, your system-time will leave some ticks.
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I need some adjusting code (for instance using the RTC) to solve
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this time leak, write me if you really need this. BTW, this
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is the reason, why it's only 0.6 and not 1.0 :-)
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Grab a lp-port if it's used by a DAC, so don't have trouble with other
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devices. Is this really needed? Plip doesn't.
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Is someone interested in playing thru other devices on lp-ports or thru
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Soundcards which doesn't support DMA-transfer (someone wrote me, he has
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a SoundBlaster-Clone which doesn't have DMA-transfer, I have never heard
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about such thing)? Seems not.
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If this driver isn't part of the standard kernel (and it seems it would
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never be :-) look at
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ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de /pub/os/linux
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for the newest version. BTW we have a LOT of Linux stuff!
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If you have any ideas, please contact me.
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Contact address
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Michael Beck beck@informatik.hu-berlin.de
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