On Tue, 2008-03-11 at 11:59 -0400, Ross S. W. Walker wrote:
I have been working a while trying to get a big picture of how Linux handles sound processing and after much work I have put together this little representation of what I have learned.
Please send me any additional comments or components that I may have missed.
Some corrections (PulseAudio contains an ALSA module that can redirect audio back into PA):
Linux Sound ArchitectureXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X Linux Sound Applications X X X
X XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X X Third-Party APIs X X X X GStreamer/Phonon/ X Sound X X X xine-lib X Servers X X X XXXXXXXXXXXX X X X X ^ X X X X esd/aRts/NAS/JACK | X X X X | X X XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX | X X X aoss X X OSS Compatibility API X X | X X XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X PA X X X X | X X X XXX | X X X alsa-lib API X >-/ X X X XXXXXXXXX X X X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X Linux Kernel (ALSA driver) X
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X Sound Hardware X XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Yes, audio on Linux is a mess.