HDA beep regression...

[Daniel J Blueman]

Hi Andy,

On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 3:10 PM, Andy Whitcroft <apw at canonical.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 09, 2010 at 02:48:04PM +0000, Daniel J Blueman wrote:
>> Hi Tim, Andy,
>>
>> With newer mainline kernel builds (eg 2.6.33-rc) containing the new
>> HDA beep framework, a new config option was introduced that was set
>> on, re-introducing the (somewhat overzealous) system beep. With pulse
>> audio not reconfiguring the PC-beep channel volume, this often
>> saturates built-in or external speakers/headphones at undesired times
>> (eg when shutting down).
>>
>> Is it reasonable to ask to change the Ubuntu mainline kernel configuration:
>>
>> CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP_MODE=1
>>
>> to =0, or, disable:
>>
>> CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP=y ?
>
> It is cirtainly possible to change configurations for these kernels
> slightly from those used in the main Ubuntu kernels.  What do these two
> do?  Which is preferred?

The HDA-beep isn't active when booting into the 2.6.32-12-generic
Ubuntu kernel [1], but is with newer mainline kernels (eg [2]) -
looking at the kernel .config difference, we see:

- "CONFIG_SND_HDA_INPUT_BEEP_MODE=1" was introduced in 2.6.33-rc
- "CONFIG_SND_HDA_PATCH_LOADER" is unset in 2.6.33-rc

Rebuilding the mainline kernel with BEEP_MODE=0 mutes the beep per
default, perhaps the best option, as it is possible to re-enable the
beep via module options/sysfs if needed.

Also, PATCH_LOADER is needed for loading model-specific codec
configuration, where the BIOS doesn't present the correct data, so
should be enabled as per the Ubuntu kernel.

It would be great if you can enable these options for the next
mainline kernel build.

Many thanks!
  Daniel

[1] http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/l/linux/linux-image-2.6.32-12-generic_2.6.32-12.17_amd64.deb
[2] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.33-rc7/linux-image-2.6.33-020633rc7-generic_2.6.33-020633rc7_amd64.deb
-- 
Daniel J Blueman