Distro Suggestion: Not building audio drivers into the kerne

[daedius]

I've had this problem ever since i've used sabayon. Basically, I went through a string of computers that had sound cards that weren't always up to date in support by linux. ALSA drivers did not work, and I was left waiting for months till something reached alsa-9999. Anyhow, I always found it a real pain because alsa was built into the kernel, and I had to rebuild the kernel just to disable built in alsa, so that I could "emerge alsa-9999". Now some of you may say "Whats the big deal". Well, its more an issue of lack of consistency. I can "emerge nvidia-driver" to my hearts content as soon as I finish installing, but I cannot "emerge alsa", it gives you warnings about it existing in kernel already.

All in all, i'd hate for someone not to use sabayon just because they couldn't emerge alsa to their latest audio drivers in the future.

Yes yes, I know this is extremely minor, but had I not known how to recompile my kernel, I would have likely never chosen sabayon linux.

[wolfden]

moved to suggestions

[Eden]

I thought id just mention this, the nvidia drivers are not build into the kernel because there not compatible with the Linux license (as far as i remember), this is pretty much the same for any proprietary drivers.

you also have to consider other users, Sabayon is made to make things easier, if you have to install the alsa drivers every time you update the kernel your going to get problems with n00bs, though if you know how to compile the kernel you should remember to compile the drivers.

But then another point is, if the alsa drivers should not be compiled in to the kernel should other things be the same?

So it goes both ways.

[daedius]

Thats an awesome point Eden about Nvidia drivers =) I guess that makes sense why they aren't there. Here were my points of consideration anyhow:

- audio is of supreme importance to users
- knowledge of how to emerge alsa is easer than knowledge of how to recompile a kernel
- currently alsa is hard locked currently in sabayon releases

I'm not sure if sound issues with sound are abound enough to warrent a change is all. Anyhow, its interesting to hear how you all decided which drivers go in and which don't.