[GSoC] GNU/Hurd Sound Support

[Mohammed Gamal]

Hello Everyone,
This is kind of a late follow up to these threads [1][2]. I have been
busy the past few days, and was apprehensive about applying for
GNU/Hurd as the application deadline was getting very close, but with
the recent deadline extension I think there'll be a chance for me to
talk further to the mentors.

Anyway, let's cut to the chase :). I am quite interested interested in
adding sound support in Hurd, yet I am completely new to Hurd and also
a Linux kernel newbie. I have a basic understanding of Linux drivers,
and character devices in particular. Would it be suitable for someone
with my experience to apply for such project?

I've read the GNU/Hurd Hacking Guide and could get a sense of how
translators work and interact with system libraries and how do those
in turn interact with the kernel.

So, the picture I am getting is that to add sound support we'll need a
system library (which we can call 'libsound' for example) which should
provide a general interface to sound hardware (analogous to ALSA in
Linux), and for each sound device one has to write a translator that
will map device calls (ioctls, reads/writes ...etc) to Mach device
calls, so am I getting the right picture here?

As for the driver, I am thinking about porting the Ensoniq 1370 driver
as it's emulated under QEMU, do you think this would be a good idea?

Your comments and suggestions will greatly be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mohammed
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[1] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2008-03/msg00165.html
[2] http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2008-03/msg00167.html