[Quickcall] Fedora 13 x86_64

[David Gibson]

On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 02:48:45AM -0700, Michael Cheselka wrote:
> Hello David,
> 
> I've never seen a VoIP device's Linux software implement the call
> pick-up or hang-up buttons but my knowledge in this area is minute.

Right.

> Try looking into pulseaudio.  I visit #pulseaudio irc.freenet.net.

I'm aware of pulseaudio, but it's not actually relevant to what
quickcalld does.  For the mute and volume switches, I directly
manipulate the hardware mixer levels.  pulseaudio can see that change
through ALSA, but since there is a hardware mixer I don't need to
manipulate the pulse software mixer.

For the call and hangup buttons I need to interact directly with the
application level logic which is above pulseaudio's level.

> I'm used to all audio going to my Bluetooth headset and it switching
> between HD stereo and telephony headset automatically.  I'd like to
> route telephony to the QuickCall, esp. when a call comes in, so i can
> heard the ringtone from another room, but pulseaudio doesn't route
> sound by application type.  I guess that's the next step in the
> evolution of Linux audio.  It seems like they are working on it since
> they have an "Applications" tab in gnome-volume-control in Fedora 13
> and Ubuntu 10.04.

Right.  This kind of fancy routing would require a bunch of new hints
about stuff to allow the application level stuff and plumbing level
stuff (pulse and ALSA) to communicate their intents.  It might happen,
but it's rather beyond the scope of what I'm looking at in quickcalld.

I believe the audio settings in Gnome on Ubuntu are such that you can
set different default audio output devices for music and for telephony
apps.  That wouldn't let you send ringtones somewhere other than the
VoIP audio though.  And presumably relies on the "telephony app"
correctly identifying itself as a telephony app.  I also don't know if
that's a basic gnome/pulse thing these days, or if it's an ubuntu
tweak.

> It would be nice to route "ringtone => quickcall device", "telephony
> input => usb headset", "telephony output => usb headset", "stereo
> music => headphone jack".

It would.

> Also, it would be nice if button presses went to the appropriate
> place, either the app( VoIP call pick-up/hang-up) or pulse audio(
> volume up/down).

That much is within quickcalld's purview.  As above, it doesn't need
to talk to pulse for the volume controls - it directly manipulates the
hardware mixer with ALSA calls.  I'm not sure why that's not working
for you at the moment.

Communicating with the apps is more complex.  dbus provides an obvious
channel for communicating events, but a suitable protocol would have
to be defined and the various apps would have to be extended to
understand it.

-- 
David Gibson			| I'll have my music baroque, and my code
david AT gibson.dropbear.id.au	| minimalist, thank you.  NOT _the_ _other_
				| _way_ _around_!
http://www.ozlabs.org/~dgibson