#1079473 ITP: tinyalsa -- TinyALSA is a small library to interface with ALSA in the Linux kernel.

Package:
wnpp
Source:
wnpp
Submitter:
erebion
Date:
2026-03-16 23:25:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1079473#5
Date:
2024-08-23 16:26:21 UTC
From:
To:
* Package name : tinyalsa
Version : git20240621
Upstream Contact: Taylor Holberton <taylorcholberton@gmail.com>
* URL : https://github.com/tinyalsa/tinyalsa
* License : BSD
Programming Lang: C
Description : TinyALSA is a small library to interface with ALSA in the
Linux kernel.

TinyALSA is a small library to interface with ALSA in the Linux kernel.
The aims are:

Provide a basic pcm and mixer API.
If it's not absolutely needed, don't add it to the API.
Avoid supporting complex and unnecessary operations, that could be
dealt with at a higher level.
Provide comprehensive documentation.

FAQ:

Q: Why is this relevant?
A: It is a dependency of q6voiced, which I also would like to package
once that is done, as q6voiced is required for call audio on phones that
use a Qualcomm SoC. It is therefore an important ingedrient of porting
Debian to many phone models.

Q: Is it a dependency of another package?
A: Yes, it is a dependency of q6voiced.

Q: Do you use it?
A: Yes, I've built a package already, now I want to get it into Debian.

Q: Are there other packages that provide similar functionality?
A: My research has not lead to finding any packages providing similar
functionality.

Q: How are you planning to maintain the package?
A: It is a small package and does not have releases often, therefore it
is managable. I will also talk to the Mobian team about this.
#1079473#10
Date:
2024-08-24 22:31:45 UTC
From:
To:
[...]

It seems to me that the real aim is:

* Avoid the need for copyleft libraries in AOSP

Please make it clear in the package description that this package is
meant to support Android software and that Linux developers should
normally use alsa-lib (or higher level APIs like Pipewire).

Ben.
#1079473#15
Date:
2024-08-24 23:30:56 UTC
From:
To:
I will not state that, as this neither this ITP not the package itself
are about supporting Android software.

I have already stated for what use-case this package is required.
-- 
erebion
#1079473#20
Date:
2024-08-25 02:03:26 UTC
From:
To:
tinyalsa comes from AOSP, and I thought q6voiced was Qualcomm's own
software from AOSP but now I see that it's not.

So, OK, you are right.  It still seems strange for an AOSP component to
be used in non-Android software.

Ben.
#1079473#27
Date:
2026-03-16 23:23:21 UTC
From:
To:
Obviously q6voiced now works with Alsa itself, see the dependencies in Alpine config:

makedepends="
	alsa-lib-dev
	dbus-dev
	meson
	"

TinyALSA is not needed in Debian in order to add q6voiced.

Kind regards,
Petr

[1] https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/blob/master/testing/q6voiced/APKBUILD