Sound hardware "detected" but remains silent
 

I am now in the process of configuring sound in my FreeBSD installation.
I have it running on a Compaq Armada 100S,
which advertises in Compaq specs that it has a Sound Blaster Pro 16 compatible setup. It has a 550 MHz AMD, 192 MB RAM, 6 GB hd. FreeBSD with KDE is running beautifully otherwise.

I tried the sound blaster driver, but it didn't do anything and there was nothing returned from cat /dev/sndstat

I tried one of the via drivers and it did load and return something. It gave it an IRQ of 5 and so forth (I am at a different computer at work now so I can't copy-paste what it showed). I tried playing a CD in KDE then with the CD player, but it just remained silent. I checked all the sound settings and all the volume controls were cranked up and on.

Now just to find the right configuration. Has anyone had experience with this kind of laptop or chipset? (One user I found by Googling said that it is a Via chipset. I haven't seen any official Compaq information, except that it is SB 16 Pro compatible)

Ekkume

I found this page archived here, and it has been some help
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...05/01/4/280063

Re: Sound hardware "detected" but remains silent
 

I am using this file:

##########################################
### Sound modules ##########################################
##########################################
#
sound_load="YES" # Digital sound subsystem
# snd_ad1816_load="NO" # ad1816
# snd_cmi_load="NO" # cmi
# snd_csa_load="NO" # csa
# snd_cs4281_load="NO" # cs4281
# snd_ds1_load="NO" # ds1
snd_emu10k1_load="YES" # Creative Sound Blaster Live
# snd_ess_load="NO" # ess
# snd_es137x_load="NO" # es137x
# snd_fm801_load="NO" # fm801
# snd_ich_load="NO" # Intel ICH
# snd_maestro_load="NO" # Maestro
# snd_maestro3_load="NO" # Maestro3
# snd_mss_load="NO" # Mss
# snd_neomagic_load="NO" # Neomagic
# snd_sbc_load="NO" # Sbc
# snd_sb8_load="NO" # Sound Blaster Pro
# snd_sb16_load="NO" # Sound Blaster 16
# snd_solo_load="NO" # Solo
# snd_t4dwave_load="NO" # t4dwave
# snd_via8233_load="NO" # via8233
# snd_via82c686_load="YES" # via82c686
snd_driver_load="YES" # All sound drivers

If the unused ones are not commented out, then I get syntax errors when the loader.conf file is loaded.

Right now I have it as above. It loads all the drivers. It is still silent. I tried with snd_82c686 and I do get something when I enter
cat /dev/sndstat , but it is still silent.

Anyone able to help?

What do you get when you cat /dev/sndstat? "something" isn't much to go on ...

I suspect that emu10k1 isn't going to do you much good as it's for the SBLive! and Audigy series cards, which you don't have.

You should probably be using snd_via8233 or snd_via82c686, but the output of sndstat will help say for sure.

Also, please post the output of dmesg | grep -i via and dmesg | grep -i snd (if any)

This is what I get when I manually load the module:
smithbsd# kldload snd_via82c686
pcm0: <VIA VT82C686A> port 0x3204-0x3207,0x3200-0x3203,0x3100-0x31ff irq 5 at device 7.5 on pci0
pcm0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
pcm0: <Cirrus Logic CS4299 AC97 Codec>

here is what I get when I type: cat /dev/sndstat
smithbsd# cat /dev/sndstat
FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm)
Installed devices:
pcm0: <VIA VT82C686A> at io 0x3100 irq 5 kld snd_via82c686 (1p/1r/0v channels duplex default)

Using emu10k1 and the other Soundblaster drivers didn't work, even though Compaq says in the specs that this has a Soundblaster compatible sound setup. Only the snd_via82c686 module says anything when I load it.

So why does it remain silent?

Ekkume

Are you using outlook to edit your posts? Don't top post ...

Run mixer in a shell and see if the volume is just all the way down. man mixer for more info.

Topposting is my style. If I post, I want my post on top, not other peoples' posts. For this thread, for you. I will try to remember not to do it.
Sometimes people post the most dreadful stuff, which I don't
want people to have to wade through.

Mixer has been checked in the console. All the settings are up high. (90-100%)

I am not using Outlook. I haven't configured wine yet in this PC from where I am posting. :- ) Until then, Konqueror has to suffice. ;-)

Ekkume

Then just reply. You don't have to quote the last message in a forum as it's always there, unless of course if you're replying to a post a couple of posts up, and then you would want to quote the pertinent pieces so everyone will know what you're talking about. Even then though, top posting is as much a "style" in the english language as dyslexia. You read a page top to bottom, not bottom to top.

Example:

Because top posting messes up the flow of reading.
How come?
I prefer to bottom-post.
What do you do instead?
No.
Do you like top-posting?

You know, now that I think about it, I have a desktop machine with this same sound chip in it and it had exactly the same problem. I remember at the time I thought that it was just dead (I didn't have another OS to try on it at the time), but perhaps it's not after all.

It looks like we're not the only people who have seen this problem though

Quote:

You know, now that I think about it, I have a desktop machine with this same sound chip in it and it had exactly the same problem. I remember at the time I thought that it was just dead (I didn't have another OS to try on it at the time), but perhaps it's not after all. It looks like we're not the only people who have seen this problem though

I submitted a bug report to FreeBSD and gave a link to that previous bug report for the same sound chip. Hopefully a solution can easily be found.

William