From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 22 01:45:47 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E6A6C106564A for ; Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:45:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rfg@tristatelogic.com) Received: from outgoing.tristatelogic.com (segfault.tristatelogic.com [69.62.255.118]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C69668FC13 for ; Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:45:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from segfault-nmh-helo.tristatelogic.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by segfault.tristatelogic.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 70E3ABDC34 for ; Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:29:25 -0700 (PDT) To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:29:25 -0700 Message-ID: <20331.1319246965@tristatelogic.com> From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" Subject: Help needed: sound/audio only semi-working X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:45:48 -0000 I've been bringing up a new amd64 box with 8.2-RELEASE. So far I've managed to get everything installed OK, including a boatload of freshly-built ports. I've even gotten flash10 working with firefox... well... Unfortunately, this is only MOSTLY working. The video works great, but for audio all I get is absolute silence. The really strange thing is that after I followed all the directions here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/sound-setup.html This command: cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp *does* produce quite a bit of white noise sound. However when I perform the other officially recommended basic audio functionality test: cdcontrol -f /dev/acd0 play 1 with one of my favorite old audo CDs in the drive (AND with that special little wire running from the back of the drive to my motherboard) all that happens is that the CD/DVD drive apparently _does_ start to read some stuff... as evidenced by the blinking access light in the front of the drive... but I still get no sound out, and YouTube videos still aren't giving me any audio even though the video seems to be playing perfectly. So, um, I am grasping for ideas here on how I can debug this problem furher. I really have no idea what to do next to get this debugged. I supposed that if nobody gives me a good suggestion, I'm gonna try swapping out that special little wire for another one and then try swapping the CD/DVD drive for another one if that still doesn't solve it. Sigh. :-( I just checked and yes, the CD/DVD drive _can_ mount a data CD alright. No problems doing that. So how can it be that this works just fine: cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp even while this: cdcontrol -f /dev/acd0 play 1 causes the disk to spin up and read, but otherwise produces utter silence? I'm flummoxed. Any help would be appreciated. Regards, rfg P.S. My motherboard (w/ onboard audio) is a Gigabyte GA-M55Plus-S3G. Here is what a get when I cat /dev/sndstat: FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 64bit 2009061500/amd64) Installed devices: pcm0: (play/rec) default pcm1: (play/rec) pcm2: (play/rec) Additional info: % sysctl hw.snd.default_unit hw.snd.default_unit: 0