Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 00:20:10 -0500 From: "J. Seth Henry" <jshamlet@home.com> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Best choice for PC/104 audio board in FreeBSD Message-ID: <OAEHIDHIMELNKEFNPPNLCEHBCAAA.jshamlet@home.com>
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Hello, I bought one of the GCT-Allwell set-top box (3036N) development kits a while back with the thought of turning it into an MP3 player. Although I have been pleased with the machine overall, it does have one irritating problem - the audio causes applications to hang. I have eliminated everything else (the little machine ran seti@home for 2 months without a single hiccup) and the files have been played both from the local IDE hard disk, and via NFS. This is unfortunate, given that the box has a built-in 16 bit audio system that is Sound Blaster compatible (and easy to configure). So, I now have three options. I can put the MP3 server itself in the living room (which isn't a terribly great idea, what with 10k rpm Ultra160 SCSI drive in it), run audio cables through the wall - or put a sound board in the 3036N. I think the latter is the best bet. Unfortunately, I have the single PCI/ISA slot filled with a necessary SCSI adapter (for the CD ROM), so I've been looking at PC/104 sound boards. Most of the ones I have found are Soundblaster Pro compatible (or Windows Sound System). They all have DOS drivers. Can anyone recommend a good PC/104 sound board that is known to work under FreeBSD? Given that the best price I have seen (for a relatively older tech board) has been $96 - I'd like to know the thing will run with the OSS drivers. Alternately, has anyone figured out why the sound on the 3036N causes apps to segfault. It must be hardware, because it occurs under Linux (along with a terrible screeching noise), Windows, BeOS and QNX. Same behaviour - sound apps fail or freeze. The PC/104 option is the most attractive - as I can put the board inside the box and use the headers on the board to route the sound to the onboard connectors. I have access to a number of input/output connectors to the onboard audio hardware. The hardware particulars are fairly well known, but to be complete: System: Allwell STB 3036N with NS Geode GX1 processor running at 300Mhz. Geode processor has a built in audio system. PCI/ISA slot has Adaptec 2940AU supporting an external CD-ROM. OS: FreeBSD 4.4-Release (recompiled with limited driver support) Any help is most appreciated, though followups to jshamlet@hotmail.com would be helpful, as I am one of the poor bastards that may be cut off this Friday when Excite@home goes tits up... Seth Henry jshamlet@home.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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