From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sat Sep 10 18:24:17 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0E629BD506A for ; Sat, 10 Sep 2016 18:24:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CB00A87A for ; Sat, 10 Sep 2016 18:24:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-180-184.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.180.184]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8B5CB277CF; Sat, 10 Sep 2016 20:17:47 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id u8AIHkuL002039; Sat, 10 Sep 2016 20:17:46 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2016 20:17:46 +0200 From: Polytropon To: Manish Jain Cc: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: Will installing a separate sound card work? Message-Id: <20160910201746.e62bd384.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2016 18:24:17 -0000 On Sat, 10 Sep 2016 17:48:23 +0000, Manish Jain wrote: > In my computer hardware upgrade project (which has already seen me switch > 3 motherboards and 2 CPU's in 1 month), I have reached a point where I need > to invest a bit further. My current Gigabyte GA970 motherboard is working > perfectly, except that the onboard sound (Realtek) is aweful, with a whole > lot of high-pitch hiss accompanying the sound whenever I try to play any > music. That sounds terrible. Which sound driver do you currently use? Example: % dmesg | grep ^hda hdac0: mem 0xbfffc000-0xbfffffff at device 1.0 on pci128 hdac0: HDA Driver Revision: 20100226_0142 hdac0: [ITHREAD] hdac0: HDA Codec #0: VIA VT1708_8 % dmesg | grep ^pcm pcm0: at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0 pcm1: at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0 pcm2: at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0 % cat /dev/sndstat FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 32bit 2009061500/i386) Installed devices: pcm0: (play/rec) default pcm1: (rec) pcm2: (play) This machine is using a VIA on-board audio chipset, using the snd_hda driver included in the (custom) kernel. > I would like to solve the problem by installing a separate internal sound > card - the best option appears to be Asus Xonar DG PCI Internal Sound Card > with a C-Media CMI8786 chipset. In my previous home system, I had a C-Media PCI sound card (using the snd_cmi kernel module) which provided excellent playback and recording. > Will my idea of disabling the onboard > sound and installing the separate card work ? Yes, it should work. Disabling the on-board sound is not exactly required, but recommended (you _can_ have multiple audio "cards" in your system, but reducing the "irritation surface" is always a good idea). > My motherboard's BIOS does > provide the option to disable the onboard sound. So I think the question > simply boils down to whether the CMI8786 chipset be supported by the > FreeBSD kernel. Check "man snd_cmi" to find out if the chipset of that sound card is supported. Luckily, this information is easily accessible. :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...