Enabling sound by default (Was: svn commit: r222980 - in head/sys: amd64/conf i386/conf)

[Joel Dahl]

On 27-12-2011 11:51, Chris Rees wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> While I can certainly see the strong argument for sound 'working out
> of the box', it unfortunately causes panics if one then tries to
> kldload osscore.ko from audio/oss.
> 
> I've found that it's definitely due to the compiled in sound.ko; no
> panic if I remove those options from my kernel config (which
> unfortunately means I can no longer use freebsd-update for my kernel)
> 
> I'm not overly concerned about my own position, but there are two
> options for how we could fix this:
> 
> - Revert r222980 and go back to requiring people to kldload the
> correct drivers (ouch :()
> 
> - Add a note to pkg-message (perhaps even require confirmation--
> panics aren't good!) about the need to compile a kernel with no sound
> driver added

I had to give this some thought before replying because I haven't used
audio/oss since 2007 (we've had our own audio sub-system for 15 years after
all :-). Anyway, I remember me and ariff@ talking about how OSS had become close
to invisible back in 2006, and shortly after that they released the code and
triple licensed it in a last desperate move. Now, it took us more than 6 months
(after it was enabled in GENERIC) to notice that OSS didn't work, which I
suspect is some kind of proof that almost no one is using it anymore. I also
suspect it requires some re-engineering, because I don't think it can co-exist
with our own in it's current form (it's a completely different audio
sub-system after all, and not just a bunch of drivers).

Anyway, if anyone wants it they can recompile their kernel. My opinion
is that it's more important that everyone has working audio.

I'm not a ports committer, but maybe your suggestion about requiring
confirmation while installing the port is a good idea. Anyway, I'd be happy
to contribute to such a solution here. :-)

-- 
Joel