trouble with kernel

[Lowell Gilbert]

"george" <george at vagner.com> writes:

> why is it that we have had sound cards on computers for practically
> 20 years yet device pcm is not compiled into the default kernel.?

Because it's not needed to actually accomplish the install.  And it
doesn't have to be compiled into the kernel -- the driver can be
loaded just as well at any time after the system has booted.  So
there's no reason for it to be in the kernel.

> would it make a huge difference in speed if someone didnt have a sound card?

None at all.  However, it would make some difference in kernel size,
which is important at install time because we still need to support
booting into the install from a floppy.

The original poster shouldn't worry about rebuilding the kernel, but
should just do a 'kldload snd' (probably enough, depending on the
sound hardware) and go to town.  To do that automatically on boot, I
think a 'snd_load="YES"' in loader.conf should be sufficient.  I
haven't done an install lately, but I understand that the install can
set this up automatically.