Help needed: sound/audio only semi-working

[Michael D. Norwick]

On 10/21/11 20:29, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
> 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:<HDA Realtek ALC883 PCM #0 Analog>  (play/rec) default
> pcm1:<HDA Realtek ALC883 PCM #1 Analog>  (play/rec)
> pcm2:<HDA Realtek ALC883 PCM #2 Digital>  (play/rec)
>
> Additional info:
>
> % sysctl hw.snd.default_unit
> hw.snd.default_unit: 0
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>
>
Please see my posts on this list as well as on freebsd-multimedia under 
the subject 'can't access a music cd'.  I appear to be experiencing the 
exact same issue.  I am also using snd_hda on freebsd 9.

Michael