Help needed: sound/audio only semi-working

[Polytropon]

On Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:29:25 -0700, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
> 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.

Does the Handbook mention to check your mixer settings?
Make sure to try that. Use any "simple-enough" media
player to play some MP3, OGG or WAV file (e. g. per xmms
or whatever comes with your preferred desktop environment).
Make sure you have "vol" and "pcm" up.

% mixer
Mixer vol      is currently set to 100:100	<--- This.
Mixer pcm      is currently set to  84:84	<--- And this.
Mixer line     is currently set to  75:75
Mixer mic      is currently set to   0:0
Mixer cd       is currently set to  75:75	<--- This too.
Mixer rec      is currently set to  75:75
Mixer igain    is currently set to   0:0
Mixer monitor  is currently set to  75:75
Recording source: mic

The problem regarding audio CDs seems to be quite "modern".
I also cannot play them anymore (but I don't have that
special wire installed at the moment). Audio is VIA HDA.



> So, um, I am grasping for ideas here on how I can debug this problem furher.

Check mixer and play "simple stuff". :-)



> 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?

CD audio subsystem has been "modernized". :-)



> 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)


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...