8 to 9: Kernel modularization -- did it change?

[matt]

On 02/17/12 09:43, Alex Goncharov wrote:
> ,--- I/Alex (Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:10:31 -0500) ----*
> | Being mostly a FreeBSD freeloader (or a marginal contributor), I
> | shouldn't be complaining, and I am not, but permit me to make a
> | personal biased judgment: losing the ability to do a practically
> | important thing (a dynamic sound card tuning) which was available in
> | 8, makes 9 a "not ready to be released" OS (GUI isn't relevant here.)
> | 
> | OK, I'll put my upgrades to 9 on hold... Thanks all for clarifying the
> | situation!
> ,--- You/Alexander (Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:19:34 +0200) ----*
> | For many users these days not having sound drivers turned on by default 
> | is more astonishing.
>
> Perhaps, but the FreeBSD Handbook has been describing the sound setup
> routine very well (the pin assignment methods I learned from some text
> you had written -- the man pages or your posts to FreeBSD lists, I
> don't remember.  Thanks for that!)
>
> | Luckily most systems don't need hints to get working sound.
>
> Based on my experience, I disagree with you -- I had to do it in all
> the laptops that I installed FreeBSD 8 on (2 -- a low number, but 100%
> for me)...  I never tried to do it with the desktops, but on my
> laptops, I like listing to music while I work.
>
> | So it depends on point of view. And definitely I see no problem in
> | this for updating to 9.0, unless you are already biased against it.
>
> I am not biased against 9, and I will complete the setup of the three
> systems currently being polished, since there is no point in going
> back to 8, but I will be unlikely installing 9 on any new system for
> some number of weeks.
>
> A technical question: I have the saved (from 8) copies of
> /boot/device.hints for the laptops in question which have lines like:
>
>   hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid22.config="as=1 seq=15 device=Headphones"
>
> there.
>
> What's the best way to use this in 9?  To add to the bottom of
> /boot/device.hints?  Or use in /boot/loader.conf somehow, as was
> suggested in one of the replies in this thread?  If in loader.conf,
> what's the correct syntax?
>
> Again, thank you for the work on the sound cards, documentation and
> advice!
>
> -- Alex -- alex-goncharov at comcast.net --
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For what it's worth, it's just a change in GENERIC. It's not hard to
compile a kernel with different options, just like linux. Does a Redhat,
or Ubuntu kernel meet everyone's need without recompiling or issues?
Never. I run both, I'm not trying to start a flamewar.

So recompile GENERIC without snd_hda, you're a power user. The handbook
is an excellent resource if you've never done it. It's actually nice to
have a minimal kernel config available for any kind of testing. Or
reboot a few times, it's not that bad!

Matt