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

[Chris Rees]

On 28 December 2011 07:21, Joel Dahl <joel at freebsd.org> wrote:
> 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. :-)

I think you're right.  It's the panics I take issue with here.

S'ok though, I'm learning how to hack kernel modules as we speak, so
I'll talk to hackers@ on how to check for sound.ko before loading
osscore.ko :)

Chris