My lack of a "sound' understanding

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

J wrote:

>Okay, I am a complete noob, so have patience. I don't know all the proper
>nomenclature as of yet.
>
>I installed, then reinstalled and re-reinstalled 5.1 on a dell gx1 with
>the crystal sound chip with little
>difficulty up until I went to do the file sharing experience with Samba
>and the sound thing. For now I just want to get this sound problem
>understood. Now according to the manual in order to load the sound device
>I can either kldload or configure a kernal. I understand this. What I
>don't understand are two things at least, when I kldload, exactly where do
>I need to be to do this? In what directory? I mean, when I bring up a
>terminal and punch in kldload snd,or snd0 it says "can't load snd, no such
>file or directory". I did install the src/sys files. I understand that 5.x
>is somewhat different than the other distros which I interpret to mean
>that this should be somewhat friendlier.
>
>The other thing I seem to get conflicting messages about is if I can
>actually just add the "device pcm" bsd/docs 16.2 to the existing kernal or
>do I have to totally rebuild it?  Or is this one in the same?
>
>I don't mind reading the manual, it just seems as if I am overlooking
>something essential. So maybe if you can help me find the basics I am
>missing?
>
>Thanks
>
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>  
>
Just out of curiousity, why no 'reply-to'?

Bit of a 'noob' myself on this one.  I chose the new kernel
option.  You must rebuild the kernel if you intend to go the
"device pcm" route.  I read the docs and then did the
following on my 5.1R box 6 weeks ago.  quid pro quo:
I've an onboard "AC97" chip, and I've run 'make buildworld'
previously from a full /usr/src, so the entire world is
compiled in /usr/obj. 

1.  Added "device pcm" to /sys/i386/conf/GENERIC.
2.  Ran "make buildkernel".
3.  Ran "make installkernel".
4.  Rebooted.

As for kldload, I've not done that.  Have a look at
kldload(8) and related manpages.  Also, FWIW,
the sound device in 5.1 is /dev/dsp, not /dev/snd.

Most of the possibilities for kldload(8) are in
/boot/defaults/loader.conf --- look at the section
headed by "Sound Modules"...  there's a "snd_driver_load"
that loads all sound mods, might be the quickest way...

HTH,

Kevin Kinsey
DaleCo, S.P.