/dev/dsp inaccessible

[Mike Maltese]

Here are a couple of links that may be helpful:

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2002/09/19/FreeBSD_Basics.html
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/multimedia.html

> hello all,
>
> i have been playing with FBSD for almost a year now.  i would very much
like to use
> it for music recording and editing.  i have installed several programs
(audacity, spiral
> synth modular, etc.) which all want to access /dev/dsp, however that
device only
> responds with error messages like 'device busy' or 'invalid playback
device'.
>
> uname -a
> <snip> 4.8-RELEASE-p3 FreeBSD 4.8-RELEASE-p3 #9: <snip> i386
>
> relevant lines from kernel config:
> device          pcm
> device          sbc <--- i recently added these two lines and recompiled,
> option          PNPBIOS    <--- hoping it might make a difference.  it
didn't.   :(
>
> relevant lines from dmesg:
> pcm0: <ESS Technology Maestro-2E> port 0x1400-0x14ff irq 5 at device 8.0
on pci0
> pcm0: <SigmaTel STAC9721/9723 ac97 codec>
>
> cat /dev/sndstat
> FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm)
> Installed devices:
> pcm0: <ESS Technology Maestro-2E> at I/O port 0x1400 irq 5 (4p/0r/0v
channels duplex)
>
> cat /dev/dsp ---> cat: /dev/dsp: Device busy
> fstat | grep dsp ---> provides no info
>
> neither esd nor any other sound daemon of which i am aware is running.
>
> xmms works fine (however it seems to access OSS drivers, not /dev/dsp
directly.
>
> i have hunted all over trying to find a solution for this, but to no
avail.  i came across the
> following Problem Report -->
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=48338, but am
> neither sure it is the same thing nor certain about how to follow-up on
open PRs.
>
> finally fixing this would really make my week.  any suggestions?
>
>
> thank you so much,
> epilogue