fail to recognize sound device

Nathan Kinkade nkinkade at ub.edu.bz
Sun Feb 22 08:16:58 PST 2004


On Sun, Feb 22, 2004 at 05:38:36PM +0200, dkouroun at mailbox.gr wrote:
> Dear Sirs,
> Thank you for Giving FreeBSD  for free.  Basically I would like to ask
> you about a problem I have with the sound hardware which I wasn't able
> to resolve. And I also have some suggestions to make!
> 
> After Installation when writing #startx, at the prompt KDE loads and I
> get a message than sound driver /dev/pcm couldn't be found. SuSE and
> Redhat both recognize my sound driver as 82801DB AC'97. Further more
> alot of stuff like xmms, and other applications were not installed
> although I checked them to be installed when I was asked. The funny
> thing is that those applications exist in /usr/.../ports. 
> 
> 1:How can I configure my sound device?

Unless something has changed sound is not configured in the default
(generic) kernel.  You can either add 'device pcm' to your kernel config
file and recompile, or you can load the pcm module with
'$kldload snd_pcm'.

> 2:How can I install xmms or other stuff which exist in my hard-drive
> but are not installed?

You may be confused about how the ports work.  Just because a directory
exists in /usr/ports/ doesn't mean that the port is installed.  If you
type 'xmms' at a prompt and XMMS doesn't launch, the either it isn't
installed or your PATH environment variable is non-standard.  To install
applications (if you have an Internet connection), xmms for example, do:

# cd /usr/ports/multimedia/xmms
# make install clean

This will fetch the sources from the Internet, compile and install the
program.  You can also install precompiled packages and perhaps the
easiest way of doing this is to use the /stand/sysinstall program.  Once
sysinstall has initialized goto Configure->Packages.

> 3:How can I configure kdm such that I can switch window manager and I
> do not have to type startx all the time?

The easiest way is to start using display manager that will allow you to
select your window manager.  If you are using KDE, then you may like KDM
which may already be installed if you have KDE installed.  To cause it
to launch on boot, edit the file /etc/ttys and change 'xdm' to 'kdm' in
the following line:

ttyv8   "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon"  xterm   off secure

> Suggestions:
> 1: It would be really attractive if the installation of FreeBSD was as
> easy and comfortable(visual stuff) as SuSE's.

From my perspective, the FreeBSD installer is very intuitive.  Something
doesn't necessarily have to be graphical and point-and-click to be easy
to use and logical.

> 2: It would be nice if kdm or xdm or something was installed and
> needen't have to be configured after installation. For instance during
> the installation the user should be asked if he would like to have xdm
> or kdm installed ...

I could be wrong about this, but I think KDM is installed if you choose
to install KDE3.  XDM comes along with XFree86, too.  Not sure about
whether you are prompted to use one of these by default during install,
though.

> Thanks in advance!
> Looking forward to your answer!
> Drosos.

Nathan
-- 
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