is this IT or not/

[Gary Kline]

On Fri, Nov 23, 2007 at 01:22:37AM +1100, Ian Smith wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:25:35 -0800 Gary Kline wrote:
>  > On Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 06:23:29PM +0100, Roland Smith wrote:
>  > > On Wed, Nov 21, 2007 at 12:12:50AM -0800, Gary Kline wrote:
	
	[[ ... ]]

> It actually says "could not open /dev/sequencer to get some info. 
> Probably there is another program using it". where 'probably' may often
> be true on Linux, but here it's proved a less than helpful hint.


	Really!

> 
>  > > Does /dev/sequencer actually exist?
>  > > 
>  > > I think it's looking for a deprecated device. On my 7.0-BETA2 machine,
>  > > the sound(4) manpage only lists /dev/audio*, /dev/dsp* and /dev/sndstat.
>  > > 
>  > > Looking at the manual pages on the FreeBSD site, there was a
>  > > /dev/sequencer in 4.x, but not in 5.x and later.
> 
> That's about right, FreeBSD hasn't had MIDI since newpcm arrived, IIRC. 
> I vaguely recall a few people missing it, but nobody offering any code.


	So is MIDI just passe?  What files I have are from the late
	90's.  In human terms that is relatively recent; it tech terms
	the 1990's were centuries ago.


>  
>  > > BTW, 'cat /dev/sndstat' shows you the installed sound devices.
>  > 
>  > 	Right; I tried catting /dev/sndstat awhile ago. Didn't see much
> 
> It's all in the handbook, but check out sound|snd|pcm(4) re tuning .. 
> 
>  paqi% sysctl hw.snd
>  hw.snd.targetirqrate: 32
>  hw.snd.report_soft_formats: 1
>  hw.snd.verbose: 2
>  hw.snd.unit: 0
>  hw.snd.maxautovchans: 4
>  hw.snd.pcm0.buffersize: 4096
>  hw.snd.pcm0.vchans: 4
> 
> With .verbose=2 you'll see plenty of info :) and you can make good use
> of the vchans to stop KDE sounds and non-KDE programs (like XMMS etc) 
> tripping over each other, by assigning one of /dev/dsp* to KDE, say. 


	This will be a *major* help, thanks!


> Kmid is for playing MIDI files using the soundcard synth chip, for which
> /dev/sequencer is the missing device, so it's of no use to you.  I've
> used audio/timidity in the past to convert some .mid files of interest
> into .wav files on the way towards making .mp3s, but I never did get it
> to work to play .mid files directly.  YMMV, there are later versions ..
> 
>  > 	This is also why lsof fails.  
> 
> Sorry, I don't see a connection with lsof?

	---It was someone's guess; and to be fair, lsof has helped 
	previously.   A chap from kde-freebsd clued me in somewhat 
	about Kmid.   I spent several hours getting amaroK to work,
	but don't see how the two programs interface.  amaroK doesn't
	understand *.mid files.  ((?))


> 
>  > 	Hm, no src. Kmid is build from the kde3 source.  
> 
> Unless you really want to, you don't want to go there :)

	Um, yeah! LOL.  Atleast not till kde7 :-)

> 
> KDE, despite all the *wonderful* porting done to FreeBSD, is still very
> Linux-centric in lots of its assumptions, I find.  I use plenty of KDE
> but the sound system has always been a bear here.  This laptop has never
> worked with ArtS so I don't bother with it, and I'll use Kmix for basic
> volume adjustments, yet need to use mixer(8) to switch recording device,
> and prefer using commandline scripts using sox and lame for recording. 
> 
> Which brings me to your earlier (unresolved?) question about missing
> sound on playing audio CDs .. first assuming your CD drive is properly
> externally wired to your soundcard(?), check the level on the 'cd'
> device, in Kmix 'input' tab or if in doubt, good ol' /usr/sbin/mixer:
> 
>  paqi% mixer
>  Mixer vol      is currently set to  90:90
>  Mixer synth    is currently set to   0:0
>  Mixer pcm      is currently set to  90:90
>  Mixer speaker  is currently set to  95:95
>  Mixer line     is currently set to   0:0
>  Mixer mic      is currently set to   0:0
>  Mixer cd       is currently set to  92:92
>  Mixer line1    is currently set to   0:0
>  Recording source: mic
> 


	I did have a "vfs." entry in the wong file; that has seemed to
	make a big difference.  On my Ubuntu server most of these 
	utilities Just-Work.  I would like to burn CD's and maybe a
	DvD or two.   But k3b seems way too far.  Do you--or anyone 
	else on-List--know if the gnome burner (*Baker) works out of
	the box?   ---I realize that our speciality is as-servers.
	With stability.  But since I'm building a new main machine 
	that is not my DNS/web/server, I'd rather stick with FBSD.

	Nutshell: as many audio/video suites as possible.

	gary


> Good luck, Ian
> 

-- 
  Gary Kline  kline at thought.org   www.thought.org  Public Service Unix
      http://jottings.thought.org   http://transfinite.thought.org