No Sound FBSD 8.1

[Tim Kellers]

  On 10/9/10 1:46 PM, Scott Ballantyne wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Running FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE (GENERIC) (amd64)
> ASUS P6T6 MB
>
> # kldload snd_driver
> # cat /dev/sndstat
>
> FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 64bit 2009061500/amd64)
> Installed devices:
> pcm0:<HDA Analog Devices AD1989B PCM #0 Analog>  (play/rec) default
> pcm1:<HDA Analog Devices AD1989B PCM #1 Analog>  (play)
> pcm2:<HDA Analog Devices AD1989B PCM #2 Digital>  (play)
> pcm3:<HDA Analog Devices AD1989B PCM #3 Digital>  (play)
> pcm4:<HDA ATI R6xx HDMI PCM #0 HDMI>  (play)
>
> Using Gnome desktop, trying to play various mp3 files and video files
> results in the mp3 player, video player running, but not sound
> produced on either the speaker outputs or headphone.
>
> Here is mixer output:
>
> Mixer vol      is currently set to  75:75
> Mixer pcm      is currently set to  75:75
> Mixer speaker  is currently set to  75:75
> Mixer line     is currently set to  75:75
> Mixer mic      is currently set to   0:0
> Mixer cd       is currently set to  75:75
> Mixer mix      is currently set to   0:0
> Mixer rec      is currently set to  75:75
> Mixer igain    is currently set to   0:0
> Mixer monitor  is currently set to  75:75
> Recording source: mic
>
>
> I'm not new to Freebsd, but this is the first time I've tried to get
> sound working on it. Any help would be very appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Scott

I had a similar problem with 8.1 (although it turned out not to be 
version specific) on a 64 bit Gateway desktop computer.  It was a bit of 
a pain to determine what the correct device .ko that had to be loaded to 
make the sound work.  I use kde4, but the player utilities, when I 
loaded any audio file (including desktop sound-effects) all said they 
were running but the speakers remained mute.  mixer output was exactly 
as your's shown above.

I finally kldload(ed) snd_* and went through the list of the loaded 
modules until I eliminated useless loaded modules and found the one that 
actually let the sound files play.  It was a pain in the butt, but it 
worked.

What does kldstat say for your .ko loaded sound files?

Tim Kellers