# Sound driver for ATI Soundcard



## fawz (Dec 29, 2009)

Well, I have an HP notebook with a sound board named Altec Lansing which I'm falling in load a proper module. I used kldload for most if not every existing module and I failed in making it work. I would appreciate any help if possible.


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## DutchDaemon (Dec 29, 2009)

See if this script turns up something:
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=290


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## phoenix (Dec 29, 2009)

`# kldload snd_driver` will load every sound module.  Then `# cat /dev/sndstat` to see which one attached to the hardware.  If nothing shows up, then there's probably no driver for that chipset.


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## adamk (Dec 29, 2009)

And if it turns out that the OSS drivers that come with FreeBSD don't support your sound card after all, you can also try the OSS drivers from 4Front in audio/oss.

Adam


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## fawz (Jan 5, 2010)

Well, I did, it detecs as snd_hda but there is no sound =/. Hope for better news or FreeBSD 8.1 /o/ hahaha. I'm listening to more suggestions. BTW, both procedures detected snd_hda.


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## chalbersma (Jan 5, 2010)

Did you try audio/oss?

It does a masterful job of picking up cards FreeBSD misses.


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## vermaden (Jan 5, 2010)

fawz said:
			
		

> Well, I have an HP notebook with a sound board named Altec Lansing (...)



_Altec Lansing_ are SPEAKERS, not sound cards ...


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## phoenix (Jan 5, 2010)

fawz said:
			
		

> Well, I did, it detecs as snd_hda but there is no sound =/. Hope for better news or FreeBSD 8.1 /o/ hahaha. I'm listening to more suggestions. BTW, both procedures detected snd_hda.



Have you tried plugging speakers into each of the ports on the soundcard?  Some driver/board combinations get the output ports mixed up.

Have you run *mixer* to make sure the volume isn't at 0?  Or really low?


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## fawz (Jan 6, 2010)

phoenix said:
			
		

> Have you tried plugging speakers into each of the ports on the soundcard?  Some driver/board combinations get the output ports mixed up.
> 
> Have you run *mixer* to make sure the volume isn't at 0?  Or really low?



phoenix, curiously, when i try to put up the volume of my sound thourgh my notebook sound controller, it remains 0% as shows the KDE, but the mixer sets it like in full volume. The notebook sound controller works on other systems like Windows and Linux OpenSuse, so I don't think it's my hardware problem. 

chalbersma, I will try whenever I am able to configure my wireless connection, or maybe I will download the drivers from my computer.

vermaden is right, they are speakers. HP translated it wrongly in the manuals. Thank you HP. 

I think maybe the driver really is snd_hda, but the main problem maybe the mixer ports. I will read the handbook for a solution, though I appreciate whoever could antecipate something :e (feeling kinda lazyyyyyy).

Though it's hard, I'm enjoying the bsd flavour. I can feel that freebsd runs with mutch more stability than the other systems I have experienced. I'm trying to use it as a desktop system. Let's see if I can do this.


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## fawz (Jan 6, 2010)

Well, I had some time now to look carefully into the output of kldload snd_driver. The point is there was a funny output. Here it is:


```
#kldload snd_driver
ppc0: parallel port not found.
ppc0: parallel port not found.
ppc0: parallel port not found.
ppc0: parallel port not found.
hdac0: <ATI SB600 High Definition Audio Controller> mem 0x92400000-0x92403fff irq 16 at device 20.2 on pci0
hdac0: HDA Driver Revision: 20090624_0136
hdac0: [ITHREAD]
hdac0: HDA Codec #0: IDT 92HD71B7
hdac0: hda Codec #1: Lucent/Agere Systems (Unknown)
hdac1: <ATI RS780 High Definition Audio Controller> mem 0x92310000-0x92313fff irq 19 at device 5.1 on pci1
hdac1: HDA Driver Revision: 20090624_0136
hdac1: [ITHREAD]
hdac1: HDA Codec #0: ATI RS690/780 HDMI
pcm0: <HDA IDT 92HD71B7 PCM #0 Analog> at card 0 nid 1 on hdac0
pcm1: <HDA IDT 92HD71B7 PCM #1 Analog> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0
pcm2: <HDA IDT 92HD71B7 PCM #2 Digital> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0
pcm3: <HDA ATI RS690/780 HDMI PCM #0 Digital> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac1
ppc0: parallel port not found.
ppc0: parallel port not found.
```

Idk iif it makes sense, but looks like i will need to load more then one sound module. 

When i do #cat /dev/sndstat , the output is the following:


```
FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 32bit 2009061500/i386)
Installed devices:
pcm0: <HDA IDT 92HD71B7 PCM #0 Analog> at cad 0 nid on hdac0 kld snd_hda [MPSAFE] (1p:1v/1r:1v channels duplex default)
pcm1: <HDA IDT 92HD71B7 PCM #1 Analog> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0 kld snd_hda [MPSAFE] (0p:0v/1r:1v channels simplex)
pcm2: <HDA IDT 92HD71B7 PCM #2 Digital> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0 kld snd_hda [MPSAFE] (1p:1v/0r:0v channels simplex)
pcm3: <HDA ATI RS690/780 HDMI PCM #0 Digital> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac1 kld snd_hda [MPSAFE] (1p:1v/0r:0v channels simplex)
```

Well, sorry for the typos, I transcribed it all.

C ya all.


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## DutchDaemon (Jan 6, 2010)

Use 
	
	



```
for system output, not [quote].
```


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## adamk (Jan 6, 2010)

You have two analog output devices pcm0 and pcm1.  It could be outputting to pcm1.  Have you tried setting hw.snd.default_unit to 1?

Adam


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## phoenix (Jan 6, 2010)

That's also why I suggested plugging the speakers into each of the physical speaker ports on the soundcard.


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## fawz (Jan 6, 2010)

phoenix said:
			
		

> That's also why I suggested plugging the speakers into each of the physical speaker ports on the soundcard.



well, plugging speakers didn't worked. Things are still quiet haha.

thx for the forum tip dutchdaemon.

Adam, how can I set this?


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## fawz (Jan 6, 2010)

hmmm, I visited the handbook to see that i can do someting like this messing in the /boot/device.hints . I don't know if it has something to do, but in snd_hda manpages says that there has to be some configurations on /boot/device.hints . maybe I should try to rebuild my kernel with the hda sound option.

what do you think?


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## SirDice (Jan 6, 2010)

No need to recompile the kernel. The device.hints should work fine for the hda module. As I understood it you need to define which connector does what. Not sure how though, I don't have hda audio so I can't play with it. But the man page looks informative enough.

Hey, adam, is that second hda one that was mentioned in this thread about hdmi audio?


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## fawz (Jan 6, 2010)

SirDice said:
			
		

> No need to recompile the kernel. The device.hints should work fine for the hda module. As I understood it you need to define which connector does what. Not sure how though, I don't have hda audio so I can't play with it. But the man page looks informative enough.
> 
> Hey, adam, is that second hda one that was mentioned in this thread about hdmi audio?



Well, not so informative for someone not used to do this kind of thing. I will take my time later to read more information on snd_hda and the other things I will need to setup to have my sound working. At a first glance, I didn't had the intuition to think the answer were there, but now it seems there is really something to read though.

Thx.


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## adamk (Jan 6, 2010)

SirDice said:
			
		

> No need to recompile the kernel. The device.hints should work fine for the hda module. As I understood it you need to define which connector does what. Not sure how though, I don't have hda audio so I can't play with it. But the man page looks informative enough.
> 
> Hey, adam, is that second hda one that was mentioned in this thread about hdmi audio?



It looks like pcm3 is the one onboard the video card.

Adam


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## adamk (Jan 6, 2010)

fawz said:
			
		

> well, plugging speakers didn't worked. Things are still quiet haha.
> 
> thx for the forum tip dutchdaemon.
> 
> Adam, how can I set this?



Via sysctl.

Adam


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## fawz (Jan 7, 2010)

Here is a funny thing. I started my system and tried using 


```
#kldunload snd_hda
```

and then used:


```
#kldload snd_hda
```

It worked. As I used:


```
#dmesg | grep hda
```

the output was kinda different. I will post here later, but sound is working.  :e


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## phoenix (Jan 7, 2010)

Does it work if you just put *snd_hda_load="YES"* into /boot/loader.conf, and remove any other snd_* or sound_* lines?  And then reboot.  That will load *just* the snd_hda driver (and dependencies).


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## fawz (Jan 8, 2010)

Phoenix, it didn't worked. Maybe snd_hda have some problem to configure the mixers, maybe because of some kind of latency existed in the activation. Idk... I cant explain.


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## fawz (May 11, 2010)

Ok, after sometime, I'm ressurrecting this thread. I will not make up a new one for a related question so here we go. 

First I gently ask the admins to change my topic's title to a proper one to ATI Soundcard. I mistaken the name because of translation problems on hp's manual. Now, here is the point.

I finally realized that there is a difference which explains why my driver works only when I kldunload it (already loaded on loader.conf) and kldload it again. On the startup with the loader.conf option (snd_hda_enable="YES") my sound is configured like as it's said in dmesg.


```
pcm0 sbroublesashiusahuashsu hdac0
pcm1 sbroucbbasiohasiuo..... hdac1
pcm2 sbrouisijiasokjas...... hdac1
pcm3 hsahsnmsklmskmiosjasija hdac1
```

the configuration between pcmX and hdacX is alright, with no need to be changed. The main problem is, when I use kldunload snd_hda and again kldload snd_hda, the sound works and the configuration changes: 



```
pcm0 sbroublesashiusahuashsu hdac0
pcm1 sbroucbbasiohasiuo..... hdac0
pcm2 sbrouisijiasokjas...... hdac0
pcm3 hsahsnmsklmskmiosjasija hdac1
```

So how can I change permanently these variables? I couldn't figure how to do that using device.hint .

Thanks guys,

Fawz.


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