# How to enable 6 channel audio ?



## john_rambo (Mar 30, 2014)

Hi,
I am running FreeBSD 10. The onboard sound of my motherboard is capable of 6 channel output. How do I enable it under FreeBSD ?


```
hdac0: <NVIDIA MCP61 HDA Controller> mem 0xdff78000-0xdff7bfff irq 23 at device 5.0 on pci0
```

If I need to install something new to achieve this please see if the package is available in the repositories.  I am totally  loving FreeBSD but the only thing I find frustrating is compiling because it takes a huge amount of time. 

I don't really blame FreeBSD for that. I guess low system specifications and a slow DSL connection are the main causes.


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## john_rambo (Mar 31, 2014)

Is this not possible ?


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## trh411 (Mar 31, 2014)

Please show the output of the `cat /dev/sndstat` command. If it does not show the Nvidia as the default sound device, set it using the command `sysctl hw.snd.default_unit=[file]N[/file]`, where N is the numeric portion of the pcmN device that corresponds to the device you want to be the default sound device.

Once you get it working, put the `sysctl hw.snd.default_unit=[file]N[/file]` in your /etc/sysctl.conf file to set it for future reboots.


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## john_rambo (Mar 31, 2014)

trh411 said:
			
		

> Please show the output of the `cat /dev/sndstat` command. If it does not show the Nvidia as the default sound device, set it using the command `sysctl hw.snd.default_unit=[file]N[/file]`, where N is the numeric portion of the pcmN device that corresponds to the device you want to be the default sound device.
> 
> Once you get it working, put the `sysctl hw.snd.default_unit=[file]N[/file]` in your /etc/sysctl.conf file to set it for future reboots.




```
$ cat /dev/sndstat
Installed devices:
pcm0: <Realtek ALC888 (Rear Analog)> (play/rec) default
pcm1: <Realtek ALC888 (Front Analog)> (play/rec)
pcm2: <Realtek ALC888 (Rear Digital)> (play)
```

I tried 

```
sysctl hw.snd.default_unit=0
```

Still getting 2 channel audio so didn't apply it to /etc/sysctl.conf.


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## trh411 (Mar 31, 2014)

Well, no, pcm0 is your RealTek audio device, not your Nvidia MCP61 HDA device. Please copy the contents of `dmesg` to pastebin and post the link here. It's unclear why the Nvidia MCP61 HDA device is not showing up as an installed device in the /dev/sndstat output. The output of dmesg(8) might tell us why.


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## john_rambo (Mar 31, 2014)

http://pastebin.com/kjvGKwCH


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## tyson (Oct 12, 2015)

Sorry for necro this, but I think its needed. Put:

```
dev.pcm.0.play.vchanformat=s16le:5.1
```
into /etc/sysctl.conf, where '0' defines your default sound device. Sound work pretty well here playing 5.1 videos with mplayer.


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