UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello I have just installed Free BSD on my old computer system to learn how to use it and I can't get any sound. When I start KDE desktop I receve a message that says

"Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such file or directory)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device."

I have even tried to hook up an usb cable sound card but that won't work either. Right now I'm useing a P3-866/128 RAM/20G and presumably onboard sound of some type, Is there anything someone could tell me to get my sound card working.

Much appreciation, Ac101

Hi !
The sound driver should be loaded by writing in your /boot/loader.conf the line that coresponds to sound card. If you don't know what card it is, go into /boot/kernel and try "kldload snd_driver.ko". This will load all the sound drivers that FreeBSD knows and will chose the right one. After this, to see what's the "chosen one" simply try "cat /dev/sndstat" and you'll see the details about the driver.

For example, in my case, if I'm doing the "kldload snd_driver" thing, I get an answer like this

Code:

FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm)
Installed devices:
pcm0: <nVidia nForce2> at io 0xd400, 0xd800 irq 22 bufsz 16384 kld snd_ich (1p/1r/0v channels duplex default)

when I "cat /dev/sndstat". This tells me that I have to load the snd_ich module when I start my computer (insert " snd_ich_load="YES" " in my /boot/loader.conf).
I hope this helps.
Good luck !