snd_hda questions

[Alexander Leidinger]

Quoting Jimmie James <jimmiejaz at gmail.com> (from Mon, 16 Mar 2009  
19:08:52 -0400):

> With the recent snd_hda changes, I have more audio devices than ever:
> hdac0: HDA Codec #0: Realtek ALC880
> pcm0: <HDA Realtek ALC880 PCM #0 Digital> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0
> pcm1: <HDA Realtek ALC880 PCM #1 Analog> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0
> pcm2: <HDA Realtek ALC880 PCM #2 Analog> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0
> pcm3: <HDA Realtek ALC880 PCM #3 Analog> at cad 0 nid 1 on hdac0

The new HDA code supports more stuff of your HDA soundchip. As you can  
see above you have controls for digital output (and maybe input) at  
pcm0.

> With  hw.snd.default_unit=1 I have (adjusting vol and pcm changes  
> volume level here.)
> Mixer vol      is currently set to  55:55
> Mixer pcm      is currently set to  50:50
> Mixer mix      is currently set to   0:0

Here you have probably the line-in and line-out jacks for analog data.

> With hw.snd.default_unit=2 I have (adjusting vol and pcm does  
> nothing here, 0:0 or 100:100 nothing changes)
> Mixer vol      is currently set to   0:0
> Mixer pcm      is currently set to   0:0
> Mixer mic      is currently set to   0:0
> Mixer mix      is currently set to  60:60
> Mixer rec      is currently set to   0:0
> Recording source: mic

The new code knows about front-jacks and rear-jacks, is able to play  
on multiple channels (think about discrete home cinema surround sound  
like 5.1 or 7.1). What the above (and below refers to, I don't know,  
you don't give enough info).

> With hw.snd.default_unit=3 I have
> Recording source:
>
> Mail notification sounds from Thunderbird are barely audible, and I  
> can't control the volume for it.
> Can someone point me in the right direction to control/use the  
> different pcm* devices, the man pages aren't totally clear to me.

You could look at /dev/sndstat (AFAIK the color codes of the jack are  
listed there, but I'm not sure about this) and the verbose bootmessage  
(boot -v), they give more information. You also need to test your  
loudspeakers/headphone/whatever on each jack for each pcm device.

If the sound still does not work as expected with a recent version of  
FreeBSD, you need to send the (HDA) messages from a verbose boot to  
this list with a description of what does not work as expected.

Bye,
Alexander.

-- 
Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.

http://www.Leidinger.net    Alexander @ Leidinger.net: PGP ID = B0063FE7
http://www.FreeBSD.org       netchild @ FreeBSD.org  : PGP ID = 72077137