sound-card/driver question

[C Gray]

Much appreciation for sharing that wisdom. 
Ordering the card now. 

thanks and best wishes,
chris

On 01-February-2018, at 03:12 AM, Polytropon wrote:

> On Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:02:30 -0800, C Gray wrote:
>> I have a Dell PowerEdge T300 server which has the following slots available:
>> 	slot 1:    3.3-V, full-length PCIe x4 with x8 connector
>> 	slot 2:    3.3-V, full-length PCIe x4
>> 	slot 3:    3.3-V, full-length PCIe x8
>> 	slot 4:    3.3-V, full-length PCIe x8
>> 	slot 5:    3.3-V, full-length PCI-X
>> 
>> The system is based around:
>> 	Xeon X3440 @ 2.50 GHz Quad core
>> 	2GB DDR3 RAM.
>> 
>> It's been said that a driver supported for Vista will work with for FreeBSD.
> 
> That sounds very strange. Both systems are so fundamentally
> different in architecture and binary interfaces.
> 
> 
> 
>> The card I am looking at works with Microsoft Windows7, Vista, and XP.
>> It's PCI-X based, and would, thus, be inserted into [my] slot 5:
>> 	Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer SB0770 7.1-Channel
>> PCI Sound Card
>> 
>> My question is whether the CD of sound card drivers are in a
>> standardized format such that, 
>> FreeBSD/TrueOS can use them, as is, just as the Microsoft-verified
>> environments do?
> 
> Probably not.
> 
> But it's not needed. FreeBSD provides the drivers needed and loads
> them automatically at system startup once the hardware has been
> detected properly. There usually is no need to manually download
> or install something.
> 
> I've been using Creative Labs SoundBlaster cards in the past, and
> the OS automatically loaded the correct driver. You can easily
> verify this with
> 
> 	# pciconf -lv | less
> 
> and
> 
> 	# cat /dev/sndstat
> 
> The sound card should then be listed, and the corresponding driver
> right next to it.
> 
> SoundBlaster cards have a long tradition of out-of-the-box support
> on FreeBSD. Even on Linux, ALSA seems to provide support for this
> particular card.
> 
> 
> 
>> Do they even use the same suffix?
> 
> What kind of suffix are you talking about?
> 
> 
> 
>> Are they well-written enough to discover the platform whereon
>> they are expected to run (*that is, to "drive").
> 
> Probably not. Drivers made for "Windows" will only work on a
> specific subset of "Windows" versions, i. e., the "driver system"
> they have been created for. So their use is even limited within
> the "Windows" ecosystem, and outside of it, they are more or
> less useless.
> 
> 
> 
>> It the OS discovers the driver rather than the driver 
>> discovering the OS, the same functional use may be achieved,
>> however, I'm ignorant other than 
>> guessing as to how drivers work and what is required for that
>> to take place.
> 
> As I said, manually supplying drivers is not needed on FreeBSD
> because the drivers are already there. The OS discovers the
> hardware and loads the driver. Simple and easy. :-)
> 
> 
> 
>> Where are they stored in Windows and in FreeBSD, and how do I
>> install the proper one from the 
>> disk accompanying the card (most likely meant for Microsoft's
>> toolset/installer.
> 
> You don't. The OS already has the drivers installed.
> 
> 
> 
>> Suggestions?
> 
> If you have the card at hand, install it as recommended into the
> system and boot FreeBSD. With the commands mentioned above, check
> if (a) the device has been recognized, and (b) the appropriate
> driver has been loaded. There isn't much more you have to do, as
> FreeBSD is a "plug & play" OS. :-)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Polytropon
> Magdeburg, Germany
> Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
> Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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> 

C Gray
frankfenderbender at council124.org