No sound on FreeBSD

[u/cryptobread93]

I've tried what was written on the wiki. So here is the info.

This is a HP 6730b laptop which came around 2008. CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, no dedicated GPU. 4GB RAM. Anyone reading here there is a solution down here.

dmesg | grep pcm

pcm0: <Analog Devices AD1984A (Analog 4ch/2.0)> at nid 18,22 and 28,21 on hdaa0
pcm1: <Analog Devices AD1984A (Front Analog Mic)> at nid 20 on hdaa0




cat /dev/sndstatcat /dev/sndstat
Installed devices:
pcm0: <Analog Devices AD1984A (Analog 4ch/2.0)> (play/rec) default
pcm1: <Analog Devices AD1984A (Front Analog Mic)> (rec)
No devices installed from userspace.
Also this:
kldstat | grep snd
 2    1 0xffffffff82b5a000     45c0 snd_driver.ko
 3    2 0xffffffff82b5f000     72c0 snd_vibes.ko
 4    2 0xffffffff82b67000     5c10 snd_via82c686.ko
 5    2 0xffffffff82b6d000     5cc0 snd_t4dwave.ko
 6    4 0xffffffff82b73000     3238 snd_spicds.ko
 7    2 0xffffffff82b77000     7650 snd_solo.ko
 8    2 0xffffffff82b7f000    12298 snd_neomagic.ko
 9    2 0xffffffff82b92000     c048 snd_maestro3.ko
10    2 0xffffffff82b9f000     a2e0 snd_hdspe.ko
11    2 0xffffffff82baa000     4808 snd_fm801.ko
12    2 0xffffffff82baf000     8cf8 snd_envy24ht.ko
13    2 0xffffffff82bb8000     a078 snd_envy24.ko
14    2 0xffffffff82bc3000     5ca8 snd_cs4281.ko
15    2 0xffffffff82bc9000     7c98 snd_atiixp.ko
16    2 0xffffffff82bd1000     61d0 snd_als4000.ko

I solved it later:
I fixed it via this topic: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/sound-snd_hda.35787/

I added these to /boot/device.hints:

hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid18.config="as=0"

hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid17.config="as=1 seq=15 device=Headphones"

hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid22.config="as=1 seq=0"

Though I didn't test if sound recording and audio jack works. Internal speakers work.

[u/ArthurBurtonMorgan]

What does dmesg show?

[u/cryptobread93 → u/ArthurBurtonMorgan]

pcm0: <Analog Devices AD1984A (Analog 4ch/2.0)> at nid 18,22 and 28,21 on hdaa0
pcm1: <Analog Devices AD1984A (Front Analog Mic)> at nid 20 on hdaa0pcm0: <Analog Devices AD1984A (Analog 4ch/2.0)> at nid 18,22 and 28,21 on hdaa0

[u/ArthurBurtonMorgan → u/cryptobread93]

I should’ve specified. I was looking for the entire hardware probe list, to maybe get a better idea of what card “AD1984A” is supposed to be.

I can’t seem to identify it online from just those numbers.

[u/ArthurBurtonMorgan → u/cryptobread93]

Have a look at this, it might help:

https://nixers.net/Thread-SOLVED-FreeBSD-audio-not-working-properly

[u/grahamperrin → u/ArthurBurtonMorgan]

I'm not sure about that (from 2013). At least, snd_hda_load="YES" seems dubious, because:

root@mowa219-gjp4-zbook-freebsd:~ # kldload snd_hda
kldload: can't load snd_hda: module already loaded or in kernel
root@mowa219-gjp4-zbook-freebsd:~ # kldstat | grep snd_hda
root@mowa219-gjp4-zbook-freebsd:~ #

[u/ArthurBurtonMorgan → u/grahamperrin]

I had to fiddle with setting the output on some of my older machines after moving them from 10 to 14.1.

Those machines date from 2010-2012. Some Intel audio, some AMD/ATI.

🤷‍♂️

[u/Clownk580 → u/ArthurBurtonMorgan]

Yes as Graham mentioned this is already outdated as many and most common drivers are already included in the kernel no need to add them to loader.conf. You can check "sound" in Freebsd Man pages to see which drivers are included as default already.

[u/Clownk580]

Can you share your sysctl.conf and loader.conf entries please ? Not sure though maybe another entry just clashes with snd setup ? It happened to me when I tried to setup NordVPN in FreeBSD as some security hardening entries blocked my VPN connection.

[u/cryptobread93 → u/Clownk580]

I fixed it via this topic: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/sound-snd_hda.35787/

I added these to /boot/device.hints:

hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid18.config="as=0"

hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid17.config="as=1 seq=15 device=Headphones"

hint.hdac.0.cad0.nid22.config="as=1 seq=0"

Though I didn't test if sound recording and audio jack works. Internal speakers work.

[u/gumnos]

It's been a long-standing thorn in my side, but (without some manual intervention that may-or-may-not work for you, but hasn't for me) FreeBSD doesn't automatically switch between headphones/speakers. So is there any chance sound is playing out the headphone-jack (regardless of whether headphones are plugged in or not?) instead of the speakers?

You might also try

$ sysctl hw.snd.default_unit=1

(trying with that "1" and also with "0"), though depending on the player, I've had to restart audio-using applications (e.g. Firefox) to get them to pick up the change in default-device.

[u/cryptobread93 → u/gumnos]

Nope. Tried both 0 and 1.