Bug 60252

Summary: Continuous re-installations for FreeBSD novices
Product: Documentation Reporter: Phil <phil.addy>
Component: Books & ArticlesAssignee: freebsd-doc (Nobody) <doc>
Status: Closed FIXED    
Severity: Affects Only Me    
Priority: Normal    
Version: Latest   
Hardware: Any   
OS: Any   

Description Phil 2003-12-15 11:10:13 UTC 
Why not mention, prior to installation, that to get the sound card working you're gonna have to rebuild the whole kernel at some stage, and therefore you will have to install all the sources necessary to do this? Also, why not just add a couple of simple lines (such as device pcm) to the GENERIC kernel to try and pick up most of the common sound cards in order to avoid all this agony?
Most newcomers to FreeBSD (like me) will be put off, and annoyed, by finding out about things "after the event" as it where, simply because the documentation did not explain things clearly, simply or fully prior to installation. Hence, numerous re-installations as the next problem is found out about later on.

Fix: 

A sentence in the initial Standard Installation screen, or in the "canned" packages selection help screen during installation.
How-To-Repeat: Continue as current.
Comment 1 Peter Pentchev 2003-12-15 11:21:53 UTC 
On Mon, Dec 15, 2003 at 03:01:48AM -0800, Phil wrote:
[format recovered to less-than-80 character lines]
> >Number:         60252
> >Category:       docs
> >Synopsis:       Continuous re-installations for FreeBSD novices
> >Originator:     Phil
> >Release:        4.7
> >Description:
>
> Why not mention, prior to installation, that to get the sound card
> working you're gonna have to rebuild the whole kernel at some stage,
> and therefore you will have to install all the sources necessary to do
> this? Also, why not just add a couple of simple lines (such as device
> pcm) to the GENERIC kernel to try and pick up most of the common sound
> cards in order to avoid all this agony?


The pcm driver, as well as all drivers dependent on it, is already
available as a module in the /modules directory (/boot/kernel on
-CURRENT) after the installation, as well as after any full
buildkernel/installkernel cycle.  I have rarely had problems with just
loading the driver for the sound card as a module; if you still keep the
original kernel.generic from the installation, could you try booting
into it and then 'kldload snd_xxxxx', your respective soundcard driver?

If this works, you could also add the following lines (or equivalent, if
you are not using the ich driver) to your /boot/loader.conf file:

# Get the sound up and running
snd_ich_load="YES"
snd_ich_name="snd_ich"

G'luck,
Peter

-- 
Peter Pentchev	roam@ringlet.net    roam@sbnd.net    roam@FreeBSD.org
PGP key:	http://people.FreeBSD.org/~roam/roam.key.asc
Key fingerprint	FDBA FD79 C26F 3C51 C95E  DF9E ED18 B68D 1619 4553
If I were you, who would be reading this sentence?
Comment 2 setantae 2003-12-15 11:32:08 UTC 
You can just "kldload snd"; it isn't necessary to rebuild the kernel.

Ceri

--
Comment 3 Simon L. B. Nielsen freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2004-05-28 22:01:14 UTC 
State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Close PR since, as noted in the audit trail, sound support can be loaded 
as modules, and the submitter hasn't responded to the followups.  

Close sugsted by:	Bill Moran <wmoran@potentialtech.com>