From owner-freebsd-questions Mon May 31 17:11:53 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from po2.wam.umd.edu (po2.wam.umd.edu [128.8.10.164]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5FB5C14E4C for ; Mon, 31 May 1999 17:11:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from culverk@wam.umd.edu) Received: from rac1.wam.umd.edu (root@rac1.wam.umd.edu [128.8.10.141]) by po2.wam.umd.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id UAA06607; Mon, 31 May 1999 20:11:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: from rac1.wam.umd.edu (sendmail@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by rac1.wam.umd.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id UAA23280; Mon, 31 May 1999 20:11:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localhost by rac1.wam.umd.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id UAA23272; Mon, 31 May 1999 20:11:38 -0400 (EDT) X-Authentication-Warning: rac1.wam.umd.edu: culverk owned process doing -bs Date: Mon, 31 May 1999 20:11:38 -0400 (EDT) From: Kenneth Wayne Culver To: Donald Burr Cc: naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: RE: Sound card? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (actually, it was on 31-May-99), > the great prophet Christian Weisgerber once wrote: > > I'm considering adding a sound card to my FreeBSD/i386 box. Now, I know > > roughly zilch about sound cards. There are absurd numbers of different > > models, with similar names, almost identical technical data, different > > chipsets, product lifetimes of a few months at most, and varying support > > throughout the operating system world. > > > > For example, opening up the latest leaflet from a local computer chain > > store, I see: > > > > Soundblaster 16 PnP Value ISA, Vibra 16XV > > Soundblaster PCI 64V PCI, Ensoniq > > Soundblaster 16 PCI PCI, Ensoniq 1373 > > Soundblaster PCI 128 PCI, Creative 5507 > > Soundblaster Live! Value PCI, EMU 10K1 > > Soundblaster Live! PCI, EMU 10K1 > > > > The latter two are a bit expensive. > > > > Looking at /sys/i386/isa/{snd/CARDS,sound/Readme.cards}, it appears that > > of all these only the "SoundBlaster 16 PnP Value" is supported. In fact, > > there seem to be no supported PCI sound cards at all!? > > > > Can anybody recommend an inexpensive, not too trashy sound card, that is > > supported under FreeBSD and still available on the market? (I'm asking > > for a lot, ain't I?) > > Take a look at OSS -- the Open Sound system > > http://www.opensound.com/ > > It is a commercial sound driver that supports many systems, including > FreeBSD. However it is quite inexpensive ($20) and gives you free updates > and techsupport through the year 2003 (now that's what I call service!) > It is extremely easy to configure (in fact, it pretty much auto-configures > itself) and supports a whole host of sound cards, including many PCI > cards. It also supports the "special features" of many sound cards, such > as the Wavetable chips on many modern sound cards. > --- However, many will agree with me in saying that OSS isn't the most stable thing in the world. At least it hasn't been in the past. Kenneth Culver To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message