Newbie: No sound on Macbook

First post, so: Hi All!

I finally decided to install FreeBSD on an old Macbook (2012) and it runs smoothly. Being interested in anything sound I generated a wave file in csound / sox, it does play back - but no sound.

- I executed kldload snd_driver

- cat /dev/sndstat shows Realtek ALC889A on pcm0 - pcm 3, should it say somewhere that there is a driver installed??

- mixervolumes seem fine for vol and pcm (1.00:1.00)


I would be happy if someone could point me in the right direction.

No X11, cli, but that shouldn't make a difference, or should it?
 
i have a macbook pro retina 2015 and these are the steps i used

check sndstat

Code:
cat /dev/sndstat

output

Code:
pcm0: <Realtek ALC298 (Internal Analog)> (play/rec)
pcm1: <Realtek ALC298 (Left Analog Headphones)> (play) default
pcm2: <Intel Kaby Lake (HDMI/DP 8ch)> (play)

if you have a look at the output of dmesg and gep for pcm you should see the nid number

Code:
sudo dmesg | grep pcm

output

Code:
pcm0: <Realtek ALC298 (Internal Analog)> at nid 23 and 18 on hdaa0
pcm1: <Realtek ALC298 (Left Analog Headphones)> at nid 33 on hdaa0
pcm2: <Intel Kaby Lake (HDMI/DP 8ch)> at nid 3 on hdaa1

check the output of sysctl

Code:
sysctl dev.pcm | grep nid

output

Code:
dev.pcm.2.%location: nid=3
dev.pcm.1.%location: nid=33
dev.pcm.0.%location: nid=23,18

you will see the nid numbers match the output from dmesg

on the macbook pro retina there are front and rear speakers

you need to edit the

Code:
/boot/device.hints

add write permissions to the device.hints file

Code:
sudo chmod +w /boot/device.hints

these are the setting for my macbook pro retina 2015

Code:
hint.hdac.1.cad0.nid18.config="as=2 seq=0 device=Speaker"
hint.hdac.1.cad0.nid24.config="as=2 seq=0 device=Speaker"
hint.hdac.1.cad0.nid16.config="as=4 seq=15 device=Headphones"
hint.hdaa.1.gpio_config="0=set"

you need to replace the nid numbers with the nid numbers on your machine

eg this code

Code:
hint.hdac.1.cad0.nid18.config

remove write permissions to the device.hints file

Code:
sudo chmod -w /boot/device.hints

i have freebsd 14 running on a 2011 macbook air 11 inch
and macbook pro retina 2015

let me know if you get stuck and need a hand

my freebsd macbook pro retina dotfiles


my freebsd macbook pro retina root files

 
Wow, thanks for this, and also for your generous offer!

Will try this, might take a while, but I will report back.

cheers
 
I found in another post that sound was set to off. I have sound now, thank you so much for your help, best regards!


...I accidentally found the solution through trial-and-error based on gpio trickery some other people did. The below code in /boot/device.hints solved the problem:
Code:
hint.hdaa.0.config="ovref"
hint.hdaa.0.gpio_config="0=set"
Apparently, sound was configured properly, but the speakers were set to 'off' as I read under device.hints() :).
 
I thought that was to be found in Atsuri's post, but I can't see it anymore. Since I'm absolutely new to FreeBSD I'm afraid I can't be of any further help, sorry.
 
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