Recommended Sound Card

C

cmille1223

Would someone be able to recommend a PCI Express x1 sound card that can do S/PDIF and works with PC-BSD 9.1? I can't seem to get the Creative Sound Blaster Recon3D THX PCIE Sound Card SB1350 I have to work, the system doesn't seem to detect it at all. I also can't seem to identify a card I know will work, this is getting pretty frustrating!

Code: 
# cat /dev/sndstat
FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm: 64bit 2009061500/amd64)
Installed devices:

I would greatly appreciate the help, I'm trying to build a HTPC and this is the last thing I need!
 
Have you checked your mainboard for a S/PDIF connector? Some mainboards have pins to connect a transceiver.
 
I appreciate the suggestion, I hadn't even thought of that option. Unfortunately my motherboard (Supermicro X9SCM-F-O) doesn't have this feature.
 
I still don't have sound working, I'm streaming to my PS3 in the meantime. Hopefully I can get this figured out soon, I would really like to start using XBMC instead of the PS3.
 
OK, so it seems like the system can see the card, but is unable to locate a driver for it.
Code: 
# pciconf -lv

hdac0@pci0:3:0:0:       class=0x040300 card=0x00131102 chip=0x00121102 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Creative Labs'
    class      = multimedia
    subclass   = HDA
none1@pci0:4:0:0:       class=0x040000 card=0x85410070 chip=0x888014f1 rev=0x04 hdr=0x00
    vendor     = 'Conexant Systems, Inc.'
    device     = 'CX23887/8 PCIe Broadcast Audio and Video Decoder with 3D Comb'
    class      = multimedia
    subclass   = video

I was also trying to get it working using OSS, but that didn't go well either...
Code: 
# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/oss start
Starting Open Sound System
kldload: can't load /usr/local/lib/oss/modules/osscore.ko: Exec format error
Loading the osscore module failed

OK so OSS doesn't want to start. Wonder what kind of errors show up in /var/log/messages...
Code: 
# tail /var/log/messages

Jan 14 06:22:28 zfs-server kernel: osscore: Open Sound System conflicts with FreeBSD driver
Jan 14 06:22:28 zfs-server kernel: osscore: Please remove sound(4) from kernel or unload it
Jan 14 06:22:28 zfs-server kernel: module_register_init: MOD_LOAD (osscore, 0xffffffff82ca94e0, 0) error 16

So it doesn't want the sound from the OS enabled if you're using OSS. I somehow can't figure out how to disable it...
 
cmille1223 said:
So it doesn't want the sound from the OS enabled if you're using OSS. I somehow can't figure out how to disable it...
Click to expand...
You need to build a custom kernel without device sound.
 
OK, I was hoping that wasn't the case. I've never built a custom kernel, so I'm not entirely sure what that involves. I also don't know if OSS would even work with my sound card, so I don't really want to put a bunch of work into building a custom kernel for no reason. That's the main reason I started trying to find a card I know will work, but for some reason it's like searching for a needle in a haystack.
 
If you do decide to use oss ( a custom kernel), I wrote a howto (ALC888...) a while back that may save you some time, it is in the HowTo section. For a custom kernel, you need sources (.svn (subversion) probably and the procedure in /usr/src/UPDATING (one of them) to just build a kernel and install it (maybe also building world ... depending upon your FreeBSD version...) not trivial the first time, but not too difficult if one has disk space, time, BACKUPS...
 
Thanks for pointing me towards your guide, I appreciate it. It's looking like oss might be my only option. I searched through the list of supported sound devices one at a time, and the only ones that are PCI Express are the RME HDSPe AIO and RME HDSPe RayDAT. These cards both have S/PDIF as well, but they're way too expensive ($850/$950). Guess I'll have to look through the list of oss supported sound devices next. This is turning into such a pain...
 
I ended up getting S/PDIF sound working through a USB sound adapter. It worked as soon as I plugged it in. I haven't had a chance to use it extensively, but it sounds good from what I've heard so far. The adapter that worked is the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II
 
Re:

SirDice said:
cmille1223 said:
So it doesn't want the sound from the OS enabled if you're using OSS. I somehow can't figure out how to disable it...
Click to expand...
You need to build a custom kernel without device sound.
Click to expand...

I came across this post troubleshooting the same problem, with the same results.

It has been a long time since I've built a custom kernel in FreeBSD. :\

-JJ
 
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