Dell Inspiron 6400 Sound issue

[nexus]

Hello everyone, i have been having a problem with my PC-BSD 1.3 install i placed on a Dell Inspiron 6400. Now everything has seemed to work really well save for the sound card and the wifi card. . i have seen this issue posted on here a few times and serveral possible solutions noted in related threads, however all attempts to resolve this has failed. the error i am getting is as followed

Sound Server Informational Message:

Error while initializing the sound driver:

device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No sush file or directory)

The sound server will continue, using the null output device

i have removed the snd_ in the bootloader.conf, i have installed the codec drivers on the PBI site. Yet still nothing out of the speaker. I assume this has to be of lack of support for the intergrated sound card. To make matters worse i am not too sure how to find the correct drivers(if they exist at all) would anyone happen to have any insight they would be willing to share on this matter?

[dracheflieger]

Post your service tag off the side or back so we can get some hardware specs.

[SumoX]

I'm going to assume that you have the Sigmatel 92XX intergrated card. I have a Dell E1705/9400 (mine's a 17" screen, yours is the 15" version).

I had the same error. There IS a workaround and it's not that difficult.

Download the necessary files from this link.
http://people.freebsd.org/~ariff/lowlatency/

I used the sndkld_releng6_i386_lowlatency.tar.gz for PCBSD 1.3. You'll also need the soundcard.h file saved to your computer (so right click and and save as.. instead of just clicking it).

There are directions on the site. Disregard the first step (known as step 0) as it doesn't apply to PCBSD. I found it easiest to untar (think unzip...don't know if you're a recent Windows convert or not) the files into a folder first.

Then, click the start/BSD logo button and go to System--->More Applications---->File Manager - Super User Mode. Go to the folder you untared the files to...BUT WAIT! Assuming you untared it to somewhere in your home folder, you can't just go straight to your home folder the way you'd think. Once you're in the File Manager, you will be in the root (main file systems). You will have to choose home---->(your login name)----> to whatever the folder you extracted the file to.

Then just follow the directions as prescribed. Also, for number 3, that should be done in the Konsole terminal...it wasn't very clear, but just open up the Konsole and type that in. If it doesn't work, I'm not even sure if I did that step...so maybe you don't need to. I can't remember now.

[TerryP]

When running 'File Manager - Super User Mode' aka Konqueror as the root user. You can click Tools->Open Terminal on the upper menu to get a root konsole. Or just press F4.

Mmmm so there is some hope for Sigmatel 92XX cards...

[SumoX]

Indeed there is Terry, which is great because it was one of the things holding me back from really switching to PCBSD in a significant way.

With the vast improvements in Wine for gaming, I might be able to get away without using Windows entirely. What a day that will be...

[TerryP]

Amen brother.

[nexus]

I'm going to assume that you have the Sigmatel 92XX intergrated card. I have a Dell E1705/9400 (mine's a 17" screen, yours is the 15" version).

I had the same error. There IS a workaround and it's not that difficult.

Download the necessary files from this link.
http://people.freebsd.org/~ariff/lowlatency/

I used the sndkld_releng6_i386_lowlatency.tar.gz for PCBSD 1.3. You'll also need the soundcard.h file saved to your computer (so right click and and save as.. instead of just clicking it).

There are directions on the site. Disregard the first step (known as step 0) as it doesn't apply to PCBSD. I found it easiest to untar (think unzip...don't know if you're a recent Windows convert or not) the files into a folder first.

Then, click the start/BSD logo button and go to System--->More Applications---->File Manager - Super User Mode. Go to the folder you untared the files to...BUT WAIT! Assuming you untared it to somewhere in your home folder, you can't just go straight to your home folder the way you'd think. Once you're in the File Manager, you will be in the root (main file systems). You will have to choose home---->(your login name)----> to whatever the folder you extracted the file to.

Then just follow the directions as prescribed. Also, for number 3, that should be done in the Konsole terminal...it wasn't very clear, but just open up the Konsole and type that in. If it doesn't work, I'm not even sure if I did that step...so maybe you don't need to. I can't remember now.

yes, it worked perfectly, thank you very very much. This was wrecking my brain. Do you happen to have any points on getting the wifi and bluetooth working by chance SumoX

[SumoX]

Since my apartment doesn't have wifi, no, I have no idea right now. When I go back to the US to visit my family in about 3 weeks, I will attempt to get that up and running.

I'd check out the 'Networking' board for some help, if I were you.

I also don't have blue-tooth with my laptop, so I don't know how to use that either.

Sorry that I can't be of more help.

[TerryP]

You might have to use NDISGEN to get the Wifi working, check the guides section of the forums.

[nexus]

You might have to use NDISGEN to get the Wifi working, check the guides section of the forums.

Terry what is NDISGEN? isn;t that the program that converts windows drivers to unix drivers?