HOW TO GET VIDEO AND AUDIO FOR VIC/VAT UNDER freeBSD-3.1

For video, the Hauppauge Wincast/WinTV PCI card works well. It's a Brooktree bt848 video capture board that works under both freeBSD and Windows 95/98/NT. For audio, the AW35 Pro 3D sound card (which is a Crystal CS4237 audio chipset) works well under freeBSD and Windows. If you follow the steps below (as root, of course), these cards should work for vic and vat under freeBSD 3.1.

1. Edit the kernel configuration file, as follows. In /usr/src/sys/i386/conf, copy the KERNEL file to some new name (say, MBKERNEL). For video, in MBKERNEL, make the following entries (if they are not already present):

   controller pci0
   controller smbus0
   controller iicbus0
   controller iicbb0
   device bktr0
   

   For audio, make the following entries in MBKERNEL (if they are not already present):

   controller pnp0
   device pcm0 at isa ? port? tty irq 5 drq 1 flags 0x15
   

   NOTES:

   • Under freeBSD 2.2.7, the pcm entry above should be "device pcm0 at isa ? port? tty irq 5 drq 1 flags 0x15 vector pcmintr". This is still ok, but the last two fields aren't necessary for 3.1.

   • If you look at the boot messages (as by running dmesg), you will see that the "pcm1" device was found and that "pcm0" was not probed because pcm1 was already found (i.e., there's a 'conflict' warning). This is NOT an error! I checked with Luigi Rizzo (who wrote the audio driver for freeBSD) and he explained that the PnP card is recognized as unit #1 with parameters automatically set from the PnP information. So having a "pcm0" entry in the kernel configuration file and seeing "pcm1 found" during boot is correct.

   This information is available in /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/LINT and /usr/src/sys/i386/isa/snd/README.

2. Now rebuild your kernel by following the steps below. (You should be in the /usr/src/sys/i386/conf directory as root.)

   # /usr/sbin/config MBKERNEL
   # cd ../../compile/MBKERNEL
   # make depend
   # make
   # make install
   

   This information is in the freeBSD Handbook, "Section 5. Configuring the freeBSD Kernel."

3. Make the device nodes. In /dev, do the following:

   For the video card:
   # sh MAKEDEV bktr0
   

   For vic to work correctly:
   # ln -s bktr0 meteor0
   

   For the audio card:
   # sh MAKEDEV snd0
   

   This last MAKEDEV will automatically make the correct nodes and symlinks, which are:

   /dev/dsp -> /dev/dsp1
   /dev/audio -> /dev/audio1
   /dev/dspW -> /dev/dspW1
   /dev/mixer -> /dev/mixer1