Jeremy C. Reed asks: 

> You used one kernel module and it partially worked but 
> didn't cause a kernel panic?

It is very complicated now, I have tried so many things.
Let me sumarize as simply as I may. 


THE NETBSD BOXES: 

I have two machines. Both runNetBSD 1.5.4_Alhpa a most
recent CVS of 1.5 tree. 

1. An Intel D815EEA motherboard with 700MHz Celeron and 512MB
  in a tower box.

2, A ThinkPad 820Z with 233MHz PII and 96MB which is a laptop. 


VERSIONS OF OSS: 

There were two versions of OSS for NetBSD 1.5.3 as follows: 

1. Old OSS which was removed from opensound.org for reportedly
  having a bug which prevented OSS from working with audacity
  on NetBSD.

2. New OSS which is bug-fixed according to opensound.org 

Both the tarballs for old and new OSS both have identical
names. There is no version by which to distinguish them. 

THE KERNELS: 

Both versions of OSS (old and new) alike require a custom
kernel which is GENERIC sans any audio drivers. 

Thus I have now three kernels to boot from: 

1. netbsd (un-edited GENERIC) 

2. netbsd.oss (my own audio-free GENERIC) 

3. netbsd.4Front (emailed to me from opensound.org) 

THE PANIC CONDITIONS: 

Panic occurs only in certain combinations. Always it
involves the new OSS and an audio-free kernel. So far,
always it has been on the Celeron tower box. But I have
not extensively tested on the PII laptop yet. 

Below is a matrix of all the conditions for the tower unit
with the Intel motherboard and the SoundBlaster card: 

1. netbsd (GENERIC) kernel with old OSS.
  a. No panic ever.
  b. Will not record, mix or play at all.

2. netbsd (GENERIC) kernel with new OSS.
  a. No panic on install.
  b. Will not record, mix or play at all. 

3. netbsd.oss (audio-free GENERIC) kernel with old OSS.
  a. No panic on install.
  b. Will record, mix and play by itself (very well too).
  c. Will not work with any NetBSD audio package. 

4. netbsd.oss (audio-free GENERIC) kernel with new OSS.
  a. Panics every time. Can't do a thing. 

5. netbsd.4Front (emailed by Dev) kernel with old OSS.
  a. Not yet attempted. (I had tossed the old tarball when
     opensound.org told me to do so. That was before they
     had sent me their own kernel by email.) 

6. netbsd.4Front (emailed by OSS) kernel with new OSS.
  a. Panics every time. Can't do a thing. 

There is a further, bizarre, test condition. 

7. Install new OSS on netbsd (GENERIC) kernel then
  reboot to an audio-free kernel (either netbsd.oss or
  netbsd.4Front) and then call the OSS command 'soundconf'.
  a. No panic on install.
  b. Panic on 'soundconf'. 

Now... Below are the conditions for the ThinkPad 820Z. I have
not tried much to use OSS on the ThinkPad since I don't plan
to do that later. But here again is the same matrix of tests
as above for the ThinkPad. 

1. netbsd (GENERIC) kernel with old OSS.
  a. No panic on install. 

2. netbsd (GENERIC) kernel with new OSS.
  a. No panic on install. 

3. netbsd.oss (audio-free GENERIC) kernel with old OSS.
  a. No install yet attempted. 

4. netbsd.oss (audio-free GENERIC) kernel with new OSS.
  a. Panics on install. 

5. netbsd.4Front (emailed by Dev) kernel with old OSS.
  a. No install yet attempted. 

6. netbsd.4Front (emailed by Dev) kernel with new OSS.
  a. Panics on install. 

That is all I know of it for now. I can try more tests
to fill in the matrix further later. Right now I think
that Dev at 4Front of OSS is looking at the new OSS
for possible problems. The new OSS works fine with NetBSD
1.5.3 and the SoundBlaster card on the test machine at
OSS. It only goes into a panic on mine. But I have only
just done a brand new 'make build' of NetBSD 1.5.4_Alpha
and it STILL does panic in the ways described above. 

Thanks, 

Gxan 

PS - Jeremy, this past week is not what I think you
want I should write that article on, I don't think. I
shall wait to find what actually works, then just put
a how-to on my own web site. 

 --
Mistera Sturno - Rarest Extinct Bird 

<(+)__        Gan Uesli Starling
 ((__/)=-    Kalamazoo, MI, USA
  `||`
   ++        http://starling.us