Subject: Re: No sound on Mac mini
To: None <joel@carnat.net>
From: Michael Lorenz <macallan@netbsd.org>
List: port-macppc
Date: 05/06/2007 19:40:46
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Hello,

On May 6, 2007, at 18:24, Joel CARNAT wrote:

> On Sun, May 06 2007 - 17:46, Michael Lorenz wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  The audio chip used in the Mini is actually little more than a DMA 
>>>> engine
>>>>  and a DAC - no mixer at all. Should work in -current using software
>>>> volume
>>>>  control ( I think Jared requested pullup to 4.0 but I'm not sure )
>>>>
>>>
>>> Booting the 4.99.19 makes audioctl and mixerctl output things.
>>> Mixer.app and aumix now also work too.
>>> And I get output from mpg321.
>>
>>  So it didn't get pulled up - I'll see to that.
>>
>
> Thanks a lot.

That's what the beta process is for :)

>>> That's two things (my video output is also solved in 4.99.x) that 
>>> makes
>>> netbsd-4 unsuitable as a workstation (on my hardware). Am I really 
>>> unlucky
>>> or
>>> is it known that netbsd-4 is not yet ready for "recent" Mac hardware 
>>> (as
>>> a workstation).
>>
>>  Huh? You're the first I hear of who has this sort of trouble with 
>> radeonfb.
>>  It will be fixed when 4.0 is released. Same about audio. You're 
>> aware of the
>>  fact that 4.0 is beta software? And how exactly do you expect us to 
>> test
>>  everything on every possible hardware combination?
>>
>
> erf... I knew I was asking my question the wrong way ; sorry for 
> looking rude.

No problem, I guess my response was a bit over the top as well.

> what I meant was "am I the first who reports those kind of problem ?".

Yes, as far as I'm aware you are.

> I never really practiced /macppc before so I'm not sure of which 
> netbsd release is useable.

That depends a lot on your hardware. Usually -current has best hardware 
support but things may be broken. In doubt it's the latest stable 
release.

> For example, I know (for having tested it) that before 3.x, /sparc64 
> was not pretty stable. I also know a bit about /i386 hardware support 
> (because I have used it for a long time). I
> finally know about /landisk too because I own one. But that's my first 
> time on /macppc.

My main problem is that I don't have nearly as much hardware to test on 
as I'd need - I'm lucky I have one example of each pre-G5 family. For 
instance I'm sorely lacking:
- - an Old World Mac with /chaos/control graphics hardware - should work 
but I can't test it
- - a Heathrow-based PowerBook ( Wallstreet, Lombard or 1st generation 
iBook G3 ) - I know there's trouble with the graphics chips, media bay 
support has been bitrotting ( only tested on my PB4300c - works fine 
there though ), some PMU operations are known troublesome ( like 
ejecting PCMCIA cards, brightness control etc. )
- - a 601-based PCI Mac. Support for this CPU is available in other ports 
so supporting it on macppc should be easy. Can't do it without hardware 
though.
- - a PowerMac G4 - we lack support for some of the audio hardware, 
sensors etc.
- - anything G5 based. We have support for the CPU and the host bridge 
but not much more. I'd really like to add the missing bits but without 
hardware that's pretty much impossible.

> So if I try to put my initial question another way, I would say:
> Should I keep netbsd-4 on my mini and reports more issues (I've been
> asked to test PR 34165 on netbsd-4) or should I switched to 4.99.x
> because this is a release that have many more fixes than netbsd-4.

Since 4.0 is supposed to be released soon I'd like you to keep testing 
it when a new build is available - we can't possibly test on all 
possible hardware combinations, not even close, so we need your help 
there.
About -current - it's fairly stable right now as far as I can tell ( 
all my machines run -current ) but since it's constantly being worked 
on things can and will break occasionally. I would not recommend using 
- -current on anything important.

> Be sure that I'll be glad to wait for pull-up on netbsd-4, test them 
> and report success/failure.

Thanks!

have fun
Michael
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