When I built the $1000, 2TB file server, the on-board nVidia HD audio support of the Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard didn’t work out of the box. It’s a trivial fix using the recently open sourced OSS drivers from 4Front Technologies. (I also tested a Creative Audigy 2 PCI sound card using these drivers under Solaris 10 11/06, and the playback worked just as well.)
- Download the Solaris x64 .pkg.
- `pkgadd -d oss-solaris-v4.0-1004-i386.pkg`
- `osstest`. You should here the sweet sweet sound of.. umm.. sound, and the following printed on the console..
bash-3.00$ osstest
Sound subsystem and version: OSS 4.0 (build 1004/200707062145) (0x00040002)
Platform: SunOS/i86pc 5.10 Generic_118855-33
*** Scanning sound adapter #-1 ***
/dev/oss/hdaudio0/pcm0 (audio engine 0): nVidia HD Audio play-front output
Note! Device is in use (by PID 0/VMIX) but will try anyway
– Performing audio playback test…
OK OK OK
/dev/oss/hdaudio0/pcm1 (audio engine 1): nVidia HD Audio play-side output
– Performing audio playback test…
OK OK OK
/dev/oss/hdaudio0/pcm2 (audio engine 2): nVidia HD Audio play-center/LFE output
– Performing audio playback test…
OK OK OK
/dev/oss/hdaudio0/spdout0 (audio engine 3): nVidia HD Audio spdif output
– Performing audio playback test…
OK OK OK
/dev/oss/hdaudio0/pcmin0 (audio engine 4): nVidia HD Audio record input
– Skipping input only device
*** All tests completed OK ***