Playing an Audio CD in a DiRT Machine

You need to setup a few things before your DiRT box can play an audio CD. Follow the following section and do not forget to update this page if I missed any step (I just did it for the first time, so the process was a little bit messy and what I am writing here is only what I feel I did right):

Use a kernel that supports sound

Our default DiRT kernel does not support sound, so you will have to use a different one. Fortunately, DIRT_SOUND kernel is available, so install it. See How Do I Compile a FreeBSD Kernel? for further information (step 4 is the only one you need.)

You also have to create a device in /dev for the sound card:

% cd /dev
% ./MAKEDEV snd0
Note that I used snd0 for granny, but you may have to use snd1 depending on the sound card's interface (0 for ISA, 1 for PCI). After your sound card is available, you can change several parameters, such as the output volume, using mixxer (e.g. mixxer vol 100.)

Audio CD device

You have to find out the name of your CD-ROM drive (/dev/wcd0c in granny). Search through /var/log/messages. Do not forget to change the permissions for the CD-ROM drive in order to use it as a normal user (chmod 444 /dev/wcd0c.)

FreeBSD has a console program that you can use to control your CD (cdcontrol, do not forget the devide name -f /dev/wcd0c). There are also some X-windows applications available.

Install xcdplayer (optional)

You may want to use a friendly X-windows application to control your playout. xcdplayer is quite good, and you can find it in our 2.2.8 repository in tyagi. To make things crystal clear:

% cd /usr/dirt/packages/audio
% pkg_add xcdplayer-2.2.tgz 
Specify the CD device every time you use xcdplayer (xcdplayer -device /dev/wcd0c.)

Voilà!


Felix Hernandez
Last modified: Mon Jul 31 13:55:56 EDT 2000