Audio Stack Improvements

Contact: Christos Margiolis <christos@FreeBSD.org>

I have been working on the audio stack since 2024Q1. Below is a list of the previous status reports:

Important work since last report:

  • Large refactor in sound(4)'s format conversion framework: 433e270f341c. Further simplifications and refactors in the rest of the processing chain.

  • Implemented AFMT_FLOAT support.

  • More out-of-the-box laptop support, especially Framework models.

  • Virtual channels are now allocated on-demand: 02d4eeabfd73

  • Re-implementing /dev/dsp as a virtual/router device: D49216. Apart from the standalone benefits of this change, it will also help us improve automatic sound redirection in snd_hda(4).

  • More sound(4) cleanups, fixes and improvements.

  • New virtual_oss release: https://github.com/freebsd/virtual_oss/releases/tag/v1.3.2

  • Got my audio-related BSDCan 2025 talk proposal accepted.

  • Put porting SOF to FreeBSD on the backburner for now. See here for an explanation.

  • In contact with potential GSOC students interested in porting virtual_oss to base.

Future work includes:

  • Finish currently open tasks.

  • More bug fixes, support, optimizations and general improvements, in all areas of the sound stack.

  • Get back to audio(8)

  • Implement a generic MIDI layer, similar to pcm/, and improve/modernize the MIDI codebase in general.

You can also follow the development process in freebsd-multimedia@, where I post regular reports.

Sponsor: The FreeBSD Foundation

Last modified on: March 26, 2025 by Christos Margiolis