Need Feedback to stay on FreeBSD or not

jb1277976

jb1277976

Hey all,

I don't want to beat a dead horse but i would like some feedback..

My Chromebook/laptop needs sof-firmware to work and none of the BSD's have it so i have a decision to make.

Should i stay on any BSD or go back to Linux where sound works perfect on all distro's..

FreeBSD is my ultimate stop where i won't distro hop anymore but i really want sound..

USB audio works fine not taking away from that but i like speakers.

Question is do speakers really matter that much when using a distro ? should i move to another distro/os because one thing doesn't work?

The way i use my laptop Daily driver is I'm at home all the time and i do chores and work around the house.. i like music so i like keeping my laptop open and play music through Speakers but i can't.. For now i'm using on bluetooth on my phone and playing from that..

Should i just keep that up or what ?

Thanks
 
Asking these types of questions to the broader public internet is almost always useless.
Do what you want to do. Think for yourself. Decide for yourself.

Nobody here will be able to answer questions like: "Do speakers really matter that much?" because everyone here will have a different reason/answer.
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 carbon gen 9 for like 4 or 5 years now without working speakers. But my reasons, requirements and tradeoffs are likely different from yours.
 
jbo@ said:
Asking these types of questions to the broader public internet is almost always useless.
Do what you want to do. Think for yourself. Decide for yourself.

Nobody here will be able to answer questions like: "Do speakers really matter that much?" because everyone here will have a different reason/answer.
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X1 carbon gen 9 for like 4 or 5 years now without working speakers. But my reasons, requirements and tradeoffs are likely different from yours.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply.

This is exactly what i was looking for.. you have a laptop that you still use without speakers.. Probably a dongle.. I was wondering if speakers would be a deal breaker for people.
 
kpedersen said:
Sell the chromebook and get a cheap ThinkPad?

For many users, the operating system is more important than the hardware IMO.

In around 5 years, chances are you won't even remember that chromebook. So why struggle with it today?
Click to expand...
I actually have another laptop with freeBSD on it.. there is a hardware problem with it but everything works out of the box.

Didn't have the money to fix it at the time but we have stable income now.. bought this chromebook in the meantime but my birthday is in December.. told my family i just want that hardware part fixed and i should be good.. don't want anything else for Christmas or anything else..

It's about $180 to fix.

Once its fixed i will probably put chromeos back on this chromebook and put it on the shelf
 
jb1277976 said:
It's about $180 to fix.

Once its fixed i will probably put chromeos back on this chromebook and put it on the shelf
Click to expand...
Not sure of your specific model but $180 is quite steep to fix. Perhaps jump on Ebay where you can often get a decent second hand ThinkPad (currently around the X230, X240 mark) for as little as $40.
 
kpedersen said:
Sell the chromebook and get a cheap ThinkPad?

For many users, the operating system is more important than the hardware IMO.

In around 5 years, chances are you won't even remember that chromebook. So why struggle with it today?
Click to expand...
And in 5 years you will still use same thinkpad u got by getting rid of chromebook and happily using FreeBSD :D
 
jb1277976 said:
My Chromebook/laptop needs sof-firmware to work and none of the BSD's have it so i have a decision to make.

Should i stay on any BSD or go back to Linux where sound works perfect on all distro's..
Click to expand...
If sof is important to you, then the answer is obvious. What's the question?

jb1277976 said:
The way i use my laptop Daily driver is I'm at home all the time and i do chores and work around the house.. i like music so i like keeping my laptop open and play music through Speakers but i can't.. For now i'm using on bluetooth on my phone and playing from that..
Click to expand...
I have a set of Surface Pro 3 docks, in my office. There are three basic "workstation positions" (a giant 'U'), with a dock for each. Each position is served by a set of three monitors. The dual speakers under the leftmost monitor are "shorted" together as are those on the rightmost monitor. So, I effectively have a left pair and a right pair. Each dock is directly connected to the set for its workstation position.

I lift a Surface Pro out of wherever it happens to have been left and slip it into the dock at whichever workstation position I'm PRIMARILY using. It has most of my music catalog on a 256GB microSD card inserted into the slot in the rear. Having a touch screen, I can just poke at the album that I want and hear it play.

If I happen to rotate my chair to use one of the other two workstation positions, I can still hear the music -- behind me or off to the side, depending on which I choose and where the source lies.

If it is night time and I don't want to risk waking my other half, I put a pair of over-the-ear headphones on (much prefered to earbuds) and let the BT connection to the Surface Pro serve the audio wirelessly. This allows me to wander into the kitchen without having to take off the headphones (as I would have had to do with corded devices). If I am going to be away from the office for a length of time, then I can slip in earbuds.

Sourcing the music from a Surface Pro means I can let whatever workstation I am using "sleep" without fear of my music disappearing.
 
hruodr said:
I have a thin client with FreeBSD connected to my amplifier. Almost all of CDs are now on a USB stick.
Click to expand...
I ripped all of our music ages ago (and, I'm old enough that my "music appreciation" is firmly fixed in the PAST, thankyouverymuch! :-/ )

My other half has a pair of "bookshelf stereos" that are ~35+ years old. I am called upon to fix one or the other, periodically (CD changer usually craps out).

In anticipation of NOT being able to fix them, I am repurposing a pair of Squeezeboxes (add amplified speakers to each and you have a "stereo") so that they will react to the remote control from her "stereos" in exactly the same manner. I.e., she won't know that the little box isn't her BIG box. I've moved her music archive onto my name server (runs 24/7/365) so she will be able to call up music at any time on either box.

Next, I will investigate designing an FM-HD receiver using an SDR so she can also access the radio broadcasts of interest.
 
Don Y said:
so that they will react to the remote control from her "stereos" in exactly the same manner. I.e., she won't know that the little box isn't her BIG box.
Click to expand...
I avoided IR dongle and remote control, I did not want to waste too much time finding hardware.
I use a miniature, wireless keyboard.
Here is my software:


And I do not need a monitor. I made the thin client generate a tone when ends booting.
 
hruodr said:
I avoided IR dongle and remote control, I did not want to waste too much time finding hardware.
I use a miniature, wireless keyboard.
Click to expand...
She has used the stereos for decades (at least 35 years). If sheawakens in the middle of the night, she BLINDLY picks up the remote and knows (by feel) which buttons to press -- and in which order -- to turn the unit on and select the music that she wants to listen to, and for what length of time.

I.e., there is value in mimicking this interface.

I've virtualized and extended it; there is a web page on which she can create "play lists" that emulate CD's -- much easier than having to burn physical media with collections of songs in particular orders. And, I am not limited to the constraints of physical media -- I can have a "CD" (playlist) that lasts 100 hours if I chose. I can support more CDs than her changer does.

Finally, I can offer features that the current hardware doesn't -- like resuming from a place where you left off (possibly hours earlier). Or, "one button" setup for sleep time, another interpretation for "mid sleep", yet another for "morning" (when she likes to listen to certain OTA broadcasts).

Yet, each of these fit within her mental model of the "old" stereos she used.

Wrt Ir hardware, you could look at the FLIRC products. It's a tiny USB device that looks like a keyboard to the host. A utility lets you "program" it to recognize particular keys on your remote. (in my case, the Squeezebox already has an Ir receiver built-in) I use them in my MythTV boxes (something else that I will have to explore porting, going forward)
 
Don Y said:
Wrt Ir hardware, you could look at the FLIRC products. It's a tiny USB device that looks like a keyboard to the host.
Click to expand...

Yes, that sounds good. Easy solution: remote control as keyboard.

No idea how the CLI for configuration is platform independent accessed, I have to read.
 
hruodr said:
No idea how the CLI for configuration is platform independent accessed, I have to read.
Click to expand...
I've not done it in a while. I think it may only be Windows based (?) The app that I used ran under windows; I "programmed" three Ir receivers and then moved them over to the media boxes so the media boxes didn't have to support the app itself.
 
You can always use a cheap USB dongle for wifi or audio if needed. Works great with FreeBSD.
I have a multi-boot environment ... Windows/Artix-Linux/Redcore-Linux/MX-Linux/FreeBSD.. Take the best for your needs.
I develop in F# & Scala. For that I mostly use Redcore-Linux , a Gentoo clone.
 
Alain De Vos said:
You can always use a cheap USB dongle for wifi or audio if needed.
Click to expand...

Well, unfortunately this dongle is not very cheap, but affordable.

It is recognized as a keyboard and hence no special driver is necessary.

But it is not a keyboard, not a radio receiver for a wireless keyboard, it is an infrared receiver for a remote control.
 
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