Freebsd – No sound in Lenovo Ideapad

Got back to use FreeBSD in my Lenovo, now using FreeBSD 12.0. The previous answer, while not exactly 100% right, put me in the right track.

To get sound to work, out the box, and switch to headphones, when inserting them in the audiojack:

• The directive hw.snd.default_unit has to be taken out from sysctl.conf;
• The as/audioset per default is 2, so 2 has to be used, and not 1. Tried as=1, an definitively does not work as intended.

Based on the default sysctl visual inspection, the question/previous posts, and @Trevor's answer, the complete configuration to get a Lenovo Ideapad 100S IBR for getting sound to work, and switch to headphones automatically is:

File: /etc/sysctl.conf

# Without this sound does not even work, both in speakers or headphones
dev.hdac.0.polling=1

File: /boot/loader.conf

snd_hda_load="YES"
mixer_enable="YES"
sound_load="YES"

File: /boot/device.hints

hint.hdaa.1.nid20.config="as=2 seq=0 device=Speaker conn=Fixed ctype=Analog loc=Internal"
hint.hdaa.0.nid21.config="as=2 seq=15 device=Headphones conn=Jack"

PS. The default system configuration, just for documentation purposes is:

# sysctl -a | egrep "nid20|nid21" | grep original
dev.hdaa.0.nid21_original: 0x04211010 as=1 seq=0 device=Headphones conn=Jack ctype=1/8 loc=Right color=Black misc=0
dev.hdaa.0.nid20_original: 0x90170120 as=2 seq=0 device=Speaker conn=Fixed ctype=Analog loc=Internal color=Unknown misc=1

Ironically, in FreeBSD the answer is pretty much similar to the thread pointed in the question.

You also need to remove (paradoxically) the X.org Intel video driver the X server can use the kernel’s mode-setting features without a separate video driver

Whilst it is referring to Linux, the same seems to be happening with FreeBSD.

So what it was done:

sudo pkg delete xf86-video-intel

Also in /boot/loader.rc.local:

mode 2

See Determining EFI text modes supported by notebook

(In the Lenovo is the EFI text mode for the higher resolution, 170 cols x 40 rows - 1366x768 )

The actual /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/xorg.conf being used is, where the "scfb" display driver is configured:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/misc/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/TTF/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/OTF/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/Type1/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/100dpi/"
    FontPath     "/usr/local/share/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Mouse0"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option      "Protocol" "auto"
    Option      "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
    Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "scfb"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

After these changes, and rebooting, xorg started in the 1366x768 resolution.

From the FreeBSD wiki

If an accelerated graphics driver is not available for your FreeBSD system, an alternative is to use the scfb driver. At the time of writing, this is a common option for laptops with Broadwell or Skylake chipsets from Intel with integrated graphics, until the intel DRM driver is updated to include support. Whilst the scfb driver does not provide accelerated graphics, and is missing some features like brightness adjustment and support for external displays, it works fine on built-in laptop displays for simple desktop use and even playing videos.

The system must be using the new vt(4) (aka Newcons) console for the scfb driver to work. This is the default if the system was booted with UEFI, but not if it was booted using (legacy) BIOS mode. Some laptops must be booted using UEFI mode for the scfb driver to work.

Disclaimer: this is the easiest solution. Apparently there patches out there for making the Intel driver work, however it involves compiling source code.