Re: Tragic State of FreeBSD Audio/Sound

On Mon Jul 20, 2026 at 8:59 PM EEST, Matthew Grooms wrote:
> On 7/20/26 12:38, vermaden wrote:
>>>> I will not even start about PITA syntax of mixer(1) which went into
>>>> this:
>>>>
>>>> % mixer -f ${DEV} vol.volume=3D+0.05
>>> Just use gtk-mixer, avail in ports.
>>>
>>> In recent years, I haven't noticed any bugs
>>> in the operation of the OSS.
>> I do it by scripts anyway ... but I needed to rewrite all my scripts bec=
ause of these changes ... and this change in syntax was bad from at least t=
hree perspectives:
>>
>> 1. It happened in 'point' release (like from .2 to .3) - not in new majo=
r release - breaking stuff for EVERYONE.
>>
>> 2. It happened without any reason - the tool could do the same with old =
syntax underneath - the new syntax does not introduce anything new - it jus=
t has different syntax.
>>
>> 3. As FreeBSD (at least up to some time ago) cherished the POLA principl=
e WHY the old syntax could not been also kept and accepted?
>>
>> ... and yes - I also think that 'gtk-mixer' works well - so is 'dsbmixer=
' tool.
>
>
> It offered something new to me: Confusion. In the past, I'd need to=20
> fiddle with the mixer once a year and it was more or less obvious how it=
=20
> worked. The last time, I just gave up.
>
> -Matthew

I am genuinely curious. What is so confusing, and even worse, more
obvious with old syntax than the new, to the point that you would give
up?

Christos