[General] newby needs help

[nepal]

I have successfully installed desktopbsd at last!

I have gone into package mgmt built the ports tree and performed all Updates. 
I had to set the 'packages if possible' option for this.

I still have a problem with the boot manager screwing up so I can't boot, but 
can get past that at present. It boots into grub which then boots into the 
btx loader which boots desktopbsd. Messy but working.

The big problem for my use is I cannot get sound working. All I get is a 
continuous high pitched screeching sound. Setting to 'off' any of the options 
within KMix has no effect at all on this awful screeching noise. I tried 
loading a cd into kcd and the cd seems to play normally but produces no 
sound, just the continuous screech already mentioned.

I am coming from a working linux (pclinuxos) system where sound was configured 
automatically and has done so for years without any configuring. It has 
always been set up using ALSA. The sound card is on the mother board, a AC97 
compliant intel device.

this is all the info I can get from DBSD
=====================
FreeBSD Audio Driver (newpcm)
Installed devices:
pcm0: <VIA VT8235> at io oxdc00 irq 22 kld snd_via8233 (5p/1r/4v channels
duplex default)
=======================

having now discovered that there is no lsmod.


this is what lsmod shows for sound on pclinuxos:
====================================
snd_seq_dummy           3716  0
snd_seq_oss            31136  0
snd_seq_midi_event      6752  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48016  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            42176  0
snd_mixer_oss          17216  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_via82xx            27160  1
gameport               14632  1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec         88864  1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_bus            2240  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                68104  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              22884  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         10216  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart         7328  1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            23552  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          8172  4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd                    51140  13 
snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore               9440  1 snd
====================================

I have no idea how to even begin to sort this out. I've looked through the 
handbook, but there is only a very small section on sound and setting sound 
volume. There is nothing on the wiki either.

There are other things too, but I'll keep it to dealing with one thing at a 
time.