=== 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:

link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2024-01-2024-03/#_audio_stack_improvements[2024Q1] URL: link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2024-01-2024-03/#_audio_stack_improvements[] +
link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2024-04-2024-06/#_audio_stack_improvements[2024Q2] URL: link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2024-04-2024-06/#_audio_stack_improvements[] +
link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2024-07-2024-09/#_audio_stack_improvements[2024Q3] URL: link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2024-07-2024-09/#_audio_stack_improvements[] +
link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2024-10-2024-12/#_audio_stack_improvements[2024Q4] URL: link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2024-10-2024-12/#_audio_stack_improvements[] +
link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2025-01-2025-03/#_audio_stack_improvements[2025Q1] URL: link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2025-01-2025-03/#_audio_stack_improvements[]

Important work since link:https://www.freebsd.org/status/report-2025-01-2025-03/#_audio_stack_improvements[last report]:

* More man:sound[4] cleanups, fixes and improvements.
* Committed man:sndctl[8] (previously mentioned as audio(8)).
* Committed link:https://cgit.freebsd.org/src/commit/?id=e1bbaa71d62c8681a576f9f5bedf475c7541bd35[AFMT_FLOAT support].
* More out-of-the-box laptop support.
* Gave up on the `/dev/dsp` as a router device link:https://reviews.freebsd.org/D49216[patch] in favor of https://reviews.freebsd.org/D50070[D50070] (includes relevant discussions).
* Submitting series of patches to clean up the MIDI subsystem, and working on refactoring it into a generic layer, similar to PCM.
* Gave BSDCan 2025 talk (link:https://www.bsdcan.org/2025/talks/vox-freebsd.pdf[slides]).

Future work includes:

* Port virtual_oss to base.
* More bug fixes, support, optimizations and general improvements, in all areas of the sound stack.

You can also follow the development process in link:https://lists.freebsd.org/subscription/freebsd-multimedia[freebsd-multimedia@], where I post regular reports.

Sponsor: The FreeBSD Foundation
