PulseAudio Lands Much Better Support For FreeBSD - Audio Now Plays Correctly

While 2021 may be the year that some desktop Linux distributions begin using PipeWire by default as the next-generation replacement to the likes of PulseAudio and JACK, for upstream PulseAudio this week it's finally seeing better/restored support for FreeBSD. PulseAudio has merged a set of patches long available via FreeBSD Ports and the like to improve the BSD audio experience.

There are some important patches, including the fixing of FreeBSD support, which without this work was previously yielding audio not playing at all. There is also hot unplug support and the enabling of the Meson build system support on FreeBSD. There is also a new module to support hot-plug with FreeBSD's "devd" device state daemon.

Those making use of FreeBSD Ports to enjoy PulseAudio have enjoyed most of these patches already but now this merge request that goes back nine months has finally been upstreamed for carrying this work within PulseAudio itself.

This is still while many FreeBSD ports are catering to the Open Sound System (OSS) and some applications on FreeBSD still disabling PulseAudio support, so perhaps this will finally be the year of seeing better PulseAudio support on FreeBSD. More background information on FreeBSD's sound support can be found via the FreeBSD.org Wiki.