nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

mouse256 · 2006-09-20 08:16:37

According to the nvidia site, they stopped the developement of their nforce driver package. They now recommend everyone the use of the opensource driver.
As I'm using and nforce 2 with soundstorm this is not really a good solution, using the opensource driver the soundquality is really bad and you have no hardware mixing
I will keep using the latest version they provided which works fine, but I guess it will stop working sooner or later with some newer kernell... I guess I'll have to find me a soundblaster live (or something else) and use that on, although the nforce2 soundstorm is superior to a soundblaster live...
Thank you nvidia! (NOT)

Romashka · 2006-09-20 13:13:10

Forcedeth does not support ethernet controller in Nforce 410 (at least it was so few months ago). Or did I miss something?

iphitus · 2006-09-20 13:37:17

a lot happens in a few months, chances are support has been added Romashka.

As for nvidia not supporting those drivers..... it looks like that happened a long time ago, the last release mentioned there is November 05.

mouse: When was the last time you tried the in kernel sound driver? You do realise that development moves pretty quickly, and chances are support for your sound has improved -- the fact that nvidia are dropping their package may indicate that they believe that the in kernel one is now (2.6.18) just as capable.

James

mouse256 · 2006-09-20 13:53:18

iphitus: I'll try the opensource driver again, but as far as I can find it still doesn't support hardware mixing (the quality may have improved though)
The big problem is that this is only an issue with the nforce 2 motherboards with soundstorm chip, nforce 3 and newer do not have this chip (and are also way inferior in quality). As nforce 2 is pretty old, they don't bother too much about it...
But I'll give them a chance and I'll try the opensource driver

brain0 · 2006-09-20 13:57:59

you don't need hardware mixing if you have alsa's dmix.

Romashka · 2006-09-20 14:10:32

brain0 wrote:

you don't need hardware mixing if you have alsa's dmix.

Isn't hardware mixer faster (less CPU intensive) and (at least in SB LIve!) better?

iBertus · 2006-09-20 14:52:59

You still do not get hardware mixing with the kernel driver. I'm using it now and it works well otherwise. Sure, dmix is more hardware intensive, but you shouldn't notice much on a modern system. nVidia is probably responding to the absence of OSS support in many distro kernels now that ALSA is well developed. The only nvsound driver was OSS based and converting it to ALSA was never going to happen.

mouse256 · 2006-09-20 15:07:15

Romashka wrote:

brain0 wrote:
you don't need hardware mixing if you have alsa's dmix.
Isn't hardware mixer faster (less CPU intensive) and (at least in SB LIve!) better?

Yep, that was the main reason I started using the nvsound driver.
And as I hear from iBertus this is still the case, so I won't even try the kernel driver. I'll keep using the nvsound driver untill it stops working (which won't take too long I guess as the driver indeed is still OSS)

Romashka · 2006-09-20 15:52:58

iBertus wrote:

nVidia is probably responding to the absence of OSS support in many distro kernels now that ALSA is well developed. The only nvsound driver was OSS based and converting it to ALSA was never going to happen.

I think so too.
I had a problem with nforce drivers:
1) forcedeth was not working, so I must use nvnet,
2) nvsound is OSS, so I must use intel8x0
But nvsound takes precedence over intel8x0 so I added intel8x0 to MODULES.
As for forcedeth - it did not work on my 6100/410 motherboard in 2.6.16. I'll try it in 2.6.17 and 2.6.18, maybe they added/fixed 410/430 support.

EDIT: Yay! It has been fixed in 2.6.17!
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/archive/ind … 86848.html

mouse256 · 2006-09-21 09:09:21

I think the point where I should find my sb live has just arrived, the nforce package won't work with kernel 2.6.18
I opened a bug report, so I hope someone will find a patch...

tpowa · 2006-09-21 11:15:18

try to uninstall nforce package and use the drivers from stock kernel 2.6.18

iphitus · 2006-09-21 12:02:26

mouse256 wrote:

I think the point where I should find my sb live has just arrived, the nforce package won't work with kernel 2.6.18
I opened a bug report, so I hope someone will find a patch...

i think you're somewhat overreacting, the load from dmix is negligable, it doesnt register a blip on system load - it's nothing to be remotely concerned about.

James

mouse256 · 2006-09-26 14:26:29

The nforce package will be removed from the official repos with kernel 2.6.18, so I'll maintain them in aur (I got them working with a patch from ubuntu users) for the nforce 2 users ;-)
see http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/5427 for more info

iBertus · 2006-09-26 17:32:36

Yes, software mixing is not the optimal solution for audio playback, but it's also not a major issue with modern hardware. It sucks to not get full use out of the hardware but I'd still rather use ALSA with dmix than OSS with hardware mixing.

Give the kernel drivers a try and get a good dmix config for your setup from the alsa site. You might be suprised to find out that it's not all that bad. At least then you wouldn't have to maintain a driver package that has to be rebuilt for every kernel.

mouse256 · 2006-09-26 21:06:55

iBertus wrote:

Give the kernel drivers a try and get a good dmix config for your setup from the alsa site. You might be suprised to find out that it's not all that bad. At least then you wouldn't have to maintain a driver package that has to be rebuilt for every kernel.

I did try the kernel drivers, and as I mentioned there was a big improvement as the last time I tried them. But still the nvsound drivers give me better sound quality, so I'll stick with them for a while.
I'll use the kernel drivers when I'm sick of recompiling the nvsound package, I promise 8)

iBertus · 2006-09-26 21:18:09

:shock: sorry, I didn't see post about trying out the kernel drivers.

/me goes to hide head under pillow.

mouse256 · 2006-09-26 21:19:51

no problem iBertus, you can safely remove that pillow

emma · 2006-09-29 03:06:05

Ooh thank heavens there is a solution. I switched to my Chaintech card but Dolby Digital is much better than not Dolby Digital. xD Thankies much. ^_^

Arch Linux

#1 2006-09-20 08:16:37

nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#2 2006-09-20 13:13:10

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#3 2006-09-20 13:37:17

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#4 2006-09-20 13:53:18

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#5 2006-09-20 13:57:59

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#6 2006-09-20 14:10:32

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#7 2006-09-20 14:52:59

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#8 2006-09-20 15:07:15

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#9 2006-09-20 15:52:58

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#10 2006-09-21 09:09:21

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#11 2006-09-21 11:15:18

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#12 2006-09-21 12:02:26

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#13 2006-09-26 14:26:29

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#14 2006-09-26 17:32:36

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#15 2006-09-26 21:06:55

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#16 2006-09-26 21:18:09

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#17 2006-09-26 21:19:51

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

#18 2006-09-29 03:06:05

Re: nvidia dropped support for nforce driver

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