Arch Linux

xian

Member

Registered: 2005-01-29

Posts: 19

Nvidia Nforce Driver 1.0.0292-2 Problem

I upgraded to the latest Nforce drivers with a recent -Syu pacman update.
Afterwards, I noticed several strange events:

* On login to KDE I got this error message:
"Sound server fatal error: AudioSubSystem::handleIO: write failed  len=-1, can_write=1024, errno=11 (Resource temporarily unavailable)".

* When booting Arch I got this error message:
"alsactl: save_state:1194: No soundcards found"

* I could get sound from media streams and the like, but it would quit after only a few seconds and whatever application I was using to play them would freeze.

* No KDE system sounds

The first error message I was able to solve by reading the official Nforce driver release notes. There was a small note near the bottom that addressed this issue and gave the workaround. I was not able to fix any of the other problems, and did try all the alsa set-up instructions in the wiki just as I did upon my initial installation.

I finally just resorted to using a weekly back-up that I do of my root partition and then ran the -Syu command again with an ignore notation placed on the nforce package. I use the intel8x0 driver on my system.

incinerator

Member

From: Edinburgh, Scotland

Registered: 2005-02-15

Posts: 80

Re: Nvidia Nforce Driver 1.0.0292-2 Problem

My suggestion is: uninstall the nforce package.

What dou you need it for? The nforce network drivers already included in the kernel are good enough. And the same is true for the sound drivers.

Btw, the sound drivers provided by nvidia are, unlike the drivers in the kernel, NOT compatible to ALSA. They are old-fashioned OSS drivers. To get them working you will have to enable OSS in your kernel config. I don't know if the provided Arch kernels do that but I'd guess they do not. That means you will probably have to compile a kernel again. And of course you might have to tell various programs (the KDE Sound System Control Center module first of all) to use OSS instead of ALSA.

I have an nforce2 motherboard and I use the drivers included in the kernel, which where automatically loaded during install and every boot cycle btw, hotplug takes care of that. So far I have not been having any problems, I even managed to get the SPDIF output to work.

xian

Member

Registered: 2005-01-29

Posts: 19

Re: Nvidia Nforce Driver 1.0.0292-2 Problem

My suggestion is: uninstall the nforce package.

LOL. Thanks alot.

As I said it was just an upgrade to an already installed package, and as such I did not make any detailed considerations regarding it's inclusion on my box. All is working fine now as I have reverted to an earlier backup. The information provided was in an effort to potentially inform others, who are in a similar situation, of the problems which could result if they install that package under similar circumstances.

droog

Member

Registered: 2004-11-18

Posts: 877

Re: Nvidia Nforce Driver 1.0.0292-2 Problem

I'm having the same problems and have uninstalled the new version and reinstalled the old one but havent been able to get  my sound card working without running alsaconf at every boot. i went through the steps to get it working, but no luck. alsactl store doesnt work either.  i guess ill remove the old version later and see if that helps. The strange thing is that it used to work perfectly.