Arch Linux

adding this patch from the gentoo forums changes things somewhat, but still doesn't work:

patch:
--- nvsound.a/NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.0-0310-pkg1/nvsound/main/Makefile.kbuild 2005-10-22 03:59:44.000000000 +0200
+++ nvsound.b/NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.0-0310-pkg1/nvsound/main/Makefile.kbuild 2006-02-22 21:51:33.000000000 +0100
@@ -48,16 +48,16 @@
EXTRA_LDFLAGS := -d

# Figure out how many args remap_page_ranges() wants or new remap call
-ifeq ($(shell sh $(src)/conftest.sh "$(CC)" "$(KERNEL_SOURCES)" "$(KERNEL_OUTPUT)" remap_pfn_range), 1)
- EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DNV_REMAP_PFN_RANGE_PRESENT
-else
- REMAP_PAGE_RANGE := $(shell sh $(src)/conftest.sh "$(CC)" "$(KERNEL_SOURCES)" "$(KERNEL_OUTPUT)" remap_page_range)
-
- ifeq ($(REMAP_PAGE_RANGE),5)
- EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DREMAP_NEW
- endif
+#ifeq ($(shell sh $(src)/conftest.sh "$(CC)" "$(KERNEL_SOURCES)" "$(KERNEL_OUTPUT)" remap_pfn_range), 1)
+EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DNV_REMAP_PFN_RANGE_PRESENT
+#else
+# REMAP_PAGE_RANGE := $(shell sh $(src)/conftest.sh "$(CC)" "$(KERNEL_SOURCES)" "$(KERNEL_OUTPUT)" remap_page_range)
+
+# ifeq ($(REMAP_PAGE_RANGE),5)
+#EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DREMAP_NEW
+# endif

-endif
+#endif

output from dmesg after modprobe nvsound:
Nvsound: Nvidia Audio Init Module, 11:40:11 Sep 21 2006 version 1.0-7
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:05.0 to 64
Nvsound: NVIDIA nForce2 Controller Mem 0xee000000 and IRQ 5
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:06.0 to 64
Nvsound: NVIDIA nForce2 Audio aci 0xe000 and ac97 0xec00, IRQ b
modprobe: page allocation failure. order:2, mode:0x20
[<c0152615>] __alloc_pages+0x1f5/0x2e0
[<c015271e>] __get_free_pages+0x1e/0x40
[<c01083f8>] dma_alloc_coherent+0xd8/0x110
[<e1b2ab6a>] AosMemoryAllocPhysical+0xd9/0x1de [nvsound]
[<e1b21568>] aosAllocateMem+0x18e/0x214 [nvsound]
[<e1b23ff5>] _ZN11CScratchDma7AddPageEPjj+0x5d/0x92 [nvsound]
[<e1b23d55>] _ZN11CScratchDma8AllocateEP8_memdescPj+0x39/0x84 [nvsound]
[<e1b22303>] _ZN14CHalGlobalProc14AllocateMemoryEP8_memdescPj+0x33/0x3c [nvsound]
[<e1b2624c>] _ZN8CHalMCP120AllocateObjectMemoryEP8_memdescjPj+0x42/0x4e [nvsound]
[<e1b21b79>] AllocObjectMemory+0x2d/0x32 [nvsound]
[<e1b2108b>] RmAllocAudioMemory+0x65/0x74 [nvsound]
[<e1b21155>] NvAuAlloc+0x5b/0x1de [nvsound]
[<e1b218c2>] NVARM_Alloc+0x1e/0x28 [nvsound]
[<e1b1f08a>] _ZN22RealMCPXVoiceProcessor9NvRMAllocEjP17NVOS21_PARAMETERS+0x18/0x1c [nvsound]
[<e1ae8d1e>] _ZN7AUDIOFX15AllocScratchMemEjPPv+0xb8/0xdc [nvsound]
[<e1aea405>] _Z20DefaultAfxParametersP18audiofx_parameters+0x8f/0x190 [nvsound]
[<e1ae746d>] _ZN7AUDIOFX9AddModuleEPcPj+0x1e1/0x210 [nvsound]
[<e1ae74c2>] _ZN7AUDIOFX9AddModuleEiPj+0x26/0x2a [nvsound]
[<e1a9c7b9>] _ZN11CNvFxDsEcho4InitEP16INvAudioInternalP12INvFxManagerP35NVFXINST_FXMANAGER_FXADD_DESCRIPTORP21INv3dListenerInternal+0x163/0x1d0 [nvsound]
[<e1ab9b41>] _ZN15CLocalFxManager5FxAddEP35NVFXINST_FXMANAGER_FXADD_DESCRIPTORP9NV3264PTR+0x4a1/0x57e [nvsound]
[<e1ad29b2>] _ZN8CNvAudio13FxManagerInitEv+0x1450/0x3f16 [nvsound]
[<e1b2a489>] AosMemoryAlloc+0x1a/0x48 [nvsound]
[<e1acc998>] _ZN8CNvAudio16InitResourceMapsEv+0x12e/0x16e [nvsound]
[<e1acde46>] _ZN8CNvAudio10InitializeEP14NVAUDIO_CONFIG+0x24a/0x46c [nvsound]
[<e1b0f7b1>] _ZN13CApuExecutive4InitEP9_nvhwbase+0x3b1/0x45c [nvsound]
[<e1b0fa3e>] _Z19ApuInterruptHandlerPvjj+0x0/0x82 [nvsound]
[<e1b20b6f>] _ZN13CApuExecutive6AddRefEv+0x17/0x1c [nvsound]
[<e1a87baf>] _ZN10NvaUnknown8FinishQIEP8IUnknownPPv+0x1f/0x28 [nvsound]
[<e1b0cc86>] Nv_CreateApuExec+0x1b2/0x40e [nvsound]
[<e1b2e376>] Nvaudio_probe+0x587/0x623 [nvsound]
[<c022a1c3>] pci_match_device+0x13/0xd0
[<c021f81f>] kobject_get+0xf/0x20
[<c022a2f6>] pci_device_probe+0x56/0x80
[<c0283184>] driver_probe_device+0x44/0xc0
[<c02832d4>] __driver_attach+0x64/0x70
[<c0282afa>] bus_for_each_dev+0x3a/0x60
[<c02830c6>] driver_attach+0x16/0x20
[<c0283270>] __driver_attach+0x0/0x70
[<c028274c>] bus_add_driver+0x8c/0x140
[<c022a4a6>] __pci_register_driver+0x56/0x80
[<e1366026>] Nvaudio_init_module+0x26/0x2a [nvsound]
[<c01427bd>] sys_init_module+0x15d/0x1ac0
[<c010325d>] sysenter_past_esp+0x56/0x79
Mem-info:
DMA per-cpu:
cpu 0 hot: high 0, batch 1 used:0
cpu 0 cold: high 0, batch 1 used:0
DMA32 per-cpu: empty
Normal per-cpu:
cpu 0 hot: high 186, batch 31 used:150
cpu 0 cold: high 62, batch 15 used:3
HighMem per-cpu: empty
Free pages: 15384kB (0kB HighMem)
Active:103971 inactive:8072 dirty:1553 writeback:0 unstable:0 free:3846 slab:6337 mapped:19853 pagetables:569
DMA free:2020kB min:88kB low:108kB high:132kB active:7988kB inactive:16kB present:16384kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 495 495
DMA32 free:0kB min:0kB low:0kB high:0kB active:0kB inactive:0kB present:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 495 495
Normal free:13364kB min:2804kB low:3504kB high:4204kB active:407896kB inactive:32272kB present:507840kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no
lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0
HighMem free:0kB min:128kB low:128kB high:128kB active:0kB inactive:0kB present:0kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? nolowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0
DMA: 295*4kB 27*8kB 1*16kB 1*32kB 1*64kB 0*128kB 0*256kB 1*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 2020kB
DMA32: empty
Normal: 2077*4kB 598*8kB 1*16kB 0*32kB 0*64kB 0*128kB 1*256kB 0*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 13364kB
HighMem: empty
Swap cache: add 2, delete 2, find 0/0, race 0+0
Free swap = 1975936kB
Total swap = 1975944kB
Free swap: 1975936kB
131056 pages of RAM
0 pages of HIGHMEM
2092 reserved pages
104114 pages shared
0 pages swap cached
1553 pages dirty
0 pages writeback
19853 pages mapped
6337 pages slab
569 pages pagetables
Trying to free already-free IRQ 11
KERN_INFO Nvsound: Release DEV MIXER 0
nforce_audio: probe of 0000:00:06.0 failed with error -12

nvidia itself says use the kernel drivers instead, normally kernel .18 should replace nforce drivers and the package should be removed from repos

I am aware of that, but I don't like the decision of nvidia.
The kernel driver works well with all nforce chipset, except the nforce 2 with soundstorm.
on nforce 2 with soundstorm the nvsound driver offers these advantages:
-) hardware mixing
-) much better sound quality
-) ability to use dolby digital encoding (untested for me, I don't use it)

The kernel driver works with nforce2, but the nvsound driver offers some great advantages...

are you sure that the kernel driver is not offering that, by parameters perhaps?

To be honest I didn't try everything again on kernel 2.6.18, but some kernels ago I'm sure this was only possible with the nvsound module.
This thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=253725&highlight=nvsound) on the ubuntuforums seems to confirm my point that it's still only possible with the nvsound module.
btw: the nvnet module (also in the nforce package) does not seem to add functionality anywhere

then please try it on 2.6.18, i set now nforce for replace since it's unsupported now by nvidia

OK, but I'll don't have time before monday to test it...

I tested the intel8x0 driver, with the following result:
-) sound quality seems to have improved, but:
*) mixing 2 sound streams reduces quality a lot
*) still some plops in the sound when producing load on the system
-) hardware mixing is still not possible
-) I assume dolby digital encoding is also not possible, but I can't test, I use analog output

So for this reasons (and I've seen the nforce package will be removed from the official repos) I've uploaded an nforce-nvsound package to aur with a patch from the ubuntu forums which make the drivers work in kernel 2.6.18 as the nforce 2 users will still want to use this driver

btw: i'll also update the wiki page one of the days ;)