After numerous reinstalls of both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of 12.1, I have had a problem which I think is related to the proprietary nvidia driver.
I have an “.asoundrc” file which I use for surround, bass redirection and other effects. When using the “nouveau” driver it works great. After many complete system reinstalls trying to isolate the problem, it seems to start after installing the nvidia driver. When I do this, the sound starts sputtering and exhibiting odd sorts of looping effects which persist until I log out of KDE, but they start up again as soon as I log back in. If I delete the asoundrc file the problem stops but then if I put it back it starts up again. I tried on the last install to revert to the nouveau driver but I screwed something up bad and had to reinstall from scratch. I am now back in a fresh install with nouveau and everything is working well but I am afraid to try the nvidia driver again because I am not sure how to get back to nouveau. I don’t absolutely need the nvidia driver but it would be nice for playing hi-def videos.
I installed the nvidia driver with the install package from the nvidia site (NVIDIAxxx.run). As I noted above, the same thing occurred with both the x86 and x86_64 versions of 12.1. I tried several different versions of the nvidia driver but they all did the same thing.
My system is openSuSE 12.1 on a core2 quad 6600. Graphics are nVidia 9600GT, sound is through creative x-fi “extreme music”. Pulse is disabled (not even installed). K-desktop, all multimedia updates from Packman installed. Gstreamer backend.
I don’t know if I’m asking for a solution, since I realize this is probably an uncommon issue, although if anyone has any ideas I would appreciate them. Maybe even just a guide for getting nouveau working again after an nvidia install.
So I only use Creative sound cards, nVIDIA GPU’s, load the proprietary video driver the hard way and I have not seen the issue for which you speak. On one machine I did disable PulseAudio, but to uninstall it is not recommended by me. I use both Coaxial and Optical connections to receivers. I have had issues with the latest nVIDIA video cards that include built-in sound and the need to push it down as not my main sound card, but I don’t remember having that problem with a nVIDIA 9600 or 9800 video card, though I admit only trying them with openSUSE 11.3 and not the most recent release. I get good stereo from openSUSE and then use Kaffeine-kde3 or VLC for Dolby Digital 5.1 or 7.1 output and get PCM audio out for everything else. I use a setting called multi-stereo in my receiver normally for stereo output. So, I am not sure what might be the problem. I have a bash script that can be helpful sometimes you can find here:
I uninstalled Pulse because as far as I could tell it would not allow me to use the asoundrc file that I mentioned. After a lot of experimenting I came up with an arrangement of pcm plugins that would allow me to control surround and bass redirection effects, and with a couple of ladspa plugins to produce reverb effects in the rear channels. I had figured all this out prior to pulse becoming the default sound engine in openSuSE and instead of trying to reinvent the wheel in pulse I decided to go with what I knew. So, in short, yes it did make a difference because I am able to produce “environment” effects in openSuSE almost identical to what I could do in windows. If this can be done within pulse then I would welcome a guide or a link to a guide, but after trying myself I could not find one. As far as I could tell, once pulse is activated it takes over the sound system. And to reiterate, the problem that I was describing occurred only with the combination of the nvidia driver and the asoundrc file. Actually, any asoundrc file would do it, even just a simple pcm that routed each channel to itself with no other processing.
You should outline in detail what you have done with the asoundrc file in case it might be a solution for others here to read. Also, I only suggest that you might just disable pulse and not uninstall it.
sudo setup-pulseaudio --disable
Pulse will not startup on its own, but if for any reason, you discover you do need it, Pulse can be reactivated by using the command:
sudo setup-pulseaudio --enable
We would really like anyone working with sound, consider a disable and not an uninstall as often doing a reinstall will not work out as you had hoped when a disable will work just as well or in many cases, Pulse is not really the problem. Finally, because Pulse is installed by default, we need to learn to work around or with it and not pull the plug on it. None the less, I am happy you found your solution, so let us hear just what you did to make it all work.
I will post a detailed analysis of my asoundrc in the multimedia section in a few days. I am not claiming to be an expert, but I have learned a few things that others might find useful.
The main reason that I did not install pulse to start with (I deselected it at install time) was that I was not sure that it was not part of the problem. On earlier installs I did just disable it but since that did not fix my problem I wondered if it was still interfering with the sound system in some way. I have a well-working install now so I don’t want to go back to the beginning and install pulse, but I don’t now think that was any part of the problem.
Actually, although the sound problem is “solved”, I still don’t know how to get my sound to play nice with the nvidia driver.
I downloaded the nvidia driver from the nvidia site. I then booted into the terminal (init 3), navigated to the download folder and then ran
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-290.10.run
The first time through it complains that nouveau is loaded and then I presume blacklists it so it won’t load again. I then reboot into terminal and again run
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-290.10.run
This time it installs properly. I then shut down and reboot normally.
And you have added in the kernel load option nomodeset command to your normal openSUSE startup in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file as root and you have black listed the nouveau to prevent it from loading? Right?
And you have added in the kernel load option nomodeset command to your normal openSUSE startup in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file as root and you have black listed the nouveau to prevent it from loading? Right?
Well, not now, since I am currently using the nouveau driver. The nvidia installer blacklists the nouveau driver when it installs itself. But, no, I didn’t add the nomodeset on previous installs since the nvidia driver appeared to work fine, at least as far as video was concerned, without it. Do you think this would have prevented the apparent conflict between nvidia and the sound?
I would like to try installing the nvidia driver again, but only if I can reverse the process if the audio starts acting up again and go back to the nouveau driver. This is what I have not figured out how to do or have seen described how to do. If I do install the nvidia driver again, I can try the nomodeset command to see if that helps. But if it doesn’t, how do I get back to nouveau? Is it just a matter of removing the nvidia driver and unblacklisting nouveau, or is something else required?
You must add in the **nomodeset **kernel load option to your /boot/grub/menu.lst file if you install the nVIDIA driver the hard way as I do. The nouveau driver must be black listed as it will load even when the proprietary video driver is installed. You can use my bash script called skim to see what modules are loaded: