# nforce2

## px

has someone tested nvidia's linux driver for nforce2 and tell me if the sound card is recognized as a 5.1 or a simple stereo?

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## Forge

It's recognized as a six channel device, but it sets up for two channel by default.

BTW: The nForce drivers from Nvidia apply to exactly two items: nvaudio and nvnet. The nvnet driver is for the nForce onboard ethernet (the 3Com is separate and not yet supported from what I can see). The nvaudio driver is a clone of the i810 driver from the latest kernels. Basically, I enable the one compiled into 2.4.20-rc4-ac1 and have no problems. My A7N8X's IDE isn't recognized, but this seems to be an Asus foulup, where they change 10DE (nvidia) to 1043 (Asus) once too often. Hopefully this will get fixed in BIOS update #1.

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## px

thx very much  :Very Happy: 

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## rommel

Forge how do you like the performance of the nforce2 board under linux?

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## Forge

Well, the IDE is supposed to be supported by a generic driver, but I'm misconfigured or something, cause my IDE performance is total crap. Other than that, it's just as smooth in Linux as it is in Windows. I'm going to have to reserve final judgement for a while, though, as IDE and AGPGART aren't nForce2-ready just yet. The first BIOS update very well might clear up a few of the minor hassles I'm getting, as well.

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## taskara

cool - let us know, please!  :Smile: 

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## Forge

Mr. Cox reports that 2.4.20-AC2 will include nForce2 IDE support. That's audio and IDE down, AGP to go!

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## taskara

don't forget network! - THE biggest problem to nforce gentoo users atm

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## Forge

Well, there are two halves to that problem. I've come up with an ugly workaround for right now, and a better one for the long run (that won't work yet).

For the quick and dirty Gentoo fix: Get another machine. Get a minimal install going, then copy the kernel off the CD. Build the nvnet module for that kernel and make a new CD with that module added. You should then be able to modprobe nvnet and get one of the two NICs working.

The other solution is to wait for the 3Com 3C920 to get support in the kernel, and put *that* kernel on the installer CD.

I might work up a new version of my hackish 1.2 BootCD with 1.4RC1 stage1, with the nvnet module compiled and on the disc. If I can hack it together, I'll put a copy up somewhere for testing. Not sure how NV's legal BS refers to something like this, though, so this may not be a long-lived project.

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## taskara

or just put in a cheap $15 card into your machine, build gentoo, load drivers for nforce, and take out temp nic  :Smile: 

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## Forge

Didn't think of that. Can't bear letting some no-namer NIC contaminate my Precious.  :Smile: 

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## taskara

haha true!   :Laughing: 

then buy a $50 Intel  :Razz: 

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## taskara

errrhrhrhhh.. intel.. yuck... ummm... that will contaminate too...

guess you have to do it the complicated way!  :Smile: 

if only you could get one of those old AMD nics  :Very Happy: 

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## rommel

i just swapped mainboards, and cpu's.....i used the gcc-3.2 upgrade.sh scripts yesetrday, compiled kde-3.1-rc3 today while i was working and then compiled my kernel (to make the platform switch) downloaded the nforce2 divers , ran make and make install, shut down and took out my epox 8kha+ and installed an epox 8rda+ and a xp2800+...every thing went fine BUT i have no mouse.....i am compiling the ohci driver as a module this time to ee if there is any difference

anyone have a usb mouse and experienced trouble with ohci and nforce?

edit:well ohci compiled and loaded as a module but still cant get my mouse to work.....suggestions? fixed: well resolved anyway....its was a dead usb 1 ....both ports on this for somereason arent assigned an irq in the bios and consequently linux isnt able to use them.....windows manages to work around it but its still a defect of somekind jsut not sure if its a bios issue or actual hardware failure. anyway all other usb ports work witht he kernel ohci module

Forge: you probably already tried this but just incase, i re-emerged xine and the play was choppy. hdparm showed dma was off and the dvd /dev/hda was 16bit so i did #hdparm -d1 -c1 /dev/hda and turned on dma and 32bit and xine ran great.Last edited by rommel on Thu Dec 12, 2002 12:46 am; edited 1 time in total

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## w9ofa

Is there a nForce 2 board that is available which has:

Both onboard ethernet controllers implemented with a physical interface

AC-3 output port (as coax) implemented

NOT ASUS (Their BIOS updates are slow, undocumented and suck)

Unfortunately the only board that meets these requirements is the Asus board, which fails the requirements.

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## taskara

hmmm.... I think ASUS are great, but maybe give ABit a try

NF7-S

it has optical sound output, not coax, and only one built in nic... come to think of it, that's not really what you want at all  :Smile:  lemme try again

msi ?

there's Epox, Chaintech and Leadtek, but once again they only have single lan.. 

...hmmm... you are right, looks like the ASUS is the only one with everything you want lol  :Smile: 

and they JUST released a new bios!!   :Shocked: 

btw - get your ASUS updates from ftp.asuscom.de/pub - they always go there first  :Smile: 

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## mrchuckles

 *Forge wrote:*   

> The other solution is to wait for the 3Com 3C920 to get support in the kernel, and put *that* kernel on the installer CD.

 

I thought the 3Com 3C920 was compatible with the 3C90x series drivers.  It is under Windows.  Have you tried loading the 3C90x kernel driver/module?

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## Forge

Doesn't work. I'd imagine the PCI IDs in the 905 driver need updating.

FWIW, My 920 doesn't work with the 905 drivers, here. I get an unknown NIC till I install the 3Com drivers off the NF2 CD.

w9ofa - Why do they need *regular* updates, when the existing BIOSen work fine?

rommel - That's by design. Apparently it's valid to run multiple OCHI hubs that way, they're all assumed to share any assigned IRQs. Too bad nobody told anyone outised of Intel/Nvidia/MS about it.

For now I just use the PCI-side USB ports and the expansion header, and I ignore the PS/2 side USB ports.

5.1 sound is now possible in ALSA CVS. It sounds quite nice, though it remains software, since NV are still being difficult.

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## w9ofa

 *Quote:*   

> w9ofa - Why do they need *regular* updates, when the existing BIOSen work fine? 

 

Well, I agree that in principle that if a BIOS works, it should work forever with a static set of particular circumstances.  

The reality is that specifications change slightly between CPU revisions, so a BIOS must be changed to meet the new processor specs. Also, the motherboard should be tested with multiple combinations of different retail hardware, and any defects caused by the BIOS need to be resolved by the motherboard maker.

I currently own an old A7V board made by Asus, and I have been unimpressed with the quality of the documentation released by Asus accompanying its BIOS updates and its drivers for its motherboards.

In fact, he quality of this documentation is infinately low, since there is none.

I have searched the Asus site for awhile and I have yet to find more than one sentance long change logs for the BIOS revisions.  That frightens me.  If I am going to change the BIOS of my computer, I ought to know exactly what is changing and the purpose for which it has been changed.

The most documentation for BIOS releases I have ever seen is looking in Asus board forums where one guy says "I updated it and it seems to make the north bridge hot" and another guy says "I updated it and nothing works right now"  

That isn't documentation!  

If anyone has any better experience with the quality of documentation with BIOS and motherboard driver releases, please inform me of a better place to go.

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## Lovechild

 *Forge wrote:*   

> Didn't think of that. Can't bear letting some no-namer NIC contaminate my Precious. 

 

Ahhh you are the NIC bearer

The NIC of power must be thrown into the fires of Mount Intel where it's was soldered.

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## taskara

anarchist got the 3com nic working.. download  here

"just untar the file, and then type make clean, make, make install, modprobe pci-scan, modprobe 3c59x and everything should work."

check with ifconfig -a

add 3c59x to /etc/modules.autoload

and rommel both anarchist and I have a problem with this board where a usb keyboard isnt' detected by the bios, even tho the bios has usb legacy support enabled. seems like sometimes it works, cause I compiled all my gentoo with a usb keyboard.. hopefully a bios update will fix this  :Very Happy: 

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