The nForce chipset contains a number of hardware devices that can be run under Linux. Along with a display processor, the chipset includes a network device (MAC), audio hardware, an IDE controller, and an OHCI USB controller. Many of the components of the nForce chipset use industry standard interfaces; thus, not all components require custom drivers to be used on Linux.
Bug reports and installation questions may be directed to:
Please be sure read the TroubleShooting section first, and to report all relevant details, such as Linux Disribution, Kernel version, binary or source RPM, the fact that you checked the SBIOS configuration, the contents of /etc/modules.conf, and a listing of any error messges you find (you can run dmesg, or look at /var/log/messages as root). If you are having operational problems, please be as specific as possible, so we can try to reproduce the problem, and determine if we have a fix for it.
This package can be found at the NVIDIA web site:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
We strongly urge you to only use software obtained from this website or a trusted Linux distribution for your nForce hardware.
At the current time, the nForce drivers require a 2.4 series kernel.
The network driver provided by NVIDIA is subject to the NVIDIA software license; the license is available on the NVIDIA website, and is included in this package. By using this software, you are agreeing to the terms of the license. The rest of the software is provided under the GNU public license, which is also included in this package.
The packages contain the following items:
This package will build a network driver and an audio driver, then place them in the appropriate locations for loadable kernel modules. The network driver is from NVIDIA, the audio driver is based on the open source i810 audio driver but has been modified to work with NVIDIA hardware.
The binary packages will also update the modules configuration file, commenting out existing network, audio and usb entries, and add entries for the new drivers. A backup file is created before any changes are made to the configuration file. If the binary package is uninstalled, the package attempts to restore the original version of the file from this backup.
The tar files don't try to modify the module configuration files. You should make sure the following lines are in the configuration file (it will be named /etc/modules.conf on most current distributions):
Neither the binary nor the source packages will load the kernel drivers during the installation. You can do this manually using insmod or modprobe. (USAGE: 'insmod modulename' or 'modprobe modulename') Upon reboot, the kernel modules should insert themselves automatically.
Nvidia has provided precompiled binary RPMs for several versions of RedHat and Mandrake. You should select the RPM appropriate to your current kernel version. You can check what kernel your machine is running by checking the output of 'uname -r'.
If you are using a different version of Red Hat or Mandrake, a modified kernel, or a different rpm-based distribution, you should use the SRPM to build an RPM appropriate for your system. If you are using the SuSE RPM, see NOTE: SuSE INSTALLATIONS, below.
If you are using a non-RPM based system, or if you prefer not to use RPM, you should download and install from the source tarballs.
To install a binary rpms, you only need use rpm to install the package. This should install and configure the drivers. A source rpm requires building and installing the drivers yourself. The files in this package are organized into a build hierarchy to make this task easier.
You might want to check the BIOS configuration on your system to ensure that the audio and networking devices will be detected. See the System BIOS Configuration description in the Troubleshooting section.
If you are using the SuSE Linux distribution, note that the binary RPM for SuSE only supports SuSE versions using the upgraded kernel. This note contains directions from SuSE on upgrading to the new kernel for SuSE versions 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3:
Get the upgraded kernel from one of the following sites (depending on SuSE distribution):
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.1/kernel/2.4.16 (for SuSE 7.1)
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.2/kernel/2.4.16 (for SuSE 7.2)
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.3/kernel/2.4.16 (for SuSE 7.3)
For update instructions, see SuSE's SBD article, located at
http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/ftpkernel.html
The following instructions should be used before proceeding with a source RPM or tar file installation. You will need to use one of these installation methods if you want to install nForce drivers without upgrading your kernel. Please note that these installation methods won't work for SuSE 7.1 or 7.2.
Install with YaST(2) the following d (development) series packages
Use the following commands to set up your development environment
example% cd <directory with the rpm file>
example% su
Password: ******
example# pushd /usr/src/linux
example# make cloneconfig
example# make dep
example# popd
You can now proceed with the tar file or source RPM installation steps below, omitting the steps to become root.
The binary installation procedure involves downloading the binary RPM file appropriate to your distribution and installing it. If you are using the SuSE distribution, see NOTE: SuSE INSTALLATIONS, above.
Become root and install using rpm:
example% cd <directory with the rpm file>
example% su
Password: ******
example# rpm -i nforce{package name}-1.0-1.rpm
The Source RPM will create an RPM appropriate for your system. If you are using the SuSE RPM, see NOTE: SuSE INSTALLATIONS, above. To install:
example% cd <directory with the rpm file>
example% su
Password: ******
example# rpm --rebuild nforce{package name}-1.0-1.src.rpm
At this point, the SRPM will be recompiled. When this command has completed, look for a line that says:
Wrote: /usr/src/{RPM root dir}/RPMS/i386/nforce{package name}-1.0-1.rpm
This will provide you with the name and location of the new RPM. You should then install this RPM per the instructions in the Binary RPM Installation section.
The tar file package contains source code, libraries, makefiles and documentation organized into a single tar file.
To install the tar file, unpack it, build the sources and install them. If you are using the SuSE RPM, see NOTE: SuSE INSTALLATIONS, above:
example% tar -xvzf nforce.tgz
example% cd nforce
example% make
example% su
Password: ******
example# make install
To remove the contents of one of the binary rpm files, use rpm to remove it:
example% cd <directory with rpm file>
example% su
Password: ******
example# rpm -e nforce<package name>-1.0-1.rpm
To remove the contents of one of the source rpm or tar file, go to the build directory, and run "make uninstall":
example% cd <directory with unpacked build>
example% cd nforce
example% su
Password: ******
example# make uninstall
Since the audio and network drivers work on the nForce chipset, these devices along with other motherboard devices are controlled by the System BIOS. If the installed drivers don't recognize hardware on your system, the problem may be your System BIOS's plug and play configuration. If your system BIOS expects the operating system to configure hardware devices, and your Linux kernel doesn't support ACPI-style configuration, you'll need to change your BIOS settings.
To view or change an Award-style system BIOS, reboot the machine, and press the Delete key. When you get a configuration screen, select "PnP/PCI Configurations" in that screen if "PNP OS Installed []" Has "Yes" choosen, change the selection to "No".
If your BIOS is Phoenix-style, use the F2 key instead of Delete, and scroll through the menus to find OS Type, and chose "Other". The exact details of System BIOS configuration vary with BIOS vendor, so the screens may not be exactly the same.
Warning: You should write down the original configuration of the BIOS before changing it. Changing your system BIOS configuration may adversely affect the operation of the system, and even make it unbootable.
A: NVIDIA is aware of this limitation in our nForce Linux driver package, and we hope to provide a workable solution in the future.
A: A kernel patch was added in kernel 2.4.21pre3-ac1 which enables DMA for the nForce2 IDE controller and should be available in the final released 2.4.21 kernel. An alternative to upgrading your kernel is to use the "hdparm" utility to enable DMA for your hard drive. For example:
example% su
Password: ******
example# hdparm -d 1 /dev/hdX
Where /dev/hdX is the IDE device you wish to enable DMA for. You must do this every time you reboot, or add it to an rc script. Some distributions have a file "/etc/sysconfig/harddisks" where you can enable this for all hard drives on system boot.
A: The USB and USB2.0 devices use the industry standard OHCI and EHCI interfaces, and will work with the standard Linux USB drivers.
A. Unresolved symbols are most often caused by a mismatch between your kernel sources and your running kernel. They must match for the nForce driver modules to build correctly. Please make sure your kernel sources are installed and configured to match your running kernel.
A: If you're running on a distro that uses RPM (Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, etc), then you can use RPM to tell you. At a shell prompt, type:
example% rpm -qa | grep kernel
and look at the output. You should see a package that corresponds to your kernel (often named something like kernel-2.4.18-3) and a kernel source package with the same version (often named something like kernel-source-2.4.18-3). If none of the lines seem to correspond to a source package, then you'll probably need to install it. If the versions listed mismatch (ex: kernel-2.4.18-10 vs. kernel-source-2.4.18-3), then you'll need to update the kernel-source package to match the installed kernel. If you have multiple kernels installed, you need to install the kernel-source package that corresponds to your running kernel (or make sure your installed source package matches the running kernel). You can do this by looking at the output of "uname -r" and matching versions.
A: Recent versions of rpm no longer support the "-rebuild" option; if you have such a version of rpm, you should instead use the command "rpmbuild -rebuild". The "rpmbuild" executable is provided by the rpm-build package.
A: You need to install the sources for your kernel. Please download and install the appropriate kernel-source package for your kernel.
Most recent changes at top of list. Each bullet indicates a public release on NVIDIA web site.
Changed installation script to use lowest available number when enumerating network and audio devices in modles.conf
Changed audio driver to be self contained source file based off
i810_audio driver.
Added SPDIF support to audio driver
Updated binary packages for latest releases of RedHat kernels.
Added FAQ section to release notes.
Some cleanup of spec file and Makefiles
SRPMs and tar files now use local system's i810_audio.c file, and complain if it's not there; this makes them more distro independent.
Added support for Mandrake9.0 and Redhat8.0
nForce2 support for network driver.