[linux-audio-user] nvidia drivers

[Jan Depner]

We've been using the NVIDIA cards and drivers at work on our smp and
non-smp systems (all dual monitor) for a couple of years.  There is
still an insidious little bug somewhere in the driver that only shows up
on smp systems that causes the behavior that you are experiencing.  We
only see it about once a month though and our systems are up 24/7.  We
don't have any problems with non-smp systems.  From what I've read
running dual monitors without the NVIDIA driver is a massive PITA if
it's even possible.  I think you have to do some fancy foot work with
Xinerama to get it to work.

Jan

On Thu, 2004-11-25 at 01:17, Florin Andrei wrote:
> Something apparently unrelated to Linux audio, but in fact it is. Let me
> explain.
> 
> 1. Is there a way to run an NVidia card dual-head (two monitors) using
> the open source drivers?
> 2. Is there a way to silence the fan on an NVidia-based card other than
> loading up the proprietary drivers? (which silences it as long as there
> is no hard graphics work)
> 
> Being able to extend the desktop across two monitors, and not having to
> bear the obnoxious fan on the graphics card are the reasons why i'm
> using the NVidia proprietary driver, because:
> - i want to use two monitors because audio apps are hungry for desktop
> real estate
> - the noisy fan is very disturbing when doing any kind of audio work
> 
> But there's a nasty side-effect of the proprietary driver - the system
> seems to freeze for a few seconds every once in a while (about once a
> day).
> There are no side-effects of the open source driver, but i don't know
> how to tell it to work in dual-head mode and i don't know how to silence
> the fan.