Complete system freeze when loading module-oss using nvsound kernel driver

[jocko]

My computer have an onboard nvidia soundstorm sound card, and to be able to use the hardware mixing and real-time dolby digital encoding, I need to run nvidias old (non-free) nvsound driver, which is OSS only (i.e does not work with alsa).

In Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon I have pulseaudio (v. 0.9.6) working nicely using module-oss to output sound to nvsound (on /dev/dsp).

In Ubuntu Hardy Heron (with pulseaudio v. 0.9.9), whenever I try to load module-oss the entire system freezes up completely.

The only way to recover is to press the reset button or turn off the power (Alt+SysRq?+b does not help). I can start pulseaudio without module-oss, but that's pointless as it will not find any output sink.

So I did some more testing in gutsy gibbon; I compiled versions 0.9.6, 0.9.7 and 0.9.9. Of these, 0.9.6 is the only version that does not freeze (so the bug was introduced in version 0.9.7 and is still there).

I guess this problem is hardware/driver specific and not that many people use the nvsound driver anymore so I fully understand it may be difficult to find the cause for this problem, especially as nvsound is closed source... If there are any log files or other information I can provide, I'll be happy to help...

[lennart]

This is an issue in the kernel sound drivers. Since they are closed source I fear you cannot do much about it, other then reporting the bug to NVidia and hope they fix it for you.