vdpau and nouveau: Error creating VDPAU device: 23

Message

rudirakete · Post by **rudirakete** » Mon Dec 08, 2025 11:58 pm

Hi,

I am trying to get hardware acceleration on an old Nvidia PCIe Card:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 8400 GS Rev. 3] (rev a2)

I'm using Xorg. Since propietary drivers are long gone, I'm on nouveau, which is working fine so far. For vdpau I've been following the VDPAU guide in the wiki. The driver appears in Xorg.0.log:

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currywurst / # grep -i vdpau /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[    11.642] (II) NOUVEAU(0): [DRI2]   VDPAU driver: nouveau

I emerged nvidia-firmware and loaded firmware blobs which I think are relevant for GT218 / NVA8 (-> https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/CodeNames.html) via CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE (nva8_fuc084 nva8_fuc085 nva8_fuc086 vuc-vp4-mpeg12-0 vuc-vp4-mpeg4-0 vuc-vp4-mpeg4-1 vuc-vp4-h264-0 vuc-vp4-vc1-2 vuc-vp4-vc1-0 vuc-vp4-vc1-1) (which may not be necessary, but anyway...).
However, when I run vdpauinfo, I am running into:

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currywurst / # vdpauinfo
display: 0   screen: 0
Error creating VDPAU device: 23

The error appears regardless of

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export VDPAU_DRIVER=nouveau

There is no indication in dmesg of any of the firmware mentioned above being loaded. At this point I'm actually getting a little bit lost. It seems vdpau is a little bit outdated and there have been changes in mesa, though there's still a vdpau useflag for that package (and it provides libvdpau_nouveau.so). Any ideas?

Edits: Kernel config // /var/log/Xorg.0.log // Useflags for xorg-server libvdpau mesa (-> End of post)

The logs (let me know if there is more relevant stuff):

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currywurst / # emerge --info
Portage 3.0.72 (python 3.13.5-final-0, default/linux/amd64/23.0/desktop/systemd, gcc-15, glibc-2.41-r6, 6.12.58-gentoo x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-6.12.58-gentoo-x86_64-AMD_Phenom-tm-_II_X6_1090T_Processor-with-glibc2.41
KiB Mem:     8145496 total,    610068 free
KiB Swap:   16776188 total,  16775932 free
Timestamp of repository gentoo: Sat, 06 Dec 2025 18:45:00 +0000
Head commit of repository gentoo: 5e0a57ed29a98841e935c38c4884a24a94518896
Head commit of repository brother-overlay: 271bfee00de74145dc5239d556f352afe9d165b3

sh bash 5.3_p3-r3
ld GNU ld (Gentoo 2.45 p3) 2.45.0
ccache version 4.12.1 [enabled]
app-misc/pax-utils:        1.3.8::gentoo
app-shells/bash:           5.3_p3-r3::gentoo
dev-build/autoconf:        2.72-r4::gentoo
dev-build/automake:        1.18.1::gentoo
dev-build/cmake:           4.1.2-r1::gentoo
dev-build/libtool:         2.5.4::gentoo
dev-build/make:            4.4.1-r102::gentoo
dev-build/meson:           1.9.1::gentoo
dev-java/java-config:      2.3.4::gentoo
dev-lang/perl:             5.42.0-r1::gentoo
dev-lang/python:           3.13.5_p1::gentoo, 3.14.0::gentoo
dev-lang/rust:             1.89.0::gentoo
dev-util/ccache:           4.12.1::gentoo
llvm-core/clang:           20.1.8::gentoo
llvm-core/lld:             20.1.8::gentoo
llvm-core/llvm:            20.1.8::gentoo
sys-apps/baselayout:       2.18::gentoo
sys-apps/sandbox:          2.46::gentoo
sys-apps/systemd:          257.10::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils:        2.45-r1::gentoo
sys-devel/binutils-config: 5.6::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc:             15.2.1_p20251122::gentoo
sys-devel/gcc-config:      2.12.2::gentoo
sys-kernel/linux-headers:  6.12::gentoo (virtual/os-headers)
sys-libs/glibc:            2.41-r6::gentoo
Repositories:

gentoo
    location: /var/db/repos/gentoo
    sync-type: rsync
    sync-uri: rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage
    priority: -1000
    volatile: False
    sync-rsync-verify-max-age: 3
    sync-rsync-verify-jobs: 1
    sync-rsync-extra-opts: 
    sync-rsync-verify-metamanifest: yes

brother-overlay
    location: /var/db/repos/brother-overlay
    sync-type: git
    sync-uri: https://github.com/stefan-langenmaier/brother-overlay.git
    masters: gentoo
    volatile: False

local
    location: /var/db/repos/local
    masters: gentoo
    volatile: False

Binary Repositories:

gentoobinhost
    priority: 1
    sync-uri: https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/amd64/binpackages/23.0/x86-64

ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=amdfam10 -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/config /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/php/apache2-php8.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php8.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php8.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/fpm-php8.3/ext-active/ /etc/php/phpdbg-php8.3/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c"
CXXFLAGS="-march=amdfam10 -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
ENV_UNSET="CARGO_HOME DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS DISPLAY GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE GOBIN GOPATH PERL5LIB PERL5OPT PERLPREFIX PERL_CORE PERL_MB_OPT PERL_MM_OPT XAUTHORITY XDG_CACHE_HOME XDG_CONFIG_HOME XDG_DATA_HOME XDG_RUNTIME_DIR XDG_STATE_HOME"
FCFLAGS="-march=amdfam10 -O2 -pipe"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-docompress binpkg-dostrip binpkg-logs binpkg-multi-instance buildpkg-live ccache config-protect-if-modified distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles ipc-sandbox merge-sync merge-wait multilib-strict network-sandbox news parallel-fetch pid-sandbox pkgdir-index-trusted preserve-libs protect-owned qa-unresolved-soname-deps sandbox strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync xattr"
FFLAGS="-march=amdfam10 -O2 -pipe"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="rsync://ftp.fi.muni.cz/pub/linux/gentoo/     rsync://ftp.agdsn.de/gentoo     rsync://ftp.spline.inf.fu-berlin.de/gentoo-distfiles/"
LANG="de_DE.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,pack-relative-relocs"
LEX="flex"
MAKEOPTS="--jobs 7 --load-average 8"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"
PORTAGE_COMPRESS="bzip2"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --omit-dir-times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --exclude=/.git"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
RUSTFLAGS=" -C target-cpu=amdfam10"
SHELL="/bin/bash"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 apache2 avif bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdr cet crypt cups dbus dri dts dvd dvdr encode exif flac gdbm gif gpm grub gtk gui iconv icu ipv6 jpeg jpegxl lcms libnotify libtirpc lvm mad mng mp3 mp4 mpeg multilib ncurses nls ogg opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf pipewire png policykit ppds pulseaudio qml qt5 qt6 readline sdl seccomp sound spell ssl startup-notification svg systemd test-rust tiff truetype udev udisks unicode upower usb vdpau vhosts vorbis vulkan wayland webp wxwidgets x264 x265 xattr xcb xft xml xv xvid zlib" ABI_X86="64" ADA_TARGET="gcc_15" APACHE2_MODULES="authn_core authz_core socache_shmcb unixd actions alias auth_basic authn_anon authn_dbm authn_file authz_dbm authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="karbon sheets words" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" CPU_FLAGS_X86="mmx mmxext sse sse2 3dnow 3dnowext popcnt sse3 sse4a" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock greis isync itrax navcom oceanserver oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf skytraq superstar2 tsip tripmate tnt ublox" GUILE_SINGLE_TARGET="3-0" GUILE_TARGETS="3-0" INPUT_DEVICES="libinput synaptics" KERNEL="linux" L10N="de de-DE en en-US" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb text" LLVM_TARGETS="X86" LUA_SINGLE_TARGET="lua5-1" LUA_TARGETS="lua5-1" OFFICE_IMPLEMENTATION="libreoffice" PHP_TARGETS="php8-3" POSTGRES_TARGETS="postgres17" PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python3_13" PYTHON_TARGETS="python3_13" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby32 ruby33" VIDEO_CARDS="amdgpu fbdev intel nouveau radeon radeonsi vesa dummy" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tarpit sysrq proto logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account"
Unset:  ADDR2LINE, AR, ARFLAGS, AS, ASFLAGS, CC, CCLD, CONFIG_SHELL, CPP, CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, CXX, CXXFILT, ELFEDIT, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, EXTRA_ECONF, F77FLAGS, FC, GCOV, GPROF, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LD, LFLAGS, LIBTOOL, LINGUAS, MAKE, MAKEFLAGS, NM, OBJCOPY, OBJDUMP, PORTAGE_BINHOST, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PYTHONPATH, RANLIB, READELF, SIZE, STRINGS, STRIP, YACC, YFLAGS

Grepped dmesg:

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currywurst / # dmesg |grep -i -e nouveau -e 01: -e drm -e vga
[    0.106345] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
[    0.181562] pci 0000:01:00.0: [10de:10c3] type 00 class 0x030000 PCIe Endpoint
[    0.181632] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 0 [mem 0xfb000000-0xfbffffff]
[    0.181690] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 1 [mem 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff 64bit pref]
[    0.181749] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 3 [mem 0xde000000-0xdfffffff 64bit pref]
[    0.181805] pci 0000:01:00.0: BAR 5 [io  0xef00-0xef7f]
[    0.181859] pci 0000:01:00.0: ROM [mem 0x00000000-0x0007ffff pref]
[    0.181914] pci 0000:01:00.0: enabling Extended Tags
[    0.181976] pci 0000:01:00.0: Video device with shadowed ROM at [mem 0x000c0000-0x000dffff]
[    0.182129] pci 0000:01:00.1: [10de:0be3] type 00 class 0x040300 PCIe Endpoint
[    0.182200] pci 0000:01:00.1: BAR 0 [mem 0xfcffc000-0xfcffffff]
[    0.182281] pci 0000:01:00.1: enabling Extended Tags
[    0.195056] pci 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: setting as boot VGA device
[    0.195056] pci 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: bridge control possible
[    0.195056] pci 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: VGA device added: decodes=io+mem,owns=io+mem,locks=none
[    0.195056] vgaarb: loaded
[    0.198006] pnp 00:01: disabling [mem 0x00000000-0x00000fff window] because it overlaps 0000:03:00.0 BAR 6 [mem 0x00000000-0x0001ffff pref]
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x4100-0x411f] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x0228-0x022f] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x040b] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x04d6] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x0c00-0x0c01] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x0c14] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x0c50-0x0c52] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x0c6c-0x0c6d] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x0c6f] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x0cd0-0x0cd1] has been reserved
[    0.198006] system 00:01: [io  0x0cd2-0x0cd3] has been reserved
[    0.198019] system 00:01: [io  0x0cd4-0x0cdf] has been reserved
[    0.198069] system 00:01: [io  0x4000-0x40fe] has been reserved
[    0.198120] system 00:01: [io  0x4210-0x4217] has been reserved
[    0.198170] system 00:01: [io  0x0b00-0x0b0f] has been reserved
[    0.198221] system 00:01: [io  0x0b10-0x0b1f] has been reserved
[    0.198272] system 00:01: [io  0x0b20-0x0b3f] has been reserved
[    0.198323] system 00:01: [mem 0xfee00400-0xfee00fff window] has been reserved
[    0.198950] pnp 00:05: disabling [mem 0x000d4400-0x000d7fff] because it overlaps 0000:01:00.0 BAR 6 [mem 0x000c0000-0x000dffff]
[    0.212193] pci_bus 0000:01: resource 0 [io  0xe000-0xefff]
[    0.212243] pci_bus 0000:01: resource 1 [mem 0xfb000000-0xfcffffff]
[    0.212294] pci_bus 0000:01: resource 2 [mem 0xc0000000-0xdfffffff 64bit pref]
[    0.280129] pci 0000:01:00.1: extending delay after power-on from D3hot to 20 msec
[    0.280226] pci 0000:01:00.1: D0 power state depends on 0000:01:00.0
[    0.316144] ACPI: bus type drm_connector registered
[    0.316287] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: NVIDIA GT218 (0a8180b1)
[    0.435947] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: bios: version 70.18.7a.00.00
[    0.436249] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: vgaarb: deactivate vga console
[    0.437514] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: fb: 1024 MiB DDR3
[    1.532627] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: drm: VRAM: 1024 MiB
[    1.532631] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: drm: GART: 1048576 MiB
[    1.532634] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: drm: TMDS table version 2.0
[    1.533979] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: drm: failed to create ce channel, -22
[    1.534075] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: drm: MM: using COPY for buffer copies
[    1.534841] [drm] Initialized nouveau 1.4.0 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0
[    1.574457] fbcon: nouveaudrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[    1.619106] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: [drm] fb0: nouveaudrmfb frame buffer device
[    1.825328] ata5.01: ATA-8: WDC WD5000AAKB-00H8A0, 05.04E05, max UDMA/133
[    1.826084] ata5.01: 976773168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 
[    2.574463] snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: Disabling MSI
[    2.596120] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card3/input3
[    2.597404] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=7 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card3/input4
[    2.598832] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=8 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card3/input5
[    2.600337] input: HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=9 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card3/input6
[    2.842683] hid-generic 0003:046D:C52B.0001: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:12.1-3/input0
[    8.867346] systemd[1]: Starting Load Kernel Module drm...

Use flags for some packages:

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emerge -pv xorg-server libvdpau mesa                                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
These are the packages that would be merged, in order:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
Calculating dependencies... done!                                                                                                                                                                                    
Dependency resolution took 4.13 s (backtrack: 0/20).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
[ebuild   R    ] x11-libs/libvdpau-1.5::gentoo  USE="dri -doc -test" ABI_X86="(64) -32 (-x32)" 0 KiB
[ebuild   R    ] media-libs/mesa-25.2.7::gentoo  USE="X llvm (opengl) proprietary-codecs vdpau vulkan wayland zstd -debug -lm-sensors -opencl -sysprof -test -unwind -vaapi -valgrind" ABI_X86="(64) -32 (-x32)" CPU_
FLAGS_X86="sse2" LLVM_SLOT="20 -18 -19" VIDEO_CARDS="intel nouveau radeon radeonsi -asahi -d3d12 (-freedreno) -lavapipe (-lima) -nvk (-panfrost) -r300 -r600 (-v3d) (-vc4) -virgl (-vivante) -vmware -zink" 0 KiB
[ebuild   R    ] x11-base/xorg-server-21.1.20:0/21.1.20::gentoo  USE="systemd udev xorg -debug (-elogind) -minimal (-selinux) -suid -test -unwind -xcsecurity -xephyr -xnest -xvfb" 0 KiB

rudirakete · Post by **rudirakete** » Fri Dec 12, 2025 12:15 pm

I "upgraded" the card with

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currywurst / # lspci
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G94GL [Quadro FX 1800] (rev a1)

- still the same. So likely no hardware / driver but a config problem. If there are no ideas here, I guess I will have to try to file a bug report at nouveau people anyway ...

mschilli · Post by **mschilli** » Tue Jan 20, 2026 9:23 am

Sorry for not being more helpful, but I ran into the same (or at least a similar) issue myself:

I have a Quadro NVS 4200M (Thinkpad T420). AFAIK, this is a Fermi (NVC0) card. https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/CodeNames.html#NVC0 lists it as NVD9 (GF119) and has this to say about Fermi cards:

All sorts of fun. Feature-wise it isn't too different but the architecture has changed a lot.
These cards are generally working with the latest kernel and Mesa but may still have power management issues. It is recommended to use the Linux 3.1 kernel or newer (or a backported driver from this kernel).
Note: GeForce 405 does not belong to this family.

Note that I am on Linux 6.12.
According to https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/VideoAcceleration.html, the nouveau driver supports VDPAU on these cards.
I have `USE=vdpau -vulkan` system-wide and no proprietary NVIDIA drivers, just nouveau, plus the firmware.
Running `vdpauinfo` without setting any`VDPAU_DRIVER` gives me

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display: :0   screen: 0
Failed to open VDPAU backend libvdpau_nvidia.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Error creating VDPAU device: 1

So far, so good. However, `VDPAU_DRIVER=nouveau vdpauinfo` also fails even though `media-libs/mesa[vdpau]` provides `/usr/lib64/vdpau/libvdpau_nouveau.so`:

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display: :0   screen: 0
Error creating VDPAU device: 23

The only other thing I noticed that could be related is the following dmesg entry:

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[    2.378386] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: drm: failed to create ce channel, -22

So if you find a solution or cross-post this elsewhere (i.e. with upstream, as indicated by your last message), I'd appreciate if you kept me in the loop.

mschilli · Post by **mschilli** » Thu Jan 22, 2026 5:16 pm

Just fyi: For me,

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DRI_PRIME=1 VDPAU_DRIVER=nouveau vdpauinfo

Did the trick.
I had to enable OPTIMUS in my BIOS settings to get both, my iGPU and my dGPU into

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xrandr --list-providers

Also, I had to remove my explicit driver setting from `/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/` to have the X server auto-detect both cards.