Problem: No hardware/3d acceleration. Tried to upgrade to XORG as per Backports Page. It failed. Now 'X' is broken and apt-get does nothing but my desktop oddly works fine.

Experience:
still new to debian, did the MDK thing for a while

Hardware:
P. III
Nvidia TNT rage/2

Software:
KDE version: 3.4.1
System: Debian Sarge Stable
Release: 2.6.8-2-386
Machine: i686

Long Problem Descripion:
This machine was doing (basic) hardware/3d acceleration in Windows XP though the desktop was really chugging along. On KDE3.4.1 it is impressivly quick and responsive - but NO HARDWARE/3d ACCELERATION.

When I tried i was getting an error about XFREE86-common, but i don't have it anymore to copy here. I i tried following the instructions on the backport page to upgrade to XORG. The xfree upgrade didn't work and his "fix" didn't work either.

I skimmed the documentation (again) read some more posts, and tried to force it through. Eventually I ran: "apt-get remove xfree86-common" (it worked REAL WELL.. :-P)
Then I tried to do a dist-update and I get this:

debian:~# apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Calculating Upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
kdebase kdebase-kio-plugins x-window-system-core
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.


currently glxgears gives me this (a step backwards i think but same end result...)
steven@debian:/opt/TorqueDemo$ glxgears
1054 frames in 5.0 seconds = 210.800 FPS
1017 frames in 5.0 seconds = 203.400 FPS
1017 frames in 5.0 seconds = 203.400 FPS
1017 frames in 5.0 seconds = 203.400 FPS
904 frames in 5.0 seconds = 180.800 FPS
1017 frames in 5.0 seconds = 203.400 FPS
904 frames in 5.0 seconds = 180.800 FPS
X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
steven@debian:/opt/TorqueDemo$

At this point I don't even understand why X is still running.
How do I know if I have XFree or XOrg?
Which one's best and how do I get it propperly installed?
Where do I go from here?


Sorry for the long post,

thanks for the help!
RavenSlay3r

It doesn't sound like there is a problem with X.
The problem probably is that you don't have the nVidia drivers installed.
Go to www.nvidia.org or try:
(from memory) and then find the nvidia drivers from those results.
Install and make the nessesary adjustments to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (change nv to nvidia in the display section - i think).
Post /etc/X11/xorg.conf if problems.

Edit: I forget how to find out which you are running in debian, but if you arn't running Xorg, but are running XFree86, then the /etc/X11/xorg.conf will be something like /etc/X11/XF86 - you can tell by looking inside and it will contain details about your graphics hardware.

Also, install the one that is native to debian. So if it came with XFree86, then use XFree86 (this is unless the install of Xorg went fine, in which case there is no point chaning back). Unless you have any special requirments of your X, then you won't be able to tell the difference.

As your card isn't supported anymore by the official nvidia drivers you'll have to compile a kernel for it. Here's how to fo that:

http://home.comcast.net/~andrex/Debi...tallation.html

Ok, I can try both of those but at this point I think I have myself in a hole. I'm pretty sure both versions of 'X' are partially installed. At this point XFREE86-common isn't there (tried reinstalling with "apt-get install Xfree86-common" but that failed also).

Any attempt to run apt-get comes back with the following error:


debian:~# apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Calculating Upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
kdebase kdebase-kio-plugins x-window-system-core
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.


How do I resolve this and get myself back to one propperly installed 'X'?
It seems I have to tackle that before I can worry about drivers, no?

Thanks,
Raven

Did an upgrade today.
check this out ---- x11-common
Here is the description:
X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
x11-common contains the filesystem infrastructure required for further
installation of the X Window System in any configuration.

Those wishing an X server only (with remote font services and clients) will
also require the xserver-common package and an X server package (most
likely xserver-xorg).

The counterpart to the above configuration is a machine with the X libraries
(the xlibs package), xbase-clients, a window manager, some X font packages,
and likely many more client packages.

Those who desire a standalone X workstation (and/or are fuzzy on the concepts
of X servers and X clients) will require both of the above sets of packages.
For convenience, the "x-window-system" metapackage will include everything
that is required for a standalone X workstation.

A number of terms are used to refer to the X Window System, including "X", "X
Version 11", "X11", "X11R6", and "X11R6.8". The version of X used in Debian
is derived from the version released by the X.Org Foundation, and is thus
often also referred to as "X.Org". All of the preceding quoted terms are
functionally interchangeable in an Debian system.

Until recently, Debian shipped an X implementation released by The XFree86
Project, Inc. (aka "XFree86"). The X.Org implementation is derived from the
XFree86 implementation previously shipped, and is generally considered to be
the standard implementation by vendors and distributors.

Still confused? Install this package and then read the files in
/usr/share/doc/x11-common/ for assistance.

Thanks Jackie, that post helped alot! :-) The tip about "x-window-system" got my X-system back installed propperly and resolved the flack apt-get was giving me.

- glxgears also gives me clean output now.
- the TorqueEngine Demo does not.

I'm still working on this one. Next i'm going to look to the drivers issue and Darkleaf's suggestion to follow: http://home.comcast.net/~andrex/Deb...stallation.html

Below is some current console output I'm seeing - I'm open to any further input or suggestions :-)

Thanks for all the suggestions so far,
Raven


//Trying to decide what I'm using
// Where is the config file? (line 2?)

debian:/# locate xorg.conf
/usr/share/xresprobe/xorg.conf
debian:/#
debian:/# locate XF86
/etc/X11/app-defaults/XF86Cfg
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4
/usr/share/man/man7/XF86Config.7.gz
/usr/X11R6/man/man5/XF86Config-4.5x.gz
/var/lib/xfree86/XF86Config-4.md5sum
/var/lib/xfree86/XF86Config-4.roster
debian:/#


// apt-cache check - what do we learn from this?

debian:~# apt-cache search nvidia
nvidia-kernel-common - NVIDIA binary kernel module common files
nvtv - tool to control TV chips on NVidia cards under Linux
nvidia-cg-toolkit - NVIDIA Cg Toolkit installer
nvidia-settings - Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
debian:~#


// And the Torque Engine, which DOES use 3D acceleration
//Before it loaded, but without accel. it was about 1FPS.
// NOW it hits these errors and fails
// (if your intrested in this prog: http://www.garagegames.com/)

user@debian:/opt/TorqueDemo$ ./demo.bin -windowed -noSound -openGL -autoVideo
X Error of failed request: GLXBadRenderRequest
Major opcode of failed request: 144 (GLX)
Minor opcode of failed request: 1 (X_GLXRender)
Serial number of failed request: 375
Current serial number in output stream: 378
user@debian:/opt/TorqueDemo$

Look into this first (http://home.comcast.net/~andrex/Debi...tallation.html) because it may solve your problem, at very least it should be the first step.

The problem you are having with Torque seems to be with GLX, which I had problems with until I got my nvidia drivers sorted out. So, installing the nvidia drivers and configuring X to use them could solve your problem.

Robot,

Thats where I started last night after the last post.

Running 'apt-cache policy nvidia-kernel-source' from "Choosing a distribution" section returns somthing to the effect of 'none installed'. So I guess I don't have the right nvidia drivers downloaded to build the kernel against?

I went to the nvidia site. They have everything since my card in the 'all in one driver'. Their documentation says to find the special legacy-drivers for supported legacy products, but no such drivers are to be found on the site.

Tried the all in one driver, but it was a no-go. I forget why at the moment, but I think it was again not finding somthing it was looking for.

Aside:
Found out my runlevel is '2' yet that gives me the X-login, what one would expect from runlevel '5' on most systems. I was confused by that but rebooted in 'recovery' mode to escape X11.

Gonna do more reading tonight see i I can figure out what I missed, then try the 'Debian Way' again.

thanks,
Raven

You just have to download the kernel source and nvidia kernel source. If you have those two you follow the guide and it'll fix everything. You don't need any specific kernel version if you follow the guide I think. I just used a generic one.