Yet Another nVidia Driver Thread

I've been trying for the past 2 days to get the nvidia display driver installed on Mandrake 10.1 for my 6600GT.

The installation seems to go fine untill I edit /etc/X11/XF86Config, replacing "vesa" with "nvidia". When I then try to load the GUI the screen goes black for about 10 seconds and I get this error: -

(EE) NVIDIA(0): The NVIDIA kernel module does not appear to be receiving (EE) NVIDIA(0): interrupts generated by the NVIDIA graphics device. (EE) NVIDIA(0): Please see the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS section in (EE) NVIDIA(0): the README for additional information."

I've tried countless times trying to get it to work but it is the same every time. I've asked in linux IRC channels and no one seems to know what is up. The readme says it could be IRQs: -

A. This can be caused by a variety of problems, such as PCI IRQ routing errors, I/O APIC problems or conflicts with other devices sharing the IRQ (or their drivers). If possible, configure your system such that your graphics card does not share its IRQ with other devices (try moving the graphics card to another slot (if applicable), unload/disable the driver(s) for the device(s) sharing the card's IRQ, or remove/disable the device(s)). Depending on the nature of the problem, one of (or a combination of) these kernel parameters might also help: Parameter Behavior ------------------------------- ------------------------------- pci=noacpi don't use ACPI for PCI IRQ routing pci=biosirq use PCI BIOS calls to retrieve the IRQ routing table noapic don't use I/O APICs present in the system acpi=off disable ACPI

To be honest I have no idea what to do. Can you help?

Specs: -
Mandrake 10.1
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton OC'd to 3200+ (12.5 x 177 = 2,212.5MHz)
Gigabyte nForce 2 "7N400E-L"
Crucial 512MB DDR400
PNY Geforce 6 6600GT 128MB AGP
Western Digital SE 80GB 8MB Cache
Antec SmartPower 400watt
1Mbps ADSL

there is a way to see what devices use which irq (which currently don't remember now)
just start removing all devices from your systems one by one and then restart your system each time to see what device creates the conflict with the agp graphics card.
If you found it then we can see what we can do.
The problem would be if you unplug all devices from your system and only your keyboard and mouse remain. Then I think it's another story.
Check that you unplug and the pci devices also(like sound card etc)
Start from peripherals like printer, scanner etc

If there is something wrong with the IRQs, how come I don't have any problems in Windows XP? I thought the BIOS set the IRQ values?

I have very few components in my case anyway. I'm using onboard sound, none of my PCI slots are being used. The only card I have in there is the graphics card.

First, if your BIOS has this option, try setting "PnP BIOS" to "No".

pci=noacpi don't use ACPI for PCI IRQ routing pci=biosirq use PCI BIOS calls to retrieve the IRQ routing table noapic don't use I/O APICs present in the system acpi=off disable ACPI

Try editing your /etc/lilo.conf so that the kernel you are using is passed these options. Try them one at a time, do not forget to re-run /sbin/lilo after you have saved the changed lilo.conf and before you reboot. Setting "acpi=off" works for me, like this:

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.13MWAmdk
	label="MDK9.1-hdb1-MWA"
	root=/dev/hdb1
	initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.21-0.13MWAmdk.img
	append="max_scsi_luns=7 noapic nolapic devfs=mount acpi=off resume=/dev/hdb5"
	vga=788
	read-only