NVIDIA driver Suse 10.2 Install problem
 

I was installing the NVIDIA video driver on a perfectly good working version of Suse 10.2 on an HP pavilion laptop using Yast and something went wrong. The laptop now boots to a raw unix prompt and doesn't start X11. while I was configuring using sax -r I noticed the log files were saying something about a screen not found. I've been looking how to get back to a state I can use the laptop again. I had read about all sorts of issues installing the NVidia drivers but Yast has been working so well in 10.2 I guess I got a little too confident.

Any help in how to remove the driver would be greatly appreciated. I've been looking all over for a solution but haven't found it yet.

FJD

No screens found. Maybe you should post your xorg.conf, perhaps it has done something to it and ended up misconfiguring it.

If it was working, my guess is that you do not need to remove anything. Did you update the Linux kernel? (I recall they released a patch a couple weeks ago.) If so, and if you installed the NVIDIA driver from the command line (hard to tell based on your post), you may need to reinstall the NVIDIA driver. In your situation, and if you are running a 32-bit version, I would consider following the directions from SUSE:

1) Kernel sources must be installed and configured. Usually this means
installing the 'kernel-source', 'make' and 'gcc' packages with YaST2.

2) Use the nvidia installer for 1.0-9746.

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746-pkg1.run -q

3) Configure X.Org with

sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia (0 is a digit, not a letter!)

NOTE: There is no need to try to enable 3D support. It's already
enabled, when the nvidia driver is running.

IMPORTANT: You need to recompile and install the nvidia kernel module
after each kernel update.

http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/nvidia-...ler-HOWTO.html


PS: If none of this makes sense, it may be more understandable if you start here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

After a couple days I broke down and just did a full update from the installation disk. I couldn't be without my laptop for another day. But I am not giving up - I'll try the nvidia update again very soon.

Here is what I learned. Before the installation i saved a copy of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf that would allow me to start X properly. I also couldn't use SaX2 or even yast2 (the text based version of yast - it would start but I couldn't change the graphics driver...just locked up). In any case the only change the new install did (and I probably could have done it manually is the change the value of Driver from "nvidia" back to "nv".

a snippet from my /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Device"
BoardName "GeForce Go 6150"
BusID "0:5:0"
Driver "nv"
Identifier "Device[0]"
VendorName "NVidia"
EndSection

when I still do a modprobe nvidia I see the following error msg from a failed nvidia install

FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.18.2-34-default/modules.dep: No such file or directory

one more data point from the SaX log
The tail of /var/log/SaX.log

(II) Setting vga for screen 0.
(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using HW cursor
(**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling RENDER acceleration
(==) NVIDIA(0): Video key set to default value of 0x101fe
FATAL: Error inserting nvidia (/lib/modules/2.6.18.2-34-default/updates/
nvidia.ko): No such device
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadModule: "ramdac"
(II) UnloadModule: "fb"
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found
]

Glad to hear you got things working temporarily. :) That makes me wonder--are you using an NVIDIA driver or a generic (VESA or similar) driver with your laptop during the initial install? If you have a separate monitor, you might try driving it from your laptop and see if the issue is the video driver or the display. As a guess, a generic driver may work where the NVIDIA driver will not support your laptop's display.