nvidia + xorg = death (fails to initialize)
 

I've struggled and strained and fought the good fight with the nvidia drivers on xfree... and eventually got them working. Sigh...
Because I love pain, i thought it would be a good idea to see what all this fuss is with xorg, and give it a shot. (but who am i kidding, i want a transparant xterm!)

---The short version---
Upgrading to xorg v6.7.0 won't load X with "nvidia" (drivers v1.0.6111) but will with the "nv" in xorg.conf. Xorg's error:
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics Device!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): ***Aborting***
(II) UnloadingModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadingModule: "vgahw"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

---Stuff that probably doesn't matter, but who knows---
::Nvidia drivers
I have a geforce3, 64mb card. When last emerging world I accidentally downgraded my nvidia drivers (to 1.0.5336, which broke before) so i re-upgraded to 1.0.6111. The reason for not using the defaults is, or was, that the 5336's required turning off 4k stacks (or something) in the 2.6 kernel - the latest fixed that.
Anyway - So i just installed the latest nvidia-kernel-mod. I modprobed, env-updated and even opengl-updated, and everything seems fine. /dev/nvidia0 is there, and in the xorg output it seems like the module loads just fine.

::Xorg
and I have (almost) the latest xorg (v6.7.0-r1) installed fresh ala emerge. I've since env-updated and source /etc/profile (what exactly does that do anyway!? - and do i need to do it on each term seperately?). So X worked fine after setting it up with defaults in from xorgconfig. The only changes i've made to the .conf since are:
1) uncomment
#Load "glx" -------------------> Load "glx"

2)and to change "nv" to "nvidia" in the "Device" section.

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA is teh sux"
Driver "nv" ----now reads---> Driver "nvidia
... (commented out)
EndSection

---In summary---
I might have just missed something, or forgotten a step, or needed to google one last time... but I feel like if this is a common problem with a pretty common setup (gentoo/xorg/nvidia) then it should be (but isn't!) documented all over the place.
A final note, X loads/work fine with "nv"(default drivers), so that seems to imply most things are good. Just wondering if anyone has had success with xorg and nvidia drivers (esp with a geforce 3), or if you have any other wisdom to share.

Thanks!
~ Graham

In my Slack 10-current with 2.6.7 kernel and xorg, nvidia 1.0.6111 works like a charm. Both kernel and nvidia-driver are compiled by hand and not installed from binaries using package managers.

Crap - isn't that how it is. You find the answer a moment after it's too late.

http://www.linuxforum.com/forums/ind...0&#entry371542
Discusses a similar (the same?) problem which was fixed by disabling "Frame-buffer support" in the kernel. I have this disabled, but it led me to think it might just be another kernel config thats wrong.
http://odin.prohosting.com/wedge01/g...aq.html#1_xorg
Says (among other things) Direct Rendering Manager must be disabled - which it wasn't. Disabled it and am currently rolling out the fresh new kernel. I'll post the results soon.

WE HAVE LIFTOFF!!
Got the nvidia screen at startup, everything looks peachy keen.
So yeah - disabling "Direct Rendering Manager" is a must if you want to run xorg + nvidia (though it seems xfree cared not).

Ok then, enough madness, now it's time for bio labs!

Yes let the installer compile a kernel module manually, disable dri (as the readme says), and then reboot your linux into x

hey,

and
works fine for me, with kernel 2.6.8.1, nvidia installer (error while loading the module --> cp the module from the tmp directory to the lib/modules dir, and load it) and debian sarge

everything is fine (transparency, shadows, aso.), only the redraw-'fnort' of xterms are some kind of crappy :)

-> db391: sry, but your sig sucks :)

I liked the options of your poll. The laugh was worth the click.