Hi all!!!

After months withs troubles with ATi cards, i decided to buy a new GeForce FX5900 video card.
I uninstalled all ATI fglrx drivers and downloaded the drivers from nvidia website and installed them in init 3 environment. Aparently, all went good, and i changed only one line in the old XF86Config file (not the one used by ATi, a previous one) from "vesa" to "nvidia" (just as readme file said).
The problem now is that my box freezes out when tries to load X server, i cannot do anything but pressing the reset button.
Is there a way to NOT load Xfree, so i can solve the problem without having to reinstall all the shit?
Can you also post a XF86Config file so i can see where i have to change things??
BTW, i'm using a custom kernel 2.4.25

Thnaks in advance

In order to boot in text mode, you need to pass some parameters to your boot loader. If you're using LILO, just append

init 3

to the boot prompt. If you're using GRUB, you should have similiar options (follow screen instructions about how to edit boot params).

(BTW: if your machine doesn't use NFS, 'init 2' would work too)

As for the nvidia problem, go to the Linux nvidia forum, chances are that you will find more helpful info there. I have a nvidia card myself and it works like a charm, but it's a GeForce4 Ti 4200, I am not sure FX series support is rock solid yet.

In order to force nvidia driver into a more "conservative" mode, you could try telling it not to use AGP. Read info at driver README

HTH

Andre

Hi! thanks for the quick answer. The problem is that RH loads Xfree always, so i cannot pass the init 3 to the bootloader (grub) cause before beeing able to go to the console, the box freezes. I don't know if exists, but is there some way to load linux choosing what to load and what not to load, so i can choose not to load Xfree?

I guess you're confusing things: while GRUB is running, Linux hasn't been loaded yet; by passing 'init 2' or 'init 3' to grub, Linux will boot in text-mode only (i.e. you will be offered a shell prompt to login). The graphical subsystem (X11) will not be started unless you do it manually (startx) or change runlevel to 5 (running 'init 5' as root).

So, assuming your Linux is booting just fine, you can login as root on a terminal and try some stuff with /etc/X11/XF86Config.

But when grub is loaded, i just have to choose which OS to boot. How i can pass init 3 to grub when it is already loaded??

Wow!!! made it!!!! I just had to add "Load dri" on the XF86Config file and now X server works.
Although, i did a glxgears test, and i'm getting around 1300fps....
Is there any "nvidia tune guide" or something like that??
Please forgive me if it sound stupid or even obvuious, but this is my first experience with a nVidia card.

Thanks a lot

You can edit GRUB entries on-the-fly. Check this out (IIRC instructions are presented on screen).

Cool, congratulations And, don't mind asking any questions -- we're all new to something until we learn it

A good source of information is the README file I posted. Also, browsing nvidia forums might help you.

When it comes to performance, check these files while you're on X (with nvidia driver):

/proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card
/proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge
/proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status

First one shows you what the driver thinks of your card, second one what it thinks of your mobo, and last one how it initialized the driver.

For example, here I have:

~ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 4x 2x 1x
Registers: 0x1f000217:0x1f000314

~ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge
Host Bridge: PCI device 10de:01e0 (nVidia Corporation)
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 4x 2x 1x
Registers: 0x1f000217:0x00000314

~ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status: Enabled
Driver: NVIDIA
AGP Rate: 4x
Fast Writes: Enabled
SBA: Enabled

As you can see, I have AGP 4x, Fast Writes and SBA -- these definitely impact performance. I am getting ~3016 FPS with glxgears (not maximized). Also notice I am using NVIDIA AGP and not AGPGART, messing with this might also impact your performance and/or stability.

HTH

Andre

Ok, here i go....this is the output of the 3 commands you told me:
[hammett][/home/hammett]$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
Status: Enabled
Driver: NVIDIA
AGP Rate: 8x
Fast Writes: Disabled
SBA: Enabled
[hammett][/home/hammett]$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge
Host Bridge: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS 645xx
Fast Writes: Not Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 8x 4x
Registers: 0x1f004e0b:0x00000f02
[hammett][/home/hammett]$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 8x 4x
Registers: 0x1f000e1b:0x1f004302

What really cannot understand, is why MOBO says fast writes not supported, when on bios it is enabled ????? And why SiS ?????
The MOBO is an Asus P4S8X-X, so, it's motherboard fault??

Ok, so you're using AGP 8x and SBA. This should be more than enough to give you excellent performance. If you were getting 1300fps in windowed mode with glxgears, then there's really something wrong, and you should try to get some help from nvidia forums, maybe other FX users already been through it.

As for the FW support, maybe using AGPGART instead of NVIDIA gives different results (I doubt it, but it wouldn't hurt to try). The SiS chpiset is simply the AGP controller, your mobo counts on different chips from different brands to manage the subsystems (sound, network, SATA etc.). Run 'lspci' and you will see all the different controllers you have on your mobo.

I have an FX 5600 Ultra card in my machine. According to agp/proc and agp/host-bridge, Fast Writes and SBA are supported, but in agp/status, they are both disabled.

Is there something I need to do to enable these? I'm a newbie, so please be gentle. In the mean time, I'm googling for the answer...

Thanks in advance!

[edit] NEVER MIND! I just found out how to enable them in another post!

Blueser, many thanks for all your help. I'll let you know my results. You've been very very kind. ^_^

You're welcome I am glad I could help someway. Make sure you post here your solution so that others that face the same problems in the future can learn from it (that might even be me when I buy a GeForce FX ).

Good luck, and let me know if you think I can help in any other way.

Andre

Blueser, i finally got it!! I think the situation was a bit silly....i'll try to explain so i don't look as a dumbass (LOL)

I'm using Fluxbox as window manager, and when i was playing xmame, i configured the window for having a determined height and with and with no borders. What i haven't noticed, is that that was also affecting glxgears (i see the wheels a lot bigger). At the beggining i wasn't thinking that could be the problem, so i went mad trying to gess, and finally i decided to make the glxgears window to its default dimension and booom!!!! i got it!!

Now i get around 5900-6100fps

I know it sounds really really stupid to me to not think about the dimension of the window would affect performance....

Once more, many thanks ^__^

Excellent, congratulations I would definitely say 5900-6100fps is quite impressive

Now go on and download UT2004 demo for Linux to finally experience your FX in all its glory