Mandrake 9.0 NVIDIA/X Problem

Ok, I'm pretty new to linux so hopefully someone can help me out here, because I can't wait to get away from windows. I installed Mandrake 9.0 a few weeks ago and everything went perfect, no problems whatsoever.. but then i got a new computer and had to reinstall it, and that's when i got the display problems.

I have an integrated nvidia geforce4 mx 128 meg video card and when i installed mandrake it did not recognize it. Both nv and nvidia drivers did not work so I had to use vesa. Now I realize there are many other posts of people that had this problem, but I followed everything and cannot figure out what is going wrong. So I'll try and start from the beginning.

I went to the nvidia site and got the nvchooser script, ran it, got the glx and kernel rpms it told me to get and also the latest version of xfree. I installed xfree but then when i tried "xfree86 - configure" it told me i needed glide drivers, which I searched for info on and unless I'm reading wrong, its for 3dfx cards... so I'm not sure why I need that. So instead I used xf86config and that all worked. I installed the 2 nvidia rpms (both were successfull) and then made the fixes to the xf86config-4 file just like in the other posts.

Now here's the problem. When I boot up, right before the login screen comes up, the screen turns grey and the cursor is in the shape of an X, I'm not sure if thats normal or that's just how the new xfree is, but it wasn't like that before. Then when the login comes up, i put in my sn and password and click to login and the screen goes blank for a second and then just reloads the login window. It does this no matter what I choose to log into (kde, gnome, etc). The wierd thing is though, if i set it to boot to a command line, I can login fine from the prompt and then type "kde" and kde loads (although now i get an nvidia splash screen and then the grey screen with X-cursor before it does). Otherwise, kde works fine, until i log out which causes the screen to go blank and freeze.

Any ideas? Is this still an nvidia driver problem? or is this just some sort of X configuration problem? I'd appreciate any help you guys can give me and let me know if you need any more info. Thanks!

by the way, here are the versions of the 3 things i installed :

xfree 4.3.0
nvidia glx and kernel 4191

Sounds more like an X problem, try deleting your .xinitrc in your home dir, don't know if that helps...
There seem to be new nvidia drivers which aren't distributed as rpms, see the following link for details on installing
http://pgshopping.com/mdkxp/?c=ttrls/nvidianew

ok heres an update. i reinstalled x, then downloaded the new nvidia drivers from that link you posted, followed all the instructions, and one of the problems went away, but the main one is still there..

if i boot to command line and type "kde" i dont get the nvidia screen anymore, but i still get that grey screen and then kde loads. when i logout, there are no problems now, it brings me right back to the command line.

however, if i set it to boot to the login screen, i have the same problem as before, where it just reloads the screen when i hit the login button.

as for deleting that file, i dont know much about linux, but isnt that the file that initializes the gui when linux boots? is that going to cause problems if its missing?

Before you do go changing/removing files, check that you did completely install the new driver. The two part .rpm one is very old compated to the new 4496 .pkg2.run one. Were there any errors with this, did you edit XF86Config-4 as stated? Not XF86Config or XF86Config-4.old

proud,

the run file installed successfully. i also reinstalled x (also successfull) just now. i used the "-configure" command again and then edited the XF86Config-4 file and noticed that "nvidia" is already listed as the driver. i made the other changes and also replaced Load "glx" with the direct file link that was mentioned in the link that julienp posted. then i rebooted (to command line) and typed kde, which loaded but with very poor resolution. i went to the mandrake control center and noticed it was set as vesa with a generic monitor.. im not sure why, since xf86config-4 has the right settings... so i changed them in control center and tested it and the settings worked fine. i rebooted again and now when i type kde i get the nvidia splash screen, everything loads correctly (i can run glxgears, so acceleration is working) and i can even logout without it freezing.

but for some reason when i set my inittab setting to 5 so it loads the gui i get the nvidia screen then the login screen, and when i enter my sn and pw and hit login, i get a jumbled blue screen and then it reloads the login window....

so now im really confused because kde seems to work perfectly fine, but the login screen has the problem.

Try deleting you ~/.kde directory or back it up somewhere first.

Edit: To clarify, KDE works fine from runlevel3 and startkde, but not from runlevel5 via a display manager? Can you find which services differ between 3 and 5?

delete what directory? sorry, like i said, im just starting out with linux... so i'm not sure where that directory is.. or how to find services that differ...

but yes, youre correct - i can use runlevel 3 to get to a command prompt and type "kde" and everything works fine, but if i use runlevel 5 and i try to login, i get a jumbled screen and it just reloads the login screen. as far as i know, i'm not doing anything different between the 2 with the exception of changing that number in inittab from 3 to 5....

i'd appreciate any help you can give me.. and if i can learn a little in the process, that would just make things even better!

Ok, in your KDE menu, in Configuration, there should be a SysV-Init Editor. Run that, and state the differences between runlevels 3 and 5. Dont change anything.

That ~/.kde directory is in your home directory , aka ~. For you it might be /home/metros, and it's where Konqueror starts. Find the directory .kde, you might need to enable viewing 'hidden' files (ones beginning with a period .) and then send that to the trash.

When you next start KDE it'll make a new one for you. It does contain all your kde app configurations, which may include internet settings and look and feel changes.

You can restore the one in the trash bin if you want, overwritting all the new .kde files, but the problem might return if it's now gone.

ok, according to sysv-init the only difference between them is runlevel 5 has "dm" under start and runlevel 3 has "dm" under stop. i did a quick search on that and it's the display manager, so it must be a problem with that. i'm going to log back into kde and look at the display manager settings, maybe try and set it to use gnome and see what happens... i'll post again after i try some things out.

by the way, i tried deleting ~/.kde but it just kept reappearing so i had to log back out to command line and then removed it. i booted back up and i still have the same problem as before.

Ok, both those results are correct behaviour.
Which dm are you using? Mdkdm, kdm, gdm or xdm?

Have you tried upgrading to the latest .pkg2.run drivers?

hmm, how do i find out what dm i'm using? and what's a .pkg2.run driver?

is there a way to switch from kde to gnome? maybe another one may work. i tried typing in "gnome" from the command prompt but it said it the command wasn't recognized.

ok, nevermind about the pkg2.run question, i guess i wasn't paying attention... no i thought i had the latest driver, but actually i dont, so im downloading that right now... ill post once i install that....

but i still have yet to figure out how to change display managers...

latest driver from the nvidia site is installed, and things are now worse. i still have the same problem as before except now when i try to reboot i get a wierd black screen with big jumbled numbers on the left side of the screen.. this happens whether i choose reboot from in kde or from the login screen..

3 things i noticed, i'm not sure if they mean anything -
1) after installing the new nvidia driver i checked XF86Config-4 and driver was set to "nvidia" but the board name was still at "geforce4 mx (generic)"... is there a way to choose a more specific board name then that? ie. integrated or 128meg, etc..

2) in kde, in the mandrake control center if i go to change my display settings, "geforce4 mx (generic)" is the only option that comes close to what i have, should i stay with that? or is there a way to tell it to use the latest nvidia driver that i just installed?

3) also in mandrake control center, if i tell it to start xfree on boot it pops up a window that i have the option of using either version 3.3 or 4.1.. however i have 4.3 installed, and if i check the version thats installed with the x-server app it says 4.3.... so shouldn't that be an option? or is it automatically using that?

by the way, i figured out im using kdm.. i tried gdm and it said i had to be root, so i did "su" and tried it again and gdm wouldn't even load. i get the nvidia screen and then a bunch of jumbled screens and then eventually gives me an error and goes back to the command line.

any ideas?

OK, I think that because the nvidia driver is onse-size-fits-all, it's called the generic one, but I like to edit my /etc/XF86Config-4 and replace generic with the driver number (eg 4496) to remind me.
If you've installed the driver and 3D acceleration is working (eg glxgears, tuxracer, chromium, UT2003) then you're using the driver.

You should use 4.3, there's no reason I know of to use 3.x.

In the Mandrake Control Centre -> Hardware -> Display Managers you can pick your dm.