Dell C840 nVidia GeForce 440 Go video broke after -current upgrade

the_penguinator · 01-19-2013, 05:54 PM

yes, it's me, the resurrector of old laptops. I need clues on this one though...new install and slackpkg upgrade of 14 with kernel 3.2.29 and the machine worked fine...upgrade-all to current with 3.7.1 and it goes TU. As soon as nouveau loads, the screen starts glowing like an alien has possessed it. I can't get at a console to do anything because I can't see anything but a milky, glowing screen. I didn't make a USB boot disk because the BIOS doesn't allow booting from USB...yep, it's old. Simple answer is to just re-install to downgrade to 3.2.9, but can anyone point to some good reading on this?
cheers

TobiSGD · 01-19-2013, 06:19 PM

It may be possible that the driver has problems to find the correct resolution for the display. Try it with the kernel option

Code:

video=AAAAxBBBB

where you replace AAAAxBBBB with the native resolution of the display, for example

Code:

video=1366x768

the_penguinator · 01-20-2013, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

It may be possible that the driver has problems to find the correct resolution for the display. Try it with the kernel option

Code:

video=AAAAxBBBB

where you replace AAAAxBBBB with the native resolution of the display, for example

Code:

video=1366x768

yes I guess the driver is having a problem finding the correct resolution...but as I am using slackpkg to upgrade from 14 to current, where in that process would it allow me to insert a kernel option such as this? would I echo this data to some file prior to running lilo after upgrade has finished? or am I going to need to compile a custom kernel? cheers

TobiSGD · 01-20-2013, 08:20 AM

When the system starts, at your Lilo bootscreen press the Tab-key and enter this into the commandline

Code:

Linux video=1366x768

Of course you have to change the resolution to your needs. If that lets you boot successfully you can add that option to your lilo.conf.

the_penguinator · 01-20-2013, 08:57 AM

thanks Tobi, I've tried every common resolution from 1600x1200 down to 640x480 and still get nothing but a milky, white screen. I'm just going to re-install fresh from the 14 disks and then upgrade everything but the kernel. Then I'm going to do some reading to learn where things might be broken in 4.7.1

jamesf · 01-21-2013, 12:23 PM

I just got this working yesterday. I'll probably have to post more tonight, if you're still interested, but I added a file '/etc/modprobe.d/nouveau.conf' with the contents 'options nouveau modeset=0'. It boots.

With no further configuration X will start, but it uses the VESA driver and so gets a max res of 1024x768. I did _something_ else, I can't remember what right now (I'm at work) and got the nv(?) driver to be used, with a res of 1400x1050.

While that is less than the max res of 1600x1200, it works.

BTW, to get it to be usable _right_now_ hit tab at LILO and add 'nomodeset' to the boot line.

jamesf · 01-21-2013, 08:12 PM

Posting from my Dell C840. I have no xorg.conf, but I do use xorg.conf.d.

I got some options for nv from, as root, 'X -configure', which creates xorg.conf.new. I cut and pasted from there.

Here's my nouveau.conf:

Code:

test1@tellus:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau.conf 
options nouveau modeset=0
test1@tellus:~$

And here's my devicenv.conf:

Code:

test1@tellus:~$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/devicenv.conf 
Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz",
        ### <percent>: "<f>%"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "SWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "HWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "NoAccel"            	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "UseFBDev"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "Rotate"             	# [<str>]
        #Option     "VideoKey"           	# <i>
        #Option     "FlatPanel"          	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "FPDither"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "CrtcNumber"         	# <i>
        #Option     "FPScale"            	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "FPTweak"            	# <i>
        #Option     "DualHead"           	# [<bool>]
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "nv"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
test1@tellus:~$

Here's an lspci -vv for the video:

Code:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 440 Go] (rev a3) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Dell Device 00d5
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop+ ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 32 (1250ns min, 250ns max)
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
	Region 0: Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
	Region 1: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Region 2: Memory at dff80000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512K]
	Expansion ROM at d8000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
		Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
		Status: D0 NoSoftRst- PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
	Capabilities: [44] AGP version 2.0
		Status: RQ=32 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW+ AGP3- Rate=x1,x2,x4
		Command: RQ=1 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA- AGP- GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=<none>

I hope this helps you get it sorted.

the_penguinator · 01-26-2013, 06:14 PM

looks good jamesf...will give this a try on Monday am when I get back to the lab
cheers!

jamesf · 01-28-2013, 09:26 PM

Happy to help! If you need anything more just ask. Don't feel bashful about sending me a PM and I'll reply back in the thread in case I miss a post here.

Also, I found a thread about a similar problem. The guy there said that booting with the lid closed and an external monitor worked with the nouveau driver (IIRC, lost the link).

I'm not in a position to try that and it isn't really a fix for a laptop, IMHO.

lnxguy · 05-22-2013, 04:34 PM

Howdy!

I, too was vexed with graphics card problems until I spent some time searching Google for my specific problem.

The nouveau driver package works great with my distro (PCLinuxOS), but I wanted the proprietary NVidia driver.

I downloaded and installed the driver and it appeared to load and run, but I got a blank screen. It is a simple issue of the external VGA port being selected over the onboard display. To fix it, go to http://jdgamble.blogspot.com/2009/11...with-dell.html and follow the few easy steps.

I am still tweaking my xorg.conf file to get the default resolution I want, but it works!

Give it a try. By the way, I do love my old C840. I have upgraded the RAM to 2GB, the wifi card to a b/g/n model and a 160GB HDD. I just installed a 64MB 440 Go graphics card in place of the 32MB version that came with the machine. So far, so good!

Hope that helps!

volkerdi · 05-22-2013, 07:05 PM

Are you using vga=normal in your lilo.conf? If not, try that. There have been problems with starting KMS after first starting a VESA mode for quite a while (the 14.0 installer even warns that anything other than vga=normal possibly won't work).