New -current kernel and Nvidia 304.xx driver issue
 

I just installed the new slackware-current (3.7.10 kernel) on one of my older computers (Athlon64-X2 4600 with GeForce 7300 video card) and have discovered a possible problem with the Nvidia 304.84 driver. When I exit X back to the console, I just get a black screen. The previous driver (304.64) won't build with the new kernel. The problem was duplicated on an older machine running 64-13.1 with a Geforce 6200 card. Is there a parameter I can add to fix this, or is this another Nvidia oops? :scratch:

Hi, I had the same problem. 304.84 driver seems to be buggy. If you want to use older driver (304.64) with current kernel (I use it with recent 3.9-rc2), you need to patch it. Patches are available here: http://www.lwfinger.com/nvidia_patches/. The one you need is http://www.lwfinger.com/nvidia_patch...60.run_for_3.7. You also have to make symlink using command:
ln -s /usr/src/linux-3.7.10/include/generated/uapi/linux/version.h /usr/src/linux-3.7.10/include/linux/version.h

HTH

m23

here, I used conftest_new.diff

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=vXddJgCq

and 3.8_kernel.patch

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=x1vNFBax

modifying nvidia-kernel.SlackBuild from SBo to apply them just before the “cd kernel || exit 1″ line adding

patch -p1 < $CWD/3.8_kernel.patch
patch -p2 < $CWD/conftest_new.diff

(then you can build it with current's kernel and also with kernel >=3.8.x)

Tried the patch, and failed with a different error: the 3.7.10 kernel is now a "Xen" kernel. Apparently the 304.84 driver added Xen support, which I suspect is where some of its problems lie.
I guess for now on this machine I can either stick to the nouveau driver or go with the new prop driver knowing I will have to reboot when I exit X.

FYI, just tried with 304.84 and -current's 3.7.10 using SBo scripts (just cutted the two libnvidia-encode lines from nvidia-driver.Slackbuild because they are for the 310.xx series) and everything went fine without any patch.

Yes, i agree with m23's answer. Stay away from 304.84 for now and use 304.64 instead + patches
it worked and i think it's more stable than 304.84

Just to confirm that the patched 304.64 driver is working fine with my GeForce 7300 LE with the 3.7.1 kernel in -current.
My thanks to willysr for originally pointing out the patch referred to by m23.

The NVidia 310.32 driver will not build with the "new" 3.7.10 kernel in -current.

can confirm the absence of output in console when exiting from the X session with 304.84 (here, blindly issuing a new startx made me return to a working X session).

no such issue with 310.40 and 313.26 (both seem to work fine).

Indeed after many trials with the NVidia drivers including the back screen on logout I seem to be having some success with kernel 3.8.1, NVidia 313.26 and -current. So far.....

I can confirm this is an issue with it's detection code, you can build the module manually by going into the /usr/src/nvidia-310.32 directory and running "make -f Makefile.kbuild"

However 310.32 complains about the X server ABI been unsupported but X will start

Version 310.40 builds ok and seems to run ok but gives a X input ABI compatibility warning.

Just to confirm that I see the same problem of a blank screen on exit from X with nVidia 304.84 driver, X Server 1.14.0 and 3.7.10 kernel with my GeForce 7300 LE.
The patched nVidia 304.64 driver did build with the addition of the symlink posted by m23 in post #2 but fails to load when starting X due to the ABI in X Server 1.14.0 being too new. Using the option "IgnoreABI" "true" in the ServerFlags section of xorg.conf bypassed the ABI check, but X failed to start with segfault errors in /var/log/Xorg.0.log

It appears that a newer driver is not available for this nVidia GPU.

Just went and checked Nvidia's forums and it has been noticed and they have filed a bug report in their system to get this fixed, hopefully you wont have to wait too long.

Excuse my stupidity but there seems to be
310.40 and 313.26

what's wrong with these?

313.26 has finally brought stability to my own system. I guess those following the 304.xx series have so-called 'legacy' cards with no support in the other driver series...

All Pre 8xxx cards need the 304 driver.

I have only a GTX 260 and that's showing as supported under the. 313.26 one. I must be missing something.

3 digit numbers are post 9xxx, Nvidia didn't want to go to 5 digits so they started again with 3.

I probably should revisit this and then call it solved.

Part of the problem with some of the responses was my fault, I did not specify that I no longer use SlackBuilds to install the driver (and haven't for quite some time), as I cannot see going through all that hassle to build THREE packages to do what can easily be done on a single command line.

The main problem WAS with the 304.84 driver, evidenced by the fact that Nvidia recently released 304.88.

SIDE NOTE: The 304.84 driver also failed with the newer 3.8.4 kernel.