Problems w/10.0 and nVidia
 

I've been running Linux for a few years--on the same machine. I have an Intel 845BG MOBO and an nVidia GEForce 2. I've run Mandrake 8.x, 9.0 on this machine, Slackware 9.x, Ubuntu, and Suse 9.3 on it with my nVidia video card without any problems. I followed the directions from the Suse page for configuring nVidia. I tried using YOU but found out that my card is now considered "legacy" by nVidia. So, I went to nVidia's website and downloaded the v7174 Linux driver which is currently working on my Ubuntu distro on this same computer. I followed the instructions and installed the driver after having RTFM. It compiled fine and installed fine. I followed the Suse instructions to add entries to the /etc/udev/whatevernameitis.txt file. I ran "sax2 -m -0=nvidia" and configured and tested my video setup and everything seemed to work. I tried startx and it failed. I tried rebooting into level 5 and it failed to start the X server.

The relevant error message seems to be:


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
(II) v4l driver for Video4Linux
(II) NVIDIA X Driver 1.0-7174 Tue Mar 22 06:48:37 PST 2005
(II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all NVIDIA GPUs
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 01:00:0
(--) Chipset NVIDIA GPU found
(II) resource ranges after xf86ClaimFixedResources() call:
[0] -1 0 0xffe00000 - 0xffffffff (0x200000) MX[B](B)
[1] -1 0 0x00100000 - 0x3fffffff (0x3ff00000) MX[B]E(B)
[2] -1 0 0x000f0000 - 0x000fffff (0x10000) MX[B]
[3] -1 0 0x000c0000 - 0x000effff (0x30000) MX[B]
[4] -1 0 0x00000000 - 0x0009ffff (0xa0000) MX[B]
[5] -1 0 0xfeaff000 - 0xfeafffff (0x1000) MX[B]
[6] -1 0 0xf8000000 - 0xf7ffffff (0x0) MX[B]O
[7] -1 0 0xfe9f0000 - 0xfe9fffff (0x10000) MX[B](B)
[8] -1 0 0xe8000000 - 0xefffffff (0x8000000) MX[B](B)
[9] -1 0 0xfd000000 - 0xfdffffff (0x1000000) MX[B](B)
[10] -1 0 0x0000ffff - 0x0000ffff (0x1) IX[B]
[11] -1 0 0x00000000 - 0x000000ff (0x100) IX[B]
[12] -1 0 0x0000dff0 - 0x0000dff7 (0x8) IX[B]
[13] -1 0 0x0000df00 - 0x0000df3f (0x40) IX[B]
[14] -1 0 0x0000ef00 - 0x0000ef3f (0x40) IX[B]
[15] -1 0 0x0000e800 - 0x0000e8ff (0x100) IX[B]
[16] -1 0 0x0000ef80 - 0x0000ef9f (0x20) IX[B]
[17] -1 0 0x0000efa0 - 0x0000efaf (0x10) IX[B]
[18] -1 0 0x0000ef40 - 0x0000ef5f (0x20) IX[B]
[19] -1 0 0x0000ffa0 - 0x0000ffaf (0x10) IX[B]
(II) resource ranges after probing:
[0] -1 0 0xffe00000 - 0xffffffff (0x200000) MX[B](B)
[1] -1 0 0x00100000 - 0x3fffffff (0x3ff00000) MX[B]E(B)
[2] -1 0 0x000f0000 - 0x000fffff (0x10000) MX[B]
[3] -1 0 0x000c0000 - 0x000effff (0x30000) MX[B]
[4] -1 0 0x00000000 - 0x0009ffff (0xa0000) MX[B]
[5] -1 0 0xfeaff000 - 0xfeafffff (0x1000) MX[B]
[6] -1 0 0xf8000000 - 0xf7ffffff (0x0) MX[B]O
[7] -1 0 0xfe9f0000 - 0xfe9fffff (0x10000) MX[B](B)
[8] -1 0 0xe8000000 - 0xefffffff (0x8000000) MX[B](B)
[9] -1 0 0xfd000000 - 0xfdffffff (0x1000000) MX[B](B)
[10] 0 0 0x000a0000 - 0x000affff (0x10000) MS[B]
[11] 0 0 0x000b0000 - 0x000b7fff (0x8000) MS[B]
[12] 0 0 0x000b8000 - 0x000bffff (0x8000) MS[B]
[13] -1 0 0x0000ffff - 0x0000ffff (0x1) IX[B]
[14] -1 0 0x00000000 - 0x000000ff (0x100) IX[B]
[15] -1 0 0x0000dff0 - 0x0000dff7 (0x8) IX[B]
[16] -1 0 0x0000df00 - 0x0000df3f (0x40) IX[B]
[17] -1 0 0x0000ef00 - 0x0000ef3f (0x40) IX[B]
[18] -1 0 0x0000e800 - 0x0000e8ff (0x100) IX[B]
[19] -1 0 0x0000ef80 - 0x0000ef9f (0x20) IX[B]
[20] -1 0 0x0000efa0 - 0x0000efaf (0x10) IX[B]
[21] -1 0 0x0000ef40 - 0x0000ef5f (0x20) IX[B]
[22] -1 0 0x0000ffa0 - 0x0000ffaf (0x10) IX[B]
[23] 0 0 0x000003b0 - 0x000003bb (0xc) IS[B]
[24] 0 0 0x000003c0 - 0x000003df (0x20) IS[B]
(II) Setting vga for screen 0.
(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(--) NVIDIA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xE8000000
(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xFD000000
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Has anyone had a similar experience that they were able to solve? Does anyone have an idea?

My nVidia is working fine (6600GT), but my card is more recent than yours.

I used SUSE 9.3 and realized that the Sax2 configuration is wrong with Nvidia cards. It pulls up the wrong Nvidia driver in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Can you post, in the monitor/video card section, in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file?

You can try running xorgconfig as root and configuring your graphics card manually.

su
cd /etc/X11
xorgconfig

A little trick you can do is copy your xorg.conf file from Ubuntu, or whatever else you are using that works fine, and copy it into your /etc/X11 path.

Well, before posting this question I did copy my Ubuntu xorg.conf file over my suse xorg.conf file to see if that would work--it did not.

The relevant sections from my suse xorg.conf file are:

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "v4l"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
DisplaySize 345 259
HorizSync 30-81
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
ModelName "SYNCMASTER 4S"
Option "DPMS"
VendorName "SAMSUNG"
VertRefresh 56-75
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[0]"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

Section "Device"
BoardName "GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro"
#I tweaked the following line to add the "PCI:" prefix like Ubuntu--it did not help it or hurt it
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Driver "nvidia"
Identifier "Device[0]"
VendorName "NVidia"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
# I commented out the following two lines because they weren't there in Ubuntu--it did not help
# Option "Clone" "off"
# Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen[0]"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group "video"
Mode 0660
EndSection


Thanks for taking time to look at it...

You are not the only one with the problem I guess. My 5200FX Go card won't work either with any driver.

Mine is a GeForce4 Ti 4200 and doesn't work either. The Sax box: "enable 3d acceleration" is locked.
I tried to manually configure Xorg: no luck either, whilst in Debian or Slackware I have no problems.

Even without 3d acceleration the screen is out of sync.

My hardware is very common: I don't have problems with any other mainstream distro.

fixed mine
 

I had the same problem, but (as always) the GUI worked during the installation.

To fix mine, I renamed /etc/X11/xorg.conf, then copied /etc/X11/xorg.conf.install to /etc/X11/xorg.conf .

After that, startx worked fine, rebooted and the GUI same right up.

-jared

More info...

If I run the NVidia installer, I can start up X without problems using the "nvidia" driver. If I reboot, X craters on restart. If I run the nVidia installer, X will start. I extracted the installer script and found a script that will fix the problem instead of having to run the installer. From the driver directory, the file is ./usr/src/nv/makedevices.sh which has the contents of:

#!/bin/sh

error() {
echo "$(basename $0): fatal error, $1 failed"
exit 1
}

if [ ! -c /dev/.devfsd ]; then
for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7; do
node="/dev/nvidia$i"
rm -f $node
mknod $node c 195 $i || error "mknod \"$node\""
chmod 0666 $node || error "chmod \"$node\""
done
node="/dev/nvidiactl"
rm -f $node
mknod $node c 195 255 || error "mknod \"$node\""
chmod 0666 $node || error "chmod \"$node\""
fi

if [ -d /etc/udev/devices ]; then
for i in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7; do
node="/etc/udev/devices/nvidia$i"
rm -f $node
mknod $node c 195 $i || error "mknod \"$node\""
chmod 0666 $node || error "chmod \"$node\""
done
node="/etc/udev/devices/nvidiactl"
rm -f $node
mknod $node c 195 255 || error "mknod \"$node\""
chmod 0666 $node || error "chmod \"$node\""
fi

exit 0
# end script

This script sets up several devices, but I'm not sure how to read BASH scripts. However, if this script is run before starting X, X will start--assuming nVidia legacy card w/nVidia driver 7174 installed.

Evidently, the directions on the SUSE website for installing legacy nVidia cards needs more information than just editing the /etc/udev/static_devices.txt file.

I would just like to express my appreciation for moronikos' comment, i had the same problem with my old geforce2 card and suse 10, running makedevices.sh during bootup fixes it! thanks.

Zooko,

Thanks. I ended up copying the contents of the script into /etc/rc.d/boot.local and everything works fine now.

Just as a reference....one of our machines had this exact problem as well. We found that if we simply had xorg create a new config file with:
xorg -configure (as root, of course)..it permenantly solved the problem..//Peter