System unusable after Fedora Core 2 upgrade
 

I upgraded my system from Fedora Core 1 (Intel) to Fedora Core 2.

After completing the installation and rebooting, the system was unable to run the X Server.

I had thought this was because X Windows was configured with a video driver for my graphics card (nVidia GeForce 3) that was compiled for an earlier kernel.

I compiled and installed a new driver for the current kernel.

Now when I start Linux the system attempts to start X Windows to preform a login and all I get is blank screen. I cannot use Ctrl+Alt+F* to switch to another session as I still have a blank screen after pressing the key combination.

What steps can I take to get my system usable again?

Are you sure your nvidia driver support kernel 2.6?

I am not completely certain the driver supports the kernel. I am fairly certain. The program I run to update the driver builds the driver for the current kernel, and then configures the XFree86 file to use that new driver.

This is the procedure I've always used whenever my kernel was updated, and it has always worked until now. I had this exact same problem of not being able to run X Windows when I upgraded from RedHat 9 to Fedora Core 1. I ran the driver install program and then I was able to use X Windows again.

Is there anything about kernel 2.6 that would prevent the driver from working properly? Has anyone else encountered this kind of problem with any distribution of Linux that used a GeForce 3 and kernel 2.6?

What could I do that would reveal potential problems between the driver and the kernel?

My friend is using a Toshiba Sattelite laptop with a Geforce 2 Go video card and he is having a very similar issue. He also is having problems when he tries to use a Logitech trackball with his laptop during the install (it crashes). We successfully upgraded from Redhat 9 to Fedora Core 2 by unplugging the trackball, but have not been able to get X to start successfully once. Even after installing the latest drivers and compiling the new kernel module from nvidia (5336) we have not been able to get it to work. This may be an issue related to the original poster's problem and I am hoping someone may know a fix for it by now :)

The error we are getting in the log file after X crashes is "Failed to initialize NVIDIA kernel module!" then some other related errors follow, but I feel this is the most important error.

Thanks in advance for your help!


Toby

I found the answer on another forum (www.fedoraforum.org).

Apparently the latest kernel (version 2.6) is built with a stack size of only 4 Kilobytes. Many drivers (including the nVidia drivers) expect a stack size of 8 Kilobytes.

The solution is to build custom kernel that has an 8 Kilobytes stack size. There is also a link on the Internet to an RPM file that has an 8 Kilobyte stack size kernel that can be installed. I do not remember the web link. Searching the forum mentioned above might reveal its location.

Ok, thanks! I'll give it a try and let you know how it works out.