I'm running Debian Unstable (installed Sarge with debian installer and upgraded to unstable) and whenever I try to run an opengl game such as Medal of Honor or Tuxracer or bzflags... the X screen will distort and it will then either crash and remain distorted on both x and the consoles, or it will completely freeze up my system and I can't even get to a console and I have to flip the power switch to restart the computer. I'm using the nvidia drivers, and it seems like I didn't have this problem until the last month or so? I think maybe it has to do with something that was upgraded in Unstable.. but I can't be sure... and if it is.... is there any kind of fix at all? Even if someone has this problem on other distros? So any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

Please post the output of glxinfo and see if glxgears runs properly.

glxinfo:

name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
server glx version string: 1.3
server glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGI_swap_control
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info,
GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_SGI_video_sync,
GLX_NV_swap_group, GLX_NV_video_out, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer,
GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_NV_float_buffer
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce2 MX/PCI/SSE
OpenGL version string: 1.5.2 NVIDIA 66.29
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_point_parameters,
GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_ARB_shader_objects, GL_ARB_shading_language_100,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat,
GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,
GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_vertex_program, GL_ARB_vertex_shader,
GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_S3_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_abgr,
GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_minmax,
GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint,
GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_Cg_shader,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays,
GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_paletted_texture, GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object,
GL_EXT_point_parameters, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette,
GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc,
GL_EXT_texture_cube_map, GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp,
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,
GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic, GL_EXT_texture_lod,
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_vertex_array,
GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip, GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat,
GL_KTX_buffer_region, GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_fence,
GL_NV_fog_distance, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil,
GL_NV_pixel_data_range, GL_NV_point_sprite, GL_NV_register_combiners,
GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_NV_texture_env_combine4,
GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_vertex_array_range,
GL_NV_vertex_array_range2, GL_NV_vertex_program, GL_NV_vertex_program1_1,
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_multitexture, GL_SGIS_texture_lod,
GL_SUN_slice_accum
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x21 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x22 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x23 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x24 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x25 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x26 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x27 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x28 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x29 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2a 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2b 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2c 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2d 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2e 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2f 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x30 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x31 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x32 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x33 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x34 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 16 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x35 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x36 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x37 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 0 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x38 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 4 0 0 16 16 16 16 0 0 None

glxgears appears to be working, but yet the games still freeze and such... so really i'm clueless...

That's really odd. Usually glxgears would freeze as well. Anything appear in any logs?

There's not any errors in any of the logs as far as I can tell..

I just thought I'd say I did some experimenting... and it seems to me that my problem lies within the nvidia drivers.

It seems that the 6*** verisons of them just crash my opengl. I have no clue why they would, but if I go back to the generic nv drivers or vesa... it seems like opengl will run fine (just a bit slower though...) So the problem definetely must be with the nvidia drivers. Now I wish there was a solution to that..! But I'm going to figure I'll have to just wait until they release some new ones that work..