Dell PE R710 & nVidia Quadro 600 issues

DaFrEQ · 10-04-2011, 10:48 AM

Hello all,

I'm working with some Dell PowerEdge R710 servers and because the on board Matrox vga is simply horrible, I've decided to use the nVidia Quadro600.
I've already checked with Dell support, and they say that this card is completely compatible with their server.

In short, here's the scenario:
Installed the Quadro 600 (which has 1x DVI port & 1x SL? Video port)
Initially the system wouldn't even boot w/out any drivers installed, so I had to plug in the old on board vga to a monitor to get into the OS so I could install the nVidia drivers for thte new card.
Drivers installed, I had to tweak the xorg.conf to include the PCIe BusID to get the new card to work.
After that it would jump into the Xserver no problem. I ran the nvidia config program and turned up the resolution to 1600x1280 (because the monitor and card can handle it) and everything was fine.
I logged out of the xserver to see if it would restart and it wouldn't. All I got was a blank black screen.

The system will not even boot up now unless I plug in the old vga port which forces me to yet again reconfigure the xorg.conf file just to get a simplistic display.

Any ideas right off hand? It strikes me highly odd that it was working perfectly then after a log out, it just simply craps out. I've even tried to lower the specified resolutions in the xorg.conf file but that doesn't help. When on the DVI port it simply wont work now. The monitor shows a NO DIGNAL message when I select the DVI input.

I can post the xorg.conf if you think it will help, but as I said it seemed to work perfectly fine the first time prior to the log out attempt.

Thanks.

DaFrEQ · 10-04-2011, 12:02 PM

Update:

Here is the file that was generated by the nvidia-xconfig program

Code:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 280.13
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "single head configuration"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "NEC LCD2070NX"
    HorizSync       31.0 - 92.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 85.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    BusID          "PCI:6:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "Quadro 600"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"

    Option         "metamodes" "1600x1280 +0+0; 1280x1024 +0+0; 1280x960 +0+0; 1280x800 +0+0; 1152x864 +0+0; 1024x768 +0+0; 800x600 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Now for a few known facts:
The PCI BusID is correct. As stated before, it worked once after putting that line in the config file. It was also verified by the system.
The monitors definitely support the resolution & sync specified.

Again, I'm uncertain why even during the initial power-on of the server, I cannot even get POST information on the screen using the Quadro's DVI port. I always have to plug in a vga monitor to the on board Matrox video head.

DaFrEQ · 10-04-2011, 01:14 PM

Update:

I ran lsmod to see if it was still loading the driver and it has the nvidia driver listed.
I also ran lspci to see what was all listed and got the following:

Code:

VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0df8 (rev a1)

I'm doing a search now to see what I can come up with.

DaFrEQ · 10-04-2011, 02:22 PM

Update:

Ok, so this is wierd.
I still have the device listed as Unknown in the lspci list. Can't figure that one out yet.
However, I edited the xorg.config file and dropped out the section about the mouse. Seems that the autogenerated section for input device for the mouse is not liked by the RHEL section. Go figure.

At any rate, I'm now able to get the Xserver running with the Quadro 600 card on the DVI port... however it ONLY works in the Xserver. Meaning I cannot bootup the system with the DVI port only. It still only shows POST & console when I'm on the on board vga head.
I've checked the BIOS to see if there is some setting regarding using one over the other as 'primary' display but I haven't located it yet.

DaFrEQ · 10-04-2011, 02:57 PM

Update:

Well, I perused through the BIOS a bit more and found the 'Embedded vga' device listed and the only optoins available were Enabled & Disabled.
I saw this before, but I didn't want to disable the device in case something went wrong... for fear of having no display at all to fall back on.

However, I decided to Disable the on board Matrox vga device and now I get full Quadro support on console and Xserver. Go figure... leave it to Dell to give you an ultimatum where as most other vendors allow you to choose a primary and secondary display.

At any rate, I'm considering this one 'fixed'.