could someone please give me a step by step on installing the nvidia drivers and XFree86? I run ArchLinux, and XFree86 4.3.0, and I installed the latest nvidia drivers according to instructions, but when I run startx all I get is scrambled ascii characters on my screen. I've tried several monitors, a GF3 ti200, GF4 MX440, all with same results. Is there a kernel compilation option I'm missing?

AMD 2100+ TBred @ 2025 MHz
1024 MB DDR333
Epox 8rda+ mobo (nforce2)
2.4.21
XFree86 4.3.0
BFG Asylum GeForce FX 5600 256MB
latest nforce drivers (using only nvnet though)
NVIDIA Linux drivers 4496

here are some relevant files:

My non-working nvidia driver xf86config file:
http://www.hollywoodb.netfirms.com/n...6Config.nvidia

My working nv driver xf86config file:
http://www.hollywoodb.netfirms.com/n...XF86Config.std

A very strange XFree86.log.0 which somehow demonstrates the scrambled text I've been seeing, I don't know how this was created, but its the result of one of many reboots.
http://www.hollywoodb.netfirms.com/n....0.log.strange

The usual log file that XFree86 spits out, in contrast to the odd one above
http://www.hollywoodb.netfirms.com/n...6.0.log.nvidia

Links not working

the addresses are correct, and they seem to be working for me (mozilla-firebird 0.6.1)

maybe try save as or save link or save location and then open?

I don't think so:

bash-2.05b$ ping www.hollywoodb.netfirms.com
PING www.hollywoodb.netfirms.com (209.171.43.28) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- www.hollywoodb.netfirms.com ping statistics ---
16 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 14999ms

strange, I don't have any problem wth pinging it either... anyways, I mirrored the files here:

my non-working XF86Config (nvidia glx enabled):
http://hollywoodb.tripod.com/XF86Config.nvidia

my working run-of-the-mill non-glx XF86Config:
http://hollywoodb.tripod.com/XF86Config.std

A very strange XFree86.log.0 which somehow demonstrates the scrambled text I've been seeing, I don't know how this was created, but its the result of one of many reboots.
http://hollywoodb.tripod.com/XFree86.0.log.strange

The usual log file that XFree86 spits out, in contrast to the odd one above
http://hollywoodb.tripod.com/XFree86.0.log.nvidia
I get the mentioned scrambled ascii and lockup

(when you just click on the links it puts everything on one wrapped line, best bet is probably to open with kwrite, wordpad, or nano. I still haven't made any progress past the above statements.

This XFree86.0.log.strange looks odd - actually that can't be a log file.Looks more like a config file gone bad.If you really get this for a log file something is mighty screwed up.
The XFree86.0.log.nvidia is a log with the nvidia driver used but there are no error messages in there and the chipset is correctly identified (0312).

exactly, that's what I thought too.... the strange log file looks like a piece of a config with garbage at the bottom. but note at the bottom of the strange log file how it looks like its trying to download something? and on the regular nvidia log file it looks good until it inits the display, then my monitor shows scrambled ascii characters/garbage randomly and does a hard lockup (except ctrl-alt-del, which will properly reboot the system). I'm going to flash my bios out of pure curiosity since I have no idea what would cause this. its done this with a GeForce3 ti200, GeForce4 MX440, and now a brand new FX 5600 256mb. same result every time. tried different monitors too, no avail.

It is downloading something - you sometimes get that kind of glibberish when you download something with mozilla,meaning depending on the content of the download it just flashes by text or in the case of a binary stuff that looks like what you got there.Might be the nvidia update function gone mad.

any suggestions? I've tried running slackware, lfs, lunar, gentoo, peant, vector, jamd, and now archlinux. I get the same result every single time. When I try to use the gentoo games enemy territory boot disc it just hangs after the kernel loads.

I got gentoo installed at the moment and have a nforce2 board with a FX5600 and there are no problems there.I only tried Americas Army as a bootable games CD and that worked without a glitch either.
I'd suspect some BIOS setting or a hardware problem.But I am the guy that successfully underclocked his CPU.

alright, solved the problem... sorry to be a pain in the ass, but here was the solution as it occured:

1: flashed my bios to latest version for no good reason other than the fact it was the newest version
2: tinkered around some more with my glx problem, booted with the nvidia driver and wa-la! same old garbage *but* in different colors
3: flashed bios again with latest version, again same garbage, but this time in a smaller font (sorry, hard to describe)
4: got angry, had a few beers
5: flashed bios back to the version that was out when I bought my board, this time no screen when booting X, just black
6: gave up, flashed back to latest bios, forgot to change my xf86config, accidentally fired up x with nvidia driver and glx, prepared to ctrl-alt-del and......

an nvidia logo. now it runs like a charm. somewhere along the line my bios was fooling around and I don't know why it took 4 flashes to get it together.

See - things got better after this