NVidia hassles with Mandrake 9
 

Hi everyone. I know that Nvidia is supposed to make good drivers, but I can't get them to work with my distribution. Just for the record, I am working with:

AMD K6/2 500mhz processor
Geforce 2 mx with 64mb ram
Mandrake 9.0 with kernel 2.4.19-16mdk

I tried every imaginable combination of the GLX and kernel drivers...old ones and new ones, RPMs and tarballs, binaries and source. None of them have worked! My best luck was with the 3123 series drivers. I downloaded the kernel and GLX tarballs:

NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.tar.gz
NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.tar.gz

Then I did a "make install" on the kernel driver and GLX drivers (in that order). I edited my XF86Config-4 so that it contained "Load glx" and used the "nvidia" driver instead of "nv". Everything seemed to run ok, but when I reboot, or type startx, I get a blank white screen and the computer locks up. With some combinations of drivers, I get blue and green noise on the bottom 1/4 of the screen instead.

Has anyone heard of this happening before? I would much appreciate some help.

check your hsync and vsync settings.

I use the 3123 drivers, too, but I got the src RPMs and rebuilt them. They worked perfectly.

have you tried nvchooser.sh script to find drivers

did you comment out the extra lines that are not needed? I don't see this in your post.

I don't remember the exact lines, but one was something like "load dri". Be sure to follow the README file "to the T" (translated "exactly").

One of the different combinations I tried was the source RPMS... I think that just gave me the garbage on the bottom of the screen. And I have tried using the NVchooser script, but that just suggested the kernel source and GLX binary RPMs. Besides, if you get the NVchooser script for the 4191 series, it suggests drivers from there. I think it just chooses based on your kernel and distribution.

One more thing: My XF86-Config-4 doesn't have the "Load DRI" line or the other ones (I can't remember them at the moment). And my hsync and vsync settings are exactly as specified by my monitor's owner's manual.

Note that I am typing this message from my computer -- it works fine if I just use the "nv" driver. I may just have a strange hardware configuration that doesn't allow me to use this video card.