nvidia module - kernel - dependencies issues

WhatsOnYourBrain · 10-13-2006, 09:12 PM

looks like everything is "okay" now. i've got the 1280 x 1024 (after another re-boot and x fail)
this time, when i got the Display settings prompt (before loading into KDE / the desktop manager), instead of just setting the 1280 x 1024, i took a closer look and realized that my driver was set to vesa instead of 'nv', so i modified that to 'nv', and also set the colors to 'millions of colors'.

KDE booted, but gave me back the 1024 x 768. i immediated went into the Control Center and swithced the settings there to 1280 x 1024, which seems to have worked. however, something seems a little off / grainy w/ the color/ resolution and the vertical 'straight-ness' of the lines, at the edge of the screen for example... just seem a little odd-- but it could be my imagination. (plus, i was just starting at the monitor on my 'other' system-- where i've got an XP desktop setup... so, it's probably just an optical illusion)

in any event, is there something i can do to test for color resolution, or a log report i might post somewhere for review?
one thing i recall noticing about Fedora when i first switched over was a really crystal clear display, with exceptional white / black contrast and less 'grainy' than Windows (again, maybe my imagination).

farslayer · 10-13-2006, 11:24 PM

vesa = Compatability mode driver... works with almost ALL video cards.. very basic

nv = Open Source nVidia driver, written by the community, works with nVidia cards but has NO 3D support

nvidia = nVidia proprietary 3D accelerated Driver. THIS is the one you want in your xorg.conf to take advantage of those driver modules you have so painstakenly installed..

Also just a tip if you wish to change run levels.. there is a command you can use to do that on the fly without editing files and rebooting and all that extra work.. init so say you are in runlevel 5 but want to be in runlevel3 .. a simple init 3 and the system will switch to runlevel 3. to go back the other way init 5 and the system will go from the current runlevel to runlevel 5. http://www.fedorafaq.org/basics/#runlevel

Code:

Runlevels 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
0	/etc/rc.d/rc0.d	     Halt
1	/etc/rc.d/rc1.d	     Single-user mode
2	/etc/rc.d/rc2.d	     Not used (user-definable)
3	/etc/rc.d/rc3.d	     Full multi-user mode (no GUI interface)
4	/etc/rc.d/rc4.d	     Not used (user-definable)
5	/etc/rc.d/rc5.d	     Full multiuser mode (with GUI interface)
6	/etc/rc.d/rc6.d	     Reboot

WhatsOnYourBrain · 10-14-2006, 01:10 AM

cool, that's good to know about the runlevel. so, basically-- init 3, i get the commandline, and from there, init 5, i'll go back to whatever window manager / desktop (KDE) i've been using?

okay-- here's the latest on the driver-deal-e-o

so far, every time i've shutdown/restarted, the x-server fails, and i go through that process of letting the system try to set up a working configuration. (before i read this, i ) tried 'nvidia' in that default display settings window which pops up before actually botting into the login screen. w/ that setting, no dice. so, again, command prompt, enter password, back to the default X screen, set a driver to nv again and it worked this time, again. oddly, didn't immediately switch to 1024x ... this time, stayed at 1280 x 1024 (a new behaviour!!). yet, oddly, it appears to have the 'better' contrast resolution (again, maybe i'm imagining this... maybe it's not important).

my guess is that if i reboot, it will happen again. i have yet to ask, or be given a suggestion--
what should my xorg.conf file look like (under the display settings section)?

EDIT: in particular, this part:

Code:

Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
		Modes    "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1280x1024"
	EndSubSection

should i move that 1280x1024 to the 'top' above the others?

one thing which seems to be tied to this video driver 'mismatch' is if i try to install some WinE software (Photoshop, for example this time, and previously, EditPlus www.editplus.com) -- the screen goes black except for the cursor. i can escape it by doing Alt+Tab at which point i see the icon in the window tray, which is also sort of silhouetted, black. does this sound familiar at all? i never had that problem when messing w/ WinE software until this nvidia problem came up.

Crito · 10-14-2006, 02:35 AM

Quote:

FATAL: Could not open '/boot/System.map-2.6.17-1.2187_FC5': No such file or directory

it looks to me like it keeps erring due to the *.2187_FC5 kernel
mine is (uname -r)2.6.17-1.2157_FC5

what am i missing / doing wrong?

You're not missing anything. The nvidia driver and kernel version numbers need to match. That's why it's a good idea to leave Livna enabled and disable conflicting repos like Dries instead; so when you upgrade your kernel via yum update it automatically updates the kmod's (kernel modules) to the correct version too.

What you're doing wrong, IMVHO, is wasting time with Picasa and Wine before solving your X server problem. You'll likely muck things up worse if you don't fix things in the right order. First fix your OS, then worry about application software. Those Picasa and Wine errors will likely go away once the driver is installed correctly, so chmoding /dev files solves nothing at this point.

WhatsOnYourBrain · 10-14-2006, 05:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crito

it's a good idea to leave Livna enabled...What you're doing wrong...is wasting time with Picasa

_______________________________

the x-server continues to crash when loading (trying to load?) xorg.conf at boot-time due to:

Code:

could not open /lib/modules/2.6.17-1.2187_FC5/extra/nvidia/nvidia...

it's no wonder selecting 'nvidia' at the crash-recovery x-server configuration dialogue also continues to fail. repeated attempts of selecting 'nvidia', w/ different display-resolution selections, 'always' fail, yet 'nv' always boots directly.

do we know if the module is failing to open as a direct result of, or independent of other variables (ie. is it failing because of reasons other than what kmod* and xorg*nvida module/drivers i've installed)? ... and whatever other bits are related... aw fiddlesticks!, i don't even think i ever did know for sure what all i'm looking for here! ha! not to mention, i'm a little burned out on it by now, and frankly, beginning to lose faith (hmph! well... i guess it does still 'work', technically...)

going from what we know of the x-server boot failure, and what i've got installed, what options do i have?

other than what i've listed below, what do i need to determine about the existing state of my system before i can solve this problem?

Code:

$ yum --enablerepo=livna list kmod*
Installed Packages
kmod-nvidia-legacy.i686                  1.0.7184-2.2.6.17_1.21 installed
Available Packages
kmod-nvidia.i586                         1.0.8774-1.2.6.17_1.21 livna
kmod-nvidia.i686                         1.0.8774-1.2.6.17_1.21 livna
kmod-nvidia-kdump.i686                   1.0.8774-1.2.6.17_1.21 livna
kmod-nvidia-legacy.i586                  1.0.7184-2.2.6.17_1.21 livna
kmod-nvidia-legacy-kdump.i686            1.0.7184-2.2.6.17_1.21 livna
kmod-nvidia-legacy-smp.i686              1.0.7184-2.2.6.17_1.21 livna
kmod-nvidia-legacy-xen0.i686             1.0.7184-2.2.6.17_1.21 livna
kmod-nvidia-smp.i686                     1.0.8774-1.2.6.17_1.21 livna
kmod-nvidia-xen0.i686                    1.0.8774-1.2.6.17_1.21 livna
$ yum --enablerepo=livna list xorg-x11-drv-n*
Installed Packages
xorg-x11-drv-nv.i386                     1.2.0-3.fc5            installed
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-legacy.i386          1.0.7184-2.lvn5        installed
Available Packages
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.i386                 1.0.8774-1.lvn5        livna
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-devel.i386           1.0.8774-1.lvn5        livna
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-legacy-devel.i386    1.0.7184-2.lvn5        livna

and the complete contents of my xorg.conf:

Code:

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

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

Section "Files"
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, a font server independent of the X server is
# used to render fonts.

	FontPath     "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "fbdevhw"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
	Load  "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
#	Option	"Xleds"		"1 2 3"

# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
#	Option	"XkbDisable"

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults).  For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
#	Option	"XkbModel"	"pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#	Option	"XkbModel"	"microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#	Option	"XkbLayout"	"de"
# or:
#	Option	"XkbLayout"	"de"
#	Option	"XkbVariant"	"nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#	Option	"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
#	Option	"XkbOptions"	"ctrl:nocaps"
#
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "pc105"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "KDS Visual Sensations VS-70/VS-77/VS-7b/VS-7p"
	DisplaySize  320	240
 ### Comment all HorizSync and VertSync values to use DDC:
	HorizSync    30.0 - 72.0
	VertRefresh  50.0 - 160.0
	Option	    "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "nv"
	VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
	BoardName   "nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400]"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
		Modes    "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1280x1024"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group        0
	Mode         0666
EndSection

WhatsOnYourBrain · 10-15-2006, 01:39 AM

looks like my time is up. i have no idea how it happened, but i can't get log into root anymore via ]$ su or ]$ su -
i tried a few different things, such as moving to the filesystem root and trying again. no luck.

the error given is that i'm providing the wrong password. for the record, YumEx had been throwing errors too-- i was actually in the process of shutting some stuff down in prep for re-booting. maybe i'll never make it back? what a pain in the brain!

somehow, i've pissed off the linux nazi!