Hello,
I’ve just replaced a slightly flaky ATI 7500 card with an Aopen Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT on a system with specs as below.
Win 2K boots fine and works as advertised, but after extensive tinkering with the command line (at which I am admittedly a biff), reconfiguring the Xorg.conf file (manually and automatically) as well as going through a complete reinstall, I can’t get a proper picture on the display after X starts; it’s very corrupted with the colours all wrong,and buttons, icons, etc are far too big - it’s as if the screen is only showing an area of the top left of the normal display. Booting with Knoppix revealed the driver to be ‘nv’ in xorg.conf. The reinstall went as expected and the installation routine seemed to recognise the monitor and graphics card correctly, but testing the configuration produced the same picture, and changing the configuration several times to more conservative settings made no difference. Booting to the command line is fine.

Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated.

System ASRock motherboard with 1.5 GHz P4
512 MB RAM
Dual booting (on separate drives) Windows 2000 / SuSE Linux 10.1
AOpen nvidia 6600 GT 128MB

Dave M

visit Nvidia and read the Install How To, come back if errors occure.
1. visit & read
2. download
3. install
4. edit the xorg.conf as you've just read.

Thanks odcheck, I admittedly haven't done that yet as I'd expected X's nvidia driver to at least give me a working GUI (I know installing the nvidia drivers has to be done without X running, though). I had to do the same thing on my laptop (SuSE Linux Pro 9.3) but on that the only thing that didn't work after installing was 3D acceleration. Shouldn't the x driver work out of the box, or are I missing something?

Dave M

Just go for It. download and install. some card won't work out of the box even if they are nvidia cards using the native nv driver.
So start in Init 3 and perform the install steps discribed. And you'll have a working GUI with 3d if not come back I'll try to help you.

Okay, I tried to install the most recent nvidia driver I could. It got as far as building the kernel and threw up an error message; the log file is included below.

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Thu Sep 21 22:48:56 2006

option status:
license pre-accepted : false
update : false
force update : false
expert : false
uninstall : false
driver info : false
no precompiled interface: false
no ncurses color : false
query latest driver ver : false
OpenGL header files : true
no questions : false
silent : false
no backup : false
kernel module only : false
sanity : false
add this kernel : false
no runlevel check : false
no network : false
no ABI note : false
no RPMs : false
force tls : (not specified)
force compat32 tls : (not specified)
X install prefix : /usr/X11R6
OpenGL install prefix : /usr
compat32 install prefix : (not specified)
installer install prefix: /usr
utility install prefix : /usr
kernel name : (not specified)
kernel include path : (not specified)
kernel source path : (not specified)
kernel output path : (not specified)
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /tmp
ftp mirror : ftp://download.nvidia.com
RPM file list : (not specified)

Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface
-> License accepted.
-> No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; would you li
ke the installer to attempt to download a kernel interface for your kernel f
rom the NVIDIA ftp site (ftp://download.nvidia.com)? (Answer: No)
-> No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; this means
that the installer will need to compile a new kernel interface.
-> Kernel source path: '/lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default/source'
-> Performing CC test with CC="cc".
-> Performing rivafb check.
-> Cleaning kernel module build directory.
executing: 'cd ./usr/src/nv; make clean'...
rm -f -f nv.o nv-vm.o os-agp.o os-interface.o os-registry.o nv.o nv-vm.o os-
agp.o os-interface.o os-registry.o nvidia.mod.o
rm -f -f build-in.o nv-linux.o *.d .*.{cmd,flags}
rm -f -f nvidia.{o,ko,mod.{o,c}} nv_compiler.h *~
rm -f -rf .tmp_versions
-> Building kernel module:
executing: 'cd ./usr/src/nv; make module SYSSRC=/lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-def
ault/source SYSOUT=/lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default/build'...

NVIDIA: calling KBUILD...
make CC=cc KBUILD_OUTPUT=/lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default/build KBUILD_VERBO
SE=1 -C /lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default/source SUBDIRS=/tmp/selfgz6875/NVID
IA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv modules
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.16.13-4-default/build \
KBUILD_SRC=/usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4 \
KBUILD_EXTMOD="/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv" -f
/usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/Makefile modules
rm -rf /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/.tmp_versio
ns
mkdir -p /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/.tmp_vers
ions
make -f /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/scripts/Makefile.build obj=/tmp/selfgz687
5/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv
echo \#define NV_COMPILER \"`cc -v 2>&1 | tail -n 1`\" > /tmp/selfgz6875/NVI
DIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv_compiler.h
cc -Wp,-MD,/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/.nv.o
.d -nostdinc -isystem /usr/lib/gcc/i586-suse-linux/4.1.0/include -D__KERNEL
__ -Iinclude -Iinclude2 -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include -include /usr/s
rc/linux-2.6.16.13-4-obj/i386/default/include/linux/autoconf.h -I/tmp/selfg
z6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv -Wall -Wundef -Wstrict-prot
otypes -Wno-trigraphs -Werror-implicit-function-declaration -fno-strict-alia
sing -fno-common -ffreestanding -Os -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe -msoft-float
-mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -march=i586 -mtune=generic -mregparm=3 -Iinclud
e/asm-i386/mach-default -I/usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/asm-i386/mach-d
efault -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wno-pointer-sign -I/tmp/selfgz6875/NVI
DIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv -Wall -Wimplicit -Wreturn-type -Wswi
tch -Wformat -Wchar-subscripts -Wparentheses -Wpointer-arith -Wno-multichar
-Werror -O -fno-common -MD -Wsign-compare -Wno-cast-qual -Wno-error -D_LOOSE
_KERNEL_NAMES -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DNTRM -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_LOOSE_KERNEL_NAM
ES -D__KERNEL__ -DMODULE -DNV_MAJOR_VERSION=1 -DNV_MINOR_VERSION=0 -DNV_PATC
HLEVEL=7676 -UDEBUG -U_DEBUG -DNDEBUG -DNV_MULTIPLE_BRIDGE_AGPG
ART_PRESENT -DNV_CHANGE_PAGE_ATTR_PRESENT -DNV_PCI_DISABLE_DEVICE_PRESENT -D
MODULE -D"KBUILD_STR(s)=#s" -D"KBUILD_BASENAME=KBUILD_STR(nv)" -D"KBUILD_MO
DNAME=KBUILD_STR(nvidia)" -c -o /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pk
g1/usr/src/nv/.tmp_nv.o /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/s
rc/nv/nv.c
In file included from /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/linux/list.h:7,
from /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/linux/wait.h:23,
from include2/asm/semaphore.h:41,
from /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/linux/sched.h:20,
from /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/linux/module.h:10,
from /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src
/nv/nv-linux.h:46,
from /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src
/nv/nv.c:14:
/usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/linux/prefetch.h: In function âprefetch
_rangeâ:
/usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/linux/prefetch.h:62: warning: pointer of
type âvoid *â used in arithmetic
In file included from /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/linux/dmapool.h:14,
from /usr/src/linux-2.6.16.13-4/include/linux/pci.h:558,
from /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src
/nv/nv-linux.h:69,
from /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src
/nv/nv.c:14:
include2/asm/io.h: In function âcheck_signatureâ:
include2/asm/io.h:258: warning: wrong type argument to increment
In file included from /tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src
/nv/nv.c:14:
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-linux.h:239:5:
warning: "NV_ENABLE_MEM_TRACKING" is not defined
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-linux.h:267:5:
warning: "NV_ENABLE_MEM_TRACKING" is not defined
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv-linux.h:646:2:
warning: #warning "conftest.sh failed, assuming remap_page_range(4)!"
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:109:5: warnin
g: "DEBUG" is not defined
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:129:5: warnin
g: "DEBUG" is not defined
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c: At top level
:
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:261: warning:
initialization from incompatible pointer type
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:286:5: warnin
g: "NV_ENABLE_MEM_TRACKING" is not defined
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c: In function
ânvos_get_agp_device_by_classâ:
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:467: error: i
mplicit declaration of function âpci_find_classâ
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:467: warning:
assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:481: warning:
assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c: In function
ânvidia_init_moduleâ:
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:1073: error:
implicit declaration of function âpm_registerâ
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:1073: warning
: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:1170: error:
implicit declaration of function âpm_unregisterâ
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:1283:5: warni
ng: "NV_ENABLE_MEM_TRACKING" is not defined
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c: In function
ânv_kern_mmapâ:
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:1711: error:
implicit declaration of function âremap_page_rangeâ
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c: In function
ânvos_count_devicesâ:
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:3449: warning
: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.c:3455: warning
: assignment makes pointer from integer without a cast
make[4]: *** [/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src/nv/nv.o
] Error 1
make[3]: *** [_module_/tmp/selfgz6875/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7676-pkg1/usr/src
/nv] Error 2
make[2]: *** [modules] Error 2
NVIDIA: left KBUILD.
nvidia.ko failed to build!
make[1]: *** [module] Error 1
make: *** [module] Error 2
-> Error.
ERROR: Unable to build the NVIDIA kernel module.
ERROR: Installation has failed. Please see the file
'/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details. You may find suggestions
on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux
driver download page at www.nvidia.com.


I'm afraid I'm completely stumped now.
Thanks for any help anyone can give.

Dave M

There are SuSE specific issues with installing the nvidia driver (as the download page mentions, heheh) check out the SuSE guide:

http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/nvidia-...ler-HOWTO.html

Good Luck! And uhhhh... 8.2.. seriously? I couldnt live with such old libs!

I followed the installation instructions for the SuSE 10.1 procedure, but after adding the nvidia ftp server as an installation source, activating it and having to delete the SuSE DVD as a source, the instructions departed from the YaST controls on screen (this was all done using command line and cinternet as there was no X server running, of course). Specifically, the instructions say use

YaST -> Software -> Install and delete software

but the onscreen options were

YaST -> Software management

with no obvious way to select the new installation source after selecting that option, or any sign of software to update despite looking through all the filter options. I ran a search for the package x11-video-nvidia and up it popped and appeared to start downloading although the package size indicated 0kb. After half an hour or so (dial-up) after the progress bar had filled and was indicating 100% an error message came up saying the SuSE 10.1 install disc was not found, and on selecting 'OK' the progress bar emptied and the download began again. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

By the way, I'm not on 8.2 anymore, I just haven't figured out how to update that distro bit yet.