Nvidia Driver fails to load after Kernel Update (2.6.30.9-90.fc11.i686.PAE)
 

Hi,

I'm running Fedora 11 on a Lenovo Thinkpad T61. The Graphics Card in this unit is Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M. I used the Nvidia legacy driver (185.18.36) as my graphics driver and all was working fine with the kernel version 2.6.30.8-64.fc11.i686.PAE.

Few days back I updated my system and a new kernel version (2.6.30.9-90.fc11.i686.PAE) got installed with the update. Now the Nvidia driver fails to load. I re-installed the same Nvidia driver on the new kernel(which compiled without any problem) as well but to no avail.

The Xorg.0.log has tthe following information

......
(--) PCI:*(0:1:0:0) 10de:0429:17aa:20d8 nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 140M rev 161, Mem @ 0xd6000000/16777216, 0xe0000000/268435456, 0xd4000000/33554432, I/O @ 0x00002000/128, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
(II) No APM support in BIOS or kernel
(II) System resource ranges:
[0] -1 0 0xffffffff - 0xffffffff (0x1) MX[B]
[1] -1 0 0x000f0000 - 0x000fffff (0x10000) MX[B]
[2] -1 0 0x000c0000 - 0x000effff (0x30000) MX[B]
[3] -1 0 0x00000000 - 0x0009ffff (0xa0000) MX[B]
[4] -1 0 0x0000ffff - 0x0000ffff (0x1) IX[B]
[5] -1 0 0x00000000 - 0x00000000 (0x1) IX[B]
(II) LoadModule: "extmod"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libextmod.so
(II) Module extmod: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.6.3.901, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: X.Org Server Extension
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension SELinux
(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(II) Loading extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DGA
(II) Loading extension DPMS
(II) Loading extension XVideo
(II) Loading extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
(II) Loading extension X-Resource
(II) LoadModule: "dbe"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libdbe.so
(II) Module dbe: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.6.3.901, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: X.Org Server Extension
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
(II) LoadModule: "glx"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libglx.so
(II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: X.Org Server Extension
(II) NVIDIA GLX Module 185.18.36 Fri Aug 14 17:50:12 PDT 2009
(II) Loading extension GLX
(II) LoadModule: "record"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//librecord.so
(II) Module record: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.6.3.901, module version = 1.13.0
Module class: X.Org Server Extension
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension RECORD
(II) LoadModule: "dri"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libdri.so
(II) Module dri: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.6.3.901, module version = 1.0.0
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DRI
(II) LoadModule: "dri2"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libdri2.so
(II) Module dri2: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 1.6.3.901, module version = 1.1.0
ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 2.0
(II) Loading extension DRI2
(II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so
(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: X.Org Video Driver
(EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module. Please check your
(EE) NVIDIA: system's kernel log for additional error messages.
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) Unloading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so
(EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module-specific error, 0)
(EE) No drivers available.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

I also tried installing the nvidia driver available at rpmfusion but it also gave me the same error.

Looks to me that the Nvidia Linux Driver version 185.18.36 is not compatible with this kernel even though it compiles correctly.

Now I reverted back to the previous kernel. Does anyone have a clue to get this working?

Thanks in advance.

a)Make double sure your kernel header version matches your kernel image.
b)If its a stock kernel then driver binaries should be available
c)The log says :
"Please check your system's kernel log for additional error messages"
Probably worth looking at your other logs in /var/log and so on.

I just looked at the Nvidia site - it says the correct driver for your card is 169.04 beta (also 100.14.23 beta - slightly older) - maybe you should check it out :-)

Everytime you remake a kernel you need to rerun the nvidia tool. Im not sure why but I have always had to redo the nvidia stuff after I made a new kernel. Even when all I changed was adding something to it and staying in the same revision.

I know that fact. Probably because the os requires a nvidia kernel module that matches with the kernel version. However with this kernel version (2.6.30.9-90.fc11.i686.PAE) , it wasn't working either. Anyways his week there was another update to the kernels (version 2.6.30.9-96.fc11.i686.PAE) a patch. Once this was updated and the nvidia tool was run things started to work. I guess I can do without the previous version for the being.

Thanks for your comments guys!