[SOLVED] Help. Nvidia Driver Issue on Debian amd64

feeblebrain · 03-09-2011, 07:58 AM

Hi,

I have a problem on Debian 6.0.0 AMD64 and thank you before hand for any help or advice.

I installed the Nvidia driver for the on board GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a the "Debian way", according to this link Debian Nvidia Howto. The problem is that the only available screen resolutions are 640x480 & 320x240 and I need something more like 1024x768. The driver is installed correctly, or at least is properly recognized, as in Nvidia Xserver settings, GPU0 appears as GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a.

Here's the xorg.conf file.

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Can anyone help, please?

Extra info;
I am relatively new to Debian and ran it for a while on nouveau with no problems, before attempting this installation.

Attempting to set metamodes like this...

Code:

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
    Option         "metamodes" "1024x768 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

..only causes gdm not to start.

On my Ubuntu partition, I have working the proprietary Nvidia driver (file: NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-260.19.36.run), and have had no problems from it at all. I was going to install this same driver onto Debian when I read several pages advising to go the "Debian way".

Note: This post was moved from here

druuna · 03-09-2011, 09:53 AM

Hi,

There are several ways to install the nvidia drivers on Debian.

Maybe this thread will help: Fresh Squeeze Install (right here at LQ).

Hope this helps.

feeblebrain · 03-09-2011, 10:38 AM

Thank you, I have got the system back to the nouveau all okay, & will try again from the beginning as per the link.

druuna · 03-09-2011, 10:57 AM

Hi,

You might want to move the current xorg.conf out of the way, the few lines mentioned in the link (post #3) should be enough.

Hope this helps.

feeblebrain · 03-22-2011, 10:20 PM

Hi, and thank you very much for the advice, druuna. However, I have this figured now. The problem was not the GPU. What I did not mention (reading my above posts) was that I also had a similar problem with Ubuntu a while back, when it got stuck in 640x480 mode, and that with an onboard Intel G41(R) GPU.

The real problem appears to be some glitch with the monitor auto detection by xserver-xorg. I have an Acer x193w. I have been reading around laconically during my free time, plus a couple of visits to the Debian IRC, and it seems that there are several LCD monitors that are not very good at "reporting" to the OS their capabilities, so to speak. In my case, specifically, it was the refresh/synch rates in the Monitor Section.

If you have a similar problem, look around on the web to find your LCD monitor specs and try something like this in your xorg.conf file (with your specs, of course)...

Code:

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   	"Monitor0"
	VendorName   	"Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    	"Monitor Model"
	HorizSync	30.0 - 80.0
	VertRefresh	55.0 - 75.0
EndSection

..and maybe even this sort of thing, in the Screen section (again, try and include the native or recommended resolution for your monitor, in my case it is 1440x900)...

Code:

Section "Screen"
	Identifier 	"Screen0"
	Device     	"Card0"
	Monitor    	"Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Modes	"1440x900" "1024x768" "800x600"
	EndSubSection
	
EndSection

It might help.

My screen looks brilliant now. Therte's nothing like using the recommended resolution.

As a side note, there is a woeful scarcity of comprehensive documentation for xorg configuration structure, at least as far as I can see, just snatches, like what I have written above. Does anyone know of some tutorial or a "syntax & format" style guide for xorg.conf configuration? It would help.

Edit;
Of course, if you don't have an xorg.conf file in /etc/X11 after installing xserver, you can make one by running

Code:

X -configure

as superuser. cp it from /root to /etc/X11 and edit away.