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problem with nvidia chipset

Hi,
These NVIDIA products are real nightmares. I recently downloaded a copy a sabayon linux for my desktop.
The live dvd booted with the following error message throughout the screen

Quote:

[ 3129.434776] NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter found!
[ 3129.434855] NVRM: NVIDIA init module failed!
[ 3129.479276] NVRM: The NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a GPU installed in this system is
NVRM: supported through the NVIDIA 304.xx Legacy drivers. Please
NVRM: visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
NVRM: information. The 340.58 NVIDIA driver will ignore
NVRM: this GPU. Continuing probe...
[ 3129.479285] NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter found!
[ 3129.479362] NVRM: NVIDIA init module failed!
[ 3129.519879] NVRM: The NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a GPU installed in this system is
NVRM: supported through the NVIDIA 304.xx Legacy drivers. Please
NVRM: visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
NVRM: information. The 340.58 NVIDIA driver will ignore
NVRM: this GPU. Continuing probe...

However after a long time it started up properly. After installing the os I found that the problem still persists. Firtsly it took about 10 mins or so to boot. And then apart from terminal 7 (which is the graphical terminal) all other terminals shows the above output. It seems like it has fallen through an infinite loop. I tried downloading some drivers from the nvidia site but simply could not install them because it mandates the X to stop working. If I do so I won't be able to install it from other terminals.

I have attached the output of "dmesg".
Any help is appreciated.

0. prior to booting, enter `nomodeset` as a kernel argument
1. blacklist nouveau
2. kill X
3. install nvidia driver
4. reboot

That should do it. There may be some very specific methods of doing these things in your distro, so I hesitate to give you too much advice in terms of specific processes. In fact, your distro might even offer an Nvidia installer from their repo, so all you may have to do is the 0th step, and then install the Nvidia package from the distro.

Thanks notKlaatu.

It was really a helpful answer. Got it right. One problem is solved but just found out some other problem regarding the opengl and graphics issue. First of all in the "display & monitor" section of the kde control center I find a maximum resolution of 1024*768 while the optimum resolution of my screen is 1400*900. Secondly desktop cube animation and other effects that depends upon opengl does not seem to work.

In that Configure Desktop Effects>Advanced Tab whenever I choose the compositing type to opengl it falls back to xrender. Don't know how get rid of this problem.

I boot up my linux in the terminal mode. And then I tried installing the NVIDIA driver. But it shows an error that it cannot find the kernel source path. Following is the log file generated in the process.

Code:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'

creation time: Mon Jan 19 13:23:08 2015

installer version: 304.125



PATH: /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin



nvidia-installer command line:

    ./nvidia-installer



Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface

WARNING: Skipping the runlevel check (the utility `runlevel` failed to run).

-> License accepted.

-> Installing NVIDIA driver version 304.125.

-> Performing CC sanity check with CC="cc".

-> Performing CC version check with CC="cc".

ERROR: The kernel header file '/lib/modules/3.18.0-sabayon/source/include/linux/kernel.h' does not exist.  The most likely reason for this is that the kernel source path '/lib/modules/3.18.0-sabayon/source' is incorrect.  Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your kernel and that they are properly configured; on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sure you have the 'kernel-source' or 'kernel-devel' RPM installed.  If you know the correct kernel source files are installed, you may specify the kernel source path with the '--kernel-source-path' command line option.

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.

Please note that I typed the following command to find the path of kernel.h

Code:

~ $ sudo find / -name kernel.h -print

Password: 

find: ‘/var/run/user/1000/gvfs’: Permission denied

/usr/include/linux/kernel.h

find: ‘/run/user/1000/gvfs’: Permission denied

So I passed the directory "/usr/include/linux/kernel.h" as kernel-source-path option for installing NVIDIA. But the output is the same

Code:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'

creation time: Mon Jan 19 13:23:08 2015

installer version: 304.125



PATH: /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin



nvidia-installer command line:

    ./nvidia-installer



Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface

WARNING: Skipping the runlevel check (the utility `runlevel` failed to run).

-> License accepted.

-> Installing NVIDIA driver version 304.125.

-> Performing CC sanity check with CC="cc".

-> Performing CC version check with CC="cc".

ERROR: The kernel header file '/usr/include/linux/kernel.h' does not exist.  The most likely reason for this is that the kernel source path '/usr/include/linux' is incorrect.  Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your kernel and that they are properly configured; on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sure you have the 'kernel-source' or 'kernel-devel' RPM installed.  If you know the correct kernel source files are installed, you may specify the kernel source path with the '--kernel-source-path' command line option.

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 guess it cannot find proper kernel source dir. So how can I now solve this issue???

Thanks!!!

You need to install the kernel headers package for your kernel.

And how do I do that???

Please note that I have that kernel.h file in /usr/include/linux directory

Code:

uname -a

aptitude search linux-headers

Quote:

These NVIDIA products are real nightmares.
--- and this ----
[ 3129.479276] NVRM: The NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a GPU installed in this system is
NVRM: supported through the NVIDIA 304.xx Legacy drivers. Please

not really
nvidia is the BEST supported

however using OLD legacy hardware WILL cause problems
for OLD legacy hardware you really should use a older LEGACY support operating system

in the ubuntu group of os's
Ubuntu 12.10 LTS - is supported to something like 2018
or in Debian family use Debian 7.7
in the mint family use maya Mint 13 LTS

in the RHEL family RHEL or CentOS 6.6 ( still supports the nvidia 7000 cards)

But the question is I have their legacy drivers and so I should be able to install which is the real problem.

The real problem is that you haven't bothered to read instructions or install the headers you need.

NVidia install invokes a program that compiles the driver from source and object modules.
It does this by compiling a module for the kernel and installing it as part of the kernel modules.

A full set of Linux kernel headers is more than one file (could be as many as 50 files). It is found as part of the compiling packages. A copy will be in /usr/src/linux/include. and another copy will be in /usr/include/, but as I have both I don't know which that NVidia is using. In Slackware there is a package for the kernel source, and a package for the kernel headers. You also need the compiling tools like the GNU C compiler and Make.

Being that I always have the full kernel source code installed, I don't know how minimal you can get on the sources and tools. I also don't know if it gets into /usr/src/linux or manages only with what is in /usr/include.

I have trouble with my NVidia drivers too. The recommended drivers do not work on my card. They will not handle handoff to console, and hang the system upon restore from suspend. I have to run older NVidia drivers that are known to work with this Linux version, even though they are not complete as to this particular video card. This old driver amazingly works better than the recommended ones. I have heard of other users that have had to use older versions of drivers too, because the latest NVidia drivers cause them unsolvable problems.
It appears that they keep breaking some existing Linux compatibility when fixing things for
the latest Linux release versions. For the latest cards and the latest Linux versions, it is reported that the NVidia proprietary driver has better performance than Nouveau.
I am wishing that I could get the Nouveau driver to work. If you have a newer supported card, you can ask for help at the NVidia site, but my card is old enough that they are no longer interested in supporting it, and I am not interested in spending more money, which leaves us hoping for Nouveau.