I'm trying to install OpenSUSE 12.2 on an old Deskpro EN (866MHz, 512MB, nVidia AGP video) and have run into the problem where I can't complete the configuration after the initial boot because the console text becomes all "blocky" and impossible to read. I can tell that I'm seeing a login prompt and I can log in but really can't do anything because of the corrupted text. All the consoles are affected. After I've logged in I can issue
(though I can't read what I'm typing) and then login via the network.

The first time I ran into this problem it was at the end of a full graphical installation and thought it was something messing up during the graphics discovery, etc., that fouled up the X configuration. The problem didn't go away when doing a barebones, text-only, no graphical-anything selected, level-3-boot installation. After doing the same ifconfig command and logging in via the network, I ran YaST to setup a static IP address (so I don't have to go through the ifconfig routine again).

I've tried a few variations of "fbset" commands to try and setup a resolution that would work but not having any luck. I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure if I'm using fbset correctly but I don't get any errors when I issue:
but I don't get legible text on any of the consoles, either. Using those same fbset arguments in /etc/sysconfig/console has not helped.

I previously had a copy of SUSE 10.2 running on this hardware before trying to install 12.2. I ran into no odd graphics problems with that combination.

I can add another 256MB of RAM (taking the system to its supported limit) but I doubt that's the problem.

Anyone got an idea about what's going wrong with the consoles?

Is this old nVidia AGP card not ever going to work with a newer Linux?

TIA for any tips...

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Rick

Sounds like a problem with nouveau; I had similar problems with an old nVidia AGP card.

It sounds like you can ssh in and get readble text on another device. (I use my iPhone in a pinch!)

I'd do that and install the proprietary driver. Even very old cards are still supported by the legacy drivers. Which model do you have?

Heh heh. Problem... nouveau... sort of redundant, eh?

The specs say it's an nVidia TNT2 though the card that's actually plugged into the AGP port seems to be nothing more than a Samsung 4MB memory card. I thought I might be able to find the actual video chip on the motherboard. But I looked on the m'board and couldn't find anything that looked like an nVidia chip. So maybe it's not an nVidia processor after all. The reason I suspect it is (besides what's listed in the specs) was that I have had an X Windows interface running on this system in days past while running an older SUSE (10.1 or .2) and seem to recall seeing the TNT2 showing up in the Xorg startup messages. If I can't confirm it any other way, I can always grab the 10.x DVD and reinstall that to see what is detected.

BTW, I've not had any luck at all getting the proprietary nVidia drivers to work on ANY of my systems that are running the newer nouveau driver. My theory is that the mkinitrd step is screwing up in some way but none of the instructions -- the "easy" way, the "hard" way, etc. -- I've run across that claim to be explanations as to how to run the proprietary driver have been any help. The last time I attempted to do that, it mucked up things so badly that I wound up having to do a complete reinstallation of OpenSUSE. I might be able to scare up an old Rage-based video board (PCI) for the EN but I suspect I'll run into the same problem if I have to bypass nouveau to get THAT card to run.

So you think that I HAVE to run the nVidia driver? I'm not looking to have ANY sort of graphics capability on this EN system AT ALL let alone acceleration. Doesn't it seem rather, uh, dumb to force users to go out and find 3rd party drivers in order to get basic functionality? (Hmm... what OS did I abandon in frustration years ago because, among other things, I needed to do that all the time. It's right on the tip of my tongue.. )

Snarkiness aside... Any tips, URLs, etc., that you can pass along that provide step-by-step instructions on how to get the nVidia driver to work on the EN system (or any system that needs to use the proprietary driver, for that matter) would be hugely appreciated.

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Rick

Well, you could blacklist nouveau for starters, to see if that helps; you should then be running generic VESA/VGA.

you probably need to add nomodeset to your kernel line too. See the last URL in this post.

However, according to this http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/q...a/10653_na.PDF you do have TNT2 ACP graphics.

So if you want to give the NVIDIA driver that should support a TNT2 is http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d..._71.86.13.html just download it, extract it and run it. It'll even do the blacklist thing for you. Here are some instructions: ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Li...alldriver.html

BTW, I suspect that some of your problems with the OpenSUSE instruction you've had stem from the new driver and the old hardware.

You might want to read this too:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NVIDIA_the_hard_way but it sounds like you've seen that already.

[EDIT] Whoops, I forgot, the old legacy 71.86 driver no longer supports the new X ABI: (from http://www.flaterco.com/kb/video/X-regressions.html)

So; no OpenSUSE 12.2 on a TNT2, I'd say. You can still just blacklist nouveau and add nomdeset and hope VESA graphics and fb work for you. Sorry about the memory lapse.

That didn't seem to suffice.

Tried that and the grub menu was not displaying anything while I was attempting to add to the Grub boot command line.

So... I went in via the network using ssh as I've been able to to do, and ran YaST to try and disable nouveau from loading. Went into "boot loader options" and n9oticed that the VGA mode was blank. Pressing down-arrow to show the drop-down menu showed it was set to "Unassigned". I changed that to "Text" and exited. A reboot gve me a readable console. I then went into /etc/modprobe.d and commented out the line that was blacklisting nouveau, rebooted, and found that the console text was still legible. My guess is that the video was never really configured during the installation (hence that "Unassigned" setting).

Success... sort of. If I ever want to run a GUI on this system (not likely, given its age, CPU speed, and memory limits) I'll have to do some serious research to see if this old graphics adapter is supported. (On the off chance that you missed one out there. As I recall, finding the right place to look on the nVidia site was a bit of a challenge.) I might try and throw an old PCI adapter in the system to see if I can get that to work -- gotta find one first -- but it's probably not worth it. This is just a test system and not something I want to spend much (if any) money on.

Do you recall at what driver version the compatibility was lost? I have another system using an old MX440 card that may be using one of the older legacy drivers; that card may also have turned into a paperweight. The last time I tried to get the nVidia driver to work I think I was working with "1.0-6629" which goes back to around 2004. (The release notes for that driver do list the TNT2 as being supported.) Anyway... it compiled but I was unable to get it to work and had figured it was a mkinitrd screwup.

Well... I have a fix for my test so I'm going to mark this problem as "solved".

Thanks for the assistance and info.

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Rick