[SOLVED] nvidia drivers in Arch X 1.6, 1.7

pixellany · 11-05-2009, 04:23 PM

I recently did an upgrade on my Arch system, which includes X 1.7.1

After this, X would not start. I was using the "nv" driver.

I then tried the latest nvidia 190.42 driver, which also will not work. Some grubbing around led me to the Arch boards and the statement that the lates nvidia driver will not work with X 1.7

So I down-graded to X 1.6.3 latest nvidia still does not work, but nv does. None of the nvidia versions--going back to 185--seem to work.

Does anyone have insights into what is going on with X and nvidia drivers?

HP Compaq 8510W, NVidia Quadro FX 570M

berbae · 11-06-2009, 08:36 AM

From http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/:
GeForce FX GPUs are supported through the 173.14.xx NVIDIA legacy graphics drivers.

But the 173.14.20 legacy driver was not yet ported to xorg server 1.7 and is usable only with xorg server 1.6

But as far as I know, the nv driver should work with xorg server 1.7, though without 3D support.

So
xorg-server 1.6.3.901-1 should work with nvidia-173xx 173.14.20-2
xorg-server 1.7.1-1 should work with xf86-video-nv 2.1.15-1

When something doesn't work think over looking into /var/log/Xorg.0.log file for error messages.

Edit that arch link is about something similar

pixellany · 11-06-2009, 08:39 AM

Thank you very much!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by berbae

When something doesn't work think over looking into /var/log/Xorg.0.log file for error messages.

Did that--several times. There are no error messages produced---X starts and you can log in (in the blind), but there is no display.

John VV · 11-06-2009, 01:23 PM

i to downgraded x to 1.6.3 in arch for my VERY old Geforce 2 card . It dose work
did you also downgrade it's prerequisites ?
xf86-input-evdev,xorg-server-utils

then reinstall the nvidia.run driver

pixellany · 11-18-2009, 12:00 PM

Update and new information.

I had noticed that some startup failures resulted in a blank screen but no other anomalies---and no obvious log entries.

When trying to configure Arch-64 on the same machine, I found this in /var/log/Xorg*:

Quote:

NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s) on Quadro FX 570M at PCI:1:0:0:
(--) NVIDIA(0): DELL 2407WFP (CRT-0)
(--) NVIDIA(0): Seiko (DFP-0)
(--) NVIDIA(0): DELL 2407WFP (CRT-0): 400.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
(--) NVIDIA(0): Seiko (DFP-0): 330.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
(--) NVIDIA(0): Seiko (DFP-0): Internal Dual Link LVDS
(II) NVIDIA(0): Assigned Display Device: DFP-0
(==) NVIDIA(0):

So----it's finding both monitors when the laptop is in the dock, but somehow decides to use the laptop screen (Which of course is inside the closed lid). This system has never done THIS before---with various combos of X and NVidia drivers.

the 64 bit install has X 1.7 and nvidia 173.14.22 (most recent driver which fully supports my card.)

Any clues?

berbae · 11-19-2009, 08:57 AM

Have you tried the option :
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "CRT-0"
in your xorg.conf ?
This should oblige the driver to use the external screen.
(There is also
Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "DFP"
to ignore the internal screen)
see Nvidia driver options for details.
But I think that these options would not be practical to use, as you would need to change the xorg.conf file when you want to use the laptop screen again.
The doc says :

Quote:

if both a CRT and a DFP are connected, by default the X driver would assign the CRT to this X screen

I don't know why that is not the case for you.
Maybe ask in the Nvidia forum.

pixellany · 11-19-2009, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berbae

Have you tried the option :
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "CRT-0"
in your xorg.conf ?
This should oblige the driver to use the external screen.
(There is also
Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "DFP"
to ignore the internal screen)
see Nvidia driver options for details.
But I think that these options would not be practical to use, as you would need to change the xorg.conf file when you want to use the laptop screen again.
The doc says :

I don't know why that is not the case for you.
Maybe ask in the Nvidia forum.

Thank you very much---this weekend I tackle this issue (hard to trouble-shoot the company laptop while also doing my paid job....

)

John VV · 11-19-2009, 03:23 PM

actually the 190.42 is supported for a 570 m 64 bit laptop

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d...64_190.42.html
"Supported products"
Quadro FX Notebook series:
FX 370M, FX 1700M, FX 1600M, FX 2700M, FX 360M, FX 570M, FX 3600M

berbae · 11-19-2009, 04:03 PM

You are right John VV, I didn't see that list of supported products before.

pixellany · 12-01-2009, 06:30 PM

Happy Ending:

This works (in xorg.conf):

Quote:

Option "UseDisplayDevice" "CRT"

If the laptop is out of the dock, then there is no CRT, and the built-in screen takes over. Thanks again to berbae...

Everything is working with X 7.1 and nvidia 190.42 (latest as of 2 days ago). I'm hoping that resume from suspend to disk also works---as it did when using a an earlier nvidia version on a 32-bit system.

thanks again to all who helped...