Cannot get nVidia drivers to work with Ge Force 4 card
 

Hi there,

I have run into a few problems when trying to configure my X server to use the nVidia accelerated drivers:

The problem

After I configure the XF86config-4 file as per the instructions in the guide on this site (remove "GLcore", "dri" and make sure I have Load "glx" under the modules and Driver "nvidia" instead of "nv") when I boot up the "kdm" command doesn't work (it just moves down to the next prompt line) and if set to nter at run level 5 the sceen flickers and then goves my a cmd line login. When I return to my backed up XF86config-4 file everything works fine again.

Things I have tried

There are some odd options that I do not understand in the XF86config-4 file and I tried commenting them but I got results that were unsucesful and I don't really want to play with any of that too much as I don't know what I am doing.

Information

I have a GeForce 4 card
I am using ProMepis 2005
In order to install the driver I had to first install the kernel source code from mepislovers for kernel 2.6.10. This was sucesful and I followed al the readme instructions.
The driver itself installed sucesfully with no error messages.
On boot up when I get info telling me which drivers are being loaded, "nv" always comes up on the list weather XF86config-4 is set to use it or not (I don't know if that is relevent or not)
I have copies of both my working XF86config-4 file (obviously) and the file I used to try to get the drivers working.

Any help with this would be very much appreciated,
thanks in advance.

Could you post the XF86config-4 file and what errors you get when you do command startx.

This is the file I can't get to work

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer"
#InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
#InputDevice "Serial Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "true"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/PEX"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
# True type and type1 fonts
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-xfree86-nonfree"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/java"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/arphic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/freefont"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/openoffice"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/western"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf/decoratives"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/CID"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/defoma/TrueType"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/CID"

EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
Load "bitmap"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "speedo"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"
# Load "synaptics"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "uk"
Option "XKbOptions" ""
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Serial Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Microsoft"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "1700"
Option "RightEdge" "5300"
Option "TopEdge" "1700"
Option "BottomEdge" "4200"
Option "FingerLow" "25"
Option "FingerHigh" "30"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "220"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "100"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.06"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.12"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0010"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "Repeater" "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "PS/2 Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "USB Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Buttons" "5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "unknown"
ModelName "unknown"
#Option "DPMS" "true"
HorizSync 30.0 - 82.0 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors
VertRefresh 50.0 - 70.0 # Very conservative. May flicker.
Modeline "640x480" 25.175 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525 #60Hz
Modeline "800x600" 40.12 800 848 968 1056 600 601 605 628 #60Hz
Modeline "1024x768" 75 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync
Modeline "1024x768" 85 1024 1056 1152 1360 768 784 787 823
ModeLine "1152x864" 65 1152 1168 1384 1480 864 865 875 985 Interlace
Modeline "1152x864" 92 1152 1208 1368 1474 864 865 875 895
Modeline "1152x864" 110 1152 1240 1324 1552 864 864 876 908
Modeline "1152x864" 135 1152 1464 1592 1776 864 864 876 908
Modeline "1152x864" 137.65 1152 1184 1312 1536 864 866 885 902 -HSync -VSync
Modeline "1280x1024" 80 1280 1296 1512 1568 1024 1025 1037 1165 Interlace
Modeline "1280x1024" 110 1280 1328 1512 1712 1024 1025 1028 1054
Modeline "1280x1024" 126.5 1280 1312 1472 1696 1024 1032 1040 1068 -HSync -VSync
Modeline "1280x1024" 135 1280 1312 1456 1712 1024 1027 1030 1064
Modeline "1280x1024" 135 1280 1312 1416 1664 1024 1027 1030 1064
Modeline "1280x1024" 157.5 1280 1344 1504 1728 1024 1025 1028 1072 +HSync +VSync
Modeline "1280x1024" 181.75 1280 1312 1440 1696 1024 1031 1046 1072 -HSync -VSync
Modeline "1400x1050" 129 1400 1464 1656 1960 1050 1051 1054 1100 +HSync +VSync
Modeline "1600x1200" 162 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +HSync +VSync
Modeline "1600x1200" 189 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 -HSync -VSync
Modeline "1600x1200" 202.5 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +HSync +VSync
Modeline "1600x1200" 220 1600 1616 1808 2080 1200 1204 1207 1244 +HSync +VSync
ModeLine "1800x1440" 230 1800 1896 2088 2392 1440 1441 1444 1490 +HSync +VSync
ModeLine "1800x1440" 250 1800 1896 2088 2392 1440 1441 1444 1490 +HSync +VSync
EndSection

Section "Device"
#Option "sw_cursor" # needed for some ati cards
#Option "hw_cursor"
#Option "NoAccel"
#Option "ShowCache"
#Option "ShadowFB"
#Option "UseFBDev"
#Option "Rotate"
#Option "NoUseBios" # needed for some Savage cards
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
# nvidia special options, use with care
Option "CursorShadow" "1"
Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "63"
Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "2"
Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "4"
Option "FlatPanelProperties" "Scaling = native"
Option "NoLogo" "false"
Option "IgnoreEdid" "true" # needs to be true for some nvidia cards
Identifier "Card0"
BoardName "unknown"
Driver "nvidia"
#BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1024x768""800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1024x768""800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768""800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768""800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768""800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768""800x600"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768""800x600"
EndSubSection
# Only the official NVIDIA driver supports twinview
# these setting are an example
#Option "TwinView" "false"
#Option "SecondMonitorVendorName" "unknown"
#Option "SecondMonitorModelName" "unknown"
#Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-82"
#Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "50-75"
#Option "MetaModes" "1024x768, 1024x768; 800x600, 800x600; 640x480, 640x480"
#Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
#Option "ConnectedMonitor" "dfp,dfp"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

The error message was something about not being able to find any screens. Also one of the error messages I got on one occasion when I was experimenting to fix the problem myself was "unable to parse file" I don't really want to put this file back on and have to go through fxing it all again but I will if it is needed,
thanks for the reply

This isn't going to help, but I have the same problem, but with kernel 2.6.11. I upgraded the nvidia drivers, but I got exactly the same as you. When I use 'nv' ie no nvidia, the new kernel boots fine.

However I am using kernel 2.6.10 with nvidia.

glx:1.0.6629+1-2

nvidia-kernel-2.6.10
version
1.0.6629-1+MEPIS.3.3

I am using the 2.6.10 kernel too.

I tried something I read in another thread after doing some searching about using apt-get (I use kpackage because it suits me a bit better and I upgraded all the relevent bits for Nvidia kernel etc but still nothing,

Anything else anyone has to offere would be gratefully received.

Additional Info

I also sometimes used "glxgears" to get a framerate on previous disros. When I try it now it gives me this:


Don't know what this means or if it is relevent but I thought I would include it

Have you tried using the nvidia drivers I use ie the .6629 ones?
They work for me with Mepis 3.3, kernel 2.6.10.
You should be able to get them from here:

http://people.debian.org/~rdonald/index.php

My glxgears:3080