LinuxQuestions.org
Review your favorite Linux distribution.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Slackware
User Name
Password
Slackware This Forum is for the discussion of Slackware Linux.

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 09-04-2013, 07:20 PM   #1
Lufbery
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2006
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Distribution: Slackware 64 14.2
Posts: 1,180
Blog Entries: 29

Rep: Reputation: 135Reputation: 135
Latest Nvidia driver not working . . . need an older version?


Hi all,

I put Slackware 64_14 on an older Dell desktop computer I got recently. Everything is working well except for the Nvidia video driver. I installed the latest via Slackbuilds.org, but the video driver wouldn't load X after it was installed.

I regret that I did not write down the specific error message I got.

In any event, the video card is an Nvidia Geforce 6150SE nforce 430. Do I need an older version of the driver? If so, which one? It looks like the 304 version is matched to my card.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
 
Old 09-04-2013, 08:21 PM   #2
perbh
Member
 
Registered: May 2008
Location: Republic of Texas
Posts: 393

Rep: Reputation: 81
Got the exact same adapter (an old Gateway GT5670)- and yes, I had to use the 304-version (believe it was 304.88).
Working like a treat though - after the current nouveau caused nothing but troubles (in the past I have always tried to stay with nouveau - ease of use/install and not being bothered by 3d-high-fallutin' stuff)

Last edited by perbh; 09-04-2013 at 08:22 PM.
 
Old 09-04-2013, 08:24 PM   #3
ReaperX7
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Jul 2011
Location: California
Distribution: Slackware64-15.0 Multilib
Posts: 6,554
Blog Entries: 15

Rep: Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097
304.88 is the last working driver for 6x00/7x00 series GPUs. Hopefully, this will be addressed in the upcoming 14.1 revision for SlackBuilds.
 
Old 09-04-2013, 08:38 PM   #4
astrogeek
Moderator
 
Registered: Oct 2008
Distribution: Slackware [64]-X.{0|1|2|37|-current} ::12<=X<=15, FreeBSD_12{.0|.1}
Posts: 6,258
Blog Entries: 24

Rep: Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193
I am running your exact nvidia hw (Nvidia Geforce 6150SE nforce 430) using 304.88 driver - works great for me with one very small exception...

About once a every two weeks when I cold boot, login to runlevel 3 and startx - I get a scrambled screen. Ctl-Alt-Bs and always works second try. I have not been bothered enough, nor had enough free time to track that down.
 
Old 09-04-2013, 08:51 PM   #5
Lufbery
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2006
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Distribution: Slackware 64 14.2
Posts: 1,180

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 29

Rep: Reputation: 135Reputation: 135
Great info, folks. Thanks!

Quote:
Originally Posted by ReaperX7 View Post
304.88 is the last working driver for 6x00/7x00 series GPUs. Hopefully, this will be addressed in the upcoming 14.1 revision for SlackBuilds.
Hi Reaper. How will this issue be addressed? Will the slackbuild for the driver detect the video card (lspci?) and somehow match it to the correct driver version?

Regards,
 
Old 09-04-2013, 09:34 PM   #6
willysr
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: Jogja, Indonesia
Distribution: Slackware-Current
Posts: 4,651

Rep: Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772
The latest version for 304.xx branch is 304.108
Try the new version if it fixed your problem
 
Old 09-04-2013, 11:49 PM   #7
ReaperX7
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Jul 2011
Location: California
Distribution: Slackware64-15.0 Multilib
Posts: 6,554
Blog Entries: 15

Rep: Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097Reputation: 2097
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lufbery View Post
Great info, folks. Thanks!



Hi Reaper. How will this issue be addressed? Will the slackbuild for the driver detect the video card (lspci?) and somehow match it to the correct driver version?

Regards,
The driver problem rests with Nvidia themselves not creating drivers for the 6x00/7x00 series past 304.xx as the driver architecture changed for the 8x00 series and later cards. Any drivers from the 310.xx and later revisions are for 8x00 series or later GPUs only.

For now you'll have to edit the Slackbuild by hand to work with 304.xx. Also, there is no word yet on if 304.xx will work properly with newer Kernels as they are released. As of current knowledge, the 304.108 drivers will work with the LTS 3.4.xx series of kernels, however, I do not know if they work with the 3.10, 3.11, or any other newer Next-Gen kernels.

Nvidia, basically, is passing off 6x00/7x00 series support to Open Source Nouveau, because Nouveau has matured enough to do so.

Projects Nouveau and DRIConf will now handle your drivers and driver configuration options, and DRIConf can be downloaded from SlackBuilds.

Last edited by ReaperX7; 09-04-2013 at 11:52 PM.
 
Old 09-05-2013, 02:04 AM   #8
cascade9
Senior Member
 
Registered: Mar 2011
Location: Brisneyland
Distribution: Debian, aptosid
Posts: 3,753

Rep: Reputation: 935Reputation: 935Reputation: 935Reputation: 935Reputation: 935Reputation: 935Reputation: 935Reputation: 935
The 304.XX (6XXX + 7XXX cards) vs 310.XX+ (8XXX and newer cards) break is the same story we had 173.XX (geforce FX) vs 180.XX+ (6XXX+).

Quote:
Originally Posted by ReaperX7 View Post
Nvidia, basically, is passing off 6x00/7x00 series support to Open Source Nouveau, because Nouveau has matured enough to do so.
Not really.

23rd of March 2010, nouveau marked as 'stable' (OK, technically 'graduates from staging').

http://lwn.net/Articles/488338/

26th of March 2010, nVida drops the old nv driver and nVidia employee Andy Ritger posted this to the x.org mailing list-

Quote:
Our advice to owners of NVIDIA GPUs running Linux is to use the VESA X
driver from the time of Linux distribution installation until they can
download and install the NVIDIA Linux driver from their distribution
repositories or from nvidia.com.
http://www.webcitation.org/5oh2tHtTD

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...kills_nv&num=1

As far as I know that remains the offical nVidia position, that you should use VESA until you can install the closed drivers.

BTW, 304.88 and 304.108 have both run fine on my system with a 3.10 kernel (but I'm using debian, not slackware)
 
Old 09-05-2013, 02:25 AM   #9
willysr
Senior Member
 
Registered: Jul 2004
Location: Jogja, Indonesia
Distribution: Slackware-Current
Posts: 4,651

Rep: Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772Reputation: 1772
Quote:
Originally Posted by ReaperX7 View Post
For now you'll have to edit the Slackbuild by hand to work with 304.xx. Also, there is no word yet on if 304.xx will work properly with newer Kernels as they are released. As of current knowledge, the 304.108 drivers will work with the LTS 3.4.xx series of kernels, however, I do not know if they work with the 3.10, 3.11, or any other newer Next-Gen kernels.
I have the patch for NVidia 304.108 to work with Linux Kernel 3.11 on my SlackHacks

Last edited by willysr; 09-05-2013 at 02:26 AM.
 
Old 09-08-2013, 03:24 PM   #10
Lufbery
Senior Member
 
Registered: Aug 2006
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Distribution: Slackware 64 14.2
Posts: 1,180

Original Poster
Blog Entries: 29

Rep: Reputation: 135Reputation: 135
Hi all,

I'm going to mark this one solved. Thanks for all the good information!

As it is, I'm going to stick with the Nouveau driver. The biggest reason that I wanted the Nvidia driver was that the Nvidia control panel has a control for increasing the gamma on a monitor to brighten everything up.

I did some poking around, and wouldn't you know it, but X.org has a utility just for that: xgamma!

I did load and install DRIconf, but so far I don't seem to need to make any adjustments.

I still have a problem that I need to sort out: KDE is (sort of) upside-down and backwards. I'll start a new thread on that one.

Regards,
 
Old 09-22-2013, 05:17 PM   #11
astrogeek
Moderator
 
Registered: Oct 2008
Distribution: Slackware [64]-X.{0|1|2|37|-current} ::12<=X<=15, FreeBSD_12{.0|.1}
Posts: 6,258
Blog Entries: 24

Rep: Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193Reputation: 4193
Note: As of -current Sep 20, Nvidia 304.108 works unpatched with 3.10.12 kernel. Yay!
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
[SOLVED] How do I install Nvidia latest driver on Ubuntu 10.10? volt220 Linux - Newbie 3 04-24-2012 11:42 AM
Enable SLI on latest nvidia driver don_wombat_73 Linux - Hardware 2 10-13-2008 04:55 AM
Compiz will not work on ubuntu 8.04 with 9600 gso running nvidia-glx latest version tekgek Linux - Newbie 4 06-16-2008 08:08 PM
older version of smartlink modem driver kevkim55 Linux - Software 4 01-13-2006 11:25 PM
How do I install the latest Nvidia Driver captaincaveman Linux - Software 2 05-03-2004 11:26 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Distributions > Slackware

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:34 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration