By the way, it MIGHT be a distro-related issue: I was running 2.6 on Suse 9.1 (nvidia 6111) and it was just fine. Of course, it might also be the new kernel.

Just for a try, while waiting to download the 2.6.11, I installed the original 2.6.10, not the one in Slack's "Testing" directory, but had the same lockup.

And thanks for the steps, Piete!

I'd be suprised if it was a distro related error, but I understand SuSE do patch their kernels.

Although, thinking about it, there's no reason you couldn't use the SuSE 9.1 kernel in Slack ... if it's the kernel that's the problem. I have no justification for this other than a niggling feeling (I was once told this is Bolshevism, and don't care to have that discussion again ... ) that it might be the compilation of kernel driver that is at fault - which is based on your kernel headers and toolchain. If that is the case, then try upgrading a few bits & pieces (namely the headers - DO NOT touch glibc, gcc or binutils). You should just be able to run upgradepkg on the kernel headers package and use a new set of headers from Slack 10 or 10.1 without affecting the rest of your system (if you're worried, do more research and back up your data before you try it )

To jong & slackb0t: nvidia drivers causing hard lockups but leaving your mouse working is nothing new.

(http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-24703.html, http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...ht=6629+100%25)

The latter thread has me posting under "Austerity", but the symptoms are basically the same. Screen locks, becomes all but useless. SSH into the box and tun "top", and you'll see X is using 100% of the processor cycles - you may not have the same issue, of course. Unfortunatly, they talk a lot without providing actual fixes for the problem.

My fix? I discovered my graphics card was knackered (the fan driver on the PCB had been blown!), so got a new one. No more problem.

With a laptop, however, I can appreciate that buying a new one is not an option =)

Good luck all, I wish I could help more!

Yea, I've seen those threads... My X server won't even start tho. Just a pitch black screen right after I type 'startx'.... Switching VC's, 3 finger salute, nothing does the trick besides a hard reboot. I assume I'm geting an oops... Nvidia has known about this for almost 2 years. They just don't see it as a worth while thing to expend resources on since it only affects older cards which are not in distribution anymore.... I did try the patches for 6629 that were supposed to fix a similar issue but no joy. Other laptop owners on that same thread reported that it didn't work for them either.

Sucks to be me... I paid 1700 dollars for this thing 3 years ago. Buying a new one is out of the question. These modified drivers I'm using are gold.... I get nervous with each new kernel release now... Only a matter of time before I won't know how to patch them...

Let us know how the battle goes Odin...

jong.. I haven't had a lock up since that patch.. I have been on this thing all last night and today.. I think it is fixed.

thank you again.

Ok guys,

Got the 2.6.11.8 kernel and compiled it, tried the 7174 driver, nothing.
Tried ALL the nvidia drivers, same thing; tried Jong's drivers, same.

I hate to ask the question, and I know it has been answered a zillion times:

WHY?

Why did I burn three days of my precious life in front of a stupid screen trying to get a stupid driver to work?

WHY, since (gasp) Windows (XP) installed in a jiffy, got ALL my hardware, NEVER locked up on me, is FREE (pirated, sorry), and I can run EVERYTHING on it?

I'm not trying to raise hell here, it's not the right place I know, but I'm pretty disappointed.

I think that if Linux is to win over Windows, they have to get their act together, and seriously so!

That said, thanks to all of you guys for trying to help me, you're a great bunch!

Not sure it's a linux problem.. more of an nvidia problem.. In fact the nvidia driver for the gforce2go card under XP has not been supported by nvidia in a while.. the only drivers that work under XP are a few years old as well..

It's funny how experiences differ though.. i agree XP was somewhat easier to install and start using.. but what I hated was that if something did go wrong you were screwed.. like the blue screen of death.. i mean wtf was that.. it would display a bunch of code then reboot and the only solution usually was reinstall or live with it... At least with linux you 'should' be able to solve most problems or at least know the cause.. btw I am not knocking windows.. I used ever version from 3.11 all the way up and enjoyed most of my experiences along the way.. no operating system is perfect but at least with slack I know good people are working on it and others will do their best to help you..

btw.. I still think you should be able to get jong's drivers working.. they seem to work for a lot of people.. did you make sure to uninstall the other drivers first?? maybe it is something simple for those ones.. not sure.. anyway good luck.. I hope to see you post here again with some success..

Well, I'm pretty disapointed with you too. If you use something that you like and never crash, why you're not paying for it? And you're complaining about something that's free, why complain? Why not telling, hey, i've this software and hardware, can anybody help me fixing it? Post a freaking bug request in nvidia forum to see if somebody can help you.
I know, I'm pretty sure you're "student and don't have money", well, we use free software and don't complain about it, but we're also trying to help to make it better...

Yea, It's most defenately an Nvidia issue. They have been going down hill for a little while now and I think ATI might be pulling ahead. Nvidia has NEVER supported laptop cards as far as I'm aware of. If your running Windows on a laptop with Nvidia, you have to get your drivers from Dell, HP, et. all.... I don't know... Sorry it didn't work out. If your determined enough, go hit the Nvidia forums and lurk around... Personally, I'll never buy Nvidia again. I'm plagued with problems on both puters...

Slackbot, glad all is well with you. I repackaged those drivers. Might want to grab all of them if your interested. I'm playing hide-and-go-seek with Angelfire right now. They have a bot that goes thru all their web sites and will tally up the ratio of .htm's to media files... :-) Thats what they told me when they replied to my inquiry. They re-instated it for 72 hours until I "develop my web site more"... So I just uploaded a bunch of old htm files and didn't link any of them.... :-) We'll se if they catch on.... I really need some web space apparently...

Odin, did you try my driver (2.6.9 and above) with kernel 2.6.10 or kernel 2.6.11.x? I haven't tested it with 2.6.11.x yet... I know it works for 2.6.10. Food for thought.

I'm off to try it on 2.6.11.8 right now....

Well, the building of it bombed out on me on 2.6.11.8. Said it couldn't complete the instalation or driver build failed or whatever it said. The day I've been dreading is here at last it would seem. I have many depreciated functions in my log along with other stuff... Sigh.....

Google, here I come.... If you havent tried it yet on 2.6.10, I suggest you do so...

gbonvehi,

The money is not an issue (in fact, had I not mentioned the money, you would have said that I should be happy with linux-for-free better than windows-for money.

And "free" doesn't mean that it "can" be broken and that we should "shut up" and meekly thank the people who are giving to us just because it's "free." (For more on the concept of "free," look at the selling prices of RHE, SuSE, and even Slack. For "free," look at the amount of time--and time is money--one has to spend on fixing trivial things like sound or video or modem stuff in Linux; for "free," look at the money spent on dial-up connections--yes, they DO exist--in order to get answers and stuff. This is not complaining, these are hard facts.)

I don't like it when criticizing linux has become a taboo subject. As grown up people, we have the right, no, in fact, the duty, to cast a critical eye (and critical doesn't mean negative, by the way) on the things we use, even more so when these things, in this case linux, takes up so much of our daily (and nightly!) time.

When I spend three days setting up Slackware in order to have most things running fine and not getting results, I have the right to be disappointed, with all due thanks to Patrick and to all other good and earnest people who are working day and night against difficult odds to make us happy.

Without constructive criticism, linux would NOT be where it is today, gbonvehi, and the attitude of "don't say a bad word about Linux or else..." is not appreciated.

I have scoured the nvidia and the linuxquestions forums for an answer, and probably paid more money on my dial-up line than you can imagine in order to get answers and kernels, etc.

People like Piete, Jong 357, Slackb0t, and many others here and in the Linux community have earnestly tried to help me and help each other out and I warmly thank them as they and I will continue our search for the Holy Grail of Linux.

It is interesting to note that your only contribution to this thread was to be negative and aggressive. I wish you had given some suggestion about my problem, though.

As to continuing to use Linux, don't worry, I will.

(and, by the way, I'm no student, and I have money, thank you)

Sorry, I usually try to help people, but I hate when people doesn't pay for something that's good (pirate) + a bad night = bad answer..
I didn't want you to say that Linux is like God (I'm a person that actually likes some stuff Microsoft did/does and admit it), I just wanted you to know that people is doing what they can to make it better, it's not stable or supported like Windows because a lot of people helps in their spare time, so it takes more time..
Most developers knows what Windows can do, and want to get there, but you've to be patience, there was a big improvement in Linux these years so I'm pretty sure the time to support hardware and software almost equally to Windows is getting closer..

Cheers,
Guillermo Bonvehí

For video problem, try to disable framebuffer to see if that change something
Also for nvidia, do NOT compile in the Kernel :
CONFIG_FB_RIVA (lot of trouble) and CONFIG_FB_VGA16 (use CONFIG_FB_VESA instead)

jong357, I tried your drivers but got some error message half-way through install (on 2.6.11.8, if I remember correctly; I did so many installs and compiles and reformats the last three days that I lost track somehow...)

I guess I'll be back to 2.4 and wait until Slack 11 comes out, maybe they and the nvidia people will have sorted things out!

Thanks again to all those who helped, I appreciate the effort!

O.k.. Thats what I was saying. 2.6.11.8 does not work with the 4xxx/5xxx/6xxx versions of nvidia. From my expierence and numerous posts on the web, they made changes to the kernel (yet again) that break all but the latest nvidia drivers. Try booting up with 2.6.10 like you were doing and then install my "2.6.9 and above" driver. That SHOULD work....

Also, If your moving back to 2.4.2x, why not down load my 2.4 version of 4620. That works great as well..... Atleast concerning the black screen of death after startx...

I'm currently trying to get my hands on a patch that will REALLY help me out in the way of fixing my 4620 driver for the latest kernel. If anyone has "nvidia_display_driver-1.0-6111.diff" from here:

http://unixforge.org/~matthias-chris...-1.0-6111.diff

I beg of you... Please get it to me.... It's looking like I have to abandon my hope of getting newer drivers to work on my laptop and try to maintain my working 4620 as long as I can.... That guy has some really agressive perms on his server. I don't know why you would post a link to the patch in a public forum and then chmod the hell out of your pub directory... Makes no sense....