Problem with nvidia driver [SOLVED]

[CarlJF]

Hello,

 

I never had any problem making the nvidia driver work on my system until I upgraded from 10.0 to 10.1. Since I've upgraded to Mandrake 10.1, I'm totally unable to make the nvidia driver works correctly and tried everything that I could think of or found on the net, with no success so far. Thus, in almost total despair, I write this message in case somebody here get an idea on how to solve the problem.

 

First, I've downloaded the driver from the nvidia site and compiled it without problem. Video card is an Asus 6800 (GeForce DDR) and monitor is a quite standard CRT (TTX 1787).

 

When I try to startx, I get the following error message:

 

II) Setting vga for screen 0.

(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32

(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888

(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor

(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)

(--) NVIDIA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xF0000000

(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xEE000000

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!

(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***

(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"

(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

 

Fatal server error:

no screens found

 

Here's my xorg.conf file:

 

# File generated by XFdrake.

 

# **********************************************************************

# Refer to the XF86Config man page for details about the format of

# this file.

# **********************************************************************

 

Section "Files"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)

# By default, Mandrake 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of

# the X server to render fonts.

FontPath "unix/:-1"

EndSection

 

Section "ServerFlags"

#DontZap # disable <Crtl><Alt><BS> (server abort)

#DontZoom # disable <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)

AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse doesn't work

EndSection

 

Section "Module"

Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension

Load "v4l" # Video for Linux

Load "extmod"

Load "type1"

Load "freetype"

Load "glx" # 3D layer

Load "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.a"

EndSection

 

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Keyboard1"

Driver "keyboard"

Option "XkbModel" "pc105"

Option "XkbLayout" "ca_enhanced"

Option "XkbOptions" ""

EndSection

 

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Mouse1"

Driver "mouse"

Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"

Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

Option "ZAxisMapping" "6 7"

EndSection

 

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "monitor1"

HorizSync 30-87

VertRefresh 50-160

 

# Sony Vaio C1(X,XS,VE,VN)?

# 1024x480 @ 85.6 Hz, 48 kHz hsync

ModeLine "1024x480" 65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344 480 488 494 563 -hsync -vsync

 

# TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.

# 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync

ModeLine "768x576" 50.00 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630

 

# 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync

ModeLine "768x576" 63.07 768 800 960 1024 576 578 590 616

EndSection

 

Section "Device"

Identifier "device1"

Driver "nvidia"

Option "DPMS"

EndSection

 

Section "Screen"

Identifier "screen1"

Device "device1"

Monitor "monitor1"

DefaultColorDepth 24

 

Subsection "Display"

Depth 8

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubsection

 

Subsection "Display"

Depth 15

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubsection

 

Subsection "Display"

Depth 16

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubsection

 

Subsection "Display"

Depth 24

Virtual 1024 768

EndSubsection

EndSection

 

Section "ServerLayout"

Identifier "layout1"

InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"

Screen "screen1"

EndSection

 

Thing I've tried include adding these lines, alone or in combination, to xorg.conf:

Option "IgnoreEDID" "1"

Option "IgnoreEDID" "true"

Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "DFP, TV, CRT"

 

I've also tried to lower the color depth from 24 to 16.

 

All these changes give me the same error message and I'm totally unable to make X works with the nvidia driver.

 

Everything works fine if a choose a basic video driver (VESA, which I used at the moment).

 

Any ideas on what to try next ?

[adamw]

edit /etc/modprobe.preload

add an extra line which simply reads:

nvidia

should do the trick.

 

Technical info - there's *two* things you can correctly refer to as 'nvidia modules'. There's the X video driver, which is loaded by making sure there's something in xorg.conf that says 'Device "nvidia"', and there's the nvidia *kernel* module, which is needed for the other bits to work. The problem we have here is the *kernel* module isn't being loaded. The change I suggested will make the nvidia kernel module load during bootup - any modules listed in modprobe.preload are loaded during boot.

[CarlJF]

edit /etc/modprobe.preload

add an extra line which simply reads:

nvidia

should do the trick.

 

Technical info - there's *two* things you can correctly refer to as 'nvidia modules'. There's the X video driver, which is loaded by making sure there's something in xorg.conf that says 'Device "nvidia"', and there's the nvidia *kernel* module, which is needed for the other bits to work. The problem we have here is the *kernel* module isn't being loaded. The change I suggested will make the nvidia kernel module load during bootup - any modules listed in modprobe.preload are loaded during boot.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Should I keep the line Driver "nvidia" in the xorg.conf file ? What about the other lines in the Device section of xorg.conf ?

[AussieJohn]

Thanks adamw for that hint. It is now in my Notebook. I just looked at mine and it is there. If I have any troubles in future I will now know another spot to check.

 

Cheers. John.

Edited December 17, 2004 by AussieJohn

[Gowator]

edit /etc/modprobe.preload

add an extra line which simply reads:

nvidia

should do the trick.

 

Technical info - there's *two* things you can correctly refer to as 'nvidia modules'. There's the X video driver, which is loaded by making sure there's something in xorg.conf that says 'Device "nvidia"', and there's the nvidia *kernel* module, which is needed for the other bits to work. The problem we have here is the *kernel* module isn't being loaded. The change I suggested will make the nvidia kernel module load during bootup - any modules listed in modprobe.preload are loaded during boot.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Should I keep the line Driver "nvidia" in the xorg.conf file ? What about the other lines in the Device section of xorg.conf ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yes, keep it the trick preloads it (cool) but you still need to tell X whjat driver to use!

[adamw]

yes, as the others said, you need *both* modules to load, so you need to make sure something loads the nvidia kernel module (the modprobe.preload change we just made) and you need to make sure X uses the nvidia driver, so keep the Device "nvidia" in xorg.conf.

[CarlJF]

Thanks,

 

Evrything works fine when making the nivia module load at boot time.

 

So, problem is now solved.