glxgears - exact usage and is my video optimised?

[daniewicz]

I think you need to try the 7174 driver if possible.

 

Option "DPMS" is for power management, this is needed for my monitor to correctly enter sleep mode

 

Option "NvAGP" "3" specifies to try AGPGART first, and then NVIDIA's AGP

 

Have a look at /usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/README for more information about these various options. According to this readme, the options may be specified either in the Screen or Device sections of the X config file.

Edited April 24, 2006 by daniewicz

[tyme]

Option "NvAGP" "3" specifies to try AGPGART first, and then NVIDIA's AGP

you don't need to specify "NvAGP" "3" anymore, it's the default since 1251. see appendix f ;)

[Turb0flat4]

Hmm. The README for the 8756 claims that this driver will support the GeForce 2 MX400. Oh, well, wouldn't hurt to try the earlier driver. :)

 

Thanks for the clarification, tyme. I need AGPART for my Chipset, according to the readme.

Edited April 24, 2006 by Turb0flat4

[tyme]

Hmm. The README for the 8756 claims that this driver will support the GeForce 2 MX400. Oh, well, wouldn't hurt to try the earlier driver. :)

Well, the problem may not be the video card you have - it may be the kernel, though usually the problem is reverse (older drivers not working with newer kernels), but it's a possibility. You should check to see what AGP your system is loading:

lsmod | grep agp

just to be sure you're getting agpgart.

[Turb0flat4]

Hmm. The README for the 8756 claims that this driver will support the GeForce 2 MX400. Oh, well, wouldn't hurt to try the earlier driver. :)

Well, the problem may not be the video card you have - it may be the kernel, though usually the problem is reverse (older drivers not working with newer kernels), but it's a possibility. You should check to see what AGP your system is loading:

lsmod | grep agp

just to be sure you're getting agpgart.

 

Well, my dmesg shows this line :

 

Linux agpgart interface v0.101 © Dave Jones

 

so I should have agpgart right ?

[Turb0flat4]

Unfortunately, the downgrade to versio 7174 didn't help. AGP still not initialising :(

 

Here's the output from "lsmod | grep agp"

 

/sbin/lsmod | grep agp
via_agp				 7584  0
agpgart				29032  2 nvidia,via_agp

[daniewicz]

Well I am running out of ideas :sad:

 

What is in your modprobe.preload file? Anything with "via_agp"? If you comment this out then you will prohibit the native AGP module from loading and the nvidia AGP support would be subsequently forced.

[Turb0flat4]

I'm booted into Windows right now, but luckily I've installed ext2fs R/W.

 

Here's the dump from /etc/modprobe.preload : (I'm viewing this thru' a Windows text editor, I hope the formatting's OK, I dunno why via_agp appears twice).

 

# /etc/modprobe.preload: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line.  Comments begin with
# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.
# this file is for module-init-tools (kernel 2.5 and above) ONLY
# for old kernel use /etc/modules

via-agp
via-agp

 

So I should comment out the via_agp lines ? Do I need to make any other alterations ? Thanks, will try this when I next boot into Linux.

 

Oh, yeah, this may be important. Interestingly, when I ran the search, I found another file called "#modprobe.preload#" which may be a recovered file from an unclean shutdown (power loss). This file (the ? recovered file fragment) has these contents :

 

# /etc/modprobe.preload: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line.  Comments begin with
# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.
# this file is for module-init-tools (kernel 2.5 and above) ONLY
# for old kernel use /etc/modules

via-agp
via-agp
nvidi

 

And the file seems to end there. This looks suggestive - do you think the original file had nvidia_agp or something there and this got lost during the recovery ? Maybe the NVIDIA AGP was being loaded by this old file but is not being loaded anymore since the crash. What should I put in the new file to rectify the problem ? Thanks.

[ianw1974]

I've normally found that adding to modprobe.preload is for the modules relating to the chipset your motherboard supports. Yours has via chipset, so will be via_agp. Just like my motherboard has via_agp too. My laptop has intel chipsets, and therefore intel_agp. If you have the nvidia chipsets on your motherboard, then it would be nvidia_agp.

 

I've tried this before for mine, it won't make any difference for your video card, because it relates to the chipset of your motherboard, so via_agp is OK for you.

[daniewicz]

For my system I found that I could disable AGPGART and force NVidia AGP support by editing modprobe.preload and commenting out amd-k7-agp with a # symbol. This prohibits the native AGP module from loading thereby removing AGP support through AGPGART.

 

cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status

Status: Enabled

Driver: NVIDIA (this will read AGPGART if you use the native kernel module)

AGP Rate: 4x

Fast Writes: Enabled

SBA: Disabled

 

 

I would try commenting out via-agp and see if this forces NVidia AGP support.

[tyme]

his chipset isn't supported by NvAGP, why would he want to use it?

[daniewicz]

I thought any chipset could either use the nvidia kernel module for AGP support (NVIDIA) or the native kernel AGP support (AGPGART).

 

Am I missing something?? :unsure:

[tyme]

Appendix F of the NVIDIA README (which I referenced earlier) has a list of the chipsets supported by NvAGP - anything else should use AGPGART, and with specifying Option "NvAGP" "3" you tell the system to use AGPGART if it's available, otherwise use NvAGP - so your system will automatically use AGPGART, which is what you should do with any unsupported card, and is also the default behaviour (if you don't specify NvAGP at all in xorg.conf).

[daniewicz]

Ahh I see. Thanks for clarifying this for me tyme.

 

According to the list Turb0flat4's chipset is not supported by the nvidia module so he must use AGPGART. I do not know what else to suggest to Turb0flat4 to remedy his problem. Any thoughts?

[Turb0flat4]

Really, really appreciate the help guys. You've been more patient and helpful than I could've hoped for. :) I have some small amount of extra info for you that may or may not help.

 

I'm in Windows now. There's a freeware utility called FreshDiagnose that can assess the state of the AGP bus. According to it, the AGP is enabled and working. I attached a snapshot of the relevant section here.

 

Now, in that FPS game that I'm becoming addicted to (which has equivalent versions under Linux and Win), the frame rates for the Windows version are somewhat (like 20 to 30 %) better, but not massively better. In fact, to get decent (30 frames per sec) movement, I need to downgrade my graphics in Windows to 800*600 with 32 bit color. For very good playability (50 to 70 fps), I need to go all the way to 640*480, even in Windows. This is similar to Linux, although in Linux, it's still slower at every resolution and color depth I set.

 

So I really dunno whether the AGP is really not being initialised under Linux or whether that's just a misleading message ? :unsure: