Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

whatshisname · 2012-07-08 20:40:29

OK, I give.

I lost X a couple of weeks ago on my home desktop which uses an old nvidia card, a GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x.

I moved from the nvidia drivers to the nouveau drivers several months ago when Xorg left the nvidia drivers behind.

I was not using an xorg.conf though I have since tried the minimal xorg.conf file as mentioned on the nouveau site. Plus I used a modified xorg.conf file from my nvidia days, substituting the nvidia settings with the nouveau settings, both to no avail.

I tried installing the xf86-video-nouveau-git drivers from the AUR to see if they would help but they don't.

Using Xfce. Have this in my .xinitrc file to start Xfce: exec ck-launch-session startxfce

The error I get when using "startx" from the command line is:

"nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device"

I've searched everywhere here and in Google for people with this error message and the results are slim to none.

Ideas anyone?

Thanks.

(Edited to remove reference to a login manager which I'm no longer using.)

Last edited by whatshisname (2012-07-14 01:40:38)

nomorewindows · 2012-07-08 23:55:27

The nvidia and the nouveau drivers aren't necessarily interchangable. If you are using the nouveau, you will need nouveau-dri.

whatshisname · 2012-07-09 01:28:40

nomorewindows wrote:

The nvidia and the nouveau drivers aren't necessarily interchangable. If you are using the nouveau, you will need nouveau-dri.

Thanks for the reply. It appears I have nouveau-dri installed:

%pacman -Ss nouveau-dri
extra/libdrm-nouveau1 2.4.33-1 [installed]
Userspace interface to kernel DRM services for nouveau - used as depends for nouveau-dri
extra/libdrm-old 2.4.33-1
Userspace interface to kernel DRM services - used as makedepends for nouveau-dri
extra/nouveau-dri 8.0.3-3 [installed]
Mesa classic DRI + Gallium3D drivers for Nouveau

Is there anything else I need to do besides have nouveau-dri installed?

Great sig, BTW!

nomorewindows · 2012-07-09 19:58:07

What packages were you using before? Was it nvidia and xf86-video-nv?
Check your /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see if it actually takes the video card/drivers that are installed.

ConnorBehan · 2012-07-10 08:55:07

whatshisname wrote:

Is there anything else I need to do besides have nouveau-dri installed?

Yes, load the nouveau kernel module.

wonder · 2012-07-10 18:02:45

you are using the wrong packages. why do you have libdrm-old installed instead of libdrm?

nomorewindows · 2012-07-10 19:11:46

wonder wrote:

you are using the wrong packages. why do you have libdrm-old installed instead of libdrm?

He doesn't. He used -Ss instead of -Q.

wonder · 2012-07-10 19:23:28

nomorewindows wrote:

wonder wrote:
you are using the wrong packages. why do you have libdrm-old installed instead of libdrm?
He doesn't. He used -Ss instead of -Q.

<- n00b

whatshisname · 2012-07-14 01:04:27

So over the past few days, I've read and searched the wiki and the forums and googled about Xorg, nvidia and nouveau at large. I uninstalled everything nvidia and everything nouveau, then re-installed nouveau and made multiple edits to my .xinitrc file.

Along the way, the error when starting X/Xfce changed to "xinit: connection to X server lost" but still no X.

Finally I tried "startx" as root and X finally fired up though not Xfce. Still, I remembered this as the first step in getting X to work before installing a DE. Ah, the Arch way pays off again.

Since I know root doesn't use my user's xinitrc file, I tried to fire up Xfce from the commandline without my ~/.xinitrc file and finally realized I was trying to start it with "startxfce" instead of "startxfce4".

Inspecting my ~/.xinitrc file I realized I had made the same mistake there.

Just prior to the problems I had when starting this thread, I had been trying to login directly to X without using a login manager. Plus I had been having problems automounting my USB drives.

Tackling both of these issues required the editing of my .xinitrc file.

During one of those edits, I evidently mistyped the command for starting Xfce. Instead of starting it using "exec ck-launch-session startxfce4", I had typed "exec ck-launch-session startxfce". The best I can tell, that must have been at the root of this problem. Though I'm still puzzled how I ever got Xfce to start to begin with if that's all it was.

Nonetheless, changing it today to "exec ck-launch-session startxfce4" fixed this problem.

Thank you for your help "nomorewindows". I appreciate your attempts at getting me over the hump. Your helpfulness exemplifies the best of the Arch community.

And thanks also to Wonder for his kind words. For as it says in the Forum Etiquette guide: "Please do your part to contribute to a healthy community and environment."

Arch Linux

#1 2012-07-08 20:40:29

Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

#2 2012-07-08 23:55:27

Re: Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

#3 2012-07-09 01:28:40

Re: Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

#4 2012-07-09 19:58:07

Re: Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

#5 2012-07-10 08:55:07

Re: Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

#6 2012-07-10 18:02:45

Re: Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

#7 2012-07-10 19:11:46

Re: Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

#8 2012-07-10 19:23:28

Re: Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

#9 2012-07-14 01:04:27

Re: Nouveau : nouveau_init_screen2: Error opening the DRM device[SOLVED]

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