Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

Filosofem · 2006-03-01 03:05:13

Hi. Yet, I just bought a "new" computer, a dual P3 1400 mhz, 2 gb with, as video card, a nVidia 5200 FX. Now, I've been able to configure everything... but the video card. Yet, what works:
- OpenGL works, according to 'nvidia-settings"
- I get the nVidia logo and I can see something
And what doesn't:
- From the moment I run "startx", I can't switch to the "ctrl + alt + x' consoles
- Although I did configure modes (1024x768, 24 bit), and answered "no" at the question "do you want a virtual screen larger than the physical", the actual resolution is not "1024x768" and I do have a virtual screen larger than the physical.
- According to "nvidia-settings", the card is working at 2x, while it is supposed to work at 4x. At first, I checked in my BIOS and, indeed, it was downgraded at 2x, which I fixed. Then, seeing it wouldn't get to 4x, I reinstalled "nvidia", which didn't solve the problem. Do I need to compile a kernel? Are there configuration files for that?
- Finally, when I close my session of Enlightenment, and thus, get back to the standard consoles, the text that used to be perfectly readable, becomes perfectly unreadable (big pixels).

I did search much on Google for answers but obviously, nothing would really solve my problems. By the way, here is my "xorg.conf" file:

Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection
Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection
Section "ServerFlags"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "kbd"
Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "ca_enhanced"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "IMPS/2" # PS/2 Mouse
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
HorizSync 31.5, 35.15, 35.5
VertRefresh 50-90
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Standard VGA"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
Driver "vga"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
# VideoRam 131072
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "800x600" "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600" "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Simple Layout"
Screen "Screen 1"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

raskolnikov · 2006-03-01 04:36:36

For the AGP rate, do you have a VIA chipset ? The drivers fallback to 2x on these chipsets, so you have to patch a file (os-registry.c, if my memory is good) before compiling the module. Everything is explained in the readme on nvidia's website.

Snowman · 2006-03-01 08:33:33

in xorg7, keymaps have been renamed. Change:
Option "XkbLayout" "ca_enhanced"
to
Option "XkbLayout" "ca(fr)"

Snowman · 2006-03-01 08:35:40

You're missing:
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
in the Files section.

Filosofem · 2006-03-01 13:58:22

Wow! I love you guys.

Ok so before I read those posts, I found out that Xorg disliked having too few choices about resolutions. So I just put many other useless subsections with 1, 2, 16, etc. color depths and it worked right away.

About the VIA chipset, you're right! I'm going to recompile that right away. Now, about the keyboard layout, if I put that, some keys sort of disappear, such as the tilde. I guess I need to put it as a variant or something. Finally, about the console problem, I found a website, on which were listed some possibilities, such as putting "Option "IgnoreDevice" "TV" in the graphic device section, but up to now, it doesn't work. I'm at trying to compile the driver "vesafb-tng" in the kernel. Please tell if you have some idea of other solution. Thanks again!

By the way, congratulations guys. I don't really time how long my computer takes to boot... but for sure, obviously, Arch Linux is the fastest compared to many distributions.

Snowman · 2006-03-01 21:45:20

Tilde work fine here. In case you don't know, to get tilde it's:
AltCar + ;
(i.e. the right Alt plus the key with the semi-colon). Perhaps, you're looking for another layout :?

In any case, ca_enhanced doesn't exist anymore in xorg 7 so you'll need to change that in your xorg.conf.

Filosofem · 2006-03-02 14:14:59

Erm. Basically, Arch Linux is the best distribution I've seen, in four years, up to now. But it is also the only one able to make me lose my time that much, with stability issues. So, I tried compiling a new kernel, with, as frame buffer driver, the "nv" one, which worked (I can see as well as I did, with "vesa"). However, when thinking of reinstalling "nvidia", I have, first to deinstall "mesa" and "libgl-dri" with force, and, the critical part, to install "nvidia", which results in
/sbin/ldconfig: File /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 is empty, not checked.
(and many others, computer crashed so I couldn't note all of them)
And then, the deadly part:
EXT3-fs error (device hda3) in ext3_reserve_inode_write: Journal has aborted
EXT3-fs errpr: (device hda3): ext3_journal_start_sb: Detected aborted journal
Remounting filesystem read-only.

Now, if I try to run "fsck" on it, I get a complete crash (which happened) and then, when I reboot, "hda3" is unmountable. If it would have been the first time I get that, I would have reinstalled stupidly. But now, it's the fourth.

Filosofem · 2006-03-02 14:43:15

And of course, when I try to reinstall with "reiserfs" as filesystem, again, it says "couldn't determine the drive's size", or something like that. Again, pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Filosofem · 2006-03-02 15:02:53

Last thing I can add: when I try to reinstall, when it's time to format the drive, "cfdisk" won't start because of the error: "Cannot get disk size". I'm now totally out of inspiration, about how to solve that, and I don't want to install again, and get the same error.

Filosofem · 2006-03-03 02:27:26

Ok, so in case someone gets stuck in the same problem, here's what I have done (still a detail to fix, looking for it).

About the problem with the extended-3 filesystem, I still have no idea why my computer wouldn't work with it, but, at least, reiserfs works perfectly (phew!).

Now, about the problem with the nvidia driver, what must be done is to, first install xorg (pacman -S xorg), remove only libgl-dri (not mesa)(pacman -Rd libgl-dri) and then install nvidia (pacman -S nvidia)(for newer cards). I'm saying that because many things have been said in different posts, but none really worked well for me.

Finally, and mainly, for the console problem, there is no clean solution: I've been struggling to get that to work for a few hours. Globally, the idea is to compile a kernel with "vesafb-tng", as driver, which fixes the problem. Now, this driver is included in :"archck". However, "grub", on my computer, wouldn't boot with a "initramfs" (still no idea why, but I'm sure I had compiled support for it, written the correct path, etc). So the objective is to apply to a standard kernel the patch applied on "archck" kernel.

Finally, right now, my video card, which is supported to be recognized as "AGP 4X", is recognized as "PCI", which is even worse than the "AGP 2X" I had before. So I'll start searching for that, but if someone could give me some pointers about how to fix that, I would really appreciate.

Filosofem · 2006-03-03 03:49:10

Thanks raskolnikov! I fixed that, rebooted, and there it is! And fortunatly, with my version of the VIA chipset, it looks very stable.

raskolnikov · 2006-03-03 12:05:48

My system is very stable too, with 4x mode and RenderAccel enabled

This limitation is maybe for the first generation of via chipsets, I have never seen a faulty chipset on my hands. Maybe we can start a wiki page to list known good chipsets for via+nvidia owners ?

Filosofem · 2006-03-03 14:03:21

Yeah, it wouldn't be a bad idea. There isn't much documentation on the subject, on the Internet. If you have some spare time start it. Otherwise, it'll wait until the week-end, for me. Thanks again, by the way.

Arch Linux

#1 2006-03-01 03:05:13

Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#2 2006-03-01 04:36:36

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#3 2006-03-01 08:33:33

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#4 2006-03-01 08:35:40

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#5 2006-03-01 13:58:22

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#6 2006-03-01 21:45:20

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#7 2006-03-02 14:14:59

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#8 2006-03-02 14:43:15

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#9 2006-03-02 15:02:53

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#10 2006-03-03 02:27:26

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#11 2006-03-03 03:49:10

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#12 2006-03-03 12:05:48

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

#13 2006-03-03 14:03:21

Re: Nvidia driver having a strange behaviour...

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