Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

shoober420 · 2015-07-19 17:05:14

I installed the Git version of xserver (xorg-server-common-git and xorg-server-git) and couldnt get it to start. I kept getting this error.

[8983.843] (EE) Segmentation fault at address 0x18

I'm using the dev builds (xorg-server-common-dev and xorg-server-git) in the meantime until I know whats going on.

Are the nvidia drivers just not compatible with xorg Git bulds? Anyone here have the proprietary nvidia driver working with the Git builds?

Last edited by shoober420 (2015-07-19 17:07:11)

Gusar · 2015-07-19 17:27:45

There was a change not long ago that broke all drivers. The open ones have all been updated already so they work, but the Nvidia driver won't work until they make a new release. The ABI version was increased a few days ago, so you shouldn't get a segfault but an error saying that the driver and X ABIs are incompatible. Do you use the IgnoreABI option maybe?

shoober420 · 2015-07-20 06:52:28

Yes,I was using the -ignoreABI parameter. Without it, it would say incompatible ABI. After adding that parameter,it produced a seg fault.

shoober420 · 2015-07-21 16:50:11

So no one on this forum uses the propietary nvidia drivers with the Git builds of xserver to verify its a problem on my end instead of nvidia?

progandy · 2015-07-21 18:05:07

The segfault is your responsibility since you chose to ignore the ABI version. Updating the nvidia driver for the new xorg abi is a task for nvidia.

shoober420 wrote:

Yes,I was using the -ignoreABI parameter. Without it, it would say incompatible ABI.

So you were warned that the driver is incompatible with the current xorg git, why do you ask us then?

Last edited by progandy (2015-07-21 18:10:42)

shoober420 · 2015-07-21 22:06:27

I wasn't warned it was incompatible. I didn't know that it would still seg fault if I used the parameter. I wasn't aware that if the ABI is newer then what the driver supports, it will crash even if you use the parameter. I thought the parameter was a work around for a driver that is incompatible with ABI version. What is the parameter useful for then? Open source drivers?

Last edited by shoober420 (2015-07-21 22:11:46)

progandy · 2015-07-21 22:19:01

man Xorg wrote:

-ignoreABI
The Xorg server checks the ABI revision levels of each module that it loads. It will normally refuse to load modules with ABI revisions that are newer than the server's. This is because such modules might use interfaces that the server does not have. When this option is specified, mismatches like this are downgraded from fatal errors to warnings. This option should be used with care.

ignoreABI disables the compatibility check. This might work, but it is just as likely to fail and result in unexpected behaviour like crashes. It is not a hammer to hit every compatibility problem with.
Edit: AFAIK nvidia implements its own ABI check, that is stricter than the default xorg test. This check is disabled if you use ignoreABI, too.

The proprietary nvidia drivers are known to stop working with every other xorg release and you might have to wait months until nvidia releases a new version.

Last edited by progandy (2015-07-21 22:24:10)

Gusar · 2015-07-21 22:25:48

Even open drivers will segfault. Well, unless you use git versions of them. You *were* warned about the incompatibility, but then you explicitly told X to ignore it. Very rarely this works, usually it doesn't, and you shouldn't be surprised when it doesn't. It depends on whether a driver uses functions that changed in an incompatible way.

shoober420 · 2015-07-21 22:26:39

OK, thank you for the info. The new 4.2 kernel is incompatible with nvidia drivers as well, so they have a lot of updating to do lol

Gusar wrote:

Even open drivers will segfault. Well, unless you use git versions of them. You *were* warned about the incompatibility, but then you explicitly told X to ignore it.

I didn't know they would be incompatible even if you used the parameter. That's what I was trying to say. I was thinking the parameter would ignore any issue with compatibility

Last edited by shoober420 (2015-07-21 22:30:25)

Gusar · 2015-07-21 22:53:28

shoober420 wrote:

I was thinking the parameter would ignore any issue with compatibility

Sorry, but that makes no sense. If an option could make ABI incompatibilities go away, there would be no need for an ABI version number, in fact there would be no need for the option, the server would simply always automatically do what the option does and things would just magically work. But software doesn't work that way.

progandy wrote:

and you might have to wait months until nvidia releases a new version

You must be thinking of AMD here. They're the ones who take months to support a new ABI. The last time the ABI was bumped was October 2014, for a server that was released in February 2015. It took AMD until last week to release a driver that supports it! Nvidia is always plenty fast, in fact it was a Nvidia employee who requested the ABI version bump. There will for sure be a new driver before xorg-server-1.18 is released. The legacy branches might lag a bit, but not more than a month.

progandy · 2015-07-21 23:05:59

Gusar wrote:

progandy wrote:
and you might have to wait months until nvidia releases a new version
You must be thinking of AMD here. They're the ones who take months to support a new ABI. The last time the ABI was bumped was October 2014, for a server that was released in February 2015. It took AMD until last week to release a driver that supports it! Nvidia is always plenty fast, in fact it was a Nvidia employee who requested the ABI version bump. There will for sure be a new driver before xorg-server-1.18 is released. The legacy branches might lag a bit, but not more than a month.

Probably. It has been a while since I needed an nvidia driver, it might have been the legacy driver then.

shoober420 · 2015-07-22 20:29:03

Gusar wrote:

Sorry, but that makes no sense. If an option could make ABI incompatibilities go away, there would be no need for an ABI version number

Just because an option may take away incompatibilities, doesn't mean that a version number isn't needed. Just with all software, a version number is used to indicate updates and changes. Without the version number, you would have no idea when things were updated and changed, or if you need to update the software in the first place. A version number is always needed, regardless of what options exist for it.

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#1 2015-07-19 17:05:14

Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#2 2015-07-19 17:27:45

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#3 2015-07-20 06:52:28

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#4 2015-07-21 16:50:11

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#5 2015-07-21 18:05:07

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#6 2015-07-21 22:06:27

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#7 2015-07-21 22:19:01

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#8 2015-07-21 22:25:48

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#9 2015-07-21 22:26:39

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#10 2015-07-21 22:53:28

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#11 2015-07-21 23:05:59

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

#12 2015-07-22 20:29:03

Re: Xserver Git not working with proprietary nvidia driver

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