Arch Linux

y-man

Member

From: Ottawa, On, Canada

Registered: 2006-05-04

Posts: 8

Nvidia setup woes

Hi everyone,

I am with Arch for two days only.

I have installed all (except a few conflicts) from 0.7.1 install CD.

My kernel is stock 2.6.15-ARCH, pacman brought down Nvidia 1.0.8178.

The nvidia install, put all library pieces under /usr/lib, but they should really have been under /usr/X11R6/lib. Going thru several startx cycles, one by one I copied them under /usr/X11R6/lib.

Then came the error about nvidia device files. Google said (i) they should be auto-created when kernel module is loaded (they did not!), (ii) NVmakedevices or some such utility can cerate them (this utility is no where to be found!).

Eventually I went into my four days old FC5 install, which can run Nvidia DRI and all O.K., and listed /dev/nvidia* thingies. Came back and mknoded them all. No change in startx response.

I am now running VESA which strangely runs only 1024x768 or, 2048x1536, but  nothing in between.

BTW, the computer is an AMD64. Video card is 7600 GT based.

I will capture the startx log and quote the error at the bottom here in a follow-up mesage.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

---

y-man

y-man

Member

From: Ottawa, On, Canada

Registered: 2006-05-04

Posts: 8

Re: Nvidia setup woes

Hi again,

As promised:

My nvidia devices (stolen from working FC5 install)

~$ ls -l /dev/nvid*
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 195,   0 2006-05-03 21:41 /dev/nvidia0
crw-r--r--  1 root root 195,   1 2006-05-03 21:41 /dev/nvidia1
crw-r--r--  1 root root 195,   2 2006-05-03 21:41 /dev/nvidia2
crw-r--r--  1 root root 195,   3 2006-05-03 21:41 /dev/nvidia3
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 195, 255 2006-05-03 21:41 /dev/nvidiactl

Tail of Xorg.0.log

(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 0xC0000000
(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xD0000000
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!
(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

Will provide more details on request...

Thanks for listening...

---

y-man

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: Nvidia setup woes

You are better off doing a complete reinstall, I'd guess. Best way would be a FTP install but if you must use the CD _only_ install a bare minimum ("base" and nothing else). After that make sure you activate [current] and [extra] in /etc/pacman.conf, pick a good mirror, refresh everything you got so far ('pacman -Syu')  and fetch all X stuff fresh from the servers... 'pacman -S xorg nvidia' and what else you need.

---

1000

mpie

Member

From: 404 Not found

Registered: 2005-03-06

Posts: 649

Re: Nvidia setup woes

Hi everyone,

I am with Arch for two days only.

I have installed all (except a few conflicts) from 0.7.1 install CD.

My kernel is stock 2.6.15-ARCH, pacman brought down Nvidia 1.0.8178.

The nvidia install, put all library pieces under /usr/lib, but they should really have been under /usr/X11R6/lib. Going thru several startx cycles, one by one I copied them under /usr/X11R6/lib.

Then came the error about nvidia device files. Google said (i) they should be auto-created when kernel module is loaded (they did not!), (ii) NVmakedevices or some such utility can cerate them (this utility is no where to be found!).

Eventually I went into my four days old FC5 install, which can run Nvidia DRI and all O.K., and listed /dev/nvidia* thingies. Came back and mknoded them all. No change in startx response.

I am now running VESA which strangely runs only 1024x768 or, 2048x1536, but  nothing in between.

BTW, the computer is an AMD64. Video card is 7600 GT based.

I will capture the startx log and quote the error at the bottom here in a follow-up mesage.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

nope nvidia is in the right place with X7 there is no more X11R6,
try reinstalling , as root type telinit 3 to exit X the pacman -Rd nvidia this will remiove it and any config files the pacman -S nvidia...
if it is failing for a reason it should spit them out if it fails post back here, if it works then telint 5 to restart X

brain0

Developer

From: Aachen - Germany

Registered: 2005-01-03

Posts: 1,382

Re: Nvidia setup woes

The nvidia install, put all library pieces under /usr/lib, but they should really have been under /usr/X11R6/lib. Going thru several startx cycles, one by one I copied them under /usr/X11R6/lib.

No, they should be in /usr. You cannot combine new arch packages with old ones (from the install cd). Your system has to be up-to-date to ensure compatibility between packages.