Arch Linux

mmorckos

Member

From: Egypt

Registered: 2009-07-02

Posts: 20

Website

Nvidia upgrade issue

Dear all,

I just made a full system upgrade including kernel upgrade among other stuff, when I reboot the kernel would boot normally however right after that there is a blank screen and everything freezes, I can't even access any of the virtual terminals and any input seems to be ignored. I have an Acer 3270 travelmate notebook with Nvidia GeForce 7300 graphics chip, I suspect that the problem is the "nvidia" driver since this the the first time an nvidia update takes place. Anybody knows what the problem. I would really appreciate a prompt response.

jcci

Member

From: China / Germany

Registered: 2007-06-10

Posts: 185

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

The 7300 series is not supported well anymore by the actual NVIDIA drivers. I do had the same problems on some computer before. Just try nvidia-173xx for full function graphics, or just the xf86-video-nv without 3D support whic is very stable. There is also a new open source driver with experimental 3D support "xf86-video-nouveau". I do not have any experience with this one.

mmorckos

Member

From: Egypt

Registered: 2009-07-02

Posts: 20

Website

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

Thank you but I already solved the problem by downgrading to the previous version of nvidia. The nouveau driver is a good idea so as not to have future problems with proprietary drivers:)

algol.tr

Member

Registered: 2008-04-27

Posts: 41

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

same problem and same solution...
do you use kde or gnome... to know it is a probleme related to kdm

berbae

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-02-12

Posts: 1,304

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

The 7300 series is not supported well anymore by the actual NVIDIA drivers.

Where did you see that ?
From http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthr … ?p=2058939 :

Please note: This NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release supports GeForce 6xxx and newer NVIDIA GPUs, GeForce4 and older GPUs are supported through the 96.43.xx and 71.86.xx NVIDIA legacy graphics drivers. GeForce FX GPUs are supported through the 173.14.xx NVIDIA legacy graphics drivers.

So the 7300 chipset should be supported by the latest Nvidia driver.
I have a 7100 chipset on my desktop PC and I don't have any problem with the 185.18.31 release of the driver.

Satchmo

Member

Registered: 2009-04-12

Posts: 4

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

I have a 7300LE. I've had many problems in the past, but now it works just fine with 180.53.

jcci

Member

From: China / Germany

Registered: 2007-06-10

Posts: 185

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

I had the same trouble than Satchmo, also with 7300LE. 173.14.xx solved this problems since longer time. If the latest driver should support those cards again it would be fine indeed. During the whole times of trouble NVIDIA also claimed these cards to be supported...

krigun

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2005-06-06

Posts: 122

Website

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

I experienced this yesterday aswell, after a pacman upgrade. Did not have any time yet to investigate, but sounds like the same issue as OP is describing. I have a Dell XPS M1710, with a GeForce 7900GS - that chipset is definately supported.

miko

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2006-04-16

Posts: 49

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

I have the same problem (blank screen, keyboard locked) with Dell Latitude D620 and Nvidia Quadro NVS 110M/GeForce Go 7300. I use nvidia driver and never had this kind of problem before

berbae

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-02-12

Posts: 1,304

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

For the Nvidia devs to know about the problems, filing bug reports to them might be useful, following the procedure described :
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46678

Last edited by berbae (2009-08-10 13:15:10)

krigun

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2005-06-06

Posts: 122

Website

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

I'm able to boot into single user mode (append "s" to the kernel line in grub) so that I can edit xorg.conf, and no matter what I do with xorg.conf (even attempt to start X without one) I get the same behaviour. Tried the vesa driver and nv aswell. Nothing spectacular to look at in Xorg.log either. I don't know what else to do but to attempt a reinstall. Had the same Arch install for years, maybe there's some cruft left over somewhere. I'll let you know how that works.

eccentricity

Member

Registered: 2008-12-02

Posts: 5

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

Same trouble. Quadro NVS 140M. I reverted to nv driver. It's got video, but I kinda want 3d back. Did this card get support pulled out from under it as well then? Does Nouveau work?

Willie Green

Member

Registered: 2009-06-12

Posts: 70

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

I hope you don't mind if I post a simple nVidia drive question here rather than start a new thread.
I have a PIII-800 Deskpro with a Riva TNT2 video card that's working fine with the nv driver.
But I just picked up a Geforce4 MX440SE to give this old hardware a little extra oomph.
So I'm just getting ready to physically swap the video cards, then download and install the 3d mesa package along with the nvidia-96xx proprietary drivers and using nvidia-xconfig to update my xorg.conf (following the Arch Wiki instructions as best I can)

But since this is a hardware upgrade and not a fresh install from scratch, I was wondering if there are any special considerations I need to know. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

---

"Some people march to a different drummer - and some people polka"

krigun

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2005-06-06

Posts: 122

Website

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

Ok, just did a reinstall with the 2009.08 netinstall image. Ran pacman -S xorg, and then started X. Same problem. There is nothing in Xorg.0.log. Did not even install the nvidia drivers. Tried grepping through the obvious in the logs, but came up with nothing.

And to Willie Green:
You just make sure that you install the legacy nvidia drivers, everything else should be the same (if you're able to boot the latest kernel+xorg combo, that is).

krigun

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2005-06-06

Posts: 122

Website

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

Seems like people are having the same problem on Gentoo:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-78 … e439019057

Haven't read the entire thread, but it might give some pointers on what needs fixing.

Willie Green

Member

Registered: 2009-06-12

Posts: 70

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

And to Willie Green:
You just make sure that you install the legacy nvidia drivers, everything else should be the same (if you're able to boot the latest kernel+xorg combo, that is).

Thanks, krigun!
Yes... I'll have to remember to deactivate SLiM before I make my changes so I don't accidently try to start X with the newer card before I've installed/configured the new driver. (I assume the old xf86-video-nv driver that I'm using would probably work with the new nVidia card, but since I'm not certain, there's no sense taking any unnecessary risks.)
But it's helpful to know that I'm proceeding in the right direction, so thanks again!!!

---

"Some people march to a different drummer - and some people polka"

fuscia

Member

Registered: 2008-04-21

Posts: 398

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

has anyone been able to use this driver without a problem? if not, why is it still in extra if it doesn't work?

Willie Green

Member

Registered: 2009-06-12

Posts: 70

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

And to Willie Green:
You just make sure that you install the legacy nvidia drivers, everything else should be the same (if you're able to boot the latest kernel+xorg combo, that is).

Okay! Just finished installing my new video card and driver with no problem!
I haven't done any tweaking yet, but the basic installation went well.
Thanks again!

---

"Some people march to a different drummer - and some people polka"

Crows

Member

From: Wales

Registered: 2008-09-05

Posts: 92

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

has anyone been able to use this driver without a problem? if not, why is it still in extra if it doesn't work?

I'm sure this thread would be a lot bigger if the majority of arch users had problems. 8400M here, and every new driver since I've had this machine has worked without any issue. Unfortunately, the closed-source nature of Nvidia's driver makes it very difficult to do anything about issues like this.

krigun

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2005-06-06

Posts: 122

Website

Re: Nvidia upgrade issue

Okay! Just finished installing my new video card and driver with no problem!
I haven't done any tweaking yet, but the basic installation went well.
Thanks again!

Glad to hear it worked out for you! :-)