# About Nvidia 340, KMS, framebuffer

## augustin

When I woke up this morning  I didn't know anything about KMS, framebuffer, UEFI, etc.

I've spent most of the day pouring over wiki documentation, searching this forum and the web.

I still can't figure out how I am supposed to configure nvidia and X Server.

I'm following this:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/NVidia/nvidia-drivers

My graphic card is GeForce 9600 GSO 512, a legacy card supported in the 340.xx drivers, as per 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html

Thus I already set:

```
$ cat /etc/portage/package.mask/nvidia 

# https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/NVidia/nvidia-drivers

>=x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-341 
```

Given the version of the driver (340), I am confused by what the wiki says next, and despite my best effort, I am still unsure what I am supposed to install, and what kernel options I'm supposed to set/unset.

The wiki says:

 *Quote:*   

> Important
> 
> For x86 and AMD64 processors, the in-kernel framebuffer driver conflicts with the binary driver provided by nVidia. When compiling the kernel for these CPUs, completely remove support for the in-kernel driver as shown: 
> 
> KERNEL Disable support for the in-kernel driver
> ...

 

But then it says:

 *Quote:*   

> A framebuffer alternative is uvesafb, which can be installed parallel to x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers. 
> 
> Important
> 
> For x86 and AMD64 processors, the uvesafb driver conflicts with the binary driver provided by nVidia above 361.28 versions.

 

Again, I'll be using nVidia 340.xx.

So:

1) In the kernel, are the following settings the right one for me?

```
Device Drivers --->

    Graphics support --->

        Frame buffer Devices --->

            <*> Support for frame buffer devices --->

            < >   nVidia Framebuffer Support

            < >   nVidia Riva support
```

2) Should I emerge uvesafb? Will it be installed automatically (pulled by the rest, when I emerge xord and nvidia-drivers?

3) If I understand the following page correctly, I must compile the kernel twice, once before emerging uvesafb, and once after:

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Uvesafb

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## augustin

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=197016

says:

"To get a high res console with the Nvidia driver requires using vesafb/uvesafb (when booting in BIOS mode) or efifb (when booting in UEFI mode). But this limits you to resolutions in the VBIOS of the GPU, and very often widescreen resolutions aren't there."

So I guess I somehow have to install uvesafb, although I'm not yet sure how to get the supported resolutions  from the VBIOS...

(I'll use BIOS. my motherboard does not support UEFI).

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## augustin

Cool! Archlinux has a different package for different versions of nvidia drivers, according to what's required by the graphic card, e.g.: nvidia , nvidia-340xx , nvidia-304xx ...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA#Installation

It makes for easier installation and configuration.

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## Josef.95

 *augustin wrote:*   

> [...] So I guess I somehow have to install uvesafb, although I'm not yet sure how to get the supported resolutions from the VBIOS...

 

The from the VBIOS (your Graphic Card) supported modes should listed in 

```
cat /sys/bus/platform/drivers/uvesafb/uvesafb.0/vbe_modes
```

See in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/uvesafb.txt

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## augustin

Danke Josef.

I'll check that out.

 :Smile: 

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