# nvidia XFree - hangs system, and very slow startup.

## BLASTER_

this has been bugging me since I bought this card about 3 weeks ago. I cant seam to get it configured corectly. *ANY* help will be appresiated. 

here is the prolbem. when I type startx I get about a 12 - 15 seconds of black while the monitor makes "flickering" noises (switching videomodes) then the nvidia logo comes up and it runs fine for about 1-60 minutes. till eventualy it hangs the system, I tried shelling in remotaly it requires a hardboot. usualy this happend 3 times in a row in KDE while compileing software..? but sometimes while the system is idle. 

I have a GeForce4 MX 440 card with vanilla-sources and a 1g AMD Duron (AGP bus is SIS730s) and im using nvidia's agp driver though bloth crash. 

```
grep WW XFree86.0.log 

(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown. 

(WW) System lacks support for changing MTRRs 

(WW) NVIDIA(0): Multiple displays connected, but only one display allowed; 

(WW) NVIDIA(0): using boot display 

(WW) NVIDIA(0): Failure reading EDID parameters for display device 0. 

(WW) NVIDIA(0): Unable to use EDID frequencies for Display Device 0 (no EDID 

(WW) NVIDIA(0): found)
```

(Yes, I have MTRRs's disabled on this kernel in an attempt to fix this also im trying to force it to use my modlines and not probe EDID there are no errors. -update- I have tried many difrent kernel configurations) 

ive been over and over nvidia's documentation on this.. I wonder if it has to do with the "athlon" agp bug? also tried mem=nopentium. still crashes.Last edited by BLASTER_ on Sun Jan 05, 2003 5:18 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## Mooses

Can you give us some further Information?

Are you using multiple displays?

Can you post the "Device" section of yout XF86Config?. When I misconfigure the NVidia Driver or I

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## BLASTER_

yeah lets see.. ive been digging up as much as possable about this.. here we go. (sorry but im posting Lots of data here, because I cant find anything) I took out the vanilla sources and tried redhats, and now using  Gentoo's also booting with the mem=nopentium switch has no effect, aside from making things run slower.

this seams to happen more often when I put the system under load but also happens when idle.

System Type

AMD Duron 1000mhz Morgan Core. PcChips M810L mainboard,  SiS730s AGP (mostaly a sis board)

im using -march=athlon-mp for my cflags as well.

XF86Config

```

Section "ServerLayout"

   Identifier     "Layout0"

   Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0

   InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

   InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"

EndSection

Section "Files"

RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"

        ModulePath   "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/PEX/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/freefont/"

        FontPath     "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/sharefont/"

EndSection

Section "Module"

   Load  "xie"

   Load  "pex5"

   Load  "glx"

   Load  "dbe"

   Load  "record"

   Load  "extmod"

   Load  "freetype"

   Load  "type1"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

   Identifier  "Mouse0"

   Driver      "mouse"

   Option       "Protocol" "IMPS/2"

   Option       "Emulate3Buttons"

   Option       "Device" "/dev/psaux"

   Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

   Identifier  "Keyboard0"

   Driver      "keyboard"

   Option       "XkbModel" "pc105"

   Option       "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"

   Identifier   "Monitor0"

   HorizSync    31.5 - 64.3

   VertRefresh  50.0 - 100.0

   ModeLine     "1024x768@75" 78.8 1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800

   ModeLine     "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628

   ModeLine     "640x480@85" 36.0 640 696 752 832 480 481 484 509 -hsync -vsync

EndSection

Section "Device"

   Identifier  "Card0"

   Driver      "nvidia" 

   ChipSet     "GeForce4 MX 440"

   Card        "NVidia GeForce4 MX 440 (GeForce4 MX 440)"

   Option       "NvAgp" "3"          # use agpgart=1 or nvagp=2 bolth=3 (all crash)

EndSection

Section "Screen"

   Identifier "Screen0"

   Device     "Card0"

   Monitor    "Monitor0"

   DefaultDepth     24

   SubSection "Display"

      Depth     8

      Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

   EndSubSection

   SubSection "Display"

      Depth     16

      Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

   EndSubSection

   SubSection "Display"

      Depth     24

      Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

   EndSubSection

EndSection

```

XFree86 log. (sniped)

```

(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)

(probes for pci device) 

(II) Primary Device is: PCI 01:00:0

(**) Chipset override: GeForce4 MX 440

(**) Chipset GeForce4 MX 440 found

(II) Setting vga for screen 0.

(II) Loading sub module "vgahw"

(II) LoadModule: "vgahw"                                              

(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a

(II) Module vgahw: vendor="The XFree86 Project"                                         

compiled for 4.2.1, module version = 0.1.0

(--x 4.2.0 crashes as well I was hopeing be beta fixed this.--)

ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.5         

(**) 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): Option "DigitalVibrance" "3"

(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "NvAGP" "3"

(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "IgnoreEDID" "true"

(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "CursorShadow" "true"

(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "UseEdidFreqs" "true"

(**) NVIDIA(0): enabling cursor shadow

(**) NVIDIA(0): Use of any AGP requested (try AGPGART, then try NVIDIA's AGP)  (bolth crash)

(**) NVIDIA(0): Ignoring EDIDs

(**) NVIDIA(0): Digital Vibrance Control level = 3

(--) NVIDIA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xC0000000

(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xCE000000

(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoRAM: 65536 kBytes

(--) NVIDIA(0): Detected TV Encoder: NVIDIA

(WW) NVIDIA(0): Multiple displays connected, but only one display allowed;

(--there is only one I have NO idea where it gets this? onbord maybe?--)

(WW) NVIDIA(0):      using boot display

(WW) NVIDIA(0): Unable to use EDID frequencies for Display Device 0 (no EDID

(WW) NVIDIII) NVIDIA(0): Monitor0: Using hsync range of 31.50-64.30 kHz

(II) NVIDIA(0): Monitor0: Using vrefresh range of 50.00-100.00 Hz

(II) NVIDIA(0): Clock range:  12.00 to 350.00 MHz

(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "1024x768" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou$

(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "512x384" (bad mode clock/interlace/doub$

(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "1024x768" (hsync out of range)         A(0):      found) 

(--etc etc for every possable mode--)

(**) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes for Display Device 0:

(**) NVIDIA(0):      Default mode "1024x768": 78.8 MHz, 60.1 kHz, 75.1 Hz

(**) NVIDIA(0):      Default mode "800x600": 56.3 MHz, 53.7 kHz, 85.1 Hz

(**) NVIDIA(0):      Default mode "640x480": 36.0 MHz, 43.3 kHz, 85.0 Hz      

(--4 or 5 pages of the folowing--)

GetModeLine - scrn: 0 clock: 78800

GetModeLine - hdsp: 1024 hbeg: 1040 hend: 1136 httl: 1312 vdsp: 768 vbeg: 769 vend: 772 vttl: 800 flags: 5

GetModeLine - scrn: 0 clock: 78800

GetModeLine - hdsp: 1024 hbeg: 1040 hend: 1136 httl: 1312

vdsp: 768 vbeg: 769 vend: 772 vttl: 800 flags: 5

GetModeLine - scrn: 0 clock: 78800

GetModeLine - hdsp: 1024 hbeg: 1040 hend: 1136 httl: 1312 vdsp: 768 vbeg: 769 vend: 772 vttl: 800 flags: 5

(--after this point nothing--)
```

some possably revelent kernel options..

Processor type and features  > K7, MTRR

General setup > System V IPC, Sysctl support

Character devices > (M)/dev/agpgart (loaded at boot time) 

Frame-buffer support > (*) nVidia Riva support 

(--crashes with no framebuffer anyhow, might as well enjoy the console--)

Grsecurity (off)

memory/cpu state before last crash. 

total 376, used 241, free 134, swap 0% cpu 100%

tail part of the log file before the crash.

```

Sep 26 02:21:03 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: freed 258 pages

Sep 26 02:21:18 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: allocated 258 pages

Sep 26 02:21:18 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: allocated 2304 pages

Sep 26 02:21:21 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: freed 2304 pages

Sep 26 02:21:21 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: allocated 258 pages

Sep 26 02:21:23 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: allocated 258 pages

Sep 26 02:21:23 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: freed 258 pages

Sep 26 02:21:30 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: freed 258 pages

Sep 26 02:23:24 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: allocated 258 pages

Sep 26 02:23:24 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: allocated 2304 pages

Sep 26 02:23:25 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: freed 2304 pages

Sep 26 02:23:30 [kernel] NVRM: AGPGART: allocated 258 pages

Sep 26 02:23:30
```

looks like the next part of that should be.. freed 258 pages.. but it never happens

any more information ide be happy to provide, does anyone even know who I should ask about this?Last edited by BLASTER_ on Sun Jan 05, 2003 5:26 pm; edited 2 times in total

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## BLASTER_

I pluged the card into my old Tyan server (dual Intel pII's) and it worked just fine.

ARGH......  :Sad: 

that means to me the prolbem is in the AMD chipset on that board, or something.Last edited by BLASTER_ on Sun Jan 05, 2003 5:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## nitro322

When I upgraded my system from a Voodoo3 to a GeForce4, I had very similar problems to what you're having.  Unfortunately, I never was able to get it working correctly until I just completely reinstalled from scratch.  Hate to give you bad news, but hopefully it'll save you the week of pounding your head against the wall that I went through.   :Smile: 

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## pilla

I had a very sloooooow X startup when I forgot to put my hostname in the hosts file. Looks like it could not resolve the name and then it took a long time to start.

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## dreamer3

I don't pretend to know the full answer to your question or problem but I have a few thoughts.

With regards to your monitor noises and the time required to startup.  I found that using very "tight" mode timing resulted in lots of monitor noise and a few seconds delay before the image came online (if it did at all).  By relaxing my timings (http://koala.ilog.fr/cgi-bin/nph-colas-modelines) by 10% I eliminated this, and I feel better about using my monitor too.  I don't like it making too many noises.  I'm now at 84Hz instead of 85, but I don't notice the diff.

Also if you're using NVidia's AGP support you really don't need the agpgart module even compiled... have you tried using the module in favor of the built-in NVidia functionality (set the AGP option to 2 or 3 I think)?

Also, are you using the 2.4.19 kernal which is supposed to have some fixes to the AGP code involving Athalon processors?

Sidenote:  I have a 440 MX as well with a Via chipset and Pentium 3 and have had NO problems.  The last advice I give comes from a quick purusal of the NVidia docs.  Thanks for making me aware of some of the driver options though.  :Smile:   I turned on cursor shadow.  Can't wait until the next time I restart X to see how it looks!

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## phos2k

When I first installed X I had a simular problem with the black screen and flickering noise.  I orignially had emerged the nvidia drivers. When I went to nvidia and acctually downloaded them and installed them to good old fashion way without emerge it worked fine. So if you used emerge you might want to try getting them from nvidia themselves.

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## dreamer3

Hehe, good thought but I got them from Nvidia LONG before I even knew they existed in portage.

I just have too cheap a monitor and it doesn't like 100% timings.  No biggy.

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## BLASTER_

I got an older 17" monitor.. but, it works just fine so why replace it?

I ended up taking it out of that system and poping it into a Intel one.. ive not had one single prolbem with it since (with the same setup) so I think it must be the port. just a shame it only works on the slower system.

(yes ive used bolth agpgard and nvidia's agp driver)

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## BLASTER_

no good on the nvidia-kernel-1.0.4191-r1.ebuild im kinda using this forums for documentation on this prolbem. weather the propbem is with a) AMD b) Nvidia c) PcChips or d) my fault.

I had e-mailed nvidia's linux support, so far ive been totaly ignored. 

actualy the only difrence in the new driver is it dosent halt the system. I can shell in remotaly and kill the Xserver but the display remains frozen (sometimes it gakks out too) requireing a reboot.

tested the new 2.4.20-vanilla kernel as well as Gentoo's own sources.

also tested the card on a friends similar system and the card ran great. :( he was using a cvs version of X.  my board is a pcchips M810L and his is a M815L very very close.. 

also applied the latest bios patch 08/02 to mine.. no luck.

is it possable that it could be the Xserver? were are going to rip the hardrive out of his system and boot mine with it to test soon.

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## Ante

I might as well say, I seam to have the exact same problem... I have tryed the Emege driver and the newest from nVidias homepage. With both the 2.4.19 2.4.20 and the 2.4.19-gentoo kernels, with agpgart kompiled. I have tryed with both Slackware 8.1 and now Gentoo 1.4.

My sys is P4 2GHz

256mb RD-RAM

Ge-Force3Ti200 "noname"

I'v tryed with 83 and 84Hzs ModeLines but it didn't help, onley made my ressoulution strange  :Smile:  I have thought of sending nVidia a e-mail, but haven't done it yet. If things workout, please let me know what you did...

PS. I alslo disabeld the nVidia splashscreen (witch I NEVER have seen, ocnley black *flick* black *flick* black *start*) with Yanc, but it didn't help... DS.

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## BLASTER_

yeah I get the same thing.. black flick flick flick black flick nvidia logo. I got that when using bolth the intel board and the  PcChips one so it makes me think its the monitor. there is also a bad 3 second hang between switching to the console so bad so that playing mp3's stop and even caused me to buffer underrun a cd on a burnproof drive.

and I can live with that I dont restart X that often but it crashes every 15 minutes afterwords so.. the search continues.

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## Forge

Remove AGPGART in your config, recompile kernel. Boot into new AGP-free kernel. Change your AGP setting in your Xfree86 config to use NvAGP instead of AGPGART. Known to be more stable on your SiS (NOT AMD) chipset.

Just a minor gripe, feel free to disregard:

Please don't try to give info you're not 100% sure of, it clouds the facts. There never was a 'tbird' motherboard chipset, that was a code name for a CPU design (Pre-XP Athlons). You also don't have an 'AMD' chipset, you have a SiS chipset for AMD processors.

It might seem like I'm nitpicking over nothing, but saying 'AMD chipset' when you have a SiS chipset might get you the wrong instructions, depending on your question. Just saying 'Some AMD CPU on some motherboard with an AGP slot' is more helpful than giving the wrong info.

Now that I've vented and I feel better, I'd like to give a bump for the guys in #nvidia on OpenProjects' IRC network. They and I troubleshoot stuff like this all the time and would be happy to help out, if you drop in.

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## BLASTER_

ok. thank you, Ill try that.

also ill clean up the mistakes in the forum, (said tbird on tha box  :Smile:  ) alot of it was run-on debug notes, sorry.

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## Forge

I think I mentioned it... but just in case:

If I bother you, ignore the parts you don't like. I do have a tendency to rant.

It says 'Tbird chipset' on your mobo box? The guys who printed that should be shot, as they're making their customers look foolish.

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## BLASTER_

yep.. right in the manual too.. and I qoute page one.  "This Mainboard uses the T-Bird chipset which intergrates a 128-bit AGP Graphics Accelerator, and provides a optional 4X AGP slot for highly graphics display, CPU Plug & Play through firmware, Ultra DMA 33/66/100 function" -yes he should be shot.. highly graphics?

I did that and it ran all day.. I finaly figured it was all good, and came up here to thank you for your help and the sucker crashed right when I was typeing the message.  :Sad: 

however that helped alot so.. anything else I could try? 

how about seting in the kernel "Enable DMA only for disks" in the kernel?

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## Forge

That one shouldn't make any difference.

Can you put your kernel .config, your X config, and dmesg in an email and send it to me?

forge at kmfms dot com

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## BLASTER_

despite my hopeings it dident fix itself.. :)

however I have it configured I have XFree86's NV driver causing a kernel panic once in a while now as well. ..terrffic

so.. my new questions is.. (because I know its not going to work and I cant seam to find one shread of information about it or anyone else thats having this prolbem) 

is it better to soft crash a lot and remotaly reboot it?

or 

should I let the kernel panic once every 3-5 days or so?

..or

should I buy a new motherboard?

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## Forge

I'd go for the new mobo, myself.

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