# nvidia (5336) + frambuffer (vesa) weirdness.

## eNTi

it's really strange. framebuffer does work sometimes and sometimes it does not. atm i've got that error again, that if i switch from X (xorg x11) to the console, the console will be blank or show some weird tourquise/pink horizontal strokes. if i kill X and get back in again, and do this a few times, my framebuffer console will suddenly work again. this problem occurs with gentoo-dev-sources, mm-sources, love-sources. it's so weird...

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## justin sane

Make sure you have 4k stacks disabled when running mm-sources or love-sources (or anything else with the option for 4k stacks, don't know if gentoo-dev-sources has that option or not).  The nvidia module hates 4k stacks, I experienced all kinds of strange behavior (ranging from not working at all.. to problems like what you describe) using mm-sources with 4k stacks enabled.  In all of those cases, disabling 4k stacks and recompiling the kernel and the nvidia module made everything work as expected.

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## eNTi

thx for the advice, but i already know about the 4k stack size thing. when i enable it, i won't get into X at all.

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## Gandalf the White

Okay, does it look like your console is zoomed in by a factor of a couple thousand times? Really weird zig zga lines and funky colors? If so, then it is a known bug with nvidia and framebuffer, two choices: 1) don't use framebuffer   2) use nvidia kernel 4363 or older, I have, and others have confirmed that it doesn't garble the console, unfortunately, it will take some work and some patches from minion.de to get it to work with 2.6 series kernel, but it can be done.

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## eNTi

well it looks as described above. i get horizontal pink-white-torquoise lines on, that change place, if i write something. they are about 5 pixels in height (guesswork) and they do not really seem to make any sense.

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## Gandalf the White

Yep, that's what it is. I recommend you switch back to nvidia version 4363, this problem does not exist with that version, and if you go to www.minion.de, there is a patched runfile that allows you to painlessly install it with 2.6 series kernels. I am using that right now and I get better performance than with any other version I have ever tried, and no framebuffer problems.

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## eyoung100

For all of you having trouble with splotcy text or weird graphics after switching consoles, I urgee you to flash your video card's BIOS.  It worked for me.  I used to have the same problem so I went searching so I could submit a bug to the driver developers at NVIDIA.  I read the section on what to do before submitting a bug, and there was an interesting tidbit:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Please make sure to have the most recent BIOS for your card.
> 
> 

 

I thought and thought, and said to myself, "Kind of risky, but I'm at my wit's end."  I had tried Gandalfs suggestion to no avail.  I'm not exactly keen on flashing a BIOS unless it absolutely necessary, especially a Video BIOS.  Flashing video can render your card unusable.  After deep thought and consideration I deemed this as absolutely necessary.  I googled for a place to download new BIOS'es as my cardmaker had none.  After wading through countless sites with nothing I found this ABSOLUTE GEM:

Whitebunny's page for NVIDIA Drivers, BIOS'es and Utilities

Download the most recent BIOS in the list for your card, and the nvflash utility.  Make sure not to confuse AGP rates when choosing a BIOS!  Flashing must be done from a DOS Boot Disk.  I urge you to read the nvflash usage documentation and make a backup of your current BIOS before upgrading.  As proof that it works, my old BIOS was:

4.17.45 (caused buffer problems)

4.17.89(buffer problem fixed)

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## brab

This looks great ... except that they don't seem to mention my video card (Quadro FX 700 Go). They have a bunch of quadros, but not this one. Too bad.

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## eyoung100

Try this, thhe next time you boot your machine see if  can catch the Boot message for your card, and take note of the line NV___ where ___ is some #, then see if you can match the # in the line to the number in the list on Whitebunny's page.  It is my understanding that the Go series is for notebooks..  If it is possible that you can find a matching number you could create a hybrid card, ie. a notebook card with a PC video card's brain   :Smile: 

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