# nvidia xorg woes

## bl00mie

I've searched the forums a bit and found similar headings, but the description of the problem does not seem to coincide with mine.

This is on a fresh stage 2 build using the 2005.0 amd64 profile on a EM64T system.  all other packages seem to be building and working fine, but for the life of me, i cannot get X to start.  

I've access to 2 PCI-express nvidia cards -- a GeForce 6200 TurboCache, and a GeForce 6600 GT card.  I've tried both, using both nvidia-kernel 1.0.7664 and 1.0.6629-r4 to no avail.  

1.0.6629 seems to not recognize either card... modprobing is successful and dmesg doesn't throw anything ugly, but when i try to start x, it fails to initizlize.

when i use 1.0.7664, X doesn't get any errors or anything, but it doesn't successfully start... the screen blanks, i get a cursor in the top left corner that blinks once, and then the system freezes...  Xorg.0.log seems to have stopped recording right where it sets the screen resolution.

here are the files i felt were pertinent:

http://chad.blomqui.st/Xorg.0.log

http://chad.blomqui.st/dmesg

http://chad.blomqui.st/xorg.conf

anyone have any ideas?  

--chad

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## d4mo

I don't know if this would solve your X problems, but did you emerge nvidia-glx........and opengl-update nvidia.

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## bl00mie

well, getting opengl to work is the least of my concern at present, but alas, for each driver version i tried, i also emerged the corresponding nvidia-glx and did an opengl-update....  no dice.

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## bl00mie

apparently, PCI-express video cards require that one compile-in PCI hot-plugging support (from https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-319201-highlight-nvidia+6600gt.html)

i'm compiling my kernel as i type...  wish me luck!

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## bl00mie

nope... still hangs. though now i get some little sparkles of video rendering before it hangs.

the output in the logs are now as such:

http://chad.blomqui.st/Xorg.0.log

and here, again, is my xorg.conf file:

http://chad.blomqui.st/xorg.conf

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## bl00mie

i just noticed that there's not an entry in Bus options for PCI Express support....

there is in gentoo-sources 2.6.11-r11 on my athlon 32 box, but not on this EM64T... is this relivant??

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## rawc

I'm stumped too. I've tried just about everything imaginable to get the nvidia driver working on my Gentoo Linux 2005.0 system, but it just doesn't want to play nice.  I'm glad too see that I'm not the only one with this exact same problem (although I'd be much gladder if the nvidia driver actually worked).

Here are my system specs:

Asus P5GD2-Deluxe mobo

Intel P4 630 (em64t)

Gigabyte 6600GT (Silent Pipe) - PCI Express

1 GB Ram

Gentoo Linux 2005.0 (64-bit)

Kernel 2.6.12 (also tried 2.6.11)

It would be interesting, bl00mie, if you had the same/similar motherboard as me.  Who knows...maybe it's something that could be solved with a BIOS upgrade whenever a new one comes out.

When I run either startx or xorgcfg on the 2.6.11 kernel, my computer doesn't just lock up...it reboots! On the 2.6.12 kernel, my computer freezes with a black/blank screen (the monitor never goes into standby or anything) and I can't even ssh into it.

I have compiled more kernels (with hotplug turned off and on, smp off/on, preemptible kernel off/on, etc..) than I can count trying to see if anything changes, but it doesn't...the nvidia driver just won't work with my software/hardware . I am severely disappointed in the quality of the linux 64-bit driver, because everything works great under Windows XP (32-bit).

Everything is fine in dmesg, and no errors in the x.org log.  In fact, my system freezes before the log can ever be saved to the hard drive.  I did, however, hook up a usb key to my computer and did a synchronous mount so I could get at least some output from the x.org log file by redirecting it to the usb key.  Here's what I get:

http://www.geocities.com/rawlink2/xorg.log.txt

Maybe someone can take a look at the log and offer suggestions based on how far things get in the log before the computer freezes.

Hopefully somebody finds a solution to the problems or can convince nVidia to fix this issue.

 *bl00mie wrote:*   

> i just noticed that there's not an entry in Bus options for PCI Express support....
> 
> there is in gentoo-sources 2.6.11-r11 on my athlon 32 box, but not on this EM64T... is this relivant??

 

I'm not sure if it is relevant or not seeing as the nvidia kernel driver may take care of the PCI Express communication that it needs.  It's a good question though...anybody know the answer?  I do know, however, that the PCI Express option has been added in the 2.6.12.1 kernel I tested out.  Turning it on didn't help with the problem any, though.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer suggestions or help.

-Chris

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## bl00mie

 *rawc wrote:*   

> It would be interesting, bl00mie, if you had the same/similar motherboard as me.  Who knows...maybe it's something that could be solved with a BIOS upgrade whenever a new one comes out.

 

Close, but no cigar.  I've got an Asus P5LD2.  I picked this one 'cause it had the bios-level speed stepping support.

It is interesting that we both have EM64Ts on top-end (read new) Asus Mobos.  

I found this thread, 

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-319201-postdays-0-postorder-asc-highlight-nvidia+6600gt-start-25.html

where Mr. Ed claims to have likewise similar hardware.  He, however, has it working.  no clue what motherboard he's sporting.  I PMed him, and am waiting.

I mirror chris's thanks-in-advance for anyone who can help out.[i]

--chad

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## bl00mie

one final bump   :Embarassed: 

I've tried just about everything I can think of... including multiple kernels, every version of the nvidia drivers i can find (media-video/nvidia-kernel as well as the install files from nvidia's site).  I think I'm going to give up...

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## mikegpitt

I'm doing a fresh install on a brand new computer and am getting the same error with the nvidia drivers.  The screen goes black after some flickering, and then the system locks.  There is deffinitly a bug somewhere.  I've tried with stable and ~x86 drivers.

lspci says the card is this:

```
VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV44 [GeForce 6200 TurboCache] (rev a1)
```

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## mikegpitt

 *mikegpitt wrote:*   

> I'm doing a fresh install on a brand new computer and am getting the same error with the nvidia drivers.  The screen goes black after some flickering, and then the system locks.  There is deffinitly a bug somewhere.  I've tried with stable and ~x86 drivers.
> 
> lspci says the card is this:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

Ok I don't know what I did but my system works now.  What I did in between posting this and it working was, add my user to the video group (for udev), recompiled my kernel, and re-emerged the unstable (~x86) nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx.  I think the issue was that I emerged the unstable nvidia-kernel but not nvidia-glx.  I'm not sure how that happened but it works fine now.  I'm not sure if this info will be a help for the rest of you having problems...

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## sarumont

I'm having the same issue as bl00mie.  I've scoured the forums, but he's the only one I can find with this issue.  I didn't have this issue on my AMD64 system, but now I've upgraded to a dual opteron system and get this hang.  I think (now) that it may be related to SMP.  I'll go compile a non-SMP kernel to test it and post back...

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## sarumont

SMP isn't the culprit...Still not working here.  I'll keep searching, though.

My specs:

2x Opteron 246s

Asus K8N-DL

2x1G Corsair ECC Registered PC3200

XFX GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCI-Express

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## sarumont

To list what I've been through so far:

On 2.6.12-r*:

Nvidia-* 7xxx

All NvAGP options as well as RenderAccel false and HWCursor off

Non-smp 2.6.12

Commenting out Load "glx"

hotplug/coldplug (with PCI Hotplug Enabled in my kernel)

As per this thread (see the last post), it looks like it may be a kernel<->driver issue.  I'm trying to get a 2.6.[9|10] to compile, but as per this thread, something breaks there.  I'm going to try to downgrade binutils, etc. to get one of those to compile.  I'll post back anything I discover.

Also tried PCI-Express hotplug (in 2.6.12-r4), but my machine wouldn't boot with that...

 :Cool: 

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## PMT

I've got a working x86 GeForce 6800 here, and I'm more than willing to try helping you guys, but I can't seem to load the only Xorg.0.log that's posted here.

You guys post your kernel versions, .configs, and Xorg.0.logs, and I'll look at it. I've set up a lot of nVidia cards.  :Smile: 

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## sarumont

Here's my stuff.  I don't see anything useful in the log, but ya never know.  I'm pretty sure it's an issue with the 64-bit part here (maybe nvidia's driver...who knows).  Maybe you can find something, though.   :Cool: 

http://www.sigil.org/2.6.12-r4-config

http://www.sigil.org/xorg.log

http://www.sigil.org/xorg.conf

I've had nVidia cards running in the past, too.  As I said, this one worked on my Athlon64.  That was a 3000+ running on an Asus A8N-SLI.  Now I'm at the above specs and have this issue.

As I said above, I tried downgrading binutils and got a 2.6.9 Gentoo and a 2.6.10 vanilla to compile, but no dice there.

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## bl00mie

I gave up and mail-ordered a comperable ATI card that worked with no hassle, so i guess I don't really need any more help with this, but I'd love to hear if you got this working.

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## PMT

Sorry, I don't see anything, offhand.

Hey, sarumont, did you know that, for use of the binary driver, you should specify nvidia, not nv, last I heard?  :Very Happy: 

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## sarumont

 *PMT wrote:*   

> Sorry, I don't see anything, offhand.
> 
> Hey, sarumont, did you know that, for use of the binary driver, you should specify nvidia, not nv, last I heard? 

 

Yeah...sorry...that's my *current* xorg.conf.  If you look at the default layout, you'll see that I specify the Screen using TwinView and nvidia.  I'm using nv currently so that I actually have X.   :Cool: 

And yeah...this config worked before, so why does it not work now?  There's the weirdness...thanks for the attempt, though.

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## PMT

Sounds like, as you said, some 64-bit weirdness. If there's no bugs in Bugzilla, file one.

Or submit it to nVidia.

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## rawc

Someone finally stumbled upon a fix for this particular black/blank screen problem in the nVidia forums (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin)!  Just enable the 'Execute Disable Function' for your cpu in the system BIOS.  nVidia clearly needs to fix some code in their driver so this becomes a non-issue.

So if you are having similar nvidia issues as bl00mie and I originally posted above, this may be the fix for you.  It's nice to finally have 3D acceleration working on my nvidia card in Linux   :Very Happy: 

NOTE: I'm not sure if AMD motherboards have a similar option for toggling the 'no-execute bit' option in the BIOS (I think AMD calls it 'Advanced Virus Protection), so this fix may only apply to 64-bit intel users.

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## sarumont

 *rawc wrote:*   

> Someone finally stumbled upon a fix for this particular black/blank screen problem in the nVidia forums (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin)!  Just enable the 'Execute Disable Function' for your cpu in the system BIOS.  nVidia clearly needs to fix some code in their driver so this becomes a non-issue.
> 
> So if you are having similar nvidia issues as bl00mie and I originally posted above, this may be the fix for you.  It's nice to finally have 3D acceleration working on my nvidia card in Linux  
> 
> NOTE: I'm not sure if AMD motherboards have a similar option for toggling the 'no-execute bit' option in the BIOS (I think AMD calls it 'Advanced Virus Protection), so this fix may only apply to 64-bit intel users.

 

I scoured my BIOS and didn't see this option anywhere.  I'm going to e-mail ASUS about it and see if they know where I could find it...  :Cool: 

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## mesman00

let me know if you find them.  i as well have an asus mobo w/ this problem

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