# nvidia module fails to load at startup [resolved]

## robintw

Hi,

This may have been happening for some time, but I've recently noticed that during startup I get a failure to load the module "nvidia" coming up. I've done a dmesg | grep nvidia and I get:

nvidia: version magic '2.6.15-gentoo-r1 SMP preempt PENTIUMIII gcc-3.4' should be '2.6.15-gentoo-r1 SMP preempt PENTIUMIII gcc-3.3'

nvidia: version magic '2.6.15-gentoo-r1 SMP preempt PENTIUMIII gcc-3.4' should be '2.6.15-gentoo-r1 SMP preempt PENTIUMIII gcc-3.3'

I've tried re-emerging both the nvidia-kernel and nvidia-gfx, and in fact have now unmerged both of those and emerged nvidia-drivers (which I unmasked). It still seems to be happening. The machine has a GeForce 4 graphics card in it, but I don't think it can be working properly - as one of the few bits of graphics stuff I do (watching the 3D visualisation in ClimatePrediction.Net) works but only very very slowly, and every box that should fade into the screen comes really slowly etc.

Any ideas as to what else I should try?

Cheers,

RobinLast edited by robintw on Wed Aug 30, 2006 2:07 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## PsychoticRetina

seems like somewhere along the way you compiled your kernel and the nvidia driver with different versions of gcc; probably due to a recent gcc upgrade.

```
more /proc/version <--will among other things show the gcc version used to compile your kernel

gcc-config -l <--will show you all gcc compilers currently available on your system. * = currently used one
```

if theres a difference, chances are thats your problem. recompile kernel without reconfiguring it, reboot using the new kernel. if youre still having issues, recompile nvidia driver once more.

----------

## robintw

Hi,

Thanks for that! Recompiling the kernel worked and now the nvidia module is loading. The only problem is that my graphics are still very slow, and when something is meant to fade in it does it very slowly - so I'm wondering if there's another problem in the graphics system somewhere... What do you think?

Cheers,

Robin

----------

## PsychoticRetina

all depends on your system, but it sounds like direct rendering isnt enabled. post your /etc/X11/xorg.conf and output of glxinfo|grep -i direct. if direct rendering is enabled, see if anything is eating up resources with "top".

----------

## robintw

Hi

I tried running glxinfo | grep -i direct and it didn't seem to turn up any lines with "direct" in them - but gave many errors. These are reproduced below:

```

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Error: Couldn't find RGB GLX visual

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".

Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
```

The output of glxinfo without any piping to grep, in case that is helpful is as follows (the errors don't appear here because I piped the output to a file, and I can't remember how to pipe stderr - anyway the errors are the same as given above when grep is used):

```
name of display: :0.0

   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav

 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat

----------------------------------------------------------------------

0x21 24 tc  1  0  0 c  .  .  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None

0x22 24 dc  1  0  0 c  .  .  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None

0x57 32 tc  1  0  0 c  .  .  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None

```

You also asked for my xorg.conf - so here it is:

```

# File generated by xorgconfig.

#

# Copyright 2004 The X.Org Foundation

#

# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a

# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),

# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation

# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,

# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the

# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

# 

# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in

# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

# 

# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR

# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,

# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL

# The X.Org Foundation BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,

# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF

# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE

# SOFTWARE.

# 

# Except as contained in this notice, the name of The X.Org Foundation shall

# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other

# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from

# The X.Org Foundation.

#

# **********************************************************************

# Refer to the xorg.conf(5x) man page for details about the format of 

# this file.

# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************

# Module section -- this  section  is used to specify

# which dynamically loadable modules to load.

# **********************************************************************

#

Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

    Load        "dbe"     # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables

# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.

    SubSection  "extmod"

      Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension

    EndSubSection

# This loads the font modules

    Load        "type1"

#    Load        "speedo"

    Load        "freetype"

#    Load        "xtt"

# This loads the GLX module

#    Load       "glx"

# This loads the DRI module

#    Load       "dri"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# Files section.  This allows default font and rgb paths to be set

# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"

# The location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the

# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally

# no need to change the default.

    RgbPath   "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),

# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath

# command (or a combination of both methods)

# 

# 

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/misc/"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/TTF/"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/"

#    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/CID/"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/"

    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/local/"

#    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo/"

#    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/TrueType/"

#    FontPath   "/usr/share/fonts/freefont/"

# The module search path.  The default path is shown here.

#    ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# Server flags section.

# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"

# Uncomment this to cause a core dump at the spot where a signal is 

# received.  This may leave the console in an unusable state, but may

# provide a better stack trace in the core dump to aid in debugging

#    Option "NoTrapSignals"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><Fn> VT switch sequence

# (where n is 1 through 12).  This allows clients to receive these key

# events.

#    Option "DontVTSwitch"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><BS> server abort sequence

# This allows clients to receive this key event.

#    Option "DontZap"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> mode switching

# sequences.  This allows clients to receive these key events.

#    Option "Dont Zoom"

# Uncomment this to disable tuning with the xvidtune client. With

# it the client can still run and fetch card and monitor attributes,

# but it will not be allowed to change them. If it tries it will

# receive a protocol error.

#    Option "DisableVidModeExtension"

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local xvidtune client. 

#    Option "AllowNonLocalXvidtune"

# Uncomment this to disable dynamically modifying the input device

# (mouse and keyboard) settings. 

#    Option "DisableModInDev"

# Uncomment this to enable the use of a non-local client to

# change the keyboard or mouse settings (currently only xset).

#    Option "AllowNonLocalModInDev"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# Input devices

# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************

# Core keyboard's InputDevice section

# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier   "Keyboard1"

    Driver   "kbd"

# For most OSs the protocol can be omitted (it defaults to "Standard").

# When using XQUEUE (only for SVR3 and SVR4, but not Solaris),

# uncomment the following line.

#    Option     "Protocol"      "Xqueue"

    Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))

#    Option   "Xleds"      "1 2 3"

#    Option "LeftAlt"     "Meta"

#    Option "RightAlt"    "ModeShift"

# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the

# lines below (which are the defaults).  For example, for a non-U.S.

# keyboard, you will probably want to use:

#    Option "XkbModel"    "pc105"

# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:

#    Option "XkbModel"    "microsoft"

#

# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.

# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:

#    Option "XkbLayout"   "de"

# or:

#    Option "XkbLayout"   "de"

#    Option "XkbVariant"  "nodeadkeys"

#

# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and

# control keys, use:

#    Option "XkbOptions"  "ctrl:swapcaps"

# These are the default XKB settings for Xorg

#    Option "XkbModel"    "pc105"

#    Option "XkbLayout"   "us"

#    Option "XkbVariant"  ""

#    Option "XkbOptions"  ""

#    Option "XkbDisable"

    Option "XkbModel"   "pc101"

    Option "XkbLayout"   "gb"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# Core Pointer's InputDevice section

# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

# Identifier and driver

    Identifier   "Mouse1"

    Driver   "mouse"

    Option "Protocol"    "auto"

    Option "Device"      "/dev/input/mice"

    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

# Mouse-speed setting for PS/2 mouse.

#    Option "Resolution"   "256"

# When using XQUEUE, comment out the above two lines, and uncomment

# the following line.

#    Option "Protocol"   "Xqueue"

# Baudrate and SampleRate are only for some Logitech mice. In

# almost every case these lines should be omitted.

#    Option "BaudRate"   "9600"

#    Option "SampleRate"   "150"

# Emulate3Buttons is an option for 2-button Microsoft mice

# Emulate3Timeout is the timeout in milliseconds (default is 50ms)

#    Option "Emulate3Buttons"

#    Option "Emulate3Timeout"    "50"

# ChordMiddle is an option for some 3-button Logitech mice

#    Option "ChordMiddle"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# Other input device sections 

# this is optional and is required only if you

# are using extended input devices.  This is for example only.  Refer

# to the xorg.conf man page for a description of the options.

# **********************************************************************

#

# Section "InputDevice" 

#    Identifier  "Mouse2"

#    Driver      "mouse"

#    Option      "Protocol"      "MouseMan"

#    Option      "Device"        "/dev/mouse2"

# EndSection

#

# Section "InputDevice"

#    Identifier "spaceball"

#    Driver     "magellan"

#    Option     "Device"        "/dev/cua0"

# EndSection

#

# Section "InputDevice"

#    Identifier "spaceball2"

#    Driver     "spaceorb"

#    Option     "Device"        "/dev/cua0"

# EndSection

#

# Section "InputDevice"

#    Identifier "touchscreen0"

#    Driver     "microtouch"

#    Option     "Device"        "/dev/ttyS0"

#    Option     "MinX"          "1412"

#    Option     "MaxX"          "15184"

#    Option     "MinY"          "15372"

#    Option     "MaxY"          "1230"

#    Option     "ScreenNumber"  "0"

#    Option     "ReportingMode" "Scaled"

#    Option     "ButtonNumber"  "1"

#    Option     "SendCoreEvents"

# EndSection

#

# Section "InputDevice"

#    Identifier "touchscreen1"

#    Driver     "elo2300"

#    Option     "Device"        "/dev/ttyS0"

#    Option     "MinX"          "231"

#    Option     "MaxX"          "3868"

#    Option     "MinY"          "3858"

#    Option     "MaxY"          "272"

#    Option     "ScreenNumber"  "0"

#    Option     "ReportingMode" "Scaled"

#    Option     "ButtonThreshold"       "17"

#    Option     "ButtonNumber"  "1"

#    Option     "SendCoreEvents"

# EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# Monitor section

# **********************************************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section "Monitor"

    Identifier  "Dell M770"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.

# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a

# comma separated list of ranges of values.

# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY.  REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S

# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

    HorizSync   31.5 - 64.3

#    HorizSync   30-64         # multisync

#    HorizSync   31.5, 35.2    # multiple fixed sync frequencies

#    HorizSync   15-25, 30-50  # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.

# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a

# comma separated list of ranges of values.

# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY.  REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S

# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

    VertRefresh 50-160

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# Graphics device section

# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

# Standard VGA Device:

Section "Device"

    Identifier   "Standard VGA"

    VendorName   "Unknown"

    BoardName   "Unknown"

# The chipset line is optional in most cases.  It can be used to override

# the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.

#    Chipset   "generic"

# The Driver line must be present.  When using run-time loadable driver

# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver

# module.  Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line

# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.

    Driver     "vga"

# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices

# this section is intended for.  When this line isn't present, a device

# section can only match up with the primary video device.  For PCI

# devices a line like the following could be used.  This line should not

# normally be included unless there is more than one video device

# intalled.

#    BusID      "PCI:0:10:0"

#    VideoRam   256

#    Clocks   25.2 28.3

EndSection

# Device configured by xorgconfig:

Section "Device"

    Identifier  "NVidia GForce 4 - I think"

    Driver      "nv"

    #VideoRam    131072

    # Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# Screen sections

# **********************************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present.  Each describes

# the configuration of a single screen.  A single specific screen section

# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"

# option.

Section "Screen"

    Identifier  "Screen 1"

    Device      "NVidia GForce 4 - I think"

    Monitor     "Dell M770"

    DefaultDepth 24

    Subsection "Display"

        Depth       8

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

        ViewPort    0 0

    EndSubsection

    Subsection "Display"

        Depth       16

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

        ViewPort    0 0

    EndSubsection

    Subsection "Display"

        Depth       24

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

        ViewPort    0 0

    EndSubsection

EndSection

# **********************************************************************

# ServerLayout sections.

# **********************************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present.  Each describes

# the way multiple screens are organised.  A specific ServerLayout

# section may be specified from the X server command line with the

# "-layout" option.  In the absence of this, the first section is used.

# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section

# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present

    Identifier  "Simple Layout"

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally

# the relative position of other screens.  The four names after

# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right

# of the primary screen.  In this example, screen 2 is located to the

# right of screen 1.

    Screen "Screen 1"

# Each InputDevice line specifies an InputDevice section name and

# optionally some options to specify the way the device is to be

# used.  Those options include "CorePointer", "CoreKeyboard" and

# "SendCoreEvents".

    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"

    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

# Section "DRI"

#    Mode 0666

# EndSection

Section "Extensions"

   Option "Composite" "true"

EndSection

```

I'm not sure what's going on here. There seem to be a lot of errors - but I'm sure things used to work fine - I used to be able to play games (TuxRacer etc) on this system, so the graphics must have been working properly at some point.

Thanks for all the help,

Robin

----------

## Matteo Azzali

Could be the same issue I got of overlapping irq (check xorg.0.log for an error/warning loading glx, and search with google

the warning you got). 

But I got this with latest kernels (>=2.6.16). If this is the case (you installed a more recent kernel) the latest

drivers from nvidia (8774) solved for me, I had to install xorg-7.1 also (xorg-server-1.1.1).

----------

## Hylocereus

Hallo,

uncomment in xorg.conf 

load "glx"

----------

## PsychoticRetina

 *robintw wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Section "Module"
> 
> # This loads the DBE extension module.
> ...

 

uncomment    Load    "glx"

 *robintw wrote:*   

> 
> 
> # Device configured by xorgconfig:
> 
> Section "Device"
> ...

 

change   Driver    "nv"   to   Driver    "nvidia"

----------

## Matteo Azzali

Ouch! Still Nvidia Xconfig isn't in portage.... is working fine

for simple configuration but has issues with dual displays cause of a libnvidia-cfg.so.1 missing.

EDIT: fixed the issue with a little modify to nvidia-drivers ebuild.

----------

## robintw

Hi,

I did what was suggested, with removing the comment from the load glx line, and then changing nv to nvidia but it doesn't seem to have helped much. I thought it had to begin with, as it seemed to come up in a different resolution, and also showed an Nvidia logo before the desktop appeared - but graphics are still impossibly slow in Tuxracer and in CP.Net visualisation.

I'm running 2.6.15-gentoo-r1 as my kernel and I can't find any warnings about glx in Xorg.0.log.

Thanks for the help so far, but any other ideas?

Robin

----------

## Matteo Azzali

 *robintw wrote:*   

> Hi,
> 
> I did what was suggested, with removing the comment from the load glx line, and then changing nv to nvidia but it doesn't seem to have helped much. I thought it had to begin with, as it seemed to come up in a different resolution, and also showed an Nvidia logo before the desktop appeared - but graphics are still impossibly slow in Tuxracer and in CP.Net visualisation.
> 
> I'm running 2.6.15-gentoo-r1 as my kernel and I can't find any warnings about glx in Xorg.0.log.
> ...

 

All what you did is fine, now you just need to do an 

"eselect opengl set nvidia" to have opengl accelerated graphics. 

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_nVidia_Drivers could have saved you some time, 

please search the gentoo-wiki ( http://gentoo-wiki.com ) before posting, next time....

----------

## robintw

Hi,

Thanks for the link to the wiki. I've followed the instructions you gave me, and the instructions there, but whenever I run GLX info I still get the errors about "Extension GLX missing on display :0.0" repeated many times.

I've checked that GLX in uncommented in my Xorg.conf, and have double checked all instructions in the how to.

Sorry to be a pain - but any ideas?

Robin

----------

## Matteo Azzali

please check in /var/log/Xorg.*.log and report here the lines starting with (WW) and (EE).

#grep -E "^(\(WW\)|\(EE\))" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

If you're sure your card isn't a legacy one, you might want to try the nvidia-xconfig ebuild 

(I posted the link above...)

----------

## robintw

Hi,

The lines you asked for are as follows:

```

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

(WW) NVIDIA(0): No size information available in CRT-1's EDID; cannot compute

(WW) NVIDIA(0):     DPI from EDID.

(EE) NVIDIA(0): GLX is not supported with the Composite X extension on this X

(EE) NVIDIA(0):     server.  For proper interaction of GLX with the Damage and

(EE) NVIDIA(0):     Composite X extensions, it is recommended that you upgrade

(EE) NVIDIA(0):     your X server to at least X.Org 6.9.0.

(EE) GLX is not supported with the Composite extension on this X server

```

I'm guessing from the error that I need to update my X.Org Server - is that right? Also, how do I tell if my card is a legacy card or not? I'm running a GeForce4 - the output from lspci is:

```

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV25 [GeForce4 Ti 4200] (rev a3)

```

Cheers,

Robin

----------

## PsychoticRetina

you may want to uncomment:

 *Quote:*   

> Section "Extensions"
> 
>    Option "Composite" "true"
> 
> EndSection 

 at first, to see if thats really the problem. what version are you running anyway?

----------

## robintw

Hi,

Commenting that line made it work! Horray! My output of 

```
glxinfo | grep direct
```

 now gives "direct rendering: yes". Horray!

Is it safe to leave that line commented out, as it is now working, or do I need to do some more hunting to find where the 'real' problem is.

I am running version 6.8.2-r8 of xorg-x11 by the way.

Cheers, and thanks for you help getting it working:)

Robin

----------

## PsychoticRetina

these lines only serve to provide fancy transparency effects and similar. if youre not interested in that, then yes, youve solved your problem "the correct way". if you ever decide you want those effects, youll have to upgrade xorg and uncomment the lines.

----------

## robintw

I think I'll leave it like that then, and just uncomment if I upgrade.

Thanks for all your help everyone,

Robin

----------

