# nvidia-drivers-270 is not friend of acpi_call

## lexming

Hi! weird thing incoming   :Smile: 

I have a dual gpu laptop (nvidia 9400M G + nvidia 9200M GS). This setup has been working flawlessly with the proprietary nvidia drivers 260 and acpi_call. The nvidia driver only uses the 9400 and with acpi_call I switch off the 9200 to reduce energy consumption. However, the recently stabilized nvidia-drivers-270.41.06 break my system and the X server ends in a segmentation fault on first load.

First of all I must say that removing the acpi_call module fixes the system. Without acpi_call the X server + nvidia-drivers-270 run great. So it looks like an incompatibility of acpi_call with this recent nvidia-drivers, but I couldn't find any other similar case elsewhere.

Now, my config as it works with nvidia-drivers-260:

/etc/conf.d/modules

```
...

modules="nvidia acpi_call"
```

I tried to revers the loading order of these modules, but nothing changed.

/etc/local.d/10_acpi_call.start

```
# Disable Nvidia discrete card (9200M GS)

echo '\_SB.PCI0.XVR0.Z01I.DGOF' > /proc/acpi/call
```

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

```
...

Section "Device"

   Identifier      "Card0"

   Driver      "nvidia"

   VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"

   BoardName   "GeForce 9400M G"

   BusID      "PCI:3:0:0"

   Option      "NoLogo" "1"

   Option      "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "1"

EndSection

...
```

Then, the boot sequence is: nvidia module load, acpi_call module load, 9200M switch off and X server start. Which causes this on the X server with nvidia 270:

```
...

NVIDIA: could not open the device file /dev/nvidia0 (Input/output error).

(EE) NVIDIA(GPU-1): The NVIDIA GPU at PCI:2:0:0 is not supported by the 270.41.06

(EE) NVIDIA(GPU-1):     NVIDIA driver.

(EE) NVIDIA(GPU-1): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!

Backtrace:

0: /usr/bin/X (xorg_backtrace+0x28) [0x4a22a8]

1: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x63a89) [0x463a89]

2: /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x7f5576e57000+0xf430) [0x7f5576e66430]

3: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so (0x7f55715b1000+0x3dd02a) [0x7f557198e02a]

4: /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so (0x7f55715b1000+0x3d3f80) [0x7f5571984f80]

5: /usr/bin/X (AddScreen+0x1ba) [0x42a53a]

6: /usr/bin/X (InitOutput+0x2d4) [0x472d54]

7: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x247b8) [0x4247b8]

8: /lib64/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xfd) [0x7f5575dd2d2d]

9: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x24509) [0x424509]

Segmentation fault at address (nil)

Fatal server error:

Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting
```

The (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-1): ... error messages are normal. They do happen with nvidia-drivers-260 but are just ignored as they refer to the non-used gpu and the X server starts normally on the 9400M.

Once the X server dies, if I afterwards reload the nvidia module and restart xdm:

```
# rmmod nvidia

# modprobe nvidia

# /etc/init.d/xdm restart
```

Then everything starts working just fine and I get my nice desktop up and running  :Shocked: 

Right now I just returned to the 260 drivers, but if anybody has ideas to try they are welcome. Furthermore, I'm also posting to see if I'm the only one in the world with this problem or not   :Very Happy: 

Sorry for the long post   :Smile: 

----------

## riccardomc

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Right now I just returned to the 260 drivers, but if anybody has ideas to try they are welcome. Furthermore, I'm also posting to see if I'm the only one in the world with this problem or not   
> 
> 

 

Hi! You're definitely not alone.  :Smile: 

I'm on Debian testing but I've been a Gentoo user for a long time. I suppose you have a 9500M, right? My laptop is a dell studio xps 1340 with said graphic "system".

I can confirm the segfaulting Xorg issue started when I upgrade to kernel 2.6.38 and Nvidia 270.41.19 about a week ago or so. 

Just to add some more to the oddity, if I disable my second VGA card _after_ X already loaded everything seems to work fine and the 2nd card is turned off but I have lots of problems with power management: can't suspend/resume to disk or RAM and even rebooting requires a hard shutdown (i.e. press the power button).

I think I'll get back to 260 just like you did... I miss my ~45 minutes more of battery life...

Cheers,

Riccardo

----------

## lexming

Yeps! I also have a XPS 1340  :Very Happy: 

I was thinking about modifying the boot to load acpi_call at the very end, but since you found those power management issues with the nvidia drivers 270 I will not do it and stay with 260.  :Smile: 

At least there aren't any new must-have features in the 270 for us.

----------

## riccardomc

I think I have a workable solution: I thought about loading the NVIDIA module after switching the 2nd card off.

So, if I blacklist the NVIDIA module and then in rc.local:

```
insmod /usr/src/acpi_call/acpi_call.ko

echo "\_SB.PCI0.XVR0.Z01I.DGOF" > /proc/acpi/call

modprobe nvidia
```

Everything seems to work as expected and Xorg loads with the 9400 only.

That's surely not a clean solution but is good enough for me.

As a side not I've installed the latest beta NVIDIA Drivers 275.09 and I didn't test if this workaround works with the stable one (270) but it should, I guess... .

Cheers,

----------

