# Several kernel problems (?) with nvidia and vmware

## DaMayhem

Hi, after searching the web and this forum, compiling dozens of kernels i have decided to post my problems here:

my problems(short form):

- the xserver says i have no screen when i activate the "nvidia"-driver instead of "nv"

- nvidia-driver taints my kernel

- vmware says it is not configured proper

my system:

- Asus P4PE

- Nvidia Geforce2 MX AGP with 32 MB

- Gentoo 1.4 with newest but stable packages

what i have tried/problems:

  Nvidia:

  - Tried Versions: 1.0.5336 from gentoo(kernel and glx), 1.0.4496-r3 from gentoo(kernel and glx), 1.0.5336-nv-installer from the nvidia-site

  - They are tainting some kernel-versions i have tested(don't know all versions exactly anymore) per example vanilla sources 2.4.24. Also tested versions: 2.6.1-gentoo-r1 and 2.4.22-gentoo-r5, kernel 2.6.2

  - Every time the same problem, if i activate "nvidia" instead of "nv" in my xserver config: xserver says "No Screens found"

  - checked if the nvidia-module is successfuly loaded: yes

  - Load "glx" in xf86config: yes

  - tested options in xf86config in various combinations and without these options based on threads in this forum:

    - Option "NvAGP" "1"

    - Option "NvAGP" "3"

    - Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "DFP,TV"

    - BusID "PCI:1:0:0"

  - MTTR in kernel activated: yes

  - correct symlink to sources: yes

I don't know where the problem is, i tried it with Mandrake 9.2 with the standard kernel, and with openmosix kernel 2.4.22 : no problem with the nvidia driver from the nvidia-site - any suggestions ?

  vmware:

  - on every 2.6-kernel version the compiling vmware-modules fails

  - the other kernels: compiling success, modules are loading on startup, but every time it says: "not configured properly, run vmware-config.pl".. bla bla and so on.. :-/

  - correct symlink to sources: yes

But it is running on Mandrake 9.2 without any problems(standard kernel and openmosix)

Hope someone can help me..

PS: the out put of lspci:

```

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset Host Bridge (rev 02)

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 02)

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #1) (rev 02)

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #2) (rev 02)

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #3) (rev 02)

00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB2 (rev 02)

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB/EB PCI Bridge (rev 82)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller (rev 02)00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM SMBus Controller (rev 02)

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11DDR [GeForce2 MX 100 DDR/200 DDR] (rev b2)

02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)

02:0a.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 24)

```

PPS: Sorry for bad english  :Smile: 

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## marvin

Sorry, I can't help with your nvidia problem but I had the same problem with vmware.

There are already some posts about vmware on kernel 2.6.x, so perhaps a search in the forums for "vmware kernel 2.6" would have helped. 

Quote from https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=128906&highlight=vmware+kernel+2+6

 *Quote:*   

> Recompile your kernel manually if you did with genkernel.
> 
> emerge the last version of vmware, (vmware-workstation-4.0.5.6030) , it includes a patch for glibc and gcc
> 
> use the last version of runme.pl
> ...

 

As vmware-any-any-update changes quite often you should probably look at http://platan.vc.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/ and take the latest version available.

----------

## DaMayhem

Hi, at first, thank you for your answer.

I have already searched the forum for the problem, but nothing helped me yet..

The newest anyupdate on this server is ver 50. This is included when emerging vmware, i think.

The kernel is also new compiled..

So what to do?

----------

## steel300

If you've already emerged the latest vmware and configured it, then just delete /etc/vmware/not_configured. It's a bug that just won't go away.

I don't know why the nvidia module is failing, perhaps you could post your XF86Config file to help. The nvidia module will taint the kernel. It's nothing to worry about, it's just a binary module.

----------

## DaMayhem

Hi.

[Deleted some entries to make the post more readable at 15.02.2004]

My xf86config (only relevant lines i hope):

```

Section "Module"

    Load        "dbe"     # Double buffer extension

  

    SubSection  "extmod"

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

    EndSubSection

    Load        "type1"

    Load        "speedo"

    Load        "freetype"

# This loads the GLX module

    Load       "glx"

# This loads the DRI module

#    Load       "dri"

EndSection

Section "Monitor"

    Identifier  "Adi"

    HorizSync   31.5 - 82.0

    VertRefresh 40-150

EndSection

Section "Device"

    Identifier  "GeForce"

    Driver      "nvidia"

    #BusID   "PCI:1:0:0"

    #Option   "NvAGP"   "3"

    #Option   "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "DFP,TV"

    #VideoRam    32768

    #Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate

EndSection

Section "Screen"

    Identifier  "Screen 1"

    Device      "GeForce"

    Monitor     "Adi"

    DefaultDepth 24

    Subsection "Display"

        Depth       24

        Modes       "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

        ViewPort    0 0

    EndSubsection

EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"

    Identifier  "Simple Layout"

    Screen "Screen 1"

    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"

    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

# Section "DRI"

#    Mode 0666

# EndSection

```

----------

## DaMayhem

Update:

[Deleted some entries to make the post more readable at 15.02.2004]

vmware:

Compiling vmware has succeeded now (on kernel 2.6.1) but running it is not successful..  :Sad: 

nvidia:

Here is a log with verbose 5 of my xserver:

What I dont understand is "(II) Primary Device is: PCI 01:00:0" at the end although he says above "(--) PCI:*(1:0:0) nVidia Corporation NV11DDR [GeForce2 MX 100 DDR/200 DDR]", or does it just add a some zeros and this has nothing to mean?

```

This is a pre-release version of XFree86, and is not supported in any

way.  Bugs may be reported to XFree86@XFree86.Org and patches submitted

to fixes@XFree86.Org.  Before reporting bugs in pre-release versions,

please check the latest version in the XFree86 CVS repository

(http://www.XFree86.Org/cvs).

XFree86 Version 4.3.0.1

Release Date: 15 August 2003

X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6

Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.22-gentoo-r5 i686 [ELF] 

Build Date: 10 February 2004

   Before reporting problems, check http://www.XFree86.Org/

   to make sure that you have the latest version.

Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,

         (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,

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

(==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86.0.log", Time: Sat Feb 14 22:02:15 2004

(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/XF86Config"

(==) ServerLayout "Simple Layout"

(**) |-->Screen "Screen 1" (0)

(**) |   |-->Monitor "Adi"

(**) |   |-->Device "GeForce"

(**) |-->Input Device "Mouse1"

(**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard1"

(**) Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"

(**) Option "XLeds" "1 2 3"

(**) Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"

(**) XKB: rules: "xfree86"

(**) Option "XkbModel" "pc105"

(**) XKB: model: "pc105"

(**) Option "XkbLayout" "de"

(**) XKB: layout: "de"

(**) Option "XkbVariant" "nodeadkeys"

(**) XKB: variant: "nodeadkeys"

(==) Keyboard: CustomKeycode disabled

Using vt 7

(--) using VT number 7

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

(II) PCI: Probing config type using method 1

(II) PCI: Config type is 1

(II) PCI: stages = 0x03, oldVal1 = 0x00000000, mode1Res1 = 0x80000000

(II) PCI: PCI scan (all values are in hex)

(II) Host-to-PCI bridge:

(--) PCI:*(1:0:0) nVidia Corporation NV11DDR [GeForce2 MX 100 DDR/200 DDR] rev 178, Mem @ 0xee000000/24, 0xf0000000/27, BIOS @ 0xefff0000/16

(II) Addressable bus resource ranges are

   [0] -1   0   0x00000000 - 0xffffffff (0x0) MX[B]

   [1] -1   0   0x00000000 - 0x0000ffff (0x10000) IX[B]

(II) OS-reported resource ranges:

   [0] -1   0   0xffe00000 - 0xffffffff (0x200000) MX[B](B)

   [1] -1   0   0x00100000 - 0x3fffffff (0x3ff00000) MX[B]E(B)

   [2] -1   0   0x000f0000 - 0x000fffff (0x10000) MX[B]

   [3] -1   0   0x000c0000 - 0x000effff (0x30000) MX[B]

   [4] -1   0   0x00000000 - 0x0009ffff (0xa0000) MX[B]

   [5] -1   0   0x0000ffff - 0x0000ffff (0x1) IX[B]

   [6] -1   0   0x00000000 - 0x000000ff (0x100) IX[B]

(II) PCI Memory resource overlap reduced 0xf8000000 from 0xfbffffff to 0xf7ffffff

(II) NV: driver for NVIDIA chipsets: RIVA 128, RIVA TNT, RIVA TNT2, Vanta,

   RIVA TNT2 Ultra, RIVA TNT2 Model 64, Aladdin TNT2, GeForce 256,

   GeForce DDR, Quadro, GeForce2 MX/MX 400, GeForce2 MX 100/200,

   GeForce2 Go, Quadro2 MXR/EX/Go, GeForce2 Integrated GPU,

   GeForce2 GTS, GeForce2 Ti, GeForce2 Ultra, Quadro2 Pro,

   GeForce4 MX 460, GeForce4 MX 440, GeForce4 MX 420,

   GeForce4 MX 440-SE, GeForce4 440 Go, GeForce4 420 Go,

   GeForce4 420 Go 32M, GeForce4 460 Go, GeForce4 440 Go 64M,

   GeForce4 410 Go 16M, Quadro4 500 GoGL, Quadro4 550 XGL, 
```

[..] I think it's not needed to post all the drivers that X tries to start...

```

(II) Silicon Motion: driver (version 1.3.1) for Silicon Motion Lynx chipsets:

   Lynx, LynxE, Lynx3D, LynxEM, LynxEM+, Lynx3DM

(II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa

(II) VGA: Generic VGA driver (version 4.0) for chipsets: generic

(II) DUMMY: Driver for Dummy chipsets: dummy

(II) v4l driver for Video4Linux

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

(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal server error:

no screens found

```

  :Sad: 

----------

## DaMayhem

Does nobody have a solution for me? :-/

----------

## steel300

Are you able to modprobe nvidia without having X try to autoload it?

----------

## hank scorpio

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> [..] I think it's not needed to post all the drivers that X tries to start..
> 
> 

 

um... why IS x trying to start all those drivers?

----------

## DaMayhem

@steel 

Yes, i can.

At default, i am running to console at startup and running then gdm if i want a gui.

I can rmmod nvidia and modprobe nvidia and all..

Updated yesterday to kernel 2.6.3-rc2-gentoo and the new update of xserver, but same problem..

No screens found.. :-/

@hank

Don't know.. i think he should stop at the point when he has probing nvidia, but i think he do not recognize my card as nvidia or something like that.

Strange enough.. 

How I said, under Mandrake 9.2 there is no problem..

Update: the nvidia don't taint my kernel anymore.. the message when starting modprobe nvidia is away - like it is under mandrake

----------

## hank scorpio

My point is how does X know about any other drivers? That is what is confusing. I've looked over every X log I have and I've never seen that.  Did you build your own kernel and turned on every direct FB driver or something?

Still, that doesn't sound like the screen issue...

----------

## DaMayhem

I haven't frambuffer nor Framebuffer devices activated in my kernel-config.

I think this are device drivers that come with xfree like the normal "nv"-nvidia driver i use now.

----------

## steel300

I have to agree with Hank Scorpio, it doesn't sound like a screen issue. You have your config file set up properly. That leads away from the obvious. Does X start to come up, and then error? Does it change to vc7 before it errors or doesn't it leave the current console?

----------

## neonik

Post your .config (but please upload it somewhere, cause it takes quite some place and it turns impossible to browse the thread).  :Smile: 

----------

## DaMayhem

@steel300

When starting gdm my console is blinking 2 or 3 times(approx. 2 secs long) then i get a nice blue screen (hehe) in text-mode saying me, that my xserver is not configured properly, and asking me if i want to see the output of xfree.

@neonik

Can't access my accs where i could upload something at this time. Isn't here a function to attach a file to a post in this forum? :-/

----------

## hank scorpio

 *DaMayhem wrote:*   

> @steel300
> 
> When starting gdm my console is blinking 2 or 3 times(approx. 2 secs long) then i get a nice blue screen (hehe) in text-mode saying me, that my xserver is not configured properly, and asking me if i want to see the output of xfree.
> 
> 

 

I had a similar experience trying to use the mm-sources. I couldn't for the life of me get the nvidia module to load.  Of course, X just says "No Screens Found" but what it really means is that it foudn them but couldn't start one because your driver is missing or messed up.

Do you modprobe the driver in or did X load it itself? If the latter, page through dmesg to make sure nothing puked on itself when the driver loaded.  This was my problem - EIP null pointer dereference and a stack dump - what's worse is that lsmod showed the module loaded...

----------

## steel300

It looks like X is starting to load, it tries to initialize the screen, but can't. Definitely sift through your dmesg output and see if anything hiccuped.

----------

## neonik

Had something similar on 2.6.3-rc2... Had to re-emerge the kernel module and the glx. After that it's worked.

----------

## hank scorpio

 *neonik wrote:*   

> Had something similar on 2.6.3-rc2... Had to re-emerge the kernel module and the glx. After that it's worked.

 

oh yeah, i hope that goes without saying - you always need to unmerge driver & glx first, then emerge them back, everytime you change the kernel

----------

## DaMayhem

If i haven't done this, i wouldn't be able to load the module i think...

However, i sure have emerged the nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx after every new kernel i tried.. :-/ Although i think nvidia-glx is not needed to recompile - sure is sure.

----------

## neonik

 *DaMayhem wrote:*   

> If i haven't done this, i wouldn't be able to load the module i think...
> 
> However, i sure have emerged the nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx after every new kernel i tried.. :-/ Although i think nvidia-glx is not needed to recompile - sure is sure.

 

Sicher ist sicher, certainly, I thought the same. But after that it finally loaded, automagically.

By the way, for your information, linux-2.6.3-rc1 and linux-2.6.3-rc2 are both very slow even with Andrew Morton's patchset, and thus the love-sources kernels of the matching versions are same slow. It is not an issue of mm-patchset. Guess it's vanilla. Haven't looked up as for what might be causing this. Guess it's either SMP, PREEMPT or SMT.

----------

## neonik

Oh yeah, I also had to run a little process overkill.

----------

## DaMayhem

Hum, i have no speed problems with this kernel i think..only one point: my network is working with about 3-4 Mb /s when copying with mc from a share on a win2k server. In windows i get 10-13 Mb /s.

But i haven't tested the network speed with the kernels before so i don't know if the kernel version is the problem or something other.

Back to topic:

These problems with nvidia are sucking.. I wan't to use gentoo - no other distribution, but if i want to get my nvidia-card working i don't know what to do else :-/

----------

## DaMayhem

 *steel300 wrote:*   

> It looks like X is starting to load, it tries to initialize the screen, but can't. Definitely sift through your dmesg output and see if anything hiccuped.

 

hiccuped ? Sorry, don't understand..

And the output of dmesg seems to be correctly. Should i post it here? Maybe you see some problems - i'm not that guru with linux (yet)  :Wink: 

----------

## steel300

Look at the portions of dmesg that refer to the nivida module being loaded. If it loads fine in dmesg, than it didn't error. If there are warnings or errors in the dmesg, then you know that it's the module not being right.

----------

## DaMayhem

The module runs without any probs, the only thing it says is that it has loaded successfully

----------

## steel300

What version of nvidia-kernel are you running?

----------

## DaMayhem

 *DaMayhem wrote:*   

>   - Tried Versions: 1.0.5336 from gentoo(kernel and glx), 1.0.4496-r3 from gentoo(kernel and glx), 1.0.5336-nv-installer from the nvidia-site

 

At this time 1.0.5336 directly from nvidia, but tried also the others before

----------

## steel300

Sorry, I can't read. Try disabling glx, then start X. We'll see if that works. I have a feeling that it's the nvidia-glx driver.

----------

## DaMayhem

No, helped nothing. But i've got an idea..

Isn't there normally in the logfile also a section showing which modules were loaded etc. ?

I see nothing like that in mine...

----------

## hank scorpio

cat /var/log/XFree86.0.log

```

...

(II) Loading extension GLX

(II) LoadModule: "nvidia"

(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.o

(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"

        compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.5336

        Module class: XFree86 Video Driver

...

(II) NVIDIA XFree86 Driver  1.0-5336  Wed Jan 14 18:30:46 PST 2004

(II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all NVIDIA GPUs

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

(--) Assigning device section with no busID to primary device

(--) Chipset NVIDIA GPU found

(II) resource ranges after xf86ClaimFixedResources() call:

...

(**) 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 "NoLogo" "1"

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

(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "ConnectedMonitor" "crt"

(**) NVIDIA(0): Option "RenderAccel" "1"

(**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling experimental RENDER acceleration

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

(**) NVIDIA(0): ConnectedMonitor string: "crt"

(--) NVIDIA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xE8000000

(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xFD000000

(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU detected as: GeForce4 MX 420

(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 04.17.00.24.35

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

(II) NVIDIA(0): Using ConnectedMonitor string "CRT-0"

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

(--) NVIDIA(0): Display device CRT-0: maximum pixel clock at  8 bpp: 350 MHz

(--) NVIDIA(0): Display device CRT-0: maximum pixel clock at 16 bpp: 350 MHz

(--) NVIDIA(0): Display device CRT-0: maximum pixel clock at 32 bpp: 350 MHz

...

(II) NVIDIA(0): AGP 4X successfully initialized

(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "1600x1200"

(II) Loading extension NV-GLX

(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA 3D Acceleration Architecture Initialized

(II) NVIDIA(0): Using the NVIDIA 2D acceleration architecture

(==) NVIDIA(0): Backing store disabled

(==) NVIDIA(0): Silken mouse enabled

(**) Option "dpms" "1"

(**) NVIDIA(0): DPMS enabled

(II) Loading extension NV-CONTROL

```

and so forth

----------

## DaMayhem

Yes, it seems that xfree doesn't try to load ANY modules..

No LoadModule Entry in my log, even when i active the ModulePath..

How can i fix that ? I have reemerged xfree but same thing.. no LoadModule in the log..

----------

## steel300

This has gone beyond my level of knowledge. I don't what to try from this point on. It doesn't look like XFree gets to the point where it loads modules though. It looks like it dies before the module loading section.

----------

## DaMayhem

Thats bad.. i've searched the web and this forum, but found really nothing. Also search xfree.org - nothing.

Maybe he only don't show LoadModules? But even with "startx -- -verbose 5 -logverbose 5" (like in the nvidia readme described) there is no LoadModule to see..

Does someone know how to fix this?

----------

## DaMayhem

What I also don't understand: Why there is no problem with the "nv"-driver activated, if xfree really loads no modules?

----------

## DaMayhem

Installing the newest binaries from xfree.org instead of reemerging xfree again worked!

But what to do now? May I emerge xfree on the binary installation? The other way has worked perfectly.. Xfree is loading every Module it shalls and kde and gnome are working good..

----------

## neonik

It would overwrite the bins you've installed manually. Most likely you had a broken compile. What USE flags did you use and what version including the revision version was the one you compiled self?

----------

## DaMayhem

I had compiled xfree in the versions 4.3.0-r3, r4 and r5, which all had the problem with nvidia / not loading modules.

I have these Use Flags:

acl acpi gtk2 async autofs binist bsh chroot dga dvd dvdr evo freetype ipv6 java javascript mmx nvidia mbox samba sse static tiff usb X

----------

## neonik

What does your 

```
emerge info
```

 display?

You've got two choices, by the way (that's in case those modules keep on not loading):

1. build from the binaries from the second Gentoo installation CD (aka GRP)

2. try use a pre-release build (compiled on your machine first)

----------

## brycenut

I had the exact same problems, this post  https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=138594 fixed it for me.  The problem is apparently your "static" USE flag.  I removed it, and re-emerged xfree yesterday, then nvidia-kernel & nvidia-glx, and everything works great, with acceleration, etc.  

Now if I could just remember why I put static in there in the first place....

----------

