Nvidia installation problems

[RVDowning]

Attempted an upgrade. The upgrade kept looping trying to reinstall again and again. It kept failing on HP related packages, so I attempted to abort it after about the 3rd download of all packages.

It would not let me exit the system normally; I had to turn the power off When I powered on I got to a system console. I logged and tried a startx but get nvidia errors. From another thread I saw to execute grep EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log which gives me the following:

Failed to load the Nvidia kernel module. Please check your
system's kernel log for additional error messages.
Faled to load module "nvidia" (module-specific error, 0)
No devices detected

I can execute Nvidia-Settings for what it is worth, but have no idea what parameters it wants even after having read the man pages a couple of tines,.

Luckily I have this notebook or I wouldn't be able to post messages. Should I attempt to restore back to Mandriva or is there anything else I can do here?

Thanks for any help?

[RVDowning]

IT WORKED!!!! Trying the upgrade from the command line did the trick and I'm up and functioning in Mageia. Still have one problem though, nvidia-settings doesn't seem to exist any more, so my two screen setup shows the same thing on both screens. Don't know how to have it treated as one extended desktop.

[doktor5000]

nvidia-settings is contained within the nvidia driver package, just to show you:

Code: Select all

[doktor5000@mageia1 ~]$ whereis nvidia-settings
nvidia-settings: /usr/bin/nvidia-settings
[doktor5000@mageia1 ~]$ rpm -qf /usr/bin/nvidia-settings
x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-275.09.07-0.1.mga1.nonfree

Would you please post the output of

Code: Select all

rpm -qa | grep nvidia

[RVDowning]

Seems there is no longer a need for nvidia stand alone drivers. Everything is now bundled into the kernel.

[isadora]

Nevertheless, i am interested into the output of:

Code: Select all

rpm -qa | grep nvidia

like doktor5000 suggested.

[RVDowning]

[root@rvddesktop rvd]# rpm -qa | grep nvidia
nvidia-current-kernel-2.6.33.5-desktop-2mnb-195.36.24-3mdv2010.1
nvidia-current-kernel-2.6.33.7-desktop-1mnb-195.36.24-3mdv2010.1
dkms-nvidia-current-275.09.07-0.1.mga1.nonfree
nvidia-current-kernel-desktop-latest-195.36.24-1.20100921.3mdv2010.1
x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-275.09.07-0.1.mga1.nonfree
nvidia-current-kernel-2.6.33.7-desktop-2mnb-195.36.24-3mdv2010.1
nvidia-current-doc-html-275.09.07-0.1.mga1.nonfree

[doktor5000]

Seems there is no longer a need for nvidia stand alone drivers. Everything is now bundled into the kernel.

Maybe that is a slight misunderstanding problem on your side.

If you refer to proprietary Nvidia drivers, certainly not. They can NEVER be in the kernel, due to their conflicting license.
If you refer to the opensource driver implementations for nvidia cards (like nv or nouveau) not exactly, some parts of them are integrated
into the kernel, another part is integrated with the X-server, and another part is in seperate packages.

Currently, you have the proprietary nvidia drivers from Mageia repositories installed.
To control if they are also in use, check the output of

Code: Select all

grep -i driver /var/log/Xorg.0.log

or post it here.

[RVDowning]

Prior to the upgrade to Mageia I had always used the proprietary drivers. Before reinstalling from the command line I think I had disabled the proprietary drivers while mucking about trying to figure out what the issue was.

rvd@rvddesktop ~]$ grep -i driver /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[ 33.871] (WW) Hotplugging is on, devices using drivers 'kbd', 'mouse' or 'vmmouse' will be disabled.
[ 33.871] X.Org Video Driver: 10.0
[ 33.871] X.Org XInput driver : 12.2
[ 33.921] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/v4l_drv.so
[ 33.922] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 10.0
[ 33.969] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
[ 33.994] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[ 33.994] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 10.0
[ 33.994] (II) v4l driver for Video4Linux
[ 33.994] (II) NOUVEAU driver
[ 33.995] (II) NOUVEAU driver for NVIDIA chipset families :
[ 33.999] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "1280x1024": 108.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 64.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "1280x1024": 135.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 80.0 kHz, 75.0 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "1152x864": 108.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 67.5 kHz, 75.0 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "1024x768": 78.8 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 60.1 kHz, 75.1 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "1024x768": 75.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 56.5 kHz, 70.1 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "1024x768": 65.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.4 kHz, 60.0 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "832x624": 57.3 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 49.7 kHz, 74.6 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "800x600": 50.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 48.1 kHz, 72.2 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "800x600": 49.5 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 46.9 kHz, 75.0 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "800x600": 40.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 37.9 kHz, 60.3 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "800x600": 36.0 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 35.2 kHz, 56.2 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "640x480": 31.5 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 37.9 kHz, 72.8 Hz
[ 34.642] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "640x480": 31.5 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 37.5 kHz, 75.0 Hz
[ 34.643] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "640x480": 30.2 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 35.0 kHz, 66.7 Hz
[ 34.643] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "640x480": 25.2 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 31.5 kHz, 60.0 Hz
[ 34.643] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "640x480": 25.2 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 31.5 kHz, 59.9 Hz
[ 34.643] (**) NOUVEAU(0): Driver mode "720x400": 28.3 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 31.5 kHz, 70.1 Hz
[ 34.732] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 10.0
[ 34.747] (II) NOUVEAU(0): [DRI2] DRI driver: nouveau
[ 34.754] (II) EXA(0): Driver allocated offscreen pixmaps
[ 34.754] (II) EXA(0): Driver registered support for the following operations:
[ 35.236] Module class: X.Org XInput Driver
[ 35.236] ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 12.2
[ 35.236] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Power Button'
[ 35.322] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Power Button'
[ 35.338] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Logitech USB Receiver'
[ 35.339] (II) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
[ 35.340] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'Logitech USB Receiver'
[ 35.347] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'AT Translated Set 2 keyboard'
[ 36.173] (II) Using input driver 'evdev' for 'UVC Camera (046d:0990)'

[doktor5000]

Next time it would be better to put such output in code-tags. That what the code-Button in the forum editor is for

As you can see, you're currently using Nouveau. You should be able to change that by running drakx11,
selecting your video card, answer yes to the question for the proprietary driver, save those settings and reboot.
But i'm not really sure if that works flawless in every case, as there have been some problematic reports about
changing away from Nouveau.

In any case, if you need a working system, wait until you have the time to fix possible breakage resulting from the graphics driver change.

[RVDowning]

Is there any advantage to using the proprietary drivers?

[doktor5000]

Yes, full 2D, video and 3D acceleration, accelerated Flashplayer if you're using a recent plugin version.
And you can use CUDA and VDPAU and VAAPI and other such stuff.

*hint* why did you use the proprietary drivers always before if there wouldn't have been any advantage?

[RVDowning]

I've been using them for a long time (a number of years.) I believe it was related to support for multiple monitors. I think I was using a Matrox dual head video board at the time.

[doktor5000]

Don't know about multiple monitors, you should be able to setup these with the free drivers, too.
But AFAIK, handling a multi-monitor setup with nvidia-settings is by far easier
And nvidia-settings are only available with the proprietary nvidia drivers.

[RVDowning]

There is now something similar to nvidia-settings under System Settings/Hardware/Display and Monitor.

[doktor5000]

Seems this doesn't work with the proprietary drivers, or only if there are really multiple monitors detected, because i'm using nvidia driver on my laptop and systemsettings displays:

"This module is only for configuring systems with a single desktop spread across multiple monitors. You do not appear to have this configuration"

Also this would be only available for KDE.

[RVDowning]

I was getting the same message in the Multiple Monitors section of System Settings. I think that it was only when I changed the entry in the Size And Orientation section to say one of the entries was "Left Of' (or some other entry in that section) that the Multiple Monitors section suddenly acknowledged that I had multiple monitors.