Mageia forum

A couple of days ago M7 flagged up some updates. Since applying them, I cannot get into any graphical interfaces. It appears to be the old NVidia problem of Nouveau loading even though the Mageia NVidia proprietary drivers are loaded. I have so far been unable to stop nouveau loading despite intense googling!

As a related item, the machine is fairly old, and a bit under-powered. I use it mainly for digitising VHS and Betamax tapes. Under Mageia 6, I had the option of using NVenc in OBS to substantially reduce the cpu load. Since upgrading to M7, I have been unable to get this to work. But this is why I need the NVidia drivers. Nouveau is of no use to me.

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Pete

Don know your exact situation, but this may help: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=12909

Good thought, but I'm not sure that's the same case. In that case, the NVidia drivers were actually missing. In my case they are definitely there, but clashing with the Nouveau drivers - which there seems to be no easy way of preventing from loading!

All my other machines use either Intel or AMD graphics, and the kernel drivers. I became disillusioned with NVidia some time back, and the Nouveau driver can't hold a candle to the AMD kernel drivers. However, in this instance, NVidia is the preferred option, purely because of its hardware encoding capability. It worked fine in M6, but doesn't seem to want to play in M7. But at the moment, I can't get the graphics card to work at all, because the two drivers seem to be fighting over it, and I can't get rid of nouveau.

This does seem to be a regular, repeating occurrence, but M7 has moved on a bit, and none of the older solutions I've found seem to work.

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Pete

To stop nouveau getting in the way add your own _filename_.conf to /etc/modprobe.d containing the line:

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blacklist nouveau

Run dracut --force
Reboot

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edit For clarity - you need to do the above as root and by _filename_ I mean a name of your choice (i.e. no-nouveau.conf)

Sorry for the delayed reply - I've been away over the week-end!

Magic: Thanks for that - I'll give it a try later this morning and report back.

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Pete

Well that's got rid of the error messages concerning nouveau, but X11 is still refusing to run.

dmesg | grep nv yields:

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[    2.473812] nvidia: loading out-of-tree module taints kernel.
[    2.473827] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[    2.513695] nvidia-nvlink: Nvlink Core is being initialized, major device number 247
[    2.515066] nvidia 0000:02:00.0: vgaarb: changed VGA decodes: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=io+mem
[    2.764218] nvidia-modeset: Loading NVIDIA Kernel Mode Setting Driver for UNIX platforms  430.26  Tue Jun  4 17:45:09 CDT 2019
[    2.768313] [drm] [nvidia-drm] [GPU ID 0x00000200] Loading driver
[    2.768316] [drm] Initialized nvidia-drm 0.0.0 20160202 for 0000:02:00.0 on minor 0
[    3.956400] sata_nv 0000:00:08.0: version 3.5
[    3.964022] scsi host1: sata_nv
[    3.970285] scsi host3: sata_nv
[    7.465801] systemd[1]: Failed to bump fs.file-max, ignoring: Invalid argument


I don't think the last 4 lines are relevant, but I'm including them just in case.

xorg.0.log is:

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[   178.939]
X.Org X Server 1.20.4
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[   178.939] Build Operating System: ecosse 4.14.110-server-1.mga6
[   178.939] Current Operating System: Linux ozymandias 5.1.14-desktop-1.mga7 #1 SMP Sat Jun 22 10:35:14 UTC 2019 x86_64
[   178.939] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.1.14-desktop-1.mga7 root=UUID=eb3bc894-e111-4f30-b66e-ab9006843b93 ro ro splash quiet noiswmd nokmsboot root=UUID=eb3bc894-e111-4f30-b66e-ab9006843b93 audit=0 resume=UUID=4a36cda0-fe5e-4f05-a5d2-b7109820f136 vga=791
[   178.939] Build Date: 22 April 2019  09:44:56PM
[   178.939] Build ID: x11-server 1.20.4-7.mga7
[   178.939] Current version of pixman: 0.38.4
[   178.940]    Before reporting problems, check https://bugs.mageia.org
   to make sure that you have the latest version.
[   178.940] Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
   (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
   (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[   178.940] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Mon Jul 22 11:13:26 2019
[   178.943] (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
[   178.945] (==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[   178.947] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[   178.948] (==) ServerLayout "layout1"
[   178.948] (**) |-->Screen "screen1" (0)
[   178.948] (**) |   |-->Monitor "monitor1"
[   178.948] (**) |   |-->Device "device1"
[   178.948] (**) Option "DontZap" "False"
[   178.948] (**) Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"
[   178.948] (==) Automatically adding devices
[   178.948] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[   178.948] (==) Automatically adding GPU devices
[   178.948] (==) Automatically binding GPU devices
[   178.948] (==) Max clients allowed: 256, resource mask: 0x1fffff
[   178.948] (==) FontPath set to:
   catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d,
   built-ins
[   178.948] (**) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib64/xorg/extra-modules,/usr/lib64/xorg/modules,/usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
[   178.948] (II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
   If no devices become available, reconfigure udev or disable AutoAddDevices.
[   178.948] (II) Loader magic: 0x616d40
[   178.948] (II) Module ABI versions:
[   178.948]    X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[   178.948]    X.Org Video Driver: 24.0
[   178.948]    X.Org XInput driver : 24.1
[   178.948]    X.Org Server Extension : 10.0
[   178.950] (++) using VT number 2

[   178.951] (II) systemd-logind: took control of session /org/freedesktop/login1/session/_31
[   178.952] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[   178.953] (II) systemd-logind: got fd for /dev/dri/card0 226:0 fd 10 paused 0
[   178.956] (--) PCI:*(2@0:0:0) 10de:128b:3842:2710 rev 161, Mem @ 0xfb000000/16777216, 0xc8000000/134217728, 0xd6000000/33554432, I/O @ 0x0000bc00/128, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
[   178.956] (II) Open ACPI successful (/var/run/acpid.socket)
[   178.956] (II) "glx" will be loaded by default.
[   178.956] (II) LoadModule: "v4l"
[   178.957] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/v4l_drv.so
[   178.958] (II) Module v4l: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   178.958]    compiled for 1.20.1, module version = 0.1.1
[   178.958]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 24.0
[   178.958] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[   178.958] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/extra-modules/libglx.so
[   178.982] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[   178.982]    compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[   178.982]    Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[   178.982] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module  340.107  Thu May 24 21:40:32 PDT 2018
[   178.982] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[   178.983] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/extra-modules/nvidia_drv.so
[   178.983] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[   178.983]    compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[   178.983]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[   178.983] (II) v4l driver for Video4Linux overlay mode (V4L2)
[   178.983] (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver  340.107  Thu May 24 21:18:05 PDT 2018
[   178.983] (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
[   178.984] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for v4l
[   178.984] (II) Loading sub module "fb"
[   178.984] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[   178.984] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/libfb.so
[   178.984] (II) Module fb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   178.984]    compiled for 1.20.4, module version = 1.0.0
[   178.984]    ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[   178.984] (WW) Unresolved symbol: fbGetGCPrivateKey
[   178.984] (II) Loading sub module "wfb"
[   178.984] (II) LoadModule: "wfb"
[   178.984] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/libwfb.so
[   178.985] (II) Module wfb: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   178.985]    compiled for 1.20.4, module version = 1.0.0
[   178.985]    ABI class: X.Org ANSI C Emulation, version 0.4
[   178.985] (II) Loading sub module "ramdac"
[   178.985] (II) LoadModule: "ramdac"
[   178.985] (II) Module "ramdac" already built-in
[   178.985] (EE) NVIDIA: Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module. Please see the
[   178.985] (EE) NVIDIA:     system's kernel log for additional error messages and
[   178.985] (EE) NVIDIA:     consult the NVIDIA README for details.
[   178.985] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for v4l
[   178.985] (EE) No devices detected.
[   178.985] (EE)
Fatal server error:
[   178.985] (EE) no screens found(EE)
[   178.985] (EE)
Please consult the Mageia support
    at https://bugs.mageia.org
 for help.
[   178.985] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[   178.986] (EE)
[   178.992] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.


I notice the build operating system at the top of this file refers to Mageia-6. Is this right?

xorg.conf is:

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# File generated by XFdrake (rev 262502)

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"
    #DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
    Option "DontZap" "False" # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Plug'n Play"
    ModelName "F-419"
    HorizSync 24-80
    VertRefresh 49-75
   
    # Apple iMac modes
    ModeLine "1024x768"   78.525 1024 1049 1145 1312   768  769  772  800 +hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "800x600"    62.357  800  821  901 1040   600  601  604  632 +hsync +vsync
    ModeLine "640x480"    49.886  640  661  725  832   480  481  484  514 +hsync +vsync
   
    # Apple monitors tend to do 832x624
    ModeLine "832x624"    57      832  876  940 1152   624  625  628  667 -hsync -vsync
   
    # Apple PowerBook G3
    ModeLine "800x600"    100     800  816  824  840   600  616  624  640 -hsync -vsync
   
    # Apple TI Powerbook
    ModeLine "1152x768"   78.741 1152 1173 1269 1440   768  769  772  800 +vsync +vsync
   
    # Pismo Firewire G3
    ModeLine "1024x768"   65     1024 1032 1176 1344   768  771  777  806 -hsync -vsync
   
    # iBook2
    ModeLine "1024x768"   65     1024 1048 1184 1344   768  771  777  806 -hsync -vsync
   
    # 17" Apple Studio Display
    ModeLine "1024x768"   112.62 1024 1076 1248 1420 768 768 780 808 +hsync +vsync
   
    # HiRes Apple Studio Display
    ModeLine "1280x1024"  135    1280 1288 1392 1664  1024 1027 1030 1064
   
    # Another variation
    ModeLine "1280x1024"  134.989 1280 1317 1429 1688  1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
   
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
   
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 420 series and later"
    Driver "nvidia"
    Option "DPMS"
    Option "DynamicTwinView" "false"
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection


My Slackware experience tells me that xorg.conf is no longer necessary, and that it is best to let the system sort itself out, but of course, that doesn't use systemd, so I've no idea if the same rules apply here.

As I say, it was all working fine before that last lot of updates. Any help appreciated!

--
Pete

Can you run

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journalctl -ab | grep nvidia

or:

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journalctl -ab | less

to find out what'ś going on?

I think I might have cracked it!

The update that caused the problem also upgraded the kernel from 4.14.131 to 5.1.14. So I tried booting kernel-4.14.131. There was a brief pause whilst it said it was rebuilding the NVidia drivers, and then it came up absolutely perfectly. I tried booting 5.1.14, and it all hung again.

So I went back to 4.14.131, and once it booted went to MCC and carried out an update. This loaded kernel 5.1.18, along with some other stuff. Tried to reboot into 5.1.18, and it hung again! Back to 4.14.131 and have a look in MCC Install and Remove Software. I found that the system seemed to have two versions of the NVidia driver installed, 340 and current. I checked my graphics card and determined that it should work with the current driver and removed 340. It now boots into kernel-5.1.18 fine!

I can only assume that during one of the updates, the system didn't properly remove on of the drivers, and that this was causing another conflict. Removing the NVidia 340 driver seems to have fixed things.

Next job is to get CUDA up and running. It worked fine in Mageia-6, allowing me to offload video encoding to the graphics card and reducing the strain on the hard-pressed CPU. Haven't managed to get it working on Mageia-7 yet. Maybe I'll try completely removing CUDA and then re-installing it.....

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Pete

I've re-installed CUDA, and cuda-z is reporting all is well, but OBS Studio is not picking it up. However, I'll start a new thread for that and mark this one solved.

Thanks to all those who have contributed!

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Pete