Boot entries: what are they?

[LaCiccia]

Hi,
I'm putting up a picture of the entries I get when I turn on my pc. What are they? Can someone kindly explain them to me? There's windows of course, but why are there so many other entries for Mageia? I just have these two OS, Win7 and Mageia2 (and old partition of my HP laptop of about 5GB as recovery disk).
Since I've been having some problems waking up the pc from sleep mode (again, sigh!) I tried installing some Nvidia drivers: last time it fixed the problem! So I opted for a package called "nvidia-current-kernel-desktop586-latest" thinking this might be suitable for my Nvidia Card GeForce Go 7400.

[Ken-Bergen]

"desktop 3.3.6-2.mga2" is the kernel which was installed when you installed Mageia.

"desktop 3.3.4.34.mga2" is the kernel installed when you updated. The old kernel is left in place in case you have problems with the new kernel.

"desktop586 3.3.4.34.mga2" was installed as a dependency of "nvidia-current-kernel-desktop586-latest"

The entry "linux" boots the latest kernel, in your case probably "desktop 3.3.4.34.mga2"

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uname -r

in a console will tell you.

You can remove desktop586 3.3.4.34.mga2 and nvidia-current-kernel-desktop586-latest. Then in MCC run "Set up the graphical server" and say "Yes" when asked if you want to use the proprietary driver. This will install the appropriate nvidia-current-kernel- for your running kernel.

[djennings]

The 'i586' kernel is compiled for Pentium I chips (and newer) and is provided to be compatible with the widest range of hardware. If you installed using a live CD it will have installed an i586 kernel.

For modern computers the standard kernel is compiled for the i686 instruction set. The standard kernel comes in three flavours -desktop, -netbook, and -server.
Each is optimised for their target role, but in use you are probably not going to notice the difference no matter which one you use.

So for example installing the package 'kernel-desktop-latest' will install the most up to date version of the desktop kernel which will appear in your boot list as the entry 'linux' AND will add an entry at the end of the list giving the specific kernel version. Old kernels are only removed when you specifically ask them to be removed using the software uninstall GUI.

The kernel module for the Nvidia hardware will be updated every time a new kernel is installed. The system will pick the most appropriate nvidia version for your hardware. If you try forcing it you will almost certainly end up with a blank screen on boot.

[LaCiccia]

Hi,
as requested:

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[aliquis@localhost ~]$ uname -r
3.4.34-desktop586-1.mga2
[aliquis@localhost ~]$


If you installed using a live CD it will have installed an i586 kernel [...]

I installed Magiea 2 via DVD, not LiveCD.

The system will pick the most appropriate nvidia version for your hardware. If you try forcing it you will almost certainly end up with a blank screen on boot.

How can I add the correct drivers for my graphic card Nvidia GeForce Go 7400? This black screen problem after waking up from suspension mode, is persisting because the system clearly doesn't have the appropriate drivers.
I'm attaching a *.zip file with 3 pictures: 1) hardware info 2) list of current repos 3) graphic-card drivers automatically selected by my system (which most probably aren't the right ones). Please help, if you can.

[djennings]

This black screen problem after waking up from suspension mode, is persisting because the system clearly doesn't have the appropriate drivers.

Failure to restore after suspend is not proof the wrong video driver is installed.
Failing to restore video after suspend used to be a very common problem with linux. It is less so now, but clearly your computer still has some issues. Resolving them is not always very easy especially for an inexperienced user, but I will do what I can to help.


The package that controls suspend and wake-up is called pm-utils. When it suspends it suspends the services one at a time, and on wake up it restores them again in the reverse order. You will find a log file at /var/log/pm-suspend.log (You will need to be root user to read the log) You may get some clues if the log files shows any errors during restore.

You may also find that after a restore to blank screen you can bring it back to life again by hitting the keys Ctl+Alt+F2 followed by Ctl+Alt+F1 (or F7)
You may also find it comes back to life if you hit Ctl+Alt+Backspace (although that will also log you out)

Because so many video cards have difficulty with return from suspend, pm-utils allows you to define special rules to handle video cards called 'Quirks' You can see the available quirks if you read the manual for pm-suspend in a terminal.

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man pm-suspend

You can test out suspending with a video quirk by typing in a terminal

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su
pm-suspend --quirk-vbe-post

(su makes you root user) --quirk-vbe-post resets the video card on resume. You may find you need different or multiple quirks.

If you manage to find a combination of quirks that works for you, come back and I will show you how to make it permanent.

HTH

[djennings]

I Just found your other thread on the resume issue. I see you already know about CTL+Alt+F*
FWIW if you do need to restart your PC use the key sequence
"Raising Skinny Elephants" as described here
http://www.ict4us.com/r.kuijt/en_linux.htm

[djennings]

BTW: Did you do as Ken suggested? (Followed by a reboot)

Then in MCC run "Set up the graphical server" and say "Yes" when asked if you want to use the proprietary driver. This will install the appropriate nvidia-current-kernel- for your running kernel.

You can confirm you are using the 'nvidia' driver with the command

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lspcidrake | grep VGA

[LaCiccia]

You can confirm you are using the 'nvidia' driver with the command

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    lspcidrake | grep VGA

Here's the result

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[aliquis@localhost ~]$ lspcidrake | grep VGA
Card:NVIDIA GeForce 6100 to GeForce 360: nVidia Corporation|G72M [GeForce Go 7400] [DISPLAY_VGA] (rev: a1)
[aliquis@localhost ~]$

As to

If you manage to find a combination of quirks that works for you, come back and I will show you how to make it permanent.

the combination of

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su -
pm-suspend --quirk-vbe-post

didn't work, resume was not possible so I had to press Ctrl+Alt+Del and restart the whole system, again.
I'm reading the manual of pm-suspend. Should I try each of the quirks?
I don't know how to read the suspend.log file so I'm uploading it, can you please check for errors?

[LaCiccia]

For the past 2hrs or so I've been trying to replicate the situation that leads to failure from Sleep mode i.e. browsing, downloading, watching videos on VLC, listening to music on Clementine in sys tray, waiting for the laptop to heat up then suspending it for a while using one of quirks showed in the manual. So far, the 1st one listed, seems to work fine:

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pm-suspend --quirk-dpms-on

When I press the Enter key, I get my desktop back and my computer has had some time to cool off. Could this quirk actually be the solution to my issue? I haven't tried the others, well, except for

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pm-suspend --quirk-vbe-post

which doesn't work.

[LaCiccia]

BTW: Did you do as Ken suggested? (Followed by a reboot)

Yes, at the time of my first thread on this problem.
I think

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pm-suspend --quirk-dpms-on

can work out my problem.
How can I make it permanent? I suppose this implicates some changes to the config file of pm-suspend.
In case I wanted to revert to the original setting of this config file, how could I do that?

[LaCiccia]

If you manage to find a combination of quirks that works for you, come back and I will show you how to make it permanent.

I found the said combination of quirk. Can you please show me how to make it permanent?
Thank you.