Hi guys,

I have some serious trouble that I just am unable to fix.
I have been running Mandrake/MandrivaLinux for several years now, more
then 4 to be precise.
Found it about time to switch to something less bloated and more
reliable and chose Slackware.
Have had 10.2 disks for a while and Slack runs smoothly on my laptop,
no serious issues except for .. me :-)

Now, I decided over the past weekend that it's about time to convert my
mainbox to Slack too and all worked rather well, after I did a reburn
of one of my install disks.
Everything nicely installed, X started nicely with the vesa driver.
However, every attempt to install the nvidia driver, either new version
8xxx or the older 7676 driver failed terribly, various reasons but main
reason was then boiled down to signal 11 issues, server crash.

googling around solved some, but I ended always with that signal 11
issue and the logfile itself doesn't reveal any serious warnings.
I finally copied the vesa xorg.conf file over to xorg.conf, cleaned it
out to have a short xorg.conf file and started X nicely.
Killed X, installed the nvidia driver 8xxx and didn't let the
nvidia-xconfig run. Which then left me with the same vesa based
xorg.conf file as previously. Manually editing it and swapping driver
from vesa to nvidia after which I tried startx, failed with the same
signal 11 crash with no reason in the xorg log file.

And now, I'm at a loss. I really want to run Slack but for now had to
revert to Mandriva2006 ... which really kills my box at home due to
some kded that shoots top to over 3.5 ...

I can't figure out how to get X working properly with that nvidia
driver so for now - unless someone has the magics - I can't run slack
on that box.

I assume, but can't say for certain, it's somehow related to gcc
version conflicts, but I have found no evidence for that.
I'm presently running with a Geforce4 MX440 card which during this week
should be exchanged to a Geforce6600GT card, much faster and give me
way better gameplay in americasarmy.com. And that's why I need that
nvidia driver with opengl.

Any ideas or help highly appreciated. And yes, I'm willing to give it
another shot. If that fails, slack will have to wait another year or so
....

/Andreas

Hi,

I don't know what might cause the problem but here is good
howto for configuring your X properly:

1. Remove the xorg.conf from /etc/X11
2. Do command (as root): # xorgcfg -textmode
3. Mouse: If you got 2 or 3 buttons in your mouse choose PS/2.
If you got 2 buttons + a wheel choose ImPS/2.
If you got only 2 buttons in your mouse then say 'yes' to 3 buttons
emulation. If not then say no
4. Keyboard: If unsure, use Generic 105-key (Intl) PC, it's a safe choice
5. Monitor:
LCD: For Horizsync, use 60Hz and the resolution that matches your monitor,
for example: 1024x786 @ 60 Hz. For Vertrefresh, use 50 - 70.

CRT: 15": HorizSync 31.5 - 48.5; VertRefresh 50 - 70
17": HorizSync 31.5 - 57.0; VertRefresh 50 - 70
19": HorizSync 31.5 - 82.0; VertRefresh 50 - 90
6. Screen: Because you got a NVIDIA card, you can skip the card
database. If you got atleast 4 MB graphic card, choose 24 bit in Screen depth.
7. Configure layout: Just push enter here a few times
8. Save the configuration to /etc/X11/xorg.conf
9. NVIDIA drivers: X must not be open during the installation so kill all the
X processes:
# killall gdm
# killall kdm
# killall xdm
Then execute the NVIDIA driver package
If you got error about gcc or something, install these packages: binutils, gcc, glibc, make

Andreas Paasch wrote:

Hi Andreas,

does the nvidia installer exit without any trouble?

I'm running a GeForce4 Ti 4200 without any problems on slack-current (and
have done on 10.2 when it came out).

If the installer did exit without any trouble, xorg.conf related lines
look like the following at me:
--------CODE---------
# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx"

Section "Device"
Identifier "GeForce Ti 4200"
Driver "nvidia"
VideoRam 131072
Option "NoLogo" "1"
Option "DigitalVibrance" "3"
Option "NvAgp" "1"
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection
--------/CODE---------

The Options NoLogo, DigitalVibrance and NvAgp are optional (of course).
You should disable the dri module, since the nvidia driver includes this
in a better way. Are you sure your VideoRam is set correctly? This could
also be an issue.

Hope I could help a little bit.

Greetings,

Gerhard

--
1. Please remove the 'SPAMWEG' in my mail adress
if you want to write a mail to me. Thanks!
2. 'Ubuntu' is a (non-proven) african word for
"I can't figure out how to configure Slackware" ;-)

On 2 Jan 2006 00:59:38 -0800, "Andreas Paasch" <Andreas@Paasch.net> wrote:

>I'm presently running with a Geforce4 MX440 card ...

I normally don't run GUI on slack, but just for grins I checked the
sempro box:
# lspci
....
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev a2)

Just like yours Went to nvidia's website, downloaded
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8178-pkg1.run

ran `sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8178-pkg1.run` as per readme...

answer yes / no ... wait tick tick --> new interface module compiled for:
# uname -r
2.6.15-rc7-git6a

log on as user, run startx, up came XFCE -- just like it did last
year when I tried this. Not even looked at the config files.

>Any ideas or help highly appreciated. And yes, I'm willing to give it
>another shot. If that fails, slack will have to wait another year or so

It aint slack that's the problem. Perhaps:
http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L...DME/index.html

Grant.

On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 21:31:47 +1100, Grant wrote:

> log on as user, run startx, up came XFCE -- just like it did last
> year when I tried this. Not even looked at the config files.

You did not mention changing the driver to "nvidia" in xorg.conf

If you did not do this, you are not running the new module and are just
running X with the "nv", "vesa", or whatever module was specified in
xorg.conf to begin with. The fact that it works for you won't mean much
in this case.

The OP's issue came up when he ran the "nvidia" module he had just
compiled. He stated that "vesa" ran fine for him as well.

If you just left this step out of your post, never mind.


To the OP, FWIW I am successfully running the 7664 driver under 2.4.32 and
2.6.14.3 in slackware 10.2 (-current as well) without issues. My card is
the FX5500:

VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5500]

> It aint slack that's the problem.

I would have to agree here.

Andreas Paasch wrote:
> Hi guys,

> And now, I'm at a loss. I really want to run Slack but for now had to
> revert to Mandriva2006 ... which really kills my box at home due to
> some kded that shoots top to over 3.5 ...

I had this problem with KDE 3.5 too. It occurred when a second user was
logged in on the same box through "Switch User". It turns out the
problem was from the daemon for Kat (desktop search tool). When I
turned off indexing for Kat. the problem went away.

On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 11:30:34 GMT, Franklin <franklin@tower.org> wrote:

>On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 21:31:47 +1100, Grant wrote:
>
>> log on as user, run startx, up came XFCE -- just like it did last
>> year when I tried this. Not even looked at the config files.
>
>You did not mention changing the driver to "nvidia" in xorg.conf

No, I let the installer write a new xorg.conf, now why do you think
the nvidia installer would write out a new xorg.conf with some other
driver?

>If you did not do this, you are not running the new module and are just
>running X with the "nv", "vesa", or whatever module was specified in
>xorg.conf to begin with. The fact that it works for you won't mean much
>in this case.

So the new nvidia splash screen comes up with vesa driver?

# lsmod
Module Size Used by
nvidia 4085328 12
agpgart 29768 1 nvidia
w83627hf 24528 0
hwmon_vid 2240 1 w83627hf
i2c_isa 3584 1 w83627hf
via_rhine 20996 0
e100 37380 0

(Odd e100 says zero when I got that info via an ssh login?)

>The OP's issue came up when he ran the "nvidia" module he had just
>compiled. He stated that "vesa" ran fine for him as well.

Seeing as I had the same card and _less_ experience than OP with
nvidia drivers I threw in my 2c worth and gave it a try, compiled
the nvidia module against a kernel that certainly wasn't around
last time I did this.

>If you just left this step out of your post, never mind.

I had to check...

Those GNU/Linux screen savers crap all over the windoze ones.

Cheers,
Grant.

On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 00:59:38 -0800, Andreas Paasch wrote:

> Now, I decided over the past weekend that it's about time to convert
> my
> mainbox to Slack too and all worked rather well, after I did a reburn of
> one of my install disks.
> Everything nicely installed, X started nicely with the vesa driver.
> However, every attempt to install the nvidia driver, either new version
> 8xxx or the older 7676 driver failed terribly, various reasons but main
> reason was then boiled down to signal 11 issues, server crash.

> I can't figure out how to get X working properly with that nvidia
> driver so for now - unless someone has the magics - I can't run
> slack on that box.

I used this driver...

NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8174-pkg1.run

With kernel 2.6.14.3

Only problem I had was I had to compile a kernel and not use the
Localversion option that appends a string to the corresponding
/lib/modules/2.6.14.3

Worked perfectly after I did that.

The generic nv driver runs fine as long as you don't need 3D
acceleration. With a GeForce 6600 I get about 3750 fps with glxgears.

On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 11:30:34 +0000, Franklin wrote:

> The OP's issue came up when he ran the "nvidia" module he had just
> compiled. He stated that "vesa" ran fine for him as well.

> If you just left this step out of your post, never mind.

> To the OP, FWIW I am successfully running the 7664 driver under 2.4.32 and
> 2.6.14.3 in slackware 10.2 (-current as well) without issues. My card is
> the FX5500:

> VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5500]

Here..

uname -r
2.6.14.3

lsmod |grep nv
nvidia 4089200 12

Ron,

If I understood how to compile a kernel and knew what you talked about
in terms of localversion, I might be able to roll my own kernel.

But, so far that doesn't seem an option.
What reminds me, the test26.s kernel doesn't seem to have the
kernel-source available anywhere so I guess I gotta go with 2.4.31 on a
default Slack10.2

In general, so far all posts have given a little input to my knowledge
and I'll test it out later today or tomorrow. Most of what's been
suggested so far, I have already done, but failed. I better check my
BIOS settings too, could be they are the trouble makers.

/Andreas