Installing Nvidia video driver on laptop

[mikeF]

Hello there,

sorry for warming up an old thread, but I'm experiencing similar troubles on a quite different machine. It is a laptop featuring a "Nvidia GeForce 4 440 Go" graphics card, it must be named something like this, but please don't pin me down on that. I don't even know whether it contains 32 or 64 MB. As i read through this thread, which I did with a certain excitement, I sensed the end of my problems arriving. But there's no real solution yet, at least I don't consider reinstalling a helpful option for me 

Well, my machine is running VL 5.9 STD, and I've tried both, the "nv" and "nvidia" drivers. With the open source variant employed I can do everything but use google-earth. That's the only application I'm intending to use which needs at least some graphics power and I figured out that it should be possible with working proprietary drivers. But with these drivers my machine does only display a blank screen. And that's where this discussion started.

Does someone know already how to achieve full graphics support in a situation like that?

I've tried quite a lot things yet, but my knowledge of that matter is limited. When I was trying to install the drivers via a  Nvidia-linux*.run-file it complained about not finding a certain interface of the kernel. I figured out that recompiling the kernel and adding this thing would solve the problem, so I installed the kernel-src and did a recompiling session, which I cancelled when I realized after an hour or so that every single "driver" available is being put into the new kernel. At least I thought so.

So far my short overview of the situation. I'd be really glad to learn some advice from you guys.

Edit by nighflier: I split this off from an old thread: http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/index.php?topic=4961.0;topicseen

[uelsk8s]

did you include the kernel source when you installed?

[nightflier]

I'm quite sure this chipset needs the nvidia-legacy drivers. You may have to select "expert" (or is it "manual") during installation and pick one of the legacy drivers. And of course, install the kernel sources.

[mikeF]

I've installed the kernel-src package, which I assume is the kernel sources you mentioned.

The vxconf -script let me select "Expert", and I gave it a try. The next choice was between some versions and I guess that 96.43.01 is the one for me. I learned that when I tried 100.*-version and it told me that it was the wrong, but the other would be the correct one.

All went according to plan until I started X and got a blank screen again. grml.

At least I can get a working desktop environment back just by renaming a backup xorg.conf.


I can't download/reinstall the  kernel sources via gslapt. I installed it from the CD and the drive isn't very reliable, could it be that the sources aren't correctly installed on my machine?

[uelsk8s]

try the driver that starts with 71

[mikeF]

You were absolutely right about 71*. Now it renders that glxgears with about 2000 FPS and googleearth works flawlessly. Only drawback is that system crashes when I want to boot directly into GUI. After appearance of the nvidia logo the login screen appears and is frozen immediately. No chance of control+alt+f2 or so. But booting into linux-tui from lilo and then running startx yields a fully functional desktop environment. Funny, but annoying.

Any ideas?

Ah, almost forgot to mention: when running init 5 instead of startx it does also crash.

[uelsk8s]

try running kdm from a console as root and see if it freezes.

[mikeF]

Yes it does also freeze. At least now I've learned that only root wants to run kdm. I am surprised that an xfce installation has kdm implemented.

I want you to know that I really appreciate your help. Thanks man.

[uelsk8s]

you are welcome.

does kdm give any errors before it freezes?

[mikeF]

No it does not. It is the same issue as when booting directly into gui. First a black screen with a clock as mouse pointer and then as soon as login window appears, I can't do anything but move the pointer.

[uelsk8s]

run "kdm &>error"
that will send the output of kdm to a file called error
after its starts try CTR+ALT+BACKSPACE and see if it closes kdm
then you can startx and read the contents of error and see if it sheds some light

[mikeF]

when i wait until that frozen login window appears, there is no other possibility than hitting the power button. no CTR+ALT+BACKSPACE or CTR+ALT+F2 key combination exhibits any function. after doing a reboot, the error file was empty. hitting CTR+ALT+BACKSPACE means no escape because this starts X again, as far as i know. when pressing that key combos prior to getting that frozen screen, the error-file is empty, too.

i do now use a different approach to this situation, a stoic approach. i do accept it as it is and log in into shell and startx afterwards. this means very little additional typing at every login but no more hours spent to resolve this issue. i guess i can live with that.

[uelsk8s]

try renaming kdm
mv /usr/bin/kdm /usr/bin/kdm.bak
and then init 4 or reboot