Re: X/Nvidia trouble after upgrade

["Robert P. J. Day" <rpjday mindspring com>]

On Tue, 12 Nov 2002, Nick Wilson wrote:

> 
> * and then Nick Wilson declared....
> > It's telling me that the nvidia kernel was made with gcc2 compiler but
> > the kernel I'm running was made with version 3.
> 
> Update: Not sure if it's the same thing but I get flickering unuseable
> screen in basic console mode untill a msg comes up saying "INIT: "x"
> respawning to fast: disabling for five minutes"
> 
> Damn! -- Any thoughts (he says hopefully..)

  (i have *got* to put this on a web page somewhere ...)


* Overview -- Configuring NVIDIA cards for Dell Inspirons under Red Hat

  Based on my experience configuring two Dell Inspirons (7500,
with 1400x1050 display, and 8100, with 1600x1200 display), I figured
I'd document the process to save everyone else the grief of having
to figure it out themselves.

  These instructions should work for any recent release of Red Hat
Linux, as well as the recent "limbo" and "null" beta releases, but
there are extra steps you should watch for if you're running one
of the betas, so read these instructions carefully.

  Everything you need -- drivers and docs -- can be found at
www.nvidia.com; I just thought I'd write the abridged version.
If these instructions don't work, you should go straight to the
source.

  Send comments, feedback, criticism, large sums of money to

  Rob Day
  rpjday mindspring com

* Step 1 -- Getting the RPMs

  From www.nvidia.com, download the two appropriate (and most
recent) RPMs for your Linux box.  Since I'm running Red Hat,
these would be:

  NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.i386.rpm		# the binary GLX driver file
  NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm	# the source kernel driver file

  First, make sure that these RPMs have matching version numbers;
bad things will likely happen if they don't.

  And second, while you can grab the prebuilt binary of the GLX
package, you're *strongly* encouraged to download (and compile)
the source version of the kernel package.  As I read it, you 
should try to use the prebuilt binary kernel RPM only if you're
running the stock, standard, as-it-was-shipped-from-Red Hat
kernel.  So play it safe -- get the source RPM for the kernel
package and build it yourself.  If you do this, you can't go wrong.

* Step 2 -- Building and installing the RPMs

  Assuming that you have no earlier versions of NVIDIA RPMs
cluttering up your machine, first, compile the kernel source
RPM with something resembling:

  # rpmbuild --rebuild NVIDIA_kernel-<whatever>.src.rpm

If it builds successfully, install it from /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386.
Note that, if you're running the recent "null" beta, you'll get some
installation warnings about a mismatched compiler version.  Ignore
them, and keep going.

  Then install the binary GLX RPM.  Once again, you'll get some
installation warnings, this time regarding conflicting MESA RPMs.
As before, ignore them.

  On to the XF86Config file.

* Step 3 -- Setting up the /etc/X11/XF86Config file

  Until recently, for backward compatibility, Red Hat Linux
supported two versions of the XF86Config file:

  XF86Config-4		for XFree86 4.x support
  XF86Config		for XFree86 3.x support

  If you were running XFree86 4.x, X would first search for
XF86Config-4, then XF86Config as a second choice.  The latest
Red Hat beta(s), however, have dropped support for XFree86 3.x,
so you can have simply a file of the name XF86Config.  And what
do you put in that file?

  For detailed instructions, you should read the online doc file
http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-2960/README.txt.  
In short, what should and shouldn't be there:

  Section "Module"
	  # Load "dri"		# remove if there
	  # Load "GLcore"	# remove if there
	  Load "glx"		# add
	  ...
  Section "Device"
	  Identifier "NVIDIA Geforce 2 (generic)"    (in my case)
	  # Driver "nv"		# remove if there
	  # Driver "vesa"	# remove if there
	  Driver "nvidia"	# add
	  ...

  If you're too lazy to do all that, you can use the XF86Config
file I've attached to the end of this writeup, which works for my
1600x1200 Inspiron 8100.

  (NOTE:  The search algorithm for the appropriate XF86Config file
is actually more complicated than I described here.  See the man page
for XF86Config for the details, although what I've written here 
should be enough to get you going.)

* Step 4 -- Starting X

  If you're using any version of Red Hat up to 7.3 (and possibly
either of the limbo betas, if memory serves), at this point, you
should just have to type "startx &" to get an X session.

  If, however, you're using the latest "null" beta, there is a mismatch
related to the gcc compilers that were used to compile the NVIDIA drivers
and what Red Hat shipped with "null".  No problem -- just force loading
of the driver first with:

  # insmod -f NVdriver		(ignore any warnings)

then try "startx &" again.

  You can either force loading of the driver each time you bring up
your machine this way, or I found adding the line

  install NVdriver insmod -f NVdriver

to the file /etc/modules.conf will take care of this for you.

* Step 5 -- Getting fancy

  If you're bored, you might want to experiment with a few more
XF86Config settings that are documented in the aforementioned
README.txt file at www.nvidia.com.  A couple of examples (that
would be added under the "Device" section for the NVIDIA card:

  Option "NoLogo" "1"			  # don't display logo
  Option "CursorShadow" "1"		  # have shadowed cursor

* Appendix A -- my /etc/X11/XF86Config file

# XFree86 4.0 configuration generated by Xconfigurator

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier "XFree86 Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

# By default, Red Hat Linux 6.0 and later use xfs

Section "Files"
	FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

# Module loading section

Section "Module"
	Load  "dbe"		# Double-buffering
	#Load  "GLcore"		# OpenGL support
	#Load  "dri"		# Direct rendering infrastructure
	Load  "glx"		# OpenGL X protocol interface
	Load  "extmod"		# Misc. required extensions
	Load  "v4l"		# Video4Linux
	# Load  "pex5"		# PHIGS for X 3D environment (obsolete)
	# Load  "record"	# X event recorder
	# Load  "xie"		# X Image Extension (obsolete)
	# You only need the following two modules if you do not use xfs.
	# Load  "freetype"	 # TrueType font handler
	# Load  "type1"		# Adobe Type 1 font handler
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "keyboard"
	Option      "XkbLayout"	"us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option      "Device" "/dev/mouse"
	Option      "Protocol" "PS/2"
	Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "on"
	Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier "Dell 1600X Laptop Display Panel"
	VendorName "Unknown"
	ModelName  "Unknown"
	HorizSync 59.0-85.0
	VertRefresh 60
	Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce 2 (generic)"
	Driver "nvidia"
	BoardName "Unknown"
	Option "NoLogo" "1"
	Option "CursorShadow" "1"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier "Linux Frame Buffer"
	Driver "fbdev"
	BoardName "Unknown"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device "NVIDIA GeForce 2 (generic)"
	Monitor "Dell 1600X Laptop Display Panel"
	DefaultDepth 24
	Subsection "Display"
		Depth 24
		Modes "1600x1200"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Mode 0666
EndSection