Installing nVidia for AMD64/EM64T cards

[Rick Stevens]

Michael Velez wrote:

[snip]
>>> I'll look at it this weekend and give you an update on Monday.
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot for your help and pointers,
>>
>>
>> Sorry we weren't more successful.  I think I mentioned that I mostly
>> use ATI.  One reason is that ATI releases data to the open source
>> community--which nVidia doesn't.  I've almost never had an issue with
>> ATI, while I've heard lots of horror stories with nVidia.  I also tend
>> to support hardware companies that embrace open source.
>>
>> Granted, sometimes the nVidia stuff is faster than ATI, but I don't play
>> games or do huge 3D rendering jobs. I'm primarily a software developer
>> and engineer.  If it runs X reasonably well and my GUI development
>> stuff (source navigator/insight, etc.) work, I'm happy.  My ATI
>> 85xx/87xx/89xx and Radeon Mobile stuff on my laptop is plenty fast for
>> me.  I guess I'm a "power user", but not as far as graphics go.
>>
>> This is just my opinion.  I'm sure there are people that will swear _by_
>> nVidia as much as I swear _at_ it.  You use what feels comfortable to
>> you.  With my job, I have enough problems without having to shoehorn
>> proprietary drivers into an open source platform (right now, I'm trying
>> to graft GFS onto a non-NPTL 2.4 kernel a'la RH7.3...ugh!)
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com
>>> [mailto:redhat-install-list-bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of Rick 
>>> Stevens
>>> Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 6:34 PM
>>> To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
>>> Subject: Re: Installing nVidia for AMD64/EM64T cards
>>>
>>> Michael Velez wrote:
>>>
>>>> Rick,
>>>>
>>>> I have checked the nvidia README file, which gave me leads on AGP 
>>>> and searches for different monitors (which is the stuff I put in my 
>>>> last e-mail, at the bottom).  I tried all that.  It didn't work.  I 
>>>> got rid of the EDID warnings by putting an option to ignore.  I do 
>>>> properly load "glx" and not "dri" nor"GLcore" as in the docs.  I've 
>>>> added the details in the config file for my monitor.
>>>>
>>>> The keyboard errors do occur when VESA is used and X starts properly.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Ok, I was just curious.  Must be a mapping issue...not critical.
>>>
>>>
>>>> The logfile looks good.  I even tried it with the verbose option of 
>>>> startx. The graphics card is found.  There is a line specifying the 
>>>> card type NVS 280.  There is no error associated with the Nvidia 
>>>> card whatsoever.
>>>>
>>>> The only thing I found was a:
>>>> NVIDIA: failed to set MTRR 0xC0000000, 256M (write-combining).
>>>>
>>>> sent to standard OUTPUT (not log file) while in verbose mode.  I'll 
>>>> have to do some research on this.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> That could be it.  The MTRR is the memory management register on most
>>> CPUs.  It could be that the Nvidia driver has issues with the 64 bit
>>> address space.  That message looks familiar, however, and I'm not sure
>>> it's not common.
>>>
>>>
>>>> At this point, I've tried everything I have found in the nvidia doc 
>>>> and in internet forums.  I'll look some more.  If I don't find 
>>>> anything, I'll have to contact nvidia.
>>>>
>>>> Who knows?  Maybe if I correct the keyboard issues, X will work 
>>>> (even though the VESA driver has no problem with the errors being 
>>>> there).
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I don't think the keyboard is a problem.  I do have a question...if you
>>> fire up in run-level 3 and run "xinit", does it come up?  If not (if you
>>> just get a blank screen), try hoding down CTRL and ALT, then hit F12.
>>> That should kick you out of the X display.  Then "ALT-F1" should get
>>> you a console login screen.  Log in and see if there's anything weird
>>> in the X log at that point.
>>>
>>> It may be simply that it's freaking out your monitor.  In that case, try
>>> changing the line:
>>>
>>> Modes "800x600" "640x480"
>>>
>>> to
>>>
>>> Modes "640x480"
>>>
>>> in your config file (in other words, force VGA mode) and try again.  If
>>> that works, you've got problems in your monitor description.  It's just
>>> a guess.
> 
> Rick,
> 
> I replaced the card with a new card of the exact same model and it works 
> beautifully now.

Ah!  Defective hardware.  That's one thing I didn't even consider.

(viciously whacking myself in the head with a 2x4)  Dummy!  Dummy!

> Thanks for your help.  It was good to have some support through this.

No problem.  Glad you got it sorted out.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-       "I'd explain it to you, but your brain might explode."       -
----------------------------------------------------------------------