[gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Harry Putnam]

I posted some output in anther thread concerning update world
 (Subject: How to fix a hefty (emerge) blocking problem)

Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
before)

I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"

Now with my emerge -vuDN @system @world complete I'm unable to start
X. (More on that later in a separate thread)

But a little peek with eix -Ic |grep x11-drivers  I still see a hefty
mess of them:

  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev (2.0.7@11/13/08): Generic Linux input driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard (1.3.1@07/12/08): Keyboard input driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse (1.3.0@06/29/08): X.Org driver for mouse input devices
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-apm (1.2.0@06/29/08): Alliance ProMotion video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-ark (0.7.0@07/12/08): X.Org driver for ark cards
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-chips (1.2.0@07/12/08): Chips and Technologies video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-cirrus (1.2.1@07/12/08): Cirrus Logic video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-dummy (0.3.0@07/12/08): X.Org driver for dummy cards
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-fbdev (0.4.0@07/12/08): video driver for framebuffer device
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-glint (1.2.1@07/12/08): GLINT/Permedia video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-i740 (1.2.0@07/12/08): Intel i740 video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-mach64 (6.8.0@07/12/08): ATI Mach64 video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-mga (1.4.9@07/12/08): Matrox video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-neomagic (1.2.1@07/12/08): Neomagic video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-nv (2.1.12@11/13/08): Nvidia video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-rendition (4.2.0@07/12/08): Rendition video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-s3 (0.6.0@07/12/08): X.Org driver for s3 cards
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-s3virge (1.10.1@07/12/08): S3 ViRGE video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-savage (2.2.1@07/12/08): S3 Savage video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-siliconmotion (1.6.0@07/12/08): Silicon Motion video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-tdfx (1.4.0@06/29/08): 3Dfx video driver
  [U] x11-drivers/xf86-video-tga (1.1.0@06/29/08 -> (~)1.2.0): X.Org driver for tga cards
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-trident (1.3.0@07/12/08): Trident video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-tseng (1.2.0@07/12/08): Tseng Labs video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-v4l (0.2.0@07/12/08): video4linux driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-vesa (2.0.0@07/12/08): Generic VESA video driver
  [I] x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo (1.2.0@07/12/08): Voodoo video driver

Whats all that for?

Checking dependancies on a few I see:

dep -l x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo:
   ! x11-base/xorg-x11-6.9

on all I checked.

What can this mean?

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Dale]

Harry Putnam wrote:
> I posted some output in anther thread concerning update world
>  (Subject: How to fix a hefty (emerge) blocking problem)
>
> Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
> set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
> before)
>
> I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"
>
> Now with my emerge -vuDN @system @world complete I'm unable to start
> X. (More on that later in a separate thread)
>
> << SNIP >>
>
> Whats all that for?
>
> Checking dependancies on a few I see:
>
> dep -l x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo:
>    ! x11-base/xorg-x11-6.9
>
> on all I checked.
>
> What can this mean?
>
>
>
>
>
>   

Give this a shot:

VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"

You can do a emerge -p xorg-x11 to see which ones are available.  It's
lists them for you, also lists the USE flags too. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Wang, Baojun]

在 2008-11-15六的 18:38 -0600，Dale写道：
> Harry Putnam wrote:
> > I posted some output in anther thread concerning update world
> >  (Subject: How to fix a hefty (emerge) blocking problem)
> >
> > Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
> > set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
> > before)
> >
> > I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"
This should be OK, nv will use the opensource driver, while nvidia will
use the closed-source driver.
> > Now with my emerge -vuDN @system @world complete I'm unable to start
> > X. (More on that later in a separate thread.
This could also caused by mis-configuration of /etc/X11/xorg.conf, I
think you'd better post your /var/log/Xorg.0.log
> > << SNIP >>
> >
> > Whats all that for?
> >
> > Checking dependancies on a few I see:
> >
> > dep -l x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo:
> >    ! x11-base/xorg-x11-6.9
> >
> > on all I checked.
> >
> > What can this mean?
> >
If you need to prune the unused video drivers, please try to use (with
caution please):

emerge --ask --depclean

Regards,
> >
> >
> >
> >   
> 
> Give this a shot:
> 
> VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
> 
> You can do a emerge -p xorg-x11 to see which ones are available.  It's
> lists them for you, also lists the USE flags too. 
> 
> Dale
> 
> :-)  :-) 
> 
> 

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sunday 16 November 2008 02:24:10 Harry Putnam wrote:
> I posted some output in anther thread concerning update world
>  (Subject: How to fix a hefty (emerge) blocking problem)
>
> Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
> set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
> before)

X.org used to be a huge monolithic program - a holdover from the days before 
it forked off from XFree86. It built every single driver in the package even 
though it could only use one at a time.

Recently, X.org was improved to be modular, which means you could build only 
the bits you need. A binary distro like Ubuntu still builds all of them as 
they have no idea what hardware you have. On Gentoo, you build the thing 
yourself. the env var VIDEO_CARDS is how you tell Gentoo what you have and it 
builds only the necessary drivers. All those other packages are drivers you 
don't use, they are in separate packages so they can be installed separately.

Some thing in this life you just ignore and filter out of your vision. Those 
extra packages is one of those things.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto]

>> Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
>> set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
>> before)
>>
>> I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"
>>
>> Now with my emerge -vuDN @system @world complete I'm unable to start
>> X. (More on that later in a separate thread)
>>
>> << SNIP >>
>>
>> Whats all that for?
>>
>> Checking dependancies on a few I see:
>>
>> dep -l x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo:
>>    ! x11-base/xorg-x11-6.9
>>
>> on all I checked.
>>
>> What can this mean?
>>
>>
>
> Give this a shot:
>
> VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
No, "nvidia" is for the proprietary binary nvida driver. The free
driver for nvidia cards is called NV. I have a GeForce4 MX 440 and I
have this in my make.conf:
VIDEO_CARDS="nv vesa"

And this results in

$ emerge -pv xorg-server

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating dependencies ... done!
[ebuild   R   ] x11-base/xorg-server-1.3.0.0-r6  USE="nptl sdl xorg
-3dfx -debug -dmx -dri -ipv6 -kdrive -minimal -xprint"
INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse -acecad -aiptek -calcomp -citron
-digitaledge -dmc -dynapro -elo2300 -elographics -fpit -hyperpen
-jamstudio -joystick -magellan -microtouch -mutouch -palmax -penmount
-spaceorb -summa -synaptics -tek4957 -ur98 -vmmouse -void -wacom"
VIDEO_CARDS="nv vesa -apm -ark -chips -cirrus -cyrix -dummy -epson
-fbdev -fglrx -glint -i128 -i740 (-impact) -imstt -intel -mach64 -mga
-neomagic (-newport) -nsc -nvidia -r128 -radeon -rendition -s3
-s3virge -savage -siliconmotion -sis -sisusb (-sunbw2) (-suncg14)
(-suncg3) (-suncg6) (-sunffb) (-sunleo) (-suntcx) -tdfx -tga -trident
-tseng -v4l -vga -via -vmware -voodoo" 0 kB

and

$ equery list x11-drivers/
[ Searching for all packages in 'x11-drivers' among: ]
 * installed packages
[I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-1.1.5-r1 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.1.1 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.2.3 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-video-nv-2.1.9 (0)
[I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-video-vesa-1.3.0 (0)

-- 
Software is like sex: it is better when it is free - Linus Torvalds

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto]

> No, "nvidia" is for the proprietary binary nvida driver. The free
> driver for nvidia cards is called NV.
By "NV" I meant "nv". I always see it uncapitalized, so I think this
("nv") is its name, not "NV".
Sorry for the typo.

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto]

On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 10:24 PM, Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> I posted some output in anther thread concerning update world
>  (Subject: How to fix a hefty (emerge) blocking problem)
>
> Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
> set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
> before)
>
> I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"
>

Could you please post your entire make.conf?

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Dirk Heinrichs]

Am Sonntag, 16. November 2008 01:24:10 schrieb Harry Putnam:

> But a little peek with eix -Ic |grep x11-drivers  I still see a hefty
> mess of them:

They wont go away just because you've set VIDEO_CARDS. You have to uninstall 
them either manually or by running emerge --depclean (-p).

HTH...

	Dirk

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Dirk Heinrichs]

Am Sonntag, 16. November 2008 01:24:10 schrieb Harry Putnam:

> dep -l x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo:
>    ! x11-base/xorg-x11-6.9

Actaully, the output is:

# dep -l x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo
x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo-1.1.1:
                    !<=x11-base/xorg-x11-6.9

And this means: You should not have a version of xorg-x11 less than or equal 
to 6.9 installed if you want to install xf86-video-voodoo-1.1.1. If you have, 
you'll get one of the famous blocks you already fell in love with ;-)

HTH...

	Dirk

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto]

On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 12:19 PM, Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto
<please.no.spam.here@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 10:24 PM, Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>> I posted some output in anther thread concerning update world
>>  (Subject: How to fix a hefty (emerge) blocking problem)
>>
>> Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
>> set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
>> before)
>>
>> I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"
>>
>
> Could you please post your entire make.conf?
>
While we are at it, could you please post emerge --info?

-- 
Software is like sex: it is better when it is free - Linus Torvalds

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Dirk Heinrichs]

Am Sonntag, 16. November 2008 16:12:58 schrieb Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto:
> On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 12:19 PM, Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto
>
> <please.no.spam.here@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 10:24 PM, Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> >> I posted some output in anther thread concerning update world
> >>  (Subject: How to fix a hefty (emerge) blocking problem)
> >>
> >> Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
> >> set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
> >> before)
> >>
> >> I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"
> >
> > Could you please post your entire make.conf?
>
> While we are at it, could you please post emerge --info?

Just courious: What exactly do you want with all this information? IMHO, the 
only usefull information comes from lspci and eventually an X11 log file.

Bye...

	Dirk

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto]

On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Dirk Heinrichs
<dirk.heinrichs@online.de> wrote:
> Am Sonntag, 16. November 2008 16:12:58 schrieb Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto:
>> On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 12:19 PM, Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto
>>
>> <please.no.spam.here@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > On Sat, Nov 15, 2008 at 10:24 PM, Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>> >> I posted some output in anther thread concerning update world
>> >>  (Subject: How to fix a hefty (emerge) blocking problem)
>> >>
>> >> Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
>> >> set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
>> >> before)
>> >>
>> >> I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"
>> >
>> > Could you please post your entire make.conf?
>>
>> While we are at it, could you please post emerge --info?
>
> Just courious: What exactly do you want with all this information? IMHO, the
> only usefull information comes from lspci and eventually an X11 log file.

I am not only concerned about the problem reported in this thread; I
also want to give opinion on his larger "update a very outdated
system" task.

-- 
Software is like sex: it is better when it is free - Linus Torvalds

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Dale]

Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto wrote:
>>> Someone noticed I had too many x11 drivers installed and suggested I
>>> set the /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS variable (which I never have set
>>> before)
>>>
>>> I figured out I have an nvidia card so set VIDEO_CARDS="nv"
>>>
>>> Now with my emerge -vuDN @system @world complete I'm unable to start
>>> X. (More on that later in a separate thread)
>>>
>>> << SNIP >>
>>>
>>> Whats all that for?
>>>
>>> Checking dependancies on a few I see:
>>>
>>> dep -l x11-drivers/xf86-video-voodoo:
>>>    ! x11-base/xorg-x11-6.9
>>>
>>> on all I checked.
>>>
>>> What can this mean?
>>>
>>>
>>>       
>> Give this a shot:
>>
>> VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
>>     
> No, "nvidia" is for the proprietary binary nvida driver. The free
> driver for nvidia cards is called NV. I have a GeForce4 MX 440 and I
> have this in my make.conf:
> VIDEO_CARDS="nv vesa"
>
> And this results in
>
> $ emerge -pv xorg-server
>
> These are the packages that would be merged, in order:
>
> Calculating dependencies ... done!
> [ebuild   R   ] x11-base/xorg-server-1.3.0.0-r6  USE="nptl sdl xorg
> -3dfx -debug -dmx -dri -ipv6 -kdrive -minimal -xprint"
> INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse -acecad -aiptek -calcomp -citron
> -digitaledge -dmc -dynapro -elo2300 -elographics -fpit -hyperpen
> -jamstudio -joystick -magellan -microtouch -mutouch -palmax -penmount
> -spaceorb -summa -synaptics -tek4957 -ur98 -vmmouse -void -wacom"
> VIDEO_CARDS="nv vesa -apm -ark -chips -cirrus -cyrix -dummy -epson
> -fbdev -fglrx -glint -i128 -i740 (-impact) -imstt -intel -mach64 -mga
> -neomagic (-newport) -nsc -nvidia -r128 -radeon -rendition -s3
> -s3virge -savage -siliconmotion -sis -sisusb (-sunbw2) (-suncg14)
> (-suncg3) (-suncg6) (-sunffb) (-sunleo) (-suntcx) -tdfx -tga -trident
> -tseng -v4l -vga -via -vmware -voodoo" 0 kB
>
> and
>
> $ equery list x11-drivers/
> [ Searching for all packages in 'x11-drivers' among: ]
>  * installed packages
> [I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev-1.1.5-r1 (0)
> [I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard-1.1.1 (0)
> [I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse-1.2.3 (0)
> [I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-video-nv-2.1.9 (0)
> [I--] [  ] x11-drivers/xf86-video-vesa-1.3.0 (0)
>
>   

What you say may be true, pretty sure it is, but what he is doing is not
working, hence him coming here for help.  Since I have nvidia in mine
and it works fine, thought he may want to try that.  What I posted is
not wrong, just another way of doing it.  Up to him if he wants to try
it or not.

Also, nv does not work well for me either.  It is dreadfully slow and
uses a lot of CPU time.  At least that is how it was the last time I
used it.  Things change.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto]

>>> Give this a shot:
>>>
>>> VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
>>>
>> No, "nvidia" is for the proprietary binary nvida driver. The free
>> driver for nvidia cards is called NV. I have a GeForce4 MX 440 and I
>> have this in my make.conf:
>> VIDEO_CARDS="nv vesa"
>
> What you say may be true, pretty sure it is, but what he is doing is not
> working, hence him coming here for help.  Since I have nvidia in mine
> and it works fine, thought he may want to try that.  What I posted is
> not wrong, just another way of doing it.  Up to him if he wants to try
> it or not.
>
> Also, nv does not work well for me either.  It is dreadfully slow and
> uses a lot of CPU time.  At least that is how it was the last time I
> used it.  Things change.
>
> Dale

Selecting "nvidia" instead of "nv" would hardly make a difference in
this specific problem.

Also I imagine that the nv driver would be the more likely to work,
being free software and maintainable by the Xorg developers. As for
being slow, everybody knows it (unfortunately; damned be Nvida*) does
not support 3D, so any 3D you use will be in software. But for 2D, it
is as fast as the proprietary driver AFAIK.

Are you saying that it is slower in 2D than the proprietary driver?

*If if were to buy a video card today, it wouldn't be Nvidia. But I
don't play 3D games so I won't buy a new card anyway.

Re: [gentoo-user] excess x11 drivers

[Dale]

Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto wrote:
>>>> Give this a shot:
>>>>
>>>> VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
>>>>
>>>>         
>>> No, "nvidia" is for the proprietary binary nvida driver. The free
>>> driver for nvidia cards is called NV. I have a GeForce4 MX 440 and I
>>> have this in my make.conf:
>>> VIDEO_CARDS="nv vesa"
>>>       
>> What you say may be true, pretty sure it is, but what he is doing is not
>> working, hence him coming here for help.  Since I have nvidia in mine
>> and it works fine, thought he may want to try that.  What I posted is
>> not wrong, just another way of doing it.  Up to him if he wants to try
>> it or not.
>>
>> Also, nv does not work well for me either.  It is dreadfully slow and
>> uses a lot of CPU time.  At least that is how it was the last time I
>> used it.  Things change.
>>
>> Dale
>>     
>
> Selecting "nvidia" instead of "nv" would hardly make a difference in
> this specific problem.
>
> Also I imagine that the nv driver would be the more likely to work,
> being free software and maintainable by the Xorg developers. As for
> being slow, everybody knows it (unfortunately; damned be Nvida*) does
> not support 3D, so any 3D you use will be in software. But for 2D, it
> is as fast as the proprietary driver AFAIK.
>
> Are you saying that it is slower in 2D than the proprietary driver?
>
> *If if were to buy a video card today, it wouldn't be Nvidia. But I
> don't play 3D games so I won't buy a new card anyway.
>
>
>   

Yes, when I used nv a long time ago, it was very slow and it used a LOT
of my CPU time as well.  It was like the CPU was doing the work instead
of the card.  I emerged the nvidia drivers and have stuck with them ever
since.

Keep in mind I bought my nvidia card several years ago.  Back then the
ATI support was nasty to say the least.  ATI was not a viable option at
that time.  Nvidia was the king as far as video cards go.  That seems to
have changed and most likely I will get ATI next time, though I like
nvidia but hey . . . .they made their choice and I have to make mine
based on theirs.

I do agree that nv should work, I guess the old 'your mileage may vary'
comes in tho.

Dale

:-)  :-) 

[gentoo-user] Re: excess x11 drivers

[Harry Putnam]

"Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto" <please.no.spam.here@gmail.com> writes:

> I am not only concerned about the problem reported in this thread; I
> also want to give opinion on his larger "update a very outdated
> system" task.

Just for the record... I seem to have gotten things under control and
did set VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia".

I ran into a problem somewhere in the compile of the x11 drivers that
brought up where some file (I didn't keep the name) was not available
in the most recent kernel sources.

Rather than keep pounding away, I backed off to 
uname -r
 2.6.25-gentoo-r9

I didn't test any of the releases in between, since I was pretty sure
something in the ...25 series would work since my last kernel (prior
to updating to ...27* was ..25-r6.

Those sources appear to supply everthing needed.  I also discovered
that none of the kernel based NVIDIA modules were necessary.

And finally as advised here in another thread recently I ran
--depclean after successful update @system @world and many of those
x11-drivers were dumped.

Now I get a clean slate there:

$ eix -Ic |grep x11-driver
[I] x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers      [...]
[I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev    [...]
[I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard [...]
[I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse    [...]

And X works fine.

I don't tax a video card much in my usage of linux.  It's my main
desktop but my  semi-professional video-editing is all done on windowsXP
machines for access to the first rate adobe tools.

Opening the occasional graphics file in mail is about it on my gentoo
desktop. 

Many thanks to all for the generous help.

I guess I'll have to take the final step and setup some cron based
update method that happens a lot more frequently... 

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: excess x11 drivers

[Dale]

Harry Putnam wrote:
> "Jorge Peixoto de Morais Neto" <please.no.spam.here@gmail.com> writes:
>
>   
>> I am not only concerned about the problem reported in this thread; I
>> also want to give opinion on his larger "update a very outdated
>> system" task.
>>     
>
> Just for the record... I seem to have gotten things under control and
> did set VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia".
>
> I ran into a problem somewhere in the compile of the x11 drivers that
> brought up where some file (I didn't keep the name) was not available
> in the most recent kernel sources.
>
> Rather than keep pounding away, I backed off to 
> uname -r
>  2.6.25-gentoo-r9
>
> I didn't test any of the releases in between, since I was pretty sure
> something in the ...25 series would work since my last kernel (prior
> to updating to ...27* was ..25-r6.
>
> Those sources appear to supply everthing needed.  I also discovered
> that none of the kernel based NVIDIA modules were necessary.
>
> And finally as advised here in another thread recently I ran
> --depclean after successful update @system @world and many of those
> x11-drivers were dumped.
>
> Now I get a clean slate there:
>
> $ eix -Ic |grep x11-driver
> [I] x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers      [...]
> [I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-evdev    [...]
> [I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard [...]
> [I] x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse    [...]
>
> And X works fine.
>
> I don't tax a video card much in my usage of linux.  It's my main
> desktop but my  semi-professional video-editing is all done on windowsXP
> machines for access to the first rate adobe tools.
>
> Opening the occasional graphics file in mail is about it on my gentoo
> desktop. 
>
> Many thanks to all for the generous help.
>
> I guess I'll have to take the final step and setup some cron based
> update method that happens a lot more frequently... 
>
>
>
>   

I'm not sure how new to Linux you are but just a couple observations
about kernels and such.  Sometimes I try newer kernels and something
doesn't work right.  It may not be video related but just always keep
your old kernel and their source code around until you have well tested
the new one.  Also, always feel free to test a new kernel when you have
trouble especially if the kernel can affect what you are installing. 
Something concerning hardware for the most part.  Just for future
information.  May come in handy someday.

Otherwise, glad you got it going.

Dale

:-)  :-)