[gentoo-user] nvidia-legacy-drivers problems/questions

[gentoo-user] nvidia-legacy-drivers problems/questions

[Mark Knecht]

Hi,
   I'm doing updates to my dad's Gentoo machine 350 miles away. It
pretty much hasn't been touched in about a year as per his request.
However we agreed it was time to move forward so I've done the
gcc-4.1.1 upgrade and rebuilt the machine completely. At the command
line from here things look like they are running with the new kernel.
ivtv is up for MythTV recording. I don't know how to tell what state
his screen is in since he isn't home to look at it. However I seem to
be having problems with the NVidia drivers so I'm looking for some
help.

   When I first built the machine I installed nvidia-drivers. After
rebooting with the new 2.6.18-gentoo-r4 kernel nvidia was loaded but
got a message in dmesg telling me that the card is supported by
nvidia-legacy-drivers:

<SNIP>
NVRM: The NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X GPU installed in this system is
NVRM:  supported through the NVIDIA Legacy drivers. Please
NVRM:  visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
NVRM:  information.  The 1.0-9742 NVIDIA driver will ignore
NVRM:  this GPU.  Continuing probe...
NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter found!
<SNIP>

   I then removed that NVidia package and emerged
nvidia-drivers-legacy. It seemed to emerge but I saw this message when
building it:

<SNIP>
test -e include/linux/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (
         \
        echo;                                                           \
        echo "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";               \
        echo "         include/linux/autoconf.h or
include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
        echo "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel
src to fix it.";  \
        echo;                                                           \
        /bin/false)
<SNIP>

   However I think the driver does load as I see this at the end of dmesg:

<SNIP>
Adding 1172264k swap on /dev/sda5.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1172264k
eth0:  setting full-duplex.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK4] enabled at IRQ 5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> Link [LNK4] -> GSI 5 (level,
low) -> IRQ 5
NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module  1.0-7184  Tue Aug  1
18:38:58 PDT 2006
gandalf ~ #
<SNIP>

   The problem I seem to be having right now is with xdm. It stops OK,
but when I try to start it I get these messages:

<SNIP>
gandalf ~ # /etc/init.d/xdm stop
  * Stopping xdm ...
               [ ok ]
gandalf ~ # /etc/init.d/xdm status
 * status:  stopped
gandalf ~ # /etc/init.d/xdm start
  * Setting up xdm ...
/sbin/start-stop-daemon: stat /usr/bin/xdm: No such file or directory
(No such file or directory)
 * ERROR: could not start the Display Manager...
xdm: no process killed
              [ ok ]
gandalf ~ # /etc/init.d/xdm status
 * status:  started
gandalf ~ #
<SNIP>

   So it seems, from 350 miles away, that xdm is stopping and
starting, but I get error messages. What's up with that?

   What I'm really wondering right now is what is being displayed on
his screen? Is there a login window? Seems like maybe it's working:

gandalf ~ # ps aux | grep xdm
root     11983  0.0  0.1   1604   524 pts/0    R+   17:38   0:00 grep
--colour=auto xdm
gandalf ~ #

but what is that error message above telling me? What else can I do
from here to investigate the state of this remote machine?

   Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Mark
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Re: [gentoo-user] nvidia-legacy-drivers problems/questions

[Randy Barlow]

On Monday 18 December 2006 20:39, Mark Knecht wrote:
> <SNIP>
> test -e include/linux/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (
>          \
>         echo;                                                           \
>         echo "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";               \
>         echo "         include/linux/autoconf.h or
> include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
>         echo "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel
> src to fix it.";  \
>         echo;                                                           \
>         /bin/false)
> <SNIP>

Did you update the /usr/src/linux symlink?  If so, does the 
file /usr/src/linux/include/linux/autoconf.h exist?  auto.conf?  Did you try 
running the commands it suggested?

R
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Re: [gentoo-user] nvidia-legacy-drivers problems/questions

[Mark Knecht]

On 12/18/06, Randy Barlow <randy@electronsweatshop.com> wrote:
> On Monday 18 December 2006 20:39, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > <SNIP>
> > test -e include/linux/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (
> >          \
> >         echo;                                                           \
> >         echo "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";               \
> >         echo "         include/linux/autoconf.h or
> > include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
> >         echo "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel
> > src to fix it.";  \
> >         echo;                                                           \
> >         /bin/false)
> > <SNIP>
>
> Did you update the /usr/src/linux symlink?  If so, does the
> file /usr/src/linux/include/linux/autoconf.h exist?  auto.conf?  Did you try
> running the commands it suggested?
>
> R
> --
> gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>

Randy,
   I did update the symlink:

gandalf ~ # ls -al /usr/src/
total 24
drwxr-xr-x  6 root root 4096 Dec 18 14:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 Dec 18 06:50 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    0 Dec  2  2005 .keep
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root   22 Dec 18 10:28 linux -> linux-2.6.18-gentoo-r4
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4096 Mar 11  2006 linux-2.6.15-gentoo-r1
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Jul  9 10:33 linux-2.6.16-gentoo-r12
drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 4096 Dec 18 13:34 linux-2.6.18-gentoo-r4
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Dec 18 10:56 linux-2.6.19-gentoo-r2
gandalf ~ #

   I did not execute any of the commands since this is the first time
I've seen a Gentoo kernel require stuff like that. I hate to mess with
the kernel source. I'm not a programmer and do not know what any of
this does or what the side effects of it might be.

   The commands are unclear to me in the sense that I may need to
rebuild the kernel, or not, after running them. I cannot tell. Any
idea?

Thanks,
Mark
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Re: [gentoo-user] nvidia-legacy-drivers problems/questions

[Randy Barlow]

On Monday 18 December 2006 21:52, Mark Knecht wrote:
>    The commands are unclear to me in the sense that I may need to
> rebuild the kernel, or not, after running them. I cannot tell. Any
> idea?

Well, before running make oldconfig, you should copy the .config file from the 
kernel you used just before this one (2.6.16-gentoo-r12 possibly?) 
to /usr/src/linux.  make oldconfig will then create a new .config based on 
your previous settings for the new kernel.  I don't know what make prepare 
does... someone else want to pick that one up?

R
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Re: [gentoo-user] nvidia-legacy-drivers problems/questions

[Petr Kočmíd]

Mark, just a note I am quite happy with x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-1.0.8776 
working perfectly on oldy MX 440, because legacy drivers too much legacy and 
are no good with both X  session switching and GL while 1.0.9631 just crash 
and 1.0.9742 do not support the card anymore. Since it is probably the last 
version which will ever work on MX440 at all I suggest to make a backup of 
the ebuild just in case it will fade from portage in he future.

(Sorry for top posting, but original is too long and epic for me to snap 
details)

Petr

On Tuesday 19 December 2006 02:39, Mark Knecht wrote:
> Hi,
>    I'm doing updates to my dad's Gentoo machine 350 miles away. It
> pretty much hasn't been touched in about a year as per his request.
> However we agreed it was time to move forward so I've done the
> gcc-4.1.1 upgrade and rebuilt the machine completely. At the command
> line from here things look like they are running with the new kernel.
> ivtv is up for MythTV recording. I don't know how to tell what state
> his screen is in since he isn't home to look at it. However I seem to
> be having problems with the NVidia drivers so I'm looking for some
> help.
>
>    When I first built the machine I installed nvidia-drivers. After
> rebooting with the new 2.6.18-gentoo-r4 kernel nvidia was loaded but
> got a message in dmesg telling me that the card is supported by
> nvidia-legacy-drivers:
>
> <SNIP>
> NVRM: The NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X GPU installed in this system is
> NVRM:  supported through the NVIDIA Legacy drivers. Please
> NVRM:  visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
> NVRM:  information.  The 1.0-9742 NVIDIA driver will ignore
> NVRM:  this GPU.  Continuing probe...
> NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter found!
> <SNIP>
>
>    I then removed that NVidia package and emerged
> nvidia-drivers-legacy. It seemed to emerge but I saw this message when
> building it:
>
> <SNIP>
> test -e include/linux/autoconf.h -a -e include/config/auto.conf || (
>          \
>         echo;                                                           \
>         echo "  ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid.";               \
>         echo "         include/linux/autoconf.h or
> include/config/auto.conf are missing.";\
>         echo "         Run 'make oldconfig && make prepare' on kernel
> src to fix it.";  \
>         echo;                                                           \
>         /bin/false)
> <SNIP>
>
>    However I think the driver does load as I see this at the end of dmesg:
>
> <SNIP>
> Adding 1172264k swap on /dev/sda5.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:1172264k
> eth0:  setting full-duplex.
> ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK4] enabled at IRQ 5
> ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> Link [LNK4] -> GSI 5 (level,
> low) -> IRQ 5
> NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module  1.0-7184  Tue Aug  1
> 18:38:58 PDT 2006
> gandalf ~ #
> <SNIP>
>
>    The problem I seem to be having right now is with xdm. It stops OK,
> but when I try to start it I get these messages:
>
> <SNIP>
> gandalf ~ # /etc/init.d/xdm stop
>   * Stopping xdm ...
>                [ ok ]
> gandalf ~ # /etc/init.d/xdm status
>  * status:  stopped
> gandalf ~ # /etc/init.d/xdm start
>   * Setting up xdm ...
> /sbin/start-stop-daemon: stat /usr/bin/xdm: No such file or directory
> (No such file or directory)
>  * ERROR: could not start the Display Manager...
> xdm: no process killed
>               [ ok ]
> gandalf ~ # /etc/init.d/xdm status
>  * status:  started
> gandalf ~ #
> <SNIP>
>
>    So it seems, from 350 miles away, that xdm is stopping and
> starting, but I get error messages. What's up with that?
>
>    What I'm really wondering right now is what is being displayed on
> his screen? Is there a login window? Seems like maybe it's working:
>
> gandalf ~ # ps aux | grep xdm
> root     11983  0.0  0.1   1604   524 pts/0    R+   17:38   0:00 grep
> --colour=auto xdm
> gandalf ~ #
>
> but what is that error message above telling me? What else can I do
> from here to investigate the state of this remote machine?
>
>    Thanks in advance!
>
> Cheers,
> Mark
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gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] nvidia-legacy-drivers problems/questions

[Mark Knecht]

On 12/18/06, Randy Barlow <randy@electronsweatshop.com> wrote:
> On Monday 18 December 2006 21:52, Mark Knecht wrote:
> >    The commands are unclear to me in the sense that I may need to
> > rebuild the kernel, or not, after running them. I cannot tell. Any
> > idea?
>
> Well, before running make oldconfig, you should copy the .config file from the
> kernel you used just before this one (2.6.16-gentoo-r12 possibly?)
> to /usr/src/linux.  make oldconfig will then create a new .config based on
> your previous settings for the new kernel.  I don't know what make prepare
> does... someone else want to pick that one up?
>
> R

Randy,
   I ran the commands, rebuilt the kernel, rebooted, etc., then
attempted to emerge nvidia-legacy-drivers again. I got the same
message.

   None the less I found the problem. Somehow in the gcc-4.1.1, emerge
-e world gdm was removed from the system. Don't ask me why. I
re-emerged gdm and everything is working now.

Thanks,
Mark
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