Debian Etch, NVIDIA and Xorg = headache

[PaulnKeys]

Hi there, my name's Paul and this is my first post here, and my first attempt at Debian.

Specs:
-Debian 4 r2
-AMD X2 6000+
-M2n32-SLI Deluxe
-SB X-Fi, not in use while in Linux
-Onboard sound for Linux
-NV Geforce 8800 GTS (probably the culprit)

Problem:

When I first installed Debian (Net Install with Gnome) it wouldn't boot. I had to add "noapic" and "acpi=off" to the kernel line as I had done in previous distros in this rig.

Then, debian would initialize, but when X tried to start, the screen would "turn off", with a blinking power button, as if in power-saving mode. So I logged in as root in single user mode, ran dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and changed my driver from vesa to nv. Now X just booted into a blank screen, and CTRL-ALT-F1 would do nothing.

Resigned to installing the nvidia official driver, I went to the Debian Wiki (page NvidiaGraphicsDrivers) and followed "the Debian way". Everything installed fine, no problems. Modprobe starts the nvidia driver with no errors. I ran dpkg again, changing nv to nvidia and ensuring that glx was activated, then rebooting.

Result? Same thing as before. Just a blank screen, forcing me to hard reboot. I took a look at xorg.conf, and my changes ARE there. NV card is @2:0:0, which is correct, driver is nvidia, glx is activated and the monitor is configured correctly.

I've searched quite a few forums, only to find I seem to be the only guy on Earth with such a persistent X-nvidia problem. I've ran out of ideas... any help will be truly appreciated!

[techieMoe]

You're not the first person I've heard who had issues installing Nvidia drivers "The Debian Way." Have you considered trying a different approach?

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...d-drivers.html

I'm not saying one is inherently better than the other, just offering up an option for you.

[coopstah13]

I highly recommend not doing it the debian way as I've done two debian systems with nvidia cards in them. The best way is to download the proprietary driver from nvidia website and install that way.

[PaulnKeys]

Ok so I did: apt-get remove nvidia-glx, then got the drivers from Nvidia page and followed techieMoe's guide. It worked, sort of.

The thing is that now I can start x and gnome right after installing the drivers. If I reboot, then the screen just goes blank, then turns off for a second and then goes back to console mode, with this message:

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting

XIO: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0:0" after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

So when that happens, all I have to do is install the drivers again, then startx. Works both as root and as user.

So far I've tried this:

1) modprobing after rebooting. It modprobes ok but the problem is still there.

2) When NVIDIA driver installs, it says something about it having to guess some directories and that, in the event something does not work, I should install "pkg-config" and "xorg-dev" and reinstall the driver. I did that, it installed OK without showing that message anymore, but the problem persists.


Do you think it'd be best if I just reinstalled Debian and did this right from step 1? Perhaps I've created the problem myself by going for "the Debian way".

[techieMoe]

Before you reinstall, take a look at what you're loading at the top of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Make sure the line "Load dri" is commented out (or not there at all) and "Load glx" is uncommented and present. Also check to make sure you're loading the "nvidia" driver at the bottom rather than "nv" or something else.

I've had this kind of issue before....I just can't for the life of me remember how I fixed it. My guess as to why "The Debian Way" did not work is that the version of the Nvidia driver in the Debian repositories is probably not the latest one, and the 85XX series of cards needs the absolute latest driver to be supported.

[coopstah13]

yes, the debian repository driver is very old and doesn't support 8 series cards very well, but there will likely be a lot less problem just downloading it from the website and running sh nvidia-installer.bin or whatever the file is and then building the new kernel module in the setup program, make sure you run

apt-get install build-essential

before running the installer. Also there is another problem when you use a precompiled kernel from the debian repository which I assume you are doing, there will be a discrepancy between the versions of gcc used to compile the modules. Did you get an error like gcc version mismatch between what was used to build kernel and what you have on the system? You might have to download the version gcc-4.1 I think and set CC=gcc-4.1 before you run the installer. I know this is an issue because I had this problem before I compiled my own kernel, it would load the first time, but then after a reboot it would be messed up just like your experience.

[FeestBijtje]

On Debian etch i used this guide: http://tinyplanet.ca/~lsorense/debia...-dri-howto.txt

Works perfect to me.

[emerica]

In Etch and Testing I was having a similar problem when installing the nvidia drivers the "debian way". Then I found a guide for installing the nvidia drivers from nvidia's site and that worked out perfect. Now I can use the native resolution on my monitor (1680x1050) and everything looks great. Good luck and here is a link to that guide. I needed to alter a couple of lines but you will get the jist of it.

[PaulnKeys]

Thanks everyone!

Having some free time yesterday, I reinstalled Debian (after all, there was nothing to lose). Then, on the first boot, I just installed gcc, build-essential and module-assistant and ran "m-a prepare" to download the kernel headers. I then proceeded to install the driver via NV's script. Worked like a charm.