NVidia - can view GUI but console display corrupted

[Workaphobia]

(Thread Subject editted for clarity)
I just upgraded my Linux box to a new motherboard and graphics card, which have been working fine for he past few days. Today I tried to install the nVidia Linux drivers to improve my frame rate on OpenGL games, and met with disaster. After I downloaded and executed the .run script, I couldn't open any opengl applications at all. I traced this problem back to a message from xorg indicating glx was not being loaded because no nvidia driver could be found, and realized that I had not changed the device driver in xorg.conf from "nv" to "nvidia" (this was mentioned in the readme). I corrected this and got into X on my next attempt, but my display for all my virtual terminals was corrupted! For once the desktop manager worked fine while the console windows were rendered unusable.

After a few minutes of obligatory panic, I rebooted. My consoles came out crystal clear, but either xorg wouldn't run or it ran using the older driver - it's sort of hard for me to remember at this point after so many tries. I reproduced the problem several times, and each time I could only get the driver back to a stable point by rebooting.

Somewhere along the line, "modprobe nvidia" started giving me some ominous messages and the syslog complained that the driver's license "taints" the kernel, whatever that means. I managed to uninstall and reinstall it, and now I'm back to the point where I can get a GUI at the price of my command line.


I'm pretty lost by now. Whatever's going wrong has to be at the driver/kernel level, but I have no idea how to fix it or how to compile the driver for the kernel (isn't it closed-source anyway?). Has anyone had a similar problem?


Hardware:
nVidia GeForce FX 5500
Mandrake 10.1 Community
Kernel 2.6.8


/etc/X11/xorg.conf:

# File generated by XFdrake.

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
    # Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
    # By default, Mandrake 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
    # the X server to render fonts.
    FontPath "unix/:-1"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    #DontZap # disable <Crtl><Alt><BS> &#40;server abort&#41;
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse doesn't work
    #DontZoom # disable <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> &#40;resolution switching&#41;
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
    Load "extmod"
    Load "type1"
    Load "freetype"
    Load "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.so"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Keyboard1"
    Driver "Keyboard"
    Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option "XkbLayout" "en_US"
    Option "XkbOptions" ""
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Mouse1"
    Driver "mouse"
    Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
    Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
    Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Generic"
    ModelName "1024x768 @ 70 Hz"
    HorizSync 31.5-57.0
    VertRefresh 50-70
    
    # Sony Vaio C1&#40;X,XS,VE,VN&#41;?
    # 1024x480 @ 85.6 Hz, 48 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "1024x480"    65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344   480  488  494  563 -hsync -vsync
    
    # Dell D800 and few Inspiron &#40;16/10&#41; 1280x800
    ModeLine "1280x800"  147.89  1280 1376 1512 1744  800 801 804 848
    
    # Dell D800 and few Inspiron &#40;16/10&#41; 1680x1050
    ModeLine "1680x1050"  214.51  1680 1800 1984 2288  1050 1051 1054 1103
    
    # Dell D800 and few Inspiron &#40;16/10&#41; 1920x1200
    ModeLine "1920x1200" 230 1920 1936 2096 2528 1200 1201 1204 1250 +HSync +VSync
    
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
    
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "nVidia"
    BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce4 &#40;generic&#41;"
    Driver "nv"   ############### Screws up when I change to "nvidia"
    Option "DPMS"
    Option "IgnoreEDID" "1"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
    DefaultColorDepth 24
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 8
        Virtual 800 600
    EndSubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 15
        Virtual 800 600
    EndSubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 16
        Virtual 800 600
    EndSubsection
    
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Virtual 800 600
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection

/var/log/syslog:

Jan  8 21:19:22 localhost kernel: nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Jan  8 21:19:22 localhost kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module  1.0-6629  Wed Nov  3 13:12:51 PST 2004
Jan  8 21:19:46 localhost kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module  1.0-6629  Wed Nov  3 13:12:51 PST 2004

I can't find the relevant section of xorg.0.log at the moment.

[UgoDeschamps]

Not sure this is the reson, but did you follow the instruction properly, did you set the nvidia kernel to boot on start, did you change the xorg config driver from NV to nvidia...

[Workaphobia]

I didn't adjust any startup options, but loaded in the module manually with modprobe. I already changed the xorg config driver and got the splash screen successfully. As for other instructions, I've read most of the readme and all of the FAQ, and I've searched various sites. (Sidenote: Exactly what is the reasoning behind restricting the search function of a forum - e.g., nvidia's - to a registered member? It just discourages STFW in general.)

Some of the problems mentioned in the FAQ I did in fact see when I ran opengl programs from a terminal emulator, but only after something snapped and my normal console went kablooie. I haven't seen those particular errors again since reinstallation of the driver, but still have the other problem.

[puntmuts]

[...]
Somewhere along the line, "modprobe nvidia" started giving me some ominous messages and the syslog complained that the driver's license "taints" the kernel, whatever that means.

NVidia release closed source drivers for the kernel and they are not GPL (=the licence of the kernel) compatible. It means you cannot expect support from kerneldeveloppers when this driver is loaded and you have some kind of problems with the kernel. But in daily use you could just ignore this message since the open source drivers for NVidia devices are not an option.

Can't help you with your problem, sorry for that .

[Workaphobia]

<Insert overwhelming "Oooohhhhhh" here>
That makes perfect sense. Well I don't expect to be submitting many bug reports anyway, so I'll stick with this driver, provided I can tame it.


Here's the part where I'd include my Xorg.0.log, but it's like 600 lines, and I'm not sure which section is relevant. If I can narrow it down any, I'll paste it in.

[Stormblazer]

I noticed that you ommitted the "Load glx" line under the modules section. Did that cause it to crash too, or did you simply forget to add it?

[Workaphobia]

Well that's odd, I could've sworn that was in there. Maybe it was removed when I reinstalled. Either way, I'm sure it didn't affect the console issue.

I just found this thread at nvidia's linux forum, which describes my problem precisely - apparently every mandrake user shares this frustration, all because the distribution does not install a certain font by default. I didn't even know that the terminal emulator *uses* those kinds of fonts, but I'll give it a shot the first chance I get, and post what happens.

[ErcoupeBaby]

Hey!
Just saw your post, I have mandrake 10.1 and when I do a reinstall I have to modify the /etc/X11/XF86Config file to read this
Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corp."
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce2 DDR (generic)"
Driver "nv"
Option "DPMS"
Option "Device" "/dev/nvidia"
Option "IgnoreEDID" "1"
EndSection

The 2nd option statement is what I have to add to be able to load KDE. I first verified that there was in fact a /dev/nvidia file. But give that a try, I still get the taint message in the syslog but everything works fine.

Hope this helps.