Now I’m not a rookie when it comes to computers. But this one stumps me… I just got a Geforce 8400gs PCI since it was the only PCI card at the store I could find. Now when I put the card in and have the monitor hooked up to it… it just freezes up before it even gets to the login screen. Should I install the drivers first?
So I’m running Gnome and 11.1 for the system… Any thoughts?
Is this from an existing install? or from a Live CD?
You may need to use ‘vesa’ to enable a GUI until you get the video driver installed.
It is possible to add repo’s from the CLI, but you may find it difficult. You would use zypper: Zypper/Usage/11.1 - openSUSE
If this is a installed system, you could try failsafe boot
or
To add the vesa option, just type it in the boot argument line
It’s F3 from a live cd to get to vesa
I have the OS installed on the pc.
login to level3 CLI as user then go su and do:
sax2 -r -m 0=vesa
that will write vesa to x
then once you add the nvidia repo and install the driver, it should all fall in to place nicely
you may have to use yast to configure your monitor, mine from install is on vesa and I have to switch to LCD 1440x900
I always keep a nvidia driver in my /home/username
just in case
It’s easy to run it from level3 too. Quite a few users do it the manual way, it’s just you have to re-install after each kernel update.
Once I run that sax command, etc then I’ll power down and put the card back in and aim to get it setup… thanks for the info… I printed it up to read while the pc is shutdown. Right now the monitor is just connected to the port on the motherboard, but obviously that won’t show up when the card is in strangely enough…
Well I’ll give it a shot tomorrow since seeing I need to be to work at 3am… But yeah I had added the vesa mode to x, and the system still seemed to freeze up… hmmm Sometimes I just hate computers in general, but also I love them.
Still unable to get the card to work via this info that was provided over the weekend. And other info via google that I was searching with.
I’m open to any options to try…
As when the card is in the pc I get the startup options screen. And either option I choose it freezes up be it the normal bootup option or the failsafe… :\
Alright so here is how to install the nvidia driver manually, in case the one in the repo doesn’t work or u just want to use the latest.
Go to Yast>Software>Software Management
Search for and install if you don’t have these:
make
gcc
kernel-source
Now download the latest Nvidia driver:
Place the file in your /home/username
Now restart and at the boot screen, pause the boot by moving the down button, then move back up and clear any text in the boot arguments by holding backspace. Then just type the number: 3
At the login
Type “root” then enter and then your root password and press enter.
now type
cd /home/username
*Now remember you can use the {TAB} key to auto complete
so type:
sh NVIDIA{TAB}
and the whole file name should auto complete
eg: sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.09-pkg1.run
Follow the installer and let it compile the kernel module for you.
Say Yes to everything
Use TAB to move around
reboot
Tried it before… Same error as before too… whether I choose the normal boot or failsafe… But this is only with the video card inserted.
WARNING: at kernel/smp.c331 smp_call_function_mask+0x35/0x183()
Modules linked in: intel_agp agpgart usbhid hid ff_memless sd_mod crc_t10dif ohci_hcd ehci_hcd uhci_hcd usbcore edd ata_piix libata scsi_mod dock ext3 mbcache jbd fan thermal processor thermal_sys hwmon
supported: yes
pid: 0, comm: swapper Tainted:G D W 2.6.27.7-9 default #1
<c0106570> dump_trace+0x6b/0x249
And it just stops there… cntrl/alt/del does nothing and can’t type anything as the cursor just blinks under the “d” of “dump_trace”…
But yet the system boots just fine with the monitor connected to the port on the motherboard. Hmmm…
So you have some onboard video?
Is it necessary to disable it in the BIOS?
It shows for primary video adapter in the bios as onboard or PCI… And it’s listed as PCI when I first look at the options… Considering the card I got is a PCI card. Hmmm maybe I should switch it to onboard?
Clearly you select PCI if using a PCI device and On-Board if using On-Board.
Lets have some clarification:
How old is all this?
When you say PCI do you mean PCI-Express?
earlier you quoted:
WARNING: at kernel/smp.c331 smp_call_function_mask+0x35/0x183()
Modules linked in: intel_agp agpgart usbhid hid ff_memless sd_mod crc_t10dif ohci_hcd ehci_hcd uhci_hcd usbcore edd ata_piix libata scsi_mod dock ext3 mbcache jbd fan thermal processor thermal_sys hwmon
supported: yes
pid: 0, comm: swapper Tainted:G D W 2.6.27.7-9 default #1
<c0106570> dump_trace+0x6b/0x249
Is this your on-board device?
The machine is a HP Pavilion a815n. Everything on it works fine the burner/reader that came with it. And the burner I put in it, etc. The internal card readers that came with it work and are recognized. It’s a P4 processor, and the computer was like new when I bought it off a friend minus the hard drive which he kept.
And no the card is not a PCI Express card, as I do not have that extended (long) slot. If I did I would have yanked the video card of out my Gateway running XP.
This card is just a normal PCI card. This is the link to the card info…
Is this the driver you tried for manual install
other than as already suggested I can’t think what else you need to do, except to say. It appears that there is some conflict between the On-Board and the PCI. Double check the BIOS settings in all areas to disable anything related to On-Board including any assigned memory.
Yep the 180.22 is the driver I have in my home directory saved. I’ll go through the bios settings more thoroughly later on today between my split work shifts and after work. And see what’s what with my settings.
As all else runs perfectly.
Thanks for the help, I’ll let you know what I come up with tomorrow and including some of the prior steps again, etc.
Well I think I finally got it working… Finally after 2 hours of futzing around… 
I managed to get into vesa mode to get into the gui and setup the driver… as I had to set the bios to recognize the onboard video adapter… Once I got that setup… I booted up my XP machine to do some googling on stuff… So once I got back into safe mode
I did this that I found somewhere in these forums…
su
sax2 -p
then both cards came up, the onboard and Nvidia so I chose the Nvidia card… Just took a bit of time for it to recognize the dvi connection… and get it configured…
Now all I gotta do is reboot and reset the bio for PCI now. Gonna keep my fingers crossed.