still NVIDIA driver problems when upgrading to openSUSE 11.4

English Hardware
1

Today I did a new and clean installation of openSUSE 11.2 on a single HDD for testing purposes. Then I started sax2 an configured my monitor, a Siemens-Nixdorf 1702 CRT-Monitor on a Nvidia Geforce 6600 GT. The graphic system was runnig well, 1024 x 768 at 85 Hz, with the old fashioned “nv” driver. I don’t need more!

xorg.conf (part):

Section “Device”
BoardName “GeForce 6600 GT (0x00F2)”
Driver “nv”
Identifier “Device[0]”
VendorName “NVidia”
EndSection

After this I did an Upgrade to 11.4

System boots to console. When typing “gnome” I get the "WARNING **: Could not open display:

boot.msg (part):

<6> 4.632851] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Detected an NV40 generation card (0x043100a2)
<7> 4.632858] checking generic (e0000000 10000000) vs hw (e0000000 10000000)
<3> 4.632860] fb: conflicting fb hw usage nouveaufb vs VESA VGA - removing generic driver
<4> 4.633382] Console: switching to colour dummy device 80x25
<6> 4.635436] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Attempting to load BIOS image from PRAMIN
<6> 4.746108] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: … appears to be valid
<6> 4.746115] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: BIT BIOS found
<6> 4.746118] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Bios version 05.43.02.42
<6> 4.746122] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: TMDS table version 1.1
<6> 4.746124] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: BIT table ‘d’ not found
<6> 4.746127] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Found Display Configuration Block version 3.0
<5> 4.746130] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Raw DCB entry 0: 01000300 00000028
<5> 4.746134] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Raw DCB entry 1: 04010310 00000028
<5> 4.746136] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Raw DCB entry 2: 04010312 00000000
<5> 4.746138] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Raw DCB entry 3: 020203f1 0000c080
<6> 4.746141] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: DCB connector table: VHER 0x30 5 6 2
<6> 4.746150] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 0 at offset 0xEF32
<6> 4.746369] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 1 at offset 0xF2DE
<6> 4.764223] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 2 at offset 0xF807
<6> 4.764247] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 3 at offset 0xF98F
<6> 4.770014] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 4 at offset 0xFA53
<3> 4.793991] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: mem timing table length unknown: 14
<6> 4.794010] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: 1 available performance level(s)
<6> 4.794014] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: 0: memory 0MHz
<6> 4.794025] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: c: memory 501MHz core 299MHz
<6> 4.794124] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Detected 256MiB VRAM
<6> 4.794180] [TTM] Zone kernel: Available graphics memory: 423096 kiB.
<6> 4.794182] [TTM] Zone highmem: Available graphics memory: 1759260 kiB.
<6> 4.794184] [TTM] Initializing pool allocator.
<6> 4.794535] agpgart-amd64 0000:00:00.0: AGP 3.0 bridge
<6> 4.794553] agpgart: work_for_cpu tried to set rate=x12. Setting to AGP3 x8 mode.
<6> 4.794559] agpgart-amd64 0000:00:00.0: putting AGP V3 device into 8x mode
<6> 4.794628] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: putting AGP V3 device into 8x mode
<6> 4.794631] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: 64 MiB GART (aperture)
<6> 4.797010] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Allocating FIFO number 0
<6> 4.798547] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: nouveau_channel_alloc: initialised FIFO 0
<6> 4.798606] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on vga encoder (output 0)
<6> 4.798610] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on vga encoder (output 1)
<6> 4.798613] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on tmds encoder (output 2)
<6> 4.798617] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on TV encoder (output 3)
<6> 4.837034] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Load detected on output A
<6> 4.901343] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: allocated 1024x768 fb: 0x49000, bo f37f1400
<6> 4.911820] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Setting dpms mode 0 on vga encoder (output 0)
<6> 4.911825] [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Output VGA-1 is running on CRTC 0 using output A
<4> 4.934776] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 124x44
<6> 4.943060] fb0: nouveaufb frame buffer device
<6> 4.943063] drm: registered panic notifier
<6> 4.943074] [drm] Initialized nouveau 0.0.16 20090420 for 0000:01:00.0 on minor 0

/var/log/Xorg.5.log (part):

70.455] 
70.454] (++) using VT number 7
70.455] (EE) NV: The PCI device 0x10de0141 (GeForce 6600) at 01@00:00:0 has a kernel module claiming it.
70.455] (EE) NV: This driver cannot operate until it has been unloaded.
70.455] (EE) No devices detected.
70.455]

Fatal server error:
70.455] no screens found
70.455]
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
at X.Org Wiki - Home
for help.
70.455] Please also check the log file at “/var/log/Xorg.5.log” for additional information.
70.455]

The problems appears even without xorg.conf!

Any suggestions to resolve this problems?

2

You most likely need to add the kernel load option nomodeset, which is included in the failsafe entry in your Grub menu.lst file. Before you press enter in the grub menu, you can type in any kernel load option name. Try using nomodeset and then press enter. As for xrog.conf, openSUSE 11.4 does not need this file and it might even be a test to remove it and then restart, if nomodeset does not help.

Thank You,

3

Yes, I’ll try it.

The problems appears even without xorg.conf!

I often read openSUSE 11.x does not need a xorg.conf file. But any file must be, telling the system how to handle my monitor!
11.4 does not create a xorg.conf file. This was done by sax2 from 11.2, but sax2 ist dropped since 11.3!

4

Further to what jdmcdaniel3 noted, there is guidance in openSUSE-11.4 release notes . For example this section:

Technical

      **Initializing Graphics with KMS (Kernel Mode Setting)**

 With openSUSE 11.3 we switched to KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) for  Intel, ATI and NVIDIA graphics, which now is our default. If you  encounter problems with the KMS driver support (intel, radeon, **nouveau**),  disable KMS **by adding nomodeset to the kernel boot command line**. To set this permanently, add it to the kernel command line in /boot/grub/menu.lst. This option makes sure the appropriate kernel module (intel, radeon, nouveau) is loaded with modeset=0 in initrd, i.e. KMS is disabled.

 In the rare cases when loading the DRM module from initrd is a general problem and unrelated to KMS, it is even possible to disable loading of the DRM module in initrd completely. For this set the NO_KMS_IN_INITRD sysconfig variable to yes via YAST, which then recreates initrd afterwards. Reboot your machine.

 On Intel without KMS the Xserver falls back to the fbdev driver (the intel driver only supports KMS); alternatively, there is the "intellegacy" driver (xorg-x11-driver-video-intel-legacy package) which still supports UMS (User Mode Setting). To use it, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf and change the driver entry to intellegacy.

On ATI for current GPUs it falls back to radeonhd. On NVIDIA without KMS the nv driver is used (the nouveau driver only supports KMS).

So by booting with nomodeset, you won’t be using the ‘nouveau’ graphic driver (which clearly failed from the information you posted) but rather the ‘nv’ driver.

5

Sounds good, let’s try it!

6

Yes, it works! NOMODESET is the resolution.

7

Yes, it works! NOMODESET is the resolution.
Happy to hear the kernel load option nomodeset got you up and running QUOKA.

Thank You,