HI
I went back to Suse 11.2, it comes with the ‘nv’ driver for my NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro (64 MB) and I’m getting some slow performance on browser display and sometimes video playing. Not always, I recently saw a 2 hr long movie on Blue Ray resolution, so the problem is not hardware, it’s software.
I saw several links here on how to install other drivers and a 1-click install link on this page but my question is, since this is an old card… which driver is the best for this card ?
Thank you
The place I typically go to figure out what is happening wrt nVidia proprietary graphic drivers is the nvidia forum ! There is an excellent stickie here on that forum: Current NVIDIA Linux graphics driver releases - nV News Forums
I don’t know what a Quadra Pro 2 is. I note the proprietary 260.19.36 (x86 / x86_64) supports:
Quadro series:
4000, 2000, 6000, 600, 5000
and I note the current Legacy release for the GeForce 5 series GPUs - 173.14.28 (x86 / x86_64) supports:
Quadro FX series:
FX 550, FX 4500 X2, FX 1700, FX 570, FX 1000, FX 350, FX 3450, FX 1400, FX 5600, FX 3000, FX 1300, FX 4500, FX 500/FX 600, FX 3700, FX 330, FX 700, FX 5500, FX 540, FX 370, FX 3400/4400, FX 4600, FX 2000, FX 560, FX 4700 X2, FX 3500, FX 4000, FX 1100, FX 1500
Quadro FX Notebook series:
FX 1700M, FX 3600M, FX 570M, FX 360M, FX 2700M, FX 370M, FX 1600M
Quadro NVS series:
NVS 285, NVS 440, NVS 290
Quadro Plex series:
Model II, Model IV
Quadro G-Sync series:
G-Sync I, G-Sync II
Quadro SDI series:
Quadro SDI
and I note Legacy releases for GeForce 2 through GeForce 4 series GPUs is 96.43.19 (x86 / x86_64) which supports:
Quadro NVS series:
NVS 295, NVS 450, NVS 55/280 PCI, NVS 285, NVS 420, NVS 290, NVS 50, NVS 440, NVS 210, NVS 280
Quadro 4 Go series:
500 GoGL, 700 GoGL, 550 XGL
Quadro 2 Go series:
MXR/EX/Go
Quadro 2 MXR series:
Quadro2 MXR/EX/Go
and I note the Legacy releases for Riva TNT, TNT2, GeForce, and some GeForce 2 GPUs is 71.86.14 (x86 / x86_64) which includes:
Quadro 2 Pro series:
Quadro2 Pro
… and that suggests to me you should be using the 71.86.14 driver ! …
I typically always install the “hardway” (which is not hard) and I avoid both the rpm repository and the ‘one click install’ method of driver installation. But each to their own ! 
Good luck !
Thank you! I’ll check it out, I didn’t went to the NVIDIA website because I was under the impression that they didn’t support Linux anymore, for example, when I used Suse 10.2 I used the driver from them, such driver doesn’t work under 11+ Suse so i didn’t bothered looking there.
Ahh … well, … when it comes to proprietary drivers, for many years nVidia has supported hardware with their proprietary drivers better than ATI and in some cases better than Intel. Note I have graphic hardware from all 3 suppliers (nVidia , Intel, and ATI) . ATI for example, labelled a bunch of their hardware as legacy and they refuse to support that hardware. In the case of Intel, some of their older hardware (such as the i855GM) no longer works well with any Linux kernel after the 2.6.27 kernel (although efforts have been going on for a couple of years to try to fix this - unsuccessfully thus far to a large extent).
I wrote some basic practical graphic card theory here on graphic drivers in openSUSE: openSUSE Graphic Card Practical Theory Guide for Users
Note I am an ‘average’ Linux user and I am NOT a graphic card expert. But it became clear to me that even basic graphic card theory was missing amongst many openSUSE Linux average users and basic users, and hence that motivated me to write that faq/how-to, in order to address what I saw as a weakness in the knowledge how graphics was structured in openSUSE. That guide still needs work, and hopefully as my knowledge improves I can update it some more.
yes, I know that link, I used whne I had Suse 10.2. I just tried to make the installation but it failed.
I downloaded the correct driver:
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.14-pkg1.run
I have this kernel installed:
2.6.31.14-0.6-default
the version of the kernel-source correspond to the version installed according to Yast.
Since it’s Suse 11.2 I follow the same steps under ‘root’ user:
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.14-pkg1.run
init 3
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.14-pkg1.run -q
sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia
init 5
compilation is successful. But the sax2 command returns an error whihc on the log file
var/log/sax.log reads at the end:
(II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules//drivers/nvidia_drv.so
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//drivers/nvidia_drv.so: undefined symbol: AllocateScreenPrivateIndex
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules//drivers/nvidia_drv.so
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (loader failed, 7)
(EE) No drivers available.
Fatal server error:
no screens found
does it has anything to do that the ‘nv’ driver is currently active ?
Instead of “sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia”, why not follow the suggestion in the how-to that I wrote (which you note you are familiar with) and run:
nvidia-xconfig
Also, while entering run level 3 via “init 3” may work most the time, sometimes it just does not work, because some modules are not correctly unloaded when one enters run level 3 that way. IMHO it is safer to boot direct to run level 3 via the grub boot menu (by typing ‘3’ (no quotes) in the options line), log in as a regular user, switch to root, run
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.14-pkg1.run -q
and then rebuild the xorg.conf with:
nvidia-xconfig
and restart with
shutdown -r now
…
and you can also even try booting with NO /etc/X11/xorg.conf file in 11.2 (although that works better in 11.3 than 11.2).
nope, didn’t work, says nvidia-xconfig is not a command, tried using the cnf and returned it can’t find it.
I also tried the Xorg -configure mentioned on your guide and it returns the same error the sax2 command returns:
(II) LoadModule: “nvidia”
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules//drivers/nvidia_drv.so
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//drivers/nvidia_drv.so: undefined symbol: AllocateScreenPrivateIndex
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules//drivers/nvidia_drv.so
(II) UnloadModule: “nvidia”
(EE) Failed to load module “nvidia” (loader failed, 7)
(EE) No drivers available.
That tells me you did not succeed in installing the proprietary linux driver.
When you ran “sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.14-pkg1.run -q” did you get any errors? Did you have the exact same version of ‘kernel-source’ and ‘kernel-syms’ as your kernel when you installed the driver? I hope you have only ONE kernel (such as kernel-default, and not a wide selection such as kernel-pae, kernel-desktop, kernel-xen’ as that could confuse the program that does the compilation). Did you boot to run level 3 in the manner I suggested as opposed to using ‘init 3’ ?
On 01/27/2011 04:36 PM, mhunt0 wrote:
> I recently saw a 2 hr long movie on Blue Ray resolution, so the problem is not hardware, it’s
> software. … which driver is the best for this card ?
since the driver sits between the fine hardware and the fine operating
system software, the driver you want is the one you used to watch the
blue ray with!
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5
“release 1”, Thunderbird3.0.11,]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11
nope, no errors were reported when I ran the ‘sh…’ command, at the end it says the driver was installed and that it should only be activated. I check this path and the file ‘nvidia_drv.so’ is htere:
/usr/lib/xorg/modules//drivers/nvidia_drv.so
I only have one kernel installed:
2.6.31.14-0.6-default
I installed the gcc, make and kernel-source from Yast.
The kernel-source version is the same as the kernel installed. this is the list of ‘kernel-*’ stuff that I have installed:
kernel-default
kernel-default-devel
kernel-source
linux-kernel-headers
The kernel-syms that you mention is not installed.
Yes, I boot from ‘init 3’ in console mode.
The problem is, such performance is not regular, sometimes by simply scrolling on a browser the display is very slow, others, when playing a video the image stops while the sound continues and suddenly the video ‘fast forward’ to the point where the audio is going as if the images were been keep in a buffer and freed.
That’s why I want to try the vendor’s driver and see if I get better performance than the ‘nv’ driver that is installed.
I’m not 100% certain kernel-syms is needed, but I typically always install it.
What is the output of:
rpm -qa '*kernel*'
Please post that here.
Your english is confusing me here. You boot from ‘init 3’ ?? I don’t know what that means.
I boot from the PC switched OFF. Then when the grub menu appears I type ‘3’ in the options line so that the PC boots to run level 3. I NEVER type ‘init 3’ (which is a command - it is NOT a ‘level’). Its not clear to me you understand the difference ?? Hence its not clear you are doing the correct activity. My apologies if the above reads to be harsh - I’m just trying hard to figure out why this is not working for you.
Edit - Also double check to confirm your download of the .run file was good.
the result from 'rpm -qa ‘kernel’ is
kernel-default-2.6.31.14-0.6.1.i586
linux-kernel-headers-2.6.31-3.4.noarch
kernel-source-2.6.31.14-0.6.1.noarch
kernel-default-devel-2.6.31.14-0.6.1.i586
Sorry for my bad English, yes, I typed ‘3’ in the options when the grub menu appeared.
There was no error message when i downloaded the .run file, I can download it again in case, but if it were a bad/corrupted download then it shouldn’t have compiled.
Well, nvidia-xconfig IS a command, and the fact it gives you that error tells me you are failing to install the proprietary nvidia driver.
Like I say, I always install kernel-syms. I do not know if it is needed, but that is definitely one thing you are doing different from what I typically do.
sorry… no luck yet, installed the kernel-syms, compiled again, no error, tried the nvidia-xconfig, same error, tried the Xorg -configure, same error…
Compilation doesn’t return any error, it just says it’s installed and to only activate it.
I looking around for a solution on the web, no luck so far.
Thank you for all the help.
Hmmm … I don’t have any new ideas.
Maybe try and see if anyone on the Linux subarea of the nVidia forum can help: NVIDIA Linux - nV News Forums