Can't get proprietary nvidia driver working...

English Hardware
1

Hi, me again.

After replacing my motherboard and removing the nvidia drivers (so I could get into a working GUI), I find that installing the nvidia drivers via One-click or the normal YaST way does not give me the desired results; the X server fails to start and sax2 (sax2 -r, sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia) does not start the X server either. Therefore, as you could imagine, I require some help.

I am using the exact same card and driver packages as with the old motherboard. The only thing that’s changed is the kernel version, going from 2.6.25.20-0.1 to 2.6.25.20-0.4.

Also, I seem to have both kernel-default and kernel-pae installed side-by-side (with the pae variant being booted into). As far as I know, I never installed the default kernel and I suspect the nvidia package or kernel-source did as de-selecting it in YaST yields no conflicts in dependencies. This could be why selecting the nvidia driver package makes it auto-select the *-default nvidia module package rather than the *-pae package.

I’ll remove kernel-default and see if that works. Here’s any output you guys might need:

xorg.conf:


# /.../
# SaX generated X11 config file
# Created on: 2009-06-24T16:51:02+0100.
#
# Version: 8.1
# Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005
# Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users>
#
# Automatically generated by [SaX2] (8.1)
# PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!
#

Section "Files"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/local"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/URW"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Speedo"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/PEX"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/kwintv"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/CID"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled"
  FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/xtest"
  FontPath     "/opt/kde3/share/fonts"
  InputDevices "/dev/gpmdata"
  InputDevices "/dev/input/mice"
EndSection

Section "Module"
  Load         "dbe"
  Load         "type1"
  Load         "freetype"
  Load         "extmod"
  Load         "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
  Option       "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on"
  Option       "ZapWarning" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "kbd"
  Identifier   "Keyboard[0]"
  Option       "Protocol" "Standard"
  Option       "XkbLayout" "gb"
  Option       "XkbModel" "microsoftpro"
  Option       "XkbRules" "xfree86"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "mouse"
  Identifier   "Mouse[1]"
  Option       "Buttons" "7"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
  Option       "Name" "Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical"
  Option       "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
  Option       "Vendor" "Sysp"
  Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
  Option       "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
  DisplaySize  340 270
  HorizSync    31-64
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "1280X1024@60HZ"
  Option       "DPMS"
  Option       "PreferredMode" "1280x1024"
  VendorName   "--> VESA"
  VertRefresh  50-60
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Device"
  BoardName    "GeForce 8600 GT"
  BusID        "5:0:0"
  Driver       "nv"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  VendorName   "NVidia"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "1280x1024" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "1280x1024" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1280x1024" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "1280x1024" 
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection


Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout[all]"
  InputDevice  "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
  Screen       "Screen[0]"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
    Group      "video"
    Mode       0660
EndSection

Ask for any other output and you shall receive.

2

As you can see ‘nv’ is used as a driver.
Start the software installer, Configuration, Repos
Add repo, Community repos, NVidia.
Now the appropriate drivers should be installed.

After that, you do have to run ‘sax2 -r -m0=nvidia’ to configure xorg.conf.

3

When I try that SaX2 can’t start an X server, even though the nvidia kernel module has been loaded and xorg.conf has been updated with the relevant nvidia entries either by myself or the nvidia X configuration utility. Also, removing kernel-default has made no difference. I’ll have a poke around.

4

You may want to take a look at this one. I performed these steps and it work perfectly.

Nvidia driver issues - openSUSE Forums

5

Thanks very much atraller47, it worked first try! I guess that confirmed my suspicions that the rpm in the nvidia repo did not have a kernel module matching my kernel. Now the question is, what happens when I perform a kernel update? Do I simply run the program again or do I append -K to it to update just the module? Also, can I uninstall it and use the normal rpms once they are updated with a matching kernel module for my kernel?

Again, thanks for the help. :slight_smile: