nvidia-xconfig wiped out system?

English Hardware
1

I installed 11.1-x64 on an Athlon 64 X2 system with an nvidia Geforce 6500. Everything seemed to work fine until I tried to start the Nvidia SAX config utility, which gave me a message saying I wasn’t using the Nvidia driver and had to type “nvidia-xconfig” as root. After doing so, it said to restart X, which I did but it took me to a command line. When I hit ctrl-alt-F7, there is just a blinking cursor in the top left corner of the screen. I’ve tried init 3, then init 5 but it does nothing.

I can choose “failsafe” when I reboot and get to a GUI, but I don’t know what to do to fix my system. Should I get rid of the nvidia repository and install from elsewhere?

I know there are a billion threads regarding nvidia drivers on this forum, but I couldn’t find any that seemed to address this particular problem and I welcome any advice or redirection.

2

Hi
Get to init 3 again and run sax2 just ignore the warning for the moment;


sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia
init 5 && exit

It may have barfed because you monitor is not setup.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.1 x86 Kernel 2.6.27.7-9-pae
up 9:22, 1 user, load average: 1.46, 1.06, 0.68
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 180.22

3

When you get to the blinking cursor, log in as root and run this command

sax2 -r -m 0=nv

This will switch you back to the open source driver you were using before, so you’ll have a desktop GUI at least.

Then I would uninstall the driver you installed (you did not say which one) and try another one.

4

Thank you, I will try both these solutions.

Also, just to clarify, I can’t do anything with the blinking cursor that shows up when I type ctrl-alt-F7. In order to run any commands I need to do ctrl-alt-F1. I don’t know if this makes a difference, but thought I’d throw it out.

The driver I installed is whatever is in the Nvidia repository. Sorry for the “newbie” questions, but where do I find another one? Is there another repository that has older drivers?

5

If it’s an older card you might need the “legacy driver”. Check the supported products list linked on the left side of the page (this driver is the non-legacy one for newer cards)

Linux x64 (AMD64/EM64T)

6

It looks like my Geforce 6500 falls under the current (non-legacy) driver. I have to install this “the hard way”, right?

Thanks again for all your help. You guys make this forum work. I’ll post my results when I have time to mess with it tonight.

7

I would just add the nvidia repository in YAST under Repositories / Add / Community Repositories. Then go to YAST / Software Management and search for “nvidia”.

If there is a previous driver installed, remove that first.

Then install the X11 and the GO1 files and then go to the terminal type su, log with root password and run the command

nvidia-xconfig

Log out of the GUI and log back in and run this command

nvidia-settings

This will tell you if the driver was installed successfully or not.

If this fails, try the X11 and GO2 files from the Nvidia repo.

If still no luck, then it’s time to try “the hard way” using the driver I linked to in the post above. I’ll give you instructions on those if needed or you can read the instructions posted by Nvidia on their driver page.

8

The G02 is the one I did last time, so I’ll try the G01. Good to know there may be another alternative to installing the one from the Nvidia website.

Thanks again for all your help.

9

It’s common to have to try several drivers and or methods before you find one that works. Takes some getting used to, I’m afraid.

10

Update: Success!

I tried every one of the drivers in the repo with no success, but then in desperation I tried the G02 one again. Still no success. (Every time i’d run sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia it would bring me back to that blinking cursor screen).

I tried the G02 again (I was fixated on it because I really thought it was the one I should be using for my hardware) and ran the above command without doing an init 3 first. I don’t know why it worked, but it did. I’m now running with full 3d support (with desktop effects! Sweet).

Thanks again for all your help.