struggling with NVidia Proprietary driver on 11.4

Hi guys,

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T610 with NVS-3100M and the embedded intel graphics. I recently did a clean install of 11.4. I was using the default opensource driver that came with 11.4 and everything was working fine, except for sporadic crashes and hangs. It happened quite often that the system would crash straight after restarting. Usually 1 out of 3 restarts would end up crashing. Also every now and then when the computer was going on sleep automatically, on the way out the system would crash with ‘resuming …’ printed a few times on the screen. After a bit of googling around for the symptoms I was experiencing found out this is usually caused by the graphic card + driver, and hence decided to give the nvidia proprietary driver a go.

I installed the driver both the easy way ( using zypper ) and the hard way using the nvidia run script and following the instructions, but had no luck. At the beginning I was getting a few issues with i915 and drm. The most important ones were:

intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: failed to get i915 symbols, graphics turbo disabled
[drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] *ERROR* failed to get supported _DSM functions
fb: conflicting fb hw usage inteldrmfb vs VESA VGA - removing generic driver

I could boot the system in failsafe, but the normal boot wouldn’t load any graphics and start the command line interface.

The i915 issue was then resolved by adding i915 and intel_agp to the /etc/sysconfig/kernel and doing a mkinitrd, and blacklisting Nouveau.

However the other two are still hassling me. I looked around different forums and etc but found no concrete information on how to resolve the two. So ended up removing the xorg.conf file, and now the laptop boots normally but not using the nvidia drivers. I’m really not sure what’s happening at the moment, as Nouveau is blacklisted and there is no xorg.conf file.

Currently the boot log only contains two errors/conflicts which are the


<3>   10.525497] [drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] *ERROR* failed to get supported _DSM functions
<3>   10.526144] [drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] *ERROR* failed to get supported _DSM functions
<3>   10.736911] fb: conflicting fb hw usage inteldrmfb vs VESA VGA - removing generic driver

NVidia X Server Settings application warns me that:


You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver.  Please edit your X configuration file (just run `nvidia-xconfig` as root), and restart the X server.

The NVidia module and i915 are not complaining about much:


<4>    2.853468] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
<4>    2.853472] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
<6>    2.863479] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
<6>    2.902244] i915 0000:00:02.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0
<6>    2.902256] i915 0000:00:02.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0
<6>    2.902263] i915 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
<7>    2.902267] i915 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
<6>    2.930103] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0
<6>    2.930134] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI to D0
<6>    2.930141] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0104 -> 0107)
<6>    2.930150] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
<7>    2.930158] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
<6>    2.930165] vgaarb: device changed decodes: PCI:0000:01:00.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=none
<4>    2.930343] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module  295.33  Sat Mar 17 14:55:45 PDT 2012
<7>    2.952958] i915 0000:00:02.0: irq 41 for MSI/MSI-X
**<3>    2.953476] [drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] *ERROR* failed to get supported _DSM functions
<3>    2.954030] [drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] *ERROR* failed to get supported _DSM functions**
<7>    3.147813] checking generic (f0000000 1ff0000) vs hw (f0000000 8000000)
**<3>    3.147819] fb: conflicting fb hw usage inteldrmfb vs VESA VGA - removing generic driver**

I was wondering if anyone’s got any idea what’s happening here, possible ways to fix it, what’s worth investigating and etc. I know this is not a Suse issue but didn’t know what forum would be the best place to discuss this.

Thanks,
Shuku

shukuboy wrote:

>
> Hi guys,
>
> I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T610 with NVS-3100M and the embedded intel
> graphics. I recently did a clean install of 11.4. I was using the
> default opensource driver that came with 11.4 and everything was
working
> fine, except for sporadic crashes and hangs. It happened quite often
> that the system would crash straight after restarting. Usually 1 out
of
> 3 restarts would end up crashing. Also every now and then when the
> computer was going on sleep automatically, on the way out the system
> would crash with ‘resuming …’ printed a few times on the screen.
> After a bit of googling around for the symptoms I was experiencing
found
> out this is usually caused by the graphic card + driver, and hence
> decided to give the nvidia proprietary driver a go.
>
> I installed the driver both the easy way ( using zypper ) and the
hard
> way using the nvidia run script and following the instructions, but
had
> no luck. At the beginning I was getting a few issues with i915 and
drm.
> The most important ones were:
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> intel ips 0000:00:1f.6: failed to get i915 symbols, graphics
turbo
> disabled
> [drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] ERROR failed to get supported _DSM
functions
> fb: conflicting fb hw usage inteldrmfb vs VESA VGA - removing
generic
> driver
>
> --------------------
>
> I could boot the system in failsafe, but the normal boot wouldn’t
load
> any graphics and start the command line interface.
>
> The i915 issue was then resolved by adding i915 and intel_agp to the
> /etc/sysconfig/kernel and doing a mkinitrd, and blacklisting Nouveau.
>
> However the other two are still hassling me. I looked around
different
> forums and etc but found no concrete information on how to resolve
the
> two. So ended up removing the xorg.conf file, and now the laptop
boots
> normally but not using the nvidia drivers. I’m really not sure
what’s
> happening at the moment, as Nouveau is blacklisted and there is no
> xorg.conf file.
>
> Currently the boot log only contains two errors/conflicts which are
> the
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> <3> 10.525497] [drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] ERROR failed to get
> supported _DSM functions
> <3> 10.526144] [drm:intel_dsm_pci_probe] ERROR failed to get
> supported _DSM functions
> <3> 10.736911] fb: conflicting fb hw usage inteldrmfb vs VESA
VGA -
> removing generic driver
> --------------------
>
>
> NVidia X Server Settings application warns me that:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver. Please edit
your X
> configuration file (just run nvidia-xconfig as root), and restart
the
> X server.
>
> --------------------
>
>
> The NVidia module and i915 are not complaining about much:
>
> Code:
> --------------------
>
> <4> 2.853468] nvidia: module license ‘NVIDIA’ taints kernel.
> <4> 2.853472] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
> <6> 2.863479] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
> <6> 2.902244] i915 0000:00:02.0: power state changed by ACPI to
D0
> <6> 2.902256] i915 0000:00:02.0: power state changed by ACPI to
D0
> <6> 2.902263] i915 0000:00:02.0: PCI INT A → GSI 16 (level,
low) →
> IRQ 16
> <7> 2.902267] i915 0000:00:02.0: setting latency timer to 64
> <6> 2.930103] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI
to D0
> <6> 2.930134] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: power state changed by ACPI
to D0
> <6> 2.930141] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0104 →
0107)
> <6> 2.930150] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A → GSI 16 (level,
low)
> → IRQ 16
> <7> 2.930158] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
> <6> 2.930165] vgaarb: device changed decodes:
> PCI:0000:01:00.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=none
> <4> 2.930343] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module
295.33
> Sat Mar 17 14:55:45 PDT 2012
> <7> 2.952958] i915 0000:00:02.0: irq 41 for MSI/MSI-X
> <3> 2.953476] [DRM:INTEL_DSM_PCI_PROBE] ERROR FAILED TO GET
> SUPPORTED _DSM FUNCTIONS
> <3> 2.954030] [DRM:INTEL_DSM_PCI_PROBE] ERROR FAILED TO GET
> SUPPORTED _DSM FUNCTIONS
> <7> 3.147813] checking generic (f0000000 1ff0000) vs hw
(f0000000
> 8000000)
> <3> 3.147819] FB: CONFLICTING FB HW USAGE INTELDRMFB VS VESA
VGA -
> REMOVING GENERIC DRIVER
>
> --------------------
>
>
> I was wondering if anyone’s got any idea what’s happening here,
> possible ways to fix it, what’s worth investigating and etc. I know
> this is not a Suse issue but didn’t know what forum would be the best
> place to discuss this.
>
> Thanks,
> Shuku
>
>
Just to be clear
This is switchable graphics is it?

I do know there are issues generally, but I have no experience here.
And I have seen similar threads reporting problems when trying to use
the nvidia driver

Seems to be an Optimus system. First you have to realize that it’s not possible to run xorg on the Nvidia harware, it’s only possible on Intel. Nvidia can only be used under bumblebee, here’s the best HOWTO so far:
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/how-faq-forums/unreviewed-how-faq/469419-opensuse-12-1-optimus-laptop.html
Good luck!