Re: random quirkyness

[Florian Kulzer]

On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 22:33:16 -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> On 2/9/07, Florian Kulzer wrote:
> >
> >On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 11:14:55 -0600, Mike Myers wrote:

[...]

> >> My main question are these;
> >>
> >> Is there a way I can keep the nvidia driver installed so I don't have to
> >> reinstall it every reboot?
> >
> >With the Debian packages there should be no need to reinstall the nvidia
> >driver on every boot. You probably have some configuration problem or
> >maybe you used the nvidia installer script earlier and did not remove
> >its traces completely. For a start, please post the output of the
> >following 6 commands:

[ snip: nvidia kernel and glx packages installed; the important files
  are present ]

>  find /etc/rc?.d/ -type l -name \*nvidia\*
> 
> (I think I see the problem here)
> 
> /etc/rc0.d/K20nvidia-kernel
> /etc/rc0.d/K20nvidia-glx
> /etc/rc0.d/K20nvidia-glx-legacy

[ snip: the same for the other runlevels ]

>  find /etc/init.d/ -type f -name \*nvidia\*
> 
> /etc/init.d/nvidia-glx-legacy
> /etc/init.d/nvidia-glx
> /etc/init.d/nvidia-kernel

I think this is the problem: You had the nvidia-glx-legacy package (for
older cards) installed at some point. Then you removed it (or it was
removed automatically when you installed the nvidia-glx package) but its
startup script is still present. This seems to interfere with the
startup script of nvidia-glx. (These startup-scripts allow you to use
the nvidia driver with more than one kernel version; this is a
Debian-specific feature.)

This should be easily fixable by purging the nvidia-glx-legacy package.
Purging a package - as opposed to removing it - will also delete its
configuration files. (The startup script is considered a configuration
file because the user might want to customize it.)

You can run (as root)

dpkg -P nvidia-glx-legacy

Then you can check with "dpkg -l nvidia-glx-legacy" if the status of the
package is listed as "pn". Your system should be fine after that. (You
might have to reinstall nvidia-glx once more.)

(The output of the last command was OK, too: Your xorg nvidia module is
 where it should be.)

-- 
Regards,
  Florian


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Re: random quirkyness

[Mike Myers]

On 2/9/07, Florian Kulzer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 11:14:55 -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> I still can't seem to get this all worked out.  I've uninstalled any
traces
> of the nvidia driver, like nvidia-kernel, nvidia-common, and nvidia-glx
and
> then reinstalled all of them but I'm still having the same problem.  I'm
> still having issues with the wrong sound card being detected every time
it
> boots up.
>
> My main question are these;
>
> Is there a way I can keep the nvidia driver installed so I don't have to
> reinstall it every reboot?

With the Debian packages there should be no need to reinstall the nvidia
driver on every boot. You probably have some configuration problem or
maybe you used the nvidia installer script earlier and did not remove
its traces completely. For a start, please post the output of the
following 6 commands:

  dpkg -l nvidia\* | grep ^ii



ii  nvidia-glx1.0.8776-4 NVIDIA binary XFree86
4.x driver
ii  nvidia-kernel-2.6.18-3-6861.0.8776+5 NVIDIA binary kernel
module for Linux 2.6.18
ii  nvidia-kernel-common  20051028+1 NVIDIA binary kernel
module common files


 find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ -type f -name nvidia\*


/lib/modules/2.6.18-3-686/nvidia/nvidia.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-3-686/kernel/drivers/char/agp/nvidia-agp.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.18-3-686/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia/nvidiafb.ko


 find /etc/rc?.d/ -type l -name \*nvidia\*


(I think I see the problem here)

/etc/rc0.d/K20nvidia-kernel
/etc/rc0.d/K20nvidia-glx
/etc/rc0.d/K20nvidia-glx-legacy
/etc/rc1.d/K20nvidia-kernel
/etc/rc1.d/K20nvidia-glx
/etc/rc1.d/K20nvidia-glx-legacy
/etc/rc2.d/S20nvidia-glx-legacy
/etc/rc2.d/S20nvidia-kernel
/etc/rc2.d/S20nvidia-glx
/etc/rc3.d/S20nvidia-glx-legacy
/etc/rc3.d/S20nvidia-kernel
/etc/rc3.d/S20nvidia-glx
/etc/rc4.d/S20nvidia-glx-legacy
/etc/rc4.d/S20nvidia-kernel
/etc/rc4.d/S20nvidia-glx
/etc/rc5.d/S20nvidia-glx-legacy
/etc/rc5.d/S20nvidia-kernel
/etc/rc5.d/S20nvidia-glx
/etc/rc6.d/K20nvidia-kernel
/etc/rc6.d/K20nvidia-glx
/etc/rc6.d/K20nvidia-glx-legacy


 find /etc/init.d/ -type f -name \*nvidia\*


/etc/init.d/nvidia-glx-legacy
/etc/init.d/nvidia-glx
/etc/init.d/nvidia-kernel


 find /usr/lib/xorg/ -name \*nvidia\*


/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.o

 find /usr/X11R6/lib/ -name \*nvidia\*


(doesn't give any output)

If, on the other hand, you are now using the nvidia installer script,

then you have to purge (not just remove) all the Debian nvidia packages.
(If you only remove them then they will leave behind scripts in
/etc/init.d which mess with the glx module symlinks at every boot.)



All I did was apt-get install nvidia-(whatever) to install it.  I might have
done the wrong one though at first.


Is there a way I can disable hardware detection?  I'd rather just define
> what sound card I'm using and just use it, instead of having debian try
to
> auto-detect two of them and guess which one I want to use.  If there is
a
> bug somewhere in udev or whatever, please give me some info on
> troubleshooting that so I can help with it.  I'm not really familiar
enough
> with udev to figure that out on my own.

You should be able to blacklist modules with a file in /etc/modprobe.d,
see the "blacklist" or "alsa-base-blacklist" in this directory for
examples.



I'll try that out, thanks!

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  Florian


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Re: random quirkyness

[Florian Kulzer]

On Fri, Feb 09, 2007 at 11:14:55 -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> I still can't seem to get this all worked out.  I've uninstalled any traces
> of the nvidia driver, like nvidia-kernel, nvidia-common, and nvidia-glx and
> then reinstalled all of them but I'm still having the same problem.  I'm
> still having issues with the wrong sound card being detected every time it
> boots up.
> 
> My main question are these;
> 
> Is there a way I can keep the nvidia driver installed so I don't have to
> reinstall it every reboot?

With the Debian packages there should be no need to reinstall the nvidia
driver on every boot. You probably have some configuration problem or
maybe you used the nvidia installer script earlier and did not remove
its traces completely. For a start, please post the output of the
following 6 commands:

  dpkg -l nvidia\* | grep ^ii

  find /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ -type f -name nvidia\*

  find /etc/rc?.d/ -type l -name \*nvidia\*

  find /etc/init.d/ -type f -name \*nvidia\*

  find /usr/lib/xorg/ -name \*nvidia\*

  find /usr/X11R6/lib/ -name \*nvidia\*

If, on the other hand, you are now using the nvidia installer script,
then you have to purge (not just remove) all the Debian nvidia packages.
(If you only remove them then they will leave behind scripts in
/etc/init.d which mess with the glx module symlinks at every boot.)

> Is there a way I can disable hardware detection?  I'd rather just define
> what sound card I'm using and just use it, instead of having debian try to
> auto-detect two of them and guess which one I want to use.  If there is a
> bug somewhere in udev or whatever, please give me some info on
> troubleshooting that so I can help with it.  I'm not really familiar enough
> with udev to figure that out on my own.

You should be able to blacklist modules with a file in /etc/modprobe.d,
see the "blacklist" or "alsa-base-blacklist" in this directory for
examples.

-- 
Regards,
  Florian


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Re: random quirkyness

[Mike Myers]

I still can't seem to get this all worked out.  I've uninstalled any traces
of the nvidia driver, like nvidia-kernel, nvidia-common, and nvidia-glx and
then reinstalled all of them but I'm still having the same problem.  I'm
still having issues with the wrong sound card being detected every time it
boots up.

My main question are these;

Is there a way I can keep the nvidia driver installed so I don't have to
reinstall it every reboot?

Is there a way I can disable hardware detection?  I'd rather just define
what sound card I'm using and just use it, instead of having debian try to
auto-detect two of them and guess which one I want to use.  If there is a
bug somewhere in udev or whatever, please give me some info on
troubleshooting that so I can help with it.  I'm not really familiar enough
with udev to figure that out on my own.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Re: random quirkyness

[Mike Myers]

On 2/6/07, Mike Myers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


On 1/27/07, Douglas Allan Tutty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things (do it
> > manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything has been
>
> > great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of issues I'm
> > having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
> >
> > First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime my
> debian box
> > is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use
> xorg.  Also,
> > GDM doesn't seem to like my 1440x900 (widescreen) resolution and I
> can't
> > seem to do anything about it other than just not use GDM (not that
> ditching
> > it is a big deal).
>
> Hi Mike,
>
> I also run nvidia drivers, etch amd64, and the documentation isn't easy
> to track down yet.  It comes down to having all the pacakges installed
> that you need.  Once that's done it really does work.  Here's what I
> have:
>
> nvidia-kernel-2.6-amd64
> the metapackage that depends on the same kernel as
> linux-image-2.6-amd64 and on the matching nvidia-kernel modules
>
> nvidia-kernel-2.6.18-3-amd64
>
> nvidia-glx
> the xorg driver that depends on the nvidia kernel module
>
> The one you're missing:
> nvidia-xconfig
> it changes the xorg.conf file to use the nvidia driver and it
> ensures that the module is loaded and that everything works as
> it should.
>
> Install that and everything should work.  By the way, the only two lines
> in my /etc/modules file are:
> loop
> sbp2
>
> Good luck
>
> Doug.
>
>
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> To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>

Thanks for all the responses everybody.  I'm sorry for the late response,
I haven't had much time to mess with it lately since I'm still in the
process of moving and don't have internet at home yet.

Anyways, the problem isn't anything to do with installing the nvidia
driver.  It does install and run perfectly fine.  The problem seems to be
that the nvidia module doesn't load correctly after a reboot.  'lsmod' says
it is loaded, but xorg says it cannot find it.  Doing a apt-get --reinstall
install nvidia-glx and then unloading and reloading the module will fix it,
but only until the next reboot.  And then I have to do it all over again.

Some of you were saying it might be related to udev, but I'm not really
sure how to check that and see whether or not that's the issue.  I'd prefer
to just have the module installed and automatically loaded every time.  I
don't know why it would need to be detecting anything since I'm not changing
hardware every reboot.

This is annoying since I have to have internet to install it again (i've
cleaned the cache since I installed it last time like a month ago), and
since I don't have internet I can't even use my desktop.  Only the nvidia
driver will work with my widescreen monitor, the other drivers are useless.

Thanks!
Mike

Re: random quirkyness

[Douglas Allan Tutty]

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things (do it
> manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything has been
> great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of issues I'm
> having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
> 
> First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime my debian box
> is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use xorg.  Also,
> GDM doesn't seem to like my 1440x900 (widescreen) resolution and I can't
> seem to do anything about it other than just not use GDM (not that ditching
> it is a big deal).

Hi Mike,

I also run nvidia drivers, etch amd64, and the documentation isn't easy
to track down yet.  It comes down to having all the pacakges installed
that you need.  Once that's done it really does work.  Here's what I
have:

nvidia-kernel-2.6-amd64 
the metapackage that depends on the same kernel as
linux-image-2.6-amd64 and on the matching nvidia-kernel modules

nvidia-kernel-2.6.18-3-amd64

nvidia-glx
the xorg driver that depends on the nvidia kernel module

The one you're missing:
nvidia-xconfig
it changes the xorg.conf file to use the nvidia driver and it
ensures that the module is loaded and that everything works as
it should.

Install that and everything should work.  By the way, the only two lines
in my /etc/modules file are:
loop
sbp2

Good luck

Doug.


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Re: random quirkyness

[Rob Sims]

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 04:48:43PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> Mike, please don't cc: me as I subscribe to the list. thanks.
> 
> 
> I apologize, I'm using gmail and it did that automatically for some reason.
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 03:27:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> > On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > >On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> > >> Hi all,
> > >>
> > >> I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things (do it
> > >> manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything has 
> been
> > >> great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of issues I'm
> > >> having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
> > >>
> > >> First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime my
> debian
> > >box
> > >> is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use
> > >xorg.  Also,
> > >> GDM doesn't seem to like my 1440x900 (widescreen) resolution and I
> can't
> > >> seem to do anything about it other than just not use GDM (not that
> > >ditching
> > >> it is a big deal).
> > >
> > >I can't speak to the resolution issue, but the xorg issue should not
> > >be happening. when you re-apt-get it, does it download it again and
> > >appear to be actually reinstalling it? I wonder if your xorg.conf is
> > >not getting updated correctly and you are correcting for it by
> > >reinstalling each time. how about a copy of your xorg.conf for us to
> > >look at as well as dpkg -l | grep nvidia
> >
> >
> > I'm pretty sure it's not related to xorg, since it works fine after
> running
> > 'apt-get --reinstall install nvidia-glx', even with a widescreen.  It's
> only
> > after a reboot that I must run that, as long as I want to use the nvidia
> > driver.  If I use the 'nv' driver, then of course there's no issue 
> there,
> > but that driver sucks.  Just to oblige you, here's the contents:
> (hopefully
> > it looks sane enough to read)
> >
> 
> so, what exactly happens when you *don't* apt-get install nvidia-glx?
> what output do you get?
> 
> 
> It tries to start and then fails, saying it can't find the nvidia module, even
> though it's loaded.  So I get a blank screen.

Does it say it can't find the _kernel_ module?  Are you using udev?  If yes to
both, add nvidia to /etc/modules.  

If this works, the problem is that 'nvidia' is not auto-loaded by the kernel.
The device nodes are created by udev upon module insertion.  If the device
nodes are manually created (by installing the nvidia package, for example),
accessing the device node DOES trigger loading of the module.  With udev, /dev
is on a tmpfs, hence is discarded at shutdown.
-- 
Rob


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Re: random quirkyness

[Wackojacko]

Mike Myers wrote:
On 1/23/07, *Andrew Sackville-West* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> wrote:


Mike, please don't cc: me as I subscribe to the list. thanks.


I apologize, I'm using gmail and it did that automatically for some reason.

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 03:27:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
 > On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
 > >
 > >On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
 > >> Hi all,
 > >>
 > >> I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things
(do it
 > >> manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything
has been
 > >> great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of
issues I'm
 > >> having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
 > >>
 > >> First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime
my debian
 > >box
 > >> is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use
 > >xorg.  Also,
 > >> GDM doesn't seem to like my 1440x900 (widescreen) resolution
and I can't
 > >> seem to do anything about it other than just not use GDM (not that
 > >ditching
 > >> it is a big deal).
 > >
 > >I can't speak to the resolution issue, but the xorg issue should
not
 > >be happening. when you re-apt-get it, does it download it again and
 > >appear to be actually reinstalling it? I wonder if your xorg.conf is
 > >not getting updated correctly and you are correcting for it by
 > >reinstalling each time. how about a copy of your xorg.conf for us to
 > >look at as well as dpkg -l | grep nvidia
 >
 >
 > I'm pretty sure it's not related to xorg, since it works fine
after running
 > 'apt-get --reinstall install nvidia-glx', even with a
widescreen.  It's only
 > after a reboot that I must run that, as long as I want to use the
nvidia
 > driver.  If I use the 'nv' driver, then of course there's no
issue there,
 > but that driver sucks.  Just to oblige you, here's the contents:
(hopefully
 > it looks sane enough to read)
 >

so, what exactly happens when you *don't* apt-get install nvidia-glx?
what output do you get? 



It tries to start and then fails, saying it can't find the nvidia 
module, even though it's loaded.  So I get a blank screen.


I had this problem with the nvidia module.  The problem for me is that 
it's not loaded automatically so when X starts up it tries to load the 
nvidia module then start X, but the nvidia module isn't loaded quickly 
enough so it fails.


issuing '/etc/init.d/gdm (kdm for me) restart' should try again 
sucessfully as the module is now loaded.  If this works add nvidia to 
/etc/modules so its loaded automatically on boot and is available for X 
when it needs it.


If you already do this then please ignore:)

HTH

Wackojacko


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Re: random quirkyness

[Andrew Sackville-West]

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 04:48:43PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >Mike, please don't cc: me as I subscribe to the list. thanks.
> 
> 
> I apologize, I'm using gmail and it did that automatically for some 
> reason.
> 
> On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 03:27:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> >> On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> >> >> Hi all,
> >> >>
> >> >> I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things (do it
> >> >> manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything has
> >been
> >> >> great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of issues 
> >I'm
> >> >> having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
> >> >>
> >> >> First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime my
> >debian
> >> >box
> >> >> is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use
> >> >xorg.  Also,

> >> I'm pretty sure it's not related to xorg, since it works fine after
> >running
> >> 'apt-get --reinstall install nvidia-glx', even with a widescreen.  
> >It's
> >only
> >> after a reboot that I must run that, as long as I want to use the 
> >nvidia
> >> driver.  If I use the 'nv' driver, then of course there's no issue
> >there,
> >> but that driver sucks.  Just to oblige you, here's the contents:
> >(hopefully
> >> it looks sane enough to read)
> >>
> >
> >so, what exactly happens when you *don't* apt-get install nvidia-glx?
> >what output do you get?
> 
> 
> It tries to start and then fails, saying it can't find the nvidia module,
> even though it's loaded.  So I get a blank screen.

one thing you could do, to make sure you're loading the right module,
is to use insmod /path/to/the/right/module instead of modprobe, which
may, I suppose, be grabbing the wrong one. or modprobe -v should show
you the command it is using when inserting the module. regardless,
though, you shouldn't have to insert the module in advance. xorg
should do it for you, IIRC.

> >>
> >> Here's the output of 'dpkg -l'.  Maybe you can explain what it means?
> >>
> >> 'debian:~# dpkg -l | grep nvidia
> >> ii  nvidia-glx1.0.8776-4
> >  NVIDIA
> >> binary XFree86 4.x driver
> >> rc  nvidia-glx-legacy 1.0.7184-3
> >  NVIDIA
> >> binary Xorg driver (legacy version)
> >> ii  nvidia-kernel-2.6-686 1.0.8776+5
> >  NVIDIA
> >> binary kernel module for 2.6 series c
> >
> >
> >> ii  nvidia-kernel-2.6.18-3-6861.0.8776+5
> >  NVIDIA
> >> binary kernel module for Linux 2.6.18
> >
> >
> >>
> >ii  nvidia-kernel-common  20051028+1  
> >NVIDIA
> >> binary kernel module common files
> >
> >
> >> ii  nvidia-kernel-legacy-2.6.18-3-486 1.0.7184+5
> >  NVIDIA
> >> binary kernel module for Linux 2.6.18
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >hmmm... you have two sets of nvidia kernel modules installed. That may
> >contribute to the problem. purge one of them (probably the legacy one)
> >and see what happens. There for different architectures, so it
> >*shouldn't* matter, but what the heck...
> 
> 
> This might have happened when I was trying to narrow down which one I
> needed.  I didn't realize the legacy drivers were still installed.  I'll 
> try
> removing those and see if it makes a difference.  It might be loading the
> legacy one, I guess, which would explain why xorg fails to start at 
> first.

let us know what happens...

A


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Re: random quirkyness

[Sven Arvidsson]

On Tue, 2007-01-23 at 13:11 -0800, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> > The other issue is that I have two soundcards.  That in itself isn't a
> > problem, but the it is a problem with the way debian apparently handles
> > them, which seems to be the most random thing I've ever seen.  When it boots
> > up, it picks one or the other so sometimes it works and sometimes it
> > doesn't. 
> 
> sounds like a udev problem. default udev rules are not necessarily
> predictable in terms of how it assigns device nodes to hardware. you
> may need to write some custom udev rules to get your soundcards
> recognised properly. check the archives from about a month ago for a
> couple threads on using multiple sound cards.

If this is an udev issue, then please, please file a bug report about it
to make sure it gets fixed instead of working around the problem. Have a
look at the reportbug package for this.

There was a similar issue with network cards a while back, but it is now
fixed and they are now always assigned the same device nodes. 

-- 
Cheers,
Sven Arvidsson
http://www.whiz.se
PGP Key ID 760BDD22


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Re: random quirkyness

[Mike Myers]

On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


Mike, please don't cc: me as I subscribe to the list. thanks.



I apologize, I'm using gmail and it did that automatically for some reason.

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 03:27:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:

> On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things (do it
> >> manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything has
been
> >> great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of issues I'm
> >> having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
> >>
> >> First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime my
debian
> >box
> >> is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use
> >xorg.  Also,
> >> GDM doesn't seem to like my 1440x900 (widescreen) resolution and I
can't
> >> seem to do anything about it other than just not use GDM (not that
> >ditching
> >> it is a big deal).
> >
> >I can't speak to the resolution issue, but the xorg issue should not
> >be happening. when you re-apt-get it, does it download it again and
> >appear to be actually reinstalling it? I wonder if your xorg.conf is
> >not getting updated correctly and you are correcting for it by
> >reinstalling each time. how about a copy of your xorg.conf for us to
> >look at as well as dpkg -l | grep nvidia
>
>
> I'm pretty sure it's not related to xorg, since it works fine after
running
> 'apt-get --reinstall install nvidia-glx', even with a widescreen.  It's
only
> after a reboot that I must run that, as long as I want to use the nvidia
> driver.  If I use the 'nv' driver, then of course there's no issue
there,
> but that driver sucks.  Just to oblige you, here's the contents:
(hopefully
> it looks sane enough to read)
>

so, what exactly happens when you *don't* apt-get install nvidia-glx?
what output do you get?



It tries to start and then fails, saying it can't find the nvidia module,
even though it's loaded.  So I get a blank screen.



[ snipped what looks like a perfectly reasonable xorg.conf ]
>
> Here's the output of 'dpkg -l'.  Maybe you can explain what it means?
>
> 'debian:~# dpkg -l | grep nvidia
> ii  nvidia-glx1.0.8776-4
  NVIDIA
> binary XFree86 4.x driver
> rc  nvidia-glx-legacy 1.0.7184-3
  NVIDIA
> binary Xorg driver (legacy version)
> ii  nvidia-kernel-2.6-686 1.0.8776+5
  NVIDIA
> binary kernel module for 2.6 series c


> ii  nvidia-kernel-2.6.18-3-6861.0.8776+5
  NVIDIA
> binary kernel module for Linux 2.6.18


>
ii  nvidia-kernel-common  20051028+1  NVIDIA
> binary kernel module common files


> ii  nvidia-kernel-legacy-2.6.18-3-486 1.0.7184+5
  NVIDIA
> binary kernel module for Linux 2.6.18




hmmm... you have two sets of nvidia kernel modules installed. That may
contribute to the problem. purge one of them (probably the legacy one)
and see what happens. There for different architectures, so it
*shouldn't* matter, but what the heck...



This might have happened when I was trying to narrow down which one I
needed.  I didn't realize the legacy drivers were still installed.  I'll try
removing those and see if it makes a difference.  It might be loading the
legacy one, I guess, which would explain why xorg fails to start at first.



> >
> >> The other issue is that I have two soundcards.  That in itself isn't
a
> >> problem, but the it is a problem with the way debian apparently
handles
> >> them, which seems to be the most random thing I've ever seen.  When
it
> >boots
> >> up, it picks one or the other so sometimes it works and sometimes it
> >> doesn't.  I can run alsa-conf to get it to use the correct one, but
it's
> >> annoying doing it every time, especially when having to apt-get
> >nvidia-glx
> >> after rebooting also.
> >
> >sounds like a udev problem. default udev rules are not necessarily
> >predictable in terms of how it assigns device nodes to hardware. you
> >may need to write some custom udev rules to get your soundcards
> >recognised properly. check the archives from about a month ago for a
> >couple threads on using multiple sound cards.
>
>
> I'd prefer it to just not use one of the cards at all.  I would hope
there
> would be an easier way to modify it's detection, I mean I don't need it
to
> detect anything in the first place.  I'd rather just turn whatever is
doing
> that off and have the module automatically loaded no matter
what.  That's
> how I had it in Gentoo and I never had any issues.

if the cards use different modules, then just blacklist the
appropriate ones in /etc/modules and in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist (I
think).



Thanks, I'll check that out too.

A



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iD8DB

Re: random quirkyness

[Andrew Sackville-West]

Mike, please don't cc: me as I subscribe to the list. thanks.

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 03:27:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things (do it
> >> manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything has been
> >> great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of issues I'm
> >> having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
> >>
> >> First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime my debian
> >box
> >> is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use
> >xorg.  Also,
> >> GDM doesn't seem to like my 1440x900 (widescreen) resolution and I can't
> >> seem to do anything about it other than just not use GDM (not that
> >ditching
> >> it is a big deal).
> >
> >I can't speak to the resolution issue, but the xorg issue should not
> >be happening. when you re-apt-get it, does it download it again and
> >appear to be actually reinstalling it? I wonder if your xorg.conf is
> >not getting updated correctly and you are correcting for it by
> >reinstalling each time. how about a copy of your xorg.conf for us to
> >look at as well as dpkg -l | grep nvidia
> 
> 
> I'm pretty sure it's not related to xorg, since it works fine after running
> 'apt-get --reinstall install nvidia-glx', even with a widescreen.  It's only
> after a reboot that I must run that, as long as I want to use the nvidia
> driver.  If I use the 'nv' driver, then of course there's no issue there,
> but that driver sucks.  Just to oblige you, here's the contents: (hopefully
> it looks sane enough to read)
> 

so, what exactly happens when you *don't* apt-get install nvidia-glx?
what output do you get? 

> 
[ snipped what looks like a perfectly reasonable xorg.conf ]
> 
> Here's the output of 'dpkg -l'.  Maybe you can explain what it means?
> 
> 'debian:~# dpkg -l | grep nvidia
> ii  nvidia-glx1.0.8776-4  NVIDIA
> binary XFree86 4.x driver
> rc  nvidia-glx-legacy 1.0.7184-3  NVIDIA
> binary Xorg driver (legacy version)
> ii  nvidia-kernel-2.6-686 1.0.8776+5  NVIDIA
> binary kernel module for 2.6 series c


> ii  nvidia-kernel-2.6.18-3-6861.0.8776+5  NVIDIA
> binary kernel module for Linux 2.6.18


> ii  nvidia-kernel-common  20051028+1  NVIDIA
> binary kernel module common files


> ii  nvidia-kernel-legacy-2.6.18-3-486 1.0.7184+5  NVIDIA
> binary kernel module for Linux 2.6.18




hmmm... you have two sets of nvidia kernel modules installed. That may
contribute to the problem. purge one of them (probably the legacy one)
and see what happens. There for different architectures, so it
*shouldn't* matter, but what the heck... 


> 
> >
> >> The other issue is that I have two soundcards.  That in itself isn't a
> >> problem, but the it is a problem with the way debian apparently handles
> >> them, which seems to be the most random thing I've ever seen.  When it
> >boots
> >> up, it picks one or the other so sometimes it works and sometimes it
> >> doesn't.  I can run alsa-conf to get it to use the correct one, but it's
> >> annoying doing it every time, especially when having to apt-get
> >nvidia-glx
> >> after rebooting also.
> >
> >sounds like a udev problem. default udev rules are not necessarily
> >predictable in terms of how it assigns device nodes to hardware. you
> >may need to write some custom udev rules to get your soundcards
> >recognised properly. check the archives from about a month ago for a
> >couple threads on using multiple sound cards.
> 
> 
> I'd prefer it to just not use one of the cards at all.  I would hope there
> would be an easier way to modify it's detection, I mean I don't need it to
> detect anything in the first place.  I'd rather just turn whatever is doing
> that off and have the module automatically loaded no matter what.  That's
> how I had it in Gentoo and I never had any issues.

if the cards use different modules, then just blacklist the
appropriate ones in /etc/modules and in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist (I
think).

A


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Re: random quirkyness

[Mike Myers]

On 1/23/07, Andrew Sackville-West <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:


On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things (do it
> manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything has been
> great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of issues I'm
> having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
>
> First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime my debian
box
> is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use
xorg.  Also,
> GDM doesn't seem to like my 1440x900 (widescreen) resolution and I can't
> seem to do anything about it other than just not use GDM (not that
ditching
> it is a big deal).

I can't speak to the resolution issue, but the xorg issue should not
be happening. when you re-apt-get it, does it download it again and
appear to be actually reinstalling it? I wonder if your xorg.conf is
not getting updated correctly and you are correcting for it by
reinstalling each time. how about a copy of your xorg.conf for us to
look at as well as dpkg -l | grep nvidia



I'm pretty sure it's not related to xorg, since it works fine after running
'apt-get --reinstall install nvidia-glx', even with a widescreen.  It's only
after a reboot that I must run that, as long as I want to use the nvidia
driver.  If I use the 'nv' driver, then of course there's no issue there,
but that driver sucks.  Just to oblige you, here's the contents: (hopefully
it looks sane enough to read)


# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
   FontPath"/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
   FontPath"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
   FontPath"/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
   FontPath"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
   FontPath"/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
   FontPath"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
   FontPath"/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
   FontPath"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
   FontPath"/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
   FontPath"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
   FontPath"/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
   FontPath"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
   FontPath"/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
   FontPath"/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
   # path to defoma fonts
   FontPath"/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
   Load"i2c"
   Load"bitmap"
   Load"ddc"
   Load"dri"
   Load"extmod"
   Load"freetype"
   Load"glx"
   Load"int10"
   Load"vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Generic Keyboard"
   Driver  "kbd"
   Option  "CoreKeyboard"
   Option  "XkbRules"  "xorg"
   Option  "XkbModel"  "pc104"
   Option  "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "Configured Mouse"
   Driver  "mouse"
   Option  "CorePointer"
   Option  "Device""/dev/input/mice"
   Option  "Protocol"  "ImPS/2"
   Option  "Emulate3Buttons"   "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600]"
   Driver  "nvidia"
   BusID   "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier  "SyncMaster"
   Option  "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier  "Default Screen"
   Device  "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600]"
   Monitor "SyncMaster"
   DefaultDepth24
   SubSection "Display"
   Depth   1
   Modes   "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864"
"1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
   EndSubSection
   SubSection "Display"
   Depth   4
   Modes   "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864"
"1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
   EndSubSection
   SubSection "Display"
   Depth   8
   Modes   "1440x900" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864"
"1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
   EndSubSection

Re: random quirkyness

[Andrew Sackville-West]

On Tue, Jan 23, 2007 at 02:41:40PM -0600, Mike Myers wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm still trying to adjust from Gentoo's way of doing things (do it
> manually) to debian's (apt-something) way.  So far everything has been
> great, but i'm having trouble finding docs on a couple of issues I'm
> having.  Both of them seem related to modules.
> 
> First one is with the nvidia driver.  It seems like everytime my debian box
> is rebooted, I have to re-apt-get nvidia-glx before I can use xorg.  Also,
> GDM doesn't seem to like my 1440x900 (widescreen) resolution and I can't
> seem to do anything about it other than just not use GDM (not that ditching
> it is a big deal).

I can't speak to the resolution issue, but the xorg issue should not
be happening. when you re-apt-get it, does it download it again and
appear to be actually reinstalling it? I wonder if your xorg.conf is
not getting updated correctly and you are correcting for it by
reinstalling each time. how about a copy of your xorg.conf for us to
look at as well as dpkg -l | grep nvidia

> 
> The other issue is that I have two soundcards.  That in itself isn't a
> problem, but the it is a problem with the way debian apparently handles
> them, which seems to be the most random thing I've ever seen.  When it boots
> up, it picks one or the other so sometimes it works and sometimes it
> doesn't.  I can run alsa-conf to get it to use the correct one, but it's
> annoying doing it every time, especially when having to apt-get nvidia-glx
> after rebooting also.

sounds like a udev problem. default udev rules are not necessarily
predictable in terms of how it assigns device nodes to hardware. you
may need to write some custom udev rules to get your soundcards
recognised properly. check the archives from about a month ago for a
couple threads on using multiple sound cards.


A


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