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Big Dog Joined: 18 Oct 2000 Posts: 4419

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Original Article - http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_other_00022.asp

Cat Chaser Joined: 22 Oct 2000 Posts: 769 Location: USA

Hmmmm....should I pick out spelling and grammatical errors that I find in the article?! Anyone??

Other than the "errors" that I found...this is a very OUTSTANDING article and very attuned to us "Linux newbies" out there. WELL DONE, ROVER!!! yellow cool

:yellow_cool:

FOCKERS!!

Posted: Thu May 24, 2001 6:38 am Post subject:

Ok, so I guess I'm back in the game...

I did a format and installed a fresh new LM8 including the Developers package, chose XFree86 4.0.3 and fired it up.

Went to the KDE Manager, just to adjust the resolution, it asked me for the Installation CD... and installed XFree86 3.xxx with 3D support
Surely I chose XFree86 4.xxx afterwards.

I did EXACTLY as your guide told me. The NVIDIA packages unpacked just fine, no errors.

Went to the Cli, did the "make SYSINTERNAL..." on both folders, no errors.

Changed the two files to the appropriate content. Saved the changes made. Went back to make sure the files were changed.

Rebooted. (Found an error in your guide: "reboot -n" instead of "reboot -now")

After rebooting I started X with "startx", no splash screen. Checked the KDE Manager displays tab - Driver loaded was back to "nv" instead of "nvidia". ...darn! did i overlook something? those damn files must have been recovered during boot-up...

Went back to the Cli, checked the "XF86Config-4" file. Back in the state before editing. Edit them again, saved 'em.

Rebooted.

After reboot it switched back to runlevel 5, going straight into KDE - no splash.
Both files back to normal....WTF?!

During boot-up there is one "Mounting Loopback-Filesystem" message. Is that like file checking, or what? Should I turn that off? How?

Additional info:
Booting LM8 from fdd
Installed LM8 on primary slave (Win2K on master)

Please help.

---===ORIGINALLY POSTED IN "/linux/another exclusive LWD member preview" ON 23rd May 2001, 2100 board time===---

- The Satan Of Seti
_________________________
Vegetables are NOT food. Vegetables are what food eats...

Stray Dog Joined: 24 May 2001 Posts: 2

No wonder I couldn't use the d**n make command! Could you let me know what are the additional files besides "make" I need to install that 8.0 didn't do on setup. It just irritates me that you do EVERYTHING the instructions tell you but it still doesn't work...thanks

Posted: Thu May 24, 2001 6:49 am Post subject:

Head for the article. There are the packages mentioned you need and how to install them afterwards.
Oh yes and it is really bitter, mann Cool Smile

that it still won't work. Maybe it's just my paws that are somewhat cursed?

- The Satan Of Seti
_________________________
Vegetables are NOT food. Vegetables are what food eats...

Stray Dog Joined: 24 May 2001 Posts: 5 Location: USA

I an a few others on alt.os.linux.mandrake, and mandrakeuser.org are having the following problem:

The driver only works I load up in runlevel 3 and log in as root. Then it works all fine and dandy.
If I log in as a user from runlevel 3, 2d works fine, but when I try to use openGL it blanks out and drops back to the desktop. If I boot into runlevel 5 and try to use openGL under either root or user, it bombs out and drops back to the x login screen.

Anyone have any ideas?

Moderator Joined: 05 Dec 2000 Posts: 5941 Location: USA

Quote:
I an a few others on alt.os.linux.mandrake, and mandrakeuser.org are having the following problem:

The driver only works I load up in runlevel 3 and log in as root. Then it works all fine and dandy.
If I log in as a user from runlevel 3, 2d works fine, but when I try to use openGL it blanks out and drops back to the desktop. If I boot into runlevel 5 and try to use openGL under either root or user, it bombs out and drops back to the x login screen.

Anyone have any ideas?

-You may be a king or a little street sweeper, but sooner or later YOU DANCE WITH DA REAPER!

I installed these drivers just like I always do (don't know anything about that runlevel stuff) ... just finshed playing some Q3A ... guess I'm a lucky dog this time around - wOOf !

Signature down for repairs ... Tongue Smile

Stray Dog Joined: 24 May 2001 Posts: 2 Location: USA

I have Mandrake 8.0 installed using the 0.9-769 drivers and it runs good at a resolution of 1280x1024. When I upgraded to 1.0-1251 I used "make install" to replace the old drivers. It installed correctly and I got a white Nvidia splash screen but my resolution was at 1024x768. I checked the XF86Config-4 and 1280x1024 was still the first entry for all. I was reluctant to use Mandrake Control Center because in the past it would revert back to the XFree 4.0.3's Nvidia Driver and it did. So I reinstalled the 1.0 drivers and reconfigured XF86Config-4 and it still would set itself to 1024x768. The monitor settings were identical and correct. Has anybody else had this problem? Is there a way to get it to use the correct resolution? I eventually reverted back tp 0.9 and all is well again. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

MSI-6309
Celeron 566 at 850
256 MB Ram
Diamond Viper 770
Hercules Gamesurround Muse XL
Diamond Supra Express 56i
Realek 8139 NIC
OrangeMicro FireWire USB card
2 10Gb WD Hard Drives
1 13GB Maxtor Hard Drive
48x Cdrom
Iomega 12x4x32 CDRW
Triple boot WinME, Win2000, Mandrake 8.0

Posted: Thu May 24, 2001 11:04 am Post subject:

Satan...fixed the "reboot -now" thing, I was probably thinking of "shutdown -now". As for your problems, if XFree86-3.3.6 is installed, it WILL NOT WORK...period! I noticed on Fido's PC when he installed LM8 he was prompted for either XFree86-3.3.6 Excelerated, non-excelerated or XFree86-4.0.3. I chose the 4.0.3 version because I didn't get those options on my system. One of the differences was I have a GeForce2 MX card and he has a GeForce DDR. When NVidia first released the driver back awhile ago, the GeForce2's and better weren't officially suppport, and this maybe the reason.

So do you have 3.3.6 still installed?

Here's a possible problem, I thought the driver install fixed, but it still could be an issue. Programs will make calls to the Lib.GL.so file. This is the OpenGL library, usually the Mesa file is in place, until you upgrade to the NVidia driver. Unfortuantely, the Lib.GL.so file is just a symlink and if it is not readjusted to point to the NVidia file there could be problems.

Also, some programs are coded specifically for Mesa OpenGL so I don't know how they'll work with NVidia's!?

Fyrie...I'm at a total loss as to why you are having those problems.

I'm not an expert...just a knowledgeble user!

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Moderator Joined: 05 Dec 2000 Posts: 5941 Location: USA

Don't know if this will help anyone ... it works for me ... I install all the 4.03 files availible ... every single one of them ... and I've never installed any Mesa files (as far as I can tell)...

Signature down for repairs ... Tongue Smile

Posted: Thu May 24, 2001 11:50 am Post subject:

Hell yes! I figured it out all MYSELF! It is working. I did another format, reinstalled LM8, Developers Kit and XFree86 4.0.3 included in the install. Did the article walk-through got an error message: "Please do "make install" as root" ? (I was logged in as root. Tried to reboot (no such command. Tried the three finger salute... THE FUNNIEST MESSAGE I EVER DID SEE IN MY WHOLE LIFE APPEARED ON THE SCREEN: "You do not exist. Go away." ROTFLMAO
Hard boot time!
Reinstalled it. Did the NVIDIA walk-through, this time it worked out ok. Went into KDE - there is the splash! :-)

...but I can't change my resolution either, if I try firing up KDE Control manager, it wants the Installation CD 1 and will install XFree86 3.x with 3D support afterwards (learned that yesterday night). Right now I'm on resolution 1024x768 this is not an option, I'm running W2K in 1280x1024...

I am running a RIVA TNT on the (still) linux box.

HEEEEEEEEEELP!!!!!

- The Satan Of Seti
_________________________
Vegetables are NOT food. Vegetables are what food eats...

Posted: Thu May 24, 2001 3:54 pm Post subject:

Quote:
# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen1"
Device "NV AGP"
Monitor "Dell|Dell Ultrascan 17FS-N"
DefaultColorDepth 16
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x400"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection

Ok there's my current XF86Config-4. The line stating: "DefaultColorDepth 16" obviously tells Xwindows which subsection to look at for resolution. I'm not sure how to tell Xwindows which resolution to use by default though. I can say that if you delete all other resolutions, but the one you want then it will have no choice. Or you can define all the resolutions you want and then a Ctrl + Alt + Plus or Minus and Xwindows should cycle through the available, defined resolutions. Oh I just thought of it. The default resolution is the one at the beginning of the resolution options. Unfortuantely, if that default res is lower than the maximum you'll get the scrolling desktop. There's a way to turn that off too, but it elludes me at the moment.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!

Edited by - rover on 05/24/2001 20:08:13

Posted: Thu May 24, 2001 9:54 pm Post subject:

Cool. I'll try messing up my XF86Config-4 after work tonite [ Very Happy

]

Thank you Rover for your help!

..2 days... man, I could kill you...

- The Satan Of Seti
_________________________
As a matter of fact, no, I don't have a life.

Moderator Joined: 05 Dec 2000 Posts: 5941 Location: USA

He's everywhere (Rover) ... even at JC's (http://www.jc-news.com/index.cgi) - wOOf !!!

Signature down for repairs ... Tongue Smile

Posted: Fri May 25, 2001 5:48 am Post subject:

Quote:
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.
HorizSync 40.0-85.0

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.
VertRefresh 60.0-120.0

This section of the XF86Config-4 is a very dangerous area but it can pay to play with it. The Horizontal and Vertical refresh rates are linked together. I couldn't for the life of me get my LM8 install to use 1280x1024 at a refresh rate better than 60Hz...talk about the puke factor, the screen flickered so bad I vomited 3 times before I finally fixed it

Quote:
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection

So there's my 16bit color depth subsection and I'm running at 75Hz. How do I know I'm running at 75Hz...take a look at the /var/log/XFree86.0.log file.

Quote:
(**) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes for head 0:
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "1280x1024": 135.0 MHz, 80.0 kHz, 75.0 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "1024x768": 94.5 MHz, 68.7 kHz, 85.0 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "800x600": 56.3 MHz, 53.7 kHz, 85.1 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Default mode "640x480": 36.0 MHz, 43.3 kHz, 85.0 Hz

That's what mine says and the last number is the vert. refresh rate. The funny thing was my vert refresh rate was set high enough in the XF86Config-4 file but it wouldn't let the 1280x1024 resolution use anything higher than 60Hz. Then I adjusted my horizontial refresh rate's maximum value to what it truly is for my monitor and WHAMO there was 75Hz...A lesson for me that's for sure and I hope this helps everyone.

Rover
- I don't have a god complex...I just like people to think I do!