FC3 + nvidia => nvidia install, every reboot

[Hubbe]

Anyone having same problerms with Fedora Core and nvidia drivers?

Ok! The Story.
I installed Fc3 here yesterday, an imiditially used apt-get to get the newest updates ( just 400Meg ) Installed the newest kernel ( 2.6.9-1.678_FC3 ) and then went for the Nvidia home page and took down latest driver ( 6629 )
The first problem that i encountered was that the /dev/nvidiactl couldnt be run as users because the permissions are too resticitive. Ok chmod :ed the file with 0666 and everything runs smothly.

No the problem is that every time i shut down the computer X wont start until i install the Nvidia driver again. ( this will propably have very positive infect on my uptimes :) ) I get an errormessage

(EE) Nvidia(o) Failed to initialize the nvidia kernel module
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none with usable configuration

For the record i have SeLinux deactivated. Anyone with similar problems, and even more anyone that have a solution to what can be the fix for this problem.

[BaVinic]

there is a known issue with FC3 and Nvidia, there are a couple of work-a-rounds, this is the one I use.

edit your /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file as root

Look for the section marked:

echo -n $"Initializing hardware... "

ide=""
scsi=""
network=""
audio=""
other=""


change the other="" to read other="nvidia" save the file

make the needed changes in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file as instructed by the nvidia readme. and you should be all set.

HOWEVER!

the Redhat Graphical Boot is going to cause you a small problem here, to avoid any problems, you need to make a copy of your xorg.conf file in the /etc/rhgb directory, and make sure you change the video section back to "nv" this will allow rhgb to use it's own version of the xorg.conf file, and still allow you to use the nvidia driver for X.

Hope this helps.

by the way, the newest kernel for fc3 is -681 you might want to use up2date or yum to make sure you are current.

BaVinic

[Hubbe]

thank you for your answer, been also surrfing the net for the solution an this is what i found out.

Nvidia's graphics drivers (the closed-source ones, not the ones that come with XFree) do not work with a default installation of udev - you are unable to start X. This is because the nvidia module is loaded by X, but the /dev/nvidia* nodes are not created quick enough, so X bails out.

The solution to this problem is to autoload the nvidia module on bootup. Yes - you are *supposed* to do this - the NVidia FAQ confirms this!

simply create the nvidia specific nodes on bootup. X will then load the module when required, and as the nodes are already in existance, you will not run into the problem described above. Place these commands in a file that is automatically executed on bootup (e.g. /etc/conf.d/local.start for Gentoo)

mknod /dev/nvidia0 c 195 0
mknod /dev/nvidiactl c 195 255

ill try one of theese solutions (perhaps both if one of them dont work ) when i got the time .... And about the kernel .....damn.....upgraded it yseterday ....then the 681 wasent out ...now it it is :)

[BaVinic]

yeah I knew there are a few work-a-rounds, as long as it works, I don't think it really matters which one you use, I use the method I described above, it works for me :)

As to the kernel, yeah, they are updating all the time, not really sure why so often, but hey, whatever works. :D


Good luck, and if you would, post your results, and let us know which method you use, and how it works for you, this way anyone searching the forum with the same problem will find a good solutions.

thanks,

BaVinic

[Hubbe]

It was your way or the highway ;)

Jep.... it works nicely for me! Thanks again!

[BaVinic]

You are welcome, glad I could help.


BaVinic