Beryl + nVidia GeForce + FC6 Freeze

[jchoi28]

Hello,
I've been trying so hard to get Beryl working on my FC6 without ever freezing, however no luck whatsoever so I am asking here for some help.

Here are my system specifications:
1. OS: FC6 32-bit
2. CPU: AMD64
3. RAM: 1gb
4. HDD: Maxtor 40gb IDE
5. Video: nVidia GeForce 7300GS with 9746 driver
6. Monitor: Samsung Syncmaster 941BW
7. Motherboard: ASUS A8AE LE with up-to-date BIOS
8. Kernel: 2.6.18-1.2868

And here are the parts of xorg.conf file:

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
Load "dbe"
Load "drm"
Load "glx"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 7300 GS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "metamodes" "1440x900 +0+0; 1440x900_60 +0+0; 640x480 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

I've been playing alot with this xorg.conf file, loading different modules, adding and removing options in "Screen" section, and I was only able to delay the freezeup time although it is always random. When the computer freezes, unlike many other posts I've seen, nothing moves, not even the mouse, and I have to shut down the computer by force(by pressing on the power button for a while).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[Dies]

Seems like you have a lot of unnecessary stuff in your config, I would start by removing that, I attached my xorg.conf for comparison.

As far as the freezing I would start by adding a couple boot options.
Open a terminal and type

su
gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf

and add pci=nommconf to the end of the kernel line, also add idle=poll if you have a dual core.

Like:

title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2868.fc6)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2868.fc6 ro root=/dev/sdb5 rhgb quiet pci=nommconf idle=poll
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2868.fc6.img

Hope it helps.

[jchoi28]

Thanks for the reply, Dies.
I will try with the edited grub.conf.
As you have mentioned, my xorg.conf has many unnecessary stuff.
I started with just what I needed (as instructed by HOWTO articles) but I kept adding more (following other examples) trying to get rid of the freezing issue.
I looked at your xorg.conf file (btw, thanks for sharing it). You are not loading any modules (there is no Section "Module") and you don't have Section "Extensions" with Option "Composite" "Enable". Does Beryl really work without these? I thought Loading glx module and a few more was the essential as well as enabling Composite. Also, in your Device section what does Option "SLI" "AA" do, and what model of nvidia card are you using with what version of driver?
Thanks alot again for your help.

[Dies]

Ignore the "SLI" option unless of course you have two identical graphics cards that you want to run in SLI.
Beryl works perfect on my machine, there is no need for the missing sections just the right path to the modules, the composite thing is definitely not needed.
I'm running 2 7600GS cards and the latest driver from the Livna repo, 9631 I believe but it works the same with the old drivers.

BTW one way to get a fresh config file is to open a terminal

su -
mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/old.conf
nvidia-xconfig

That will back up your current config just in case and make a fresh one for you to tweak.

[jchoi28]

I tried with the edited grub.conf, and with no module section or extensions section in xorg.conf, but it still freezes.
I set up the beryl for my friend who uses 7300GT exactly the same way as mine (same kernel, same graphic driver, same FC6), but he doesn't have any problem.
Could it be that there is something wrong with my hardware?

[Dies]

It's possible, make sure your bios settings make sense, you may want to run memtest from a live CD and see what happens. Maybe check the HDD if that turns up nothing.
Also you mentioned you have up-to-date bios, was there a reason to update, did you save the old ones, maybe a rollback?
In my case, I also have an Asus board, the updated bios are broken and I had to rollback, thank God I backed them up.

[jchoi28]

There was no particular reason for updating the BIOS. In fact, I didn't even do it manually. The manufacturer's automatic update thing did it while I had the computer on that I didn't even notice so I didn't have any chance to make backups(and my motherboard is HP's proprietary and is locked up although ASUS made it). Also, a guy at nvidia mentioned about having the latest BIOS. I guess I will have to check for any defect on my HDD (it is 3.5 years old) and if there's alot, install the Fedora again on the other hard disk.

[jchoi28]

OK, I did tests on hard disk and memory. They are in good shapes. (I even tried installing Fedora on other hard disk)
So the freezeup is not their fault.
There is only the graphic card left to test, but how do I check if there is any defect?
btw, I didn't have any trouble playing 3d games with this card.

[gnulinuxman]

Beryl won't work on my NVIDIA card at all unless I have this line in the "Device" section:

Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"

I noticed you don't have that in there. If I don't have it in there, it will cause Beryl to crash or freeze my computer. You also might want to try selecting the tray icon menu --> Advanced Beryl options --> Rendering path --> Copy. That made the KDE window decorator stop crashing on me.

Hope this helps!

[ryptyde]

I have the GeForce 7300 GS card and here's my xorg.conf:
# Xorg configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

I have never edited it since installing FC6 and have Beryl installed and working well.

Just noticed this entry in your xorg:
5. Video: nVidia GeForce 7300GS with 9746 driver
9746?

.

[jchoi28]

9746 is the latest driver available. It's not downloadable through repo's. You can get it from nVidia website.
I do have the Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True" in my Screen section instead of Device. It doesn't matter where this option is. I tried having it in both Device and Screen section, there is no difference.

[ryptyde]

9746 is the latest driver available. It's not downloadable through repo's. You can get it from nVidia website.

I have done the install from the nvidia site with FC5 and experienced the same type problems. When the latest nvididia driver from their site is installed it overwrites your xorg.conf an causes you grief. I have decided to install from the repos and my set up works fine and is stable.

[jchoi28]

I tried with 9631 too but it's no better..