Fedora 8 x86_64 ,nvidia and X windows

[leunam]

Well ,I ve trying to make X windows work for a long time but I just failed on that purpose .I have nvidia 8600 gt and I use the dvi conection .First I tried with the drivers available in nvidia ´s website ,and I have to modify some things in order to make it work...... but no way it worked .Then I read somewhere that it was better to use livna drivers....so I continued trying yum install kmod-nvia and all that.....All seemed to go fine ,it installed everything .I rebooted , switched to runlevel 5 but then nothing happened ,I mean ,the screen turned black and some seconds after the button power of the screen light gets brown , like when you turn on the screen with the computer switched off .I dont know if Ii can get back to any other runlevel without the X because I forgot the keyboard combo for that :D
I gave up my attempts for some time ,and today I went on .Yum update kmod-nvidia gave me the error described here http://livna.org/pipermail/freeworld/2007-November/002063.html
There it says you can fix it by doing rpm -e $(rpm -qa 'kmod-*2.6.23*') , but I had some depencencies errors (two), so I did rpm -e --nodeps $(rpm -qa 'kmod-*2.6.23*') ,in case that could mean something .Anyway ,after doing that a reinstalling everything with yum , nothing changed .After rebooting if I go into runlevel 5 ,the screen just goes black .

I think I m pretty noob .I have serached for a long time and didnt find anything helpful ....and I dont know if this I m telling you is in any way useful to help me.......So if any other thing you would like to know to try to help me......just ask,please :D .I would do whatever to find that info and tell you,hehehe .

Thanks in advance for any tip ,and / or paying attention.

[cwebster]

First, you need to stop booting into run level 5 until the correct video driver is installed and X is working properly.

Reboot, then move the arrow key up or down as soon as you see the grub splash screen where you can choose a kernel. The arrow movement is just to discontinue auto-boot.

Now move the arrow key until you are highlighting the latest kernel.

Press the "a" key to append to the end of the kernel line.

Type a space, then the numeral "1" and press enter.

The system should now boot into run level 1 where you can change the default run level.

You should become familiar with the "vi" editor, since it is on every Linux and Unix system in existence and can be run from the command line.

(press enter after example commands below)

Open "/etc/inittab" in the vi editor:

vi /etc/inittab

Search for the line that begins with the letters "id:"

/^id:

(forward slash says to search for string)
(carot says to anchor the string at the beginning of the line)

Search for the numeral "5" (even though you can see it):

/5

Replace the "5" with a "3":

s3

Press <Esc> key to stop editing

Write the changes to the file and exit:

:wq

Now reboot and work within run level 3 until you've tested the new drivers.

init 6

Make sure you have the Livna Yum repo RPM installed from the Livna site.

http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki/

Check to see what nVidia packages are installed and available:

yum list *nvidia*

You'll see lots of "kmod-nvidia*" and "xorg-x11-drv-nvidia*' packages. If some of them are installed then remove them all to start fresh.

yum remove kmod-nvidia* xorg-x11-drv-nvidia*

If there are minor dependency questions, answer them as yum raises them. You should be okay removing dependent packages too.

Now list the nvidia packages again:

yum list *nvidia*

This time, tell yum to install the primary "kmod-nvidia.*" and "xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.*" packages. You don't need to figure out all the dependent packages. Yum will do that for you.

yum install kmod-nvidia.x86_64 xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.x86_64

Yum should check dependencies and offer you a new list including the dependent packages. Accept this by typing "y".

Once the packages are installed reboot:

init 6

After reboot, test the X installation:

startx

After a short wait you should see the background color and a mouse pointer appear, followed by the rest of the Fedora desktop.

If you do, you can change the default run level back to "5" using the same method as above. First exit from the session you started with "startx". Then use "vi" to edit "/etc/inittab" and reboot into run level 5.

If you don't, after a minute or so with a black screen, Exit from the X server:

Press and hold <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> then release

(your text terminal should reappear)

If it failed you can look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log for clues why it's failing.

Hope this helps

[leunam]

I realy ,realy apreciate your help .
Ok, default runlevel set to 3 . :)
Well ,I did step by step everything you told me to do .Uninstalled ,re-installed again......but did not work :( .After doing startx .....the screen just turns black ,and after a few sseconds it goes into power safe mode .I think the system crashes ,because if press and hold <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> and then release , as you told me ,nothing happens .
I copied Xorg.0.log to my usb key ....it doesnt say anything about an error or something like that.....The only thing I find maybe interesting is:
Setting vga for screen 0.
What does that mean?I dont use vga ,so I think that s fine.....if it means that it wont use vga .But then ,shouldnt it say somewhere "Setting dvi for screen 1" ,or something like that .Well ,I actually ,as I said ,dont even know what "Setting vga for screen 0" so.....hehe
Does installing kmod-nvidia and all that affect the config file xorg.conf? When I was trying with nvidia ´s web driver ,I modified some things there someone told me to modify .
I ll take I look in config file......but dont know what else to do .

Thank you very much again for your help

Edit: well,as I didnt know what to do.....yum update :D , 840M .Nothing changed .Also,I took a look to xorg.cong ,and it says I was created by livna or stuff.....so I guess it s ok.

[leunam]

Yeeeehaaaa! Now I am replying from fedora 8 with the x windows working!!!!! Dont know if I have nvidia s driver or livna s driver installed ,also I dont know if that matters ,because what I do to make this work.....well ,as I said ,I didnt know what to do ,so I took the xorg.conf file that the sistem created by default ,the one that livna created and the one that nvidia created and changed the driver to vesa .I tried with every one (with startx ) and the one that seemed to work better was the livna one .So ,the config file goes like this:
# Xorg configuration created by livna-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"

EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

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

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 30.0 - 110.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 150.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "640x480" "640x400"
EndSubSection
EndSection

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

Given I am using vesa driver.....does that mean that the other drivers (nvidia and livna) may not be installed? After everything I did......I think kmod-nvidia it s not installed at all ,but nvidia is .
Thank you again ,hope this keeps working for sometime :D

[cwebster]

I'm glad to hear that it's working "leunam". Sometimes it takes a little experimentation to get things working. At least now you have a configuration that you know will work. Save a copy of the xorg.conf file somewhere so you can restore it later if need be.

Sorry I didn't reply to you other post. I've been very busy at work and didn't get a notice.

Happy Fedora Explora! ;-)

./Cal

[leunam]

It s ok .I know people have their lifes ,their bussines and many important things to do .I just apreciate the help :)
And yes , I m seeing that sometimes it requires some experimentation ,because I just tried......and I had no hope at all,hehe.
Of course I ll save a copy of the config file ,and if I lost both the copy and the original ,I ll come to this topic :D

Thank you very much again Cal , I ll try to have a Happy Fedora Explora :)