F9 Nvidia driver Problem: blank screen with blue line on top

[winston154]

After installing livna's kmod-nvidia package and restarting X, my screen is blank except for a thin blue line on top of the screen. I have a GEforce 6100 graphics card ( an onboard card) and a Acer monitor.

I know another person had this same problem and he updated his video card with a new nvidia 8400 GPU. I dont want to do that if I dont have to.

[dan.btown]

Hi winston154,

pls. open a terminal (or rather, switch to a terminal) and enter the following commands in turn:


This collects issues related to the X server:
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep '^(!!)\|^(WW)\|^(EE)\|^(NI)\|^(??)' > /home/YOUR-ACCOUNT/02.x.txt

This collects issues related to the setup procedure of the X server:
cat /var/log/Xorg.setup.log | grep '^(!!)\|^(WW)\|^(EE)\|^(NI)\|^(??)' > /home/YOUR-ACCOUNT/03.x-setup.txt


Pls. come back here and post the contents of the 2 resulting files, each wrapped in CODE-tags, using the number sign button ("#") atop the text field of the forum software.

If you manage to solve your issues yourself, pls. come back anyway and tell us how you managed to fix them, so other users can learn from your experience.

Cheers,

-- Dan

[winston154]

output for cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep '^(!!)\|^(WW)\|^(EE)\|^(NI)\|^(??)' > /home/cbh/02.x.txt:
(WW) NV(0): Unable to estimate virtual size
(WW) <default pointer>: No Device specified, looking for one...

output for cat /var/log/Xorg.setup.log | grep '^(!!)\|^(WW)\|^(EE)\|^(NI)\|^(??)' > /home/cbh/03.x-setup.txt:
cat: /var/log/Xorg.setup.log: No such file or directory
I do have an Xorg.0.log.

I should also say that when I logged in this time after install the kmod-nvidia files I could see the startup but when I got to the login screen I could only see a black screen with a small blue line at the top.
I logged in under the previous kernal to be able to post this.

[wintersm]

I have the same setup as winston, onboard 6100, acer monitor, using x86_64 and exactly the same problem, cant post the result of the above commands until maybe tonight, had to go back to useing neauvau (or however its spelt)..

[dan.btown]

Hi winston154 and wintersm,

unfortunatly, I've no idea of the Livna X drivers for Nvidia cards, so I'm afraid I can't really help you out. However, a forum search should reveal relevant information for you both.

The lines returned by the 1st command I asked you to issue don't report anything upsetting, that's why the X system marked them as warnings only (WW).


Just in case you can't even access a terminal screen because your system startup "hangs" while starting the graphics mode:

Start into rescue mode (using an install media); when asked if your system partition should be mounted to /mnt/sysimage, say yes. At the shell, say chroot /mnt/sysimage and issue the command
nano /etc/inittab
Nano is a simple text editor which is, well, nano, and mostly self-explaining. The upward arrows ("^") before the characters at the bottom of the screen mean: Press <CTRL> with the respective character.

In the file opened (/etc/inittab), look for a line containing the text id:5:initdefault: and change it to id:3:initdefault: , then restart as usual.

The change will avoid the Graphical User Interface to be started automatically and will instead bring you to a text login screen, from where you can do the necessary things (like installing and updating driver packages). One of the first things you may want to install if you haven't already is the Midnight Commander (to be started with the command mc), which offers convenient ways around your machine and the file system.

After installing drivers for the X system and checking they work, you can undo the above change (that is, 3 -> 5 again).

Aloha,

-- Dan

[Hlingler]

output for cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep '^(!!)\|^(WW)\|^(EE)\|^(NI)\|^(??)' > /home/cbh/02.x.txt:
(WW) NV(0): Unable to estimate virtual size
(WW) <default pointer>: No Device specified, looking for one...

output for cat /var/log/Xorg.setup.log | grep '^(!!)\|^(WW)\|^(EE)\|^(NI)\|^(??)' > /home/cbh/03.x-setup.txt:
cat: /var/log/Xorg.setup.log: No such file or directory
I do have an Xorg.0.log.

I should also say that when I logged in this time after install the kmod-nvidia files I could see the startup but when I got to the login screen I could only see a black screen with a small blue line at the top.
I logged in under the previous kernal to be able to post this.You may have installed the nvidia proprietary driver, but your logfile says that your machine is still using the open-source 'nv' driver that comes with Fedora - and probably will continue to do so unless and until you tell it to knock it off and use the nvidia driver.

Try:
Run: akmods --kernels `uname -r`
start the nvidia service daemon
Run: livna-config-display
Restart

V

[wintersm]

I have done some investigating - actually having some time to do it, it appears that the 6100 and driver combination is not getting the edids properly from the monitor, i have tried this with a acer al1714 and a lg monitor with the same result.

I managed to get some display, but at only 1024x768 sofar by adding
Option "UseEdid" "False"
to the screen section of xorg.conf

i have not yet figured out a mode line that will work yet. (so back to using nouveau)

[Hlingler]

Hello wintersm:

What version of nvidia driver are you using? I thought that NV Corp. fixed that regression in REV. 173.14.09. And you are on F9, correct?

Might be some other tricks to play yet... basically, blanket the config file with all known options and let it try to sort out the cruft. :D

V

[wintersm]

yep fc9 and appears to be the same version

nvidia-settings-1.0-2.lvn9.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173.14.09-1.lvn9.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-173.14.09-1.lvn9.x86_64
kmod-nvidia-173.14.09-4.lvn9.x86_64
kmod-nvidia-2.6.25.10-86.fc9.x86_64-173.14.09-4.lvn9.x86_64

[Hlingler]

OK, it would help to guess the values if I had seen your xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log files first, but try these (no guarantee that these won't cause GUI failure, but I suggest that some risk is needed, and it is very small and easily fixed):

Give it absurdly huge hsync and vrefresh ranges to work within (these are straight out of my xorg.cong for GeForce 6150 LE on-board), and let it figure out the details:Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "COMPAQ FS7600"
HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSectionWhile your at it, let it chew on this modeline, it should toss out ("illegal") values that it doesn't like:Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSectionThat ought to get some reaction... and just in case that reaction is ugly, BACK UP your existing xorg.conf first so you can revert to it as quickly and easily as possible if necessary. If that does work, you can try more (higher) modes later. If that does not work, you can try to use nvidia-settings utility to read the EDID straight from the monitor, but that's more complex to implement.

Of course, you must also change the "Driver" line to read "nvidia", and re-start the X-server. Also assuming that the nvidia kernel module for the running kernel has been previously generated as noted above. EDIT: never mind, I see that you have a pre-fab kmod from Livna.

V

[Ray Ward]

I have the same problem as winston154.
How ever I can get round it by doing this.
1) Ctrl + Alt +1 login as root and change the xorg.conf driver to vesa.
2) Change back to the X console and do Ctrl+ Alt + bkspace giving me a login that I can see.
3) Go back to the command line and change the driver back to nvidia
4) Change back to the X console and Ctrl + Alt + bkspace this time the nvidia driver kicks in correctly.
Tedious I know I,v been doing this for some time.

It almost seems like X is not able to detect the monitor correctly at boot time.
I do have a Horiz and vertical Sync line in my config file but it made no diffeence.

Regards
Ray

[Ray Ward]

Adding Modes xorg.conf changed the problem.
I can now do Ctrl + Alt + "+ or -" which changes the resolution which puts the display right.

[wintersm]

I have had no luck with the nvidia driver, it will show 1024x768 and some other modes, but not the native 1280x1024 my monitor uses.. (I tried an hp monitor with the same resolution which doesnt work either). I have tried using the modeline that is logged in xorg.0.log when using the nouveau driver which puts a monitor and screen section of..

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
ModelName "Acer AL1714"
HorizSync 30.0 - 82.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
Modeline "1280x1024_60.00" 108.00 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +HSync +Vsync
# Modeline "1280x1024"x60.0 108.00 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync

EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "UseEdid" "False"
SubSection "Display"

Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection




i have also tried Modes "1280x1024_60" (or something like that)..

I am reluctant to go and buy a new video card (i prefer nvidia over ati) as it still might not work. (I dont really need the capabilities of a new card).

[Hlingler]

Perhaps if you attached a copy of your Xorg.0.log, we could see why the driver is not using that resolution....

V

[Ray Ward]

My monitor section is simpler.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

This works after a fashion using the + - key strokes to get the resolution. I am getting 1280 X 960 on a Proview PX 772N monitor.

I don't think you need a new video card my own adapter was working fine on fedora 8 it was only after an upgrade this became a problem.

[Ray Ward]

One further thing. I'd stick with the manufacturers recommended H sync and V sync ranges, while X.org foundation will have taken every care to get the ranges right the values logged my not be the best suited for your monitor (This is an observation because X repeatedly used out of range values which caused my monitor to shut off the display while using the vesa driver).

[wintersm]

Ok, I have done some logging using verbose on startx, 3 attempts,

1. using nouveau - which displays the lcd's native resolution properly.
xorg.nouveau.conf & xlog.nouveau.txt
2. using nvidia in a basic file - with edids on e.t.c
xorg.nvidia.basic.conf & xlog.nvidia.basic txt
3. using nvidia with some modes, which some display but not the native 1280x1024
xorg.nvidia.conf & xlog.nvidia.txt

I have attached the file.

[Hlingler]

Well, for starters, I just noticed that you are using the Livna nvidia driver packages. The utility 'livna-config-display' will, by default, probe and re-write xorg.conf according to it's own ideas of how your X11/Xorg setup should be, blowing away any changes that you may have made, unless and until you tell it not to do so. So: tell it not to do so. Open the livna-config-display app from the menu launcher and un-check the box that allows it to write to xorg.conf.

Also, you have Xinerama turned on in the nvidia-xorg.conf. Xinerama is for dual-head and is deprecated - suggest that you remove that line, and the one "AIGLX" "on" also should not be required and could cause problems - let the driver figure out if it's needed.

Your log file: xlog.nvidia.basic.txt looks 100% copacetic. It shows 1280x1024 as the preferred (valid) mode. Monitor was probed and all relevant data found. So, what was the problem?

Try:Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
ModulePath "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions"
ModulePath "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
EndSection

#Section "ServerFlags"
# Option "AIGLX" "on"
# Option "Xinerama" "1"
#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"

# keyboard added by rhpxl
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
ModelName "Acer AL1714"
HorizSync 30.0 - 82.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"
# Modeline "1280x1024_60.00" 108.00 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +HSync +Vsync
# Modeline "1280x1024"x60.0 108.00 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync

EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 6100"
EndSection

Section "Screen"

# Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
# Option "metamodes" "1280x1024 +0+0"
# Monitor "Monitor0"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
# Option "NvAGP" "0"
# Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
# Option "UseEdid" "False"
# Option "TwinView" "0"
SubSection "Display"

Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

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

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

[wintersm]

the problem is what the original writer of this thread and i get - a black screen with a bluish line at the top, no usable display.

[Hlingler]

OK, right - see if those above changes help. No telling what kinds of innocent-looking stuff may cause problems.

Example:
F9-KDE-Live installed, decided I'd like to try 'nouveau' driver because legacy-71xx nvidia driver doesn't support F9's X11/Xorg, and 'nv' driver is... well, perfectly fine but 2D only. Thought maybe 'nouveau' would perform better. Did not see the result immediately, so it took two months to figure out that using driver 'nouveau' causes KDE4 to lock up/crash. Fixed that, still had same results. Why? 'Option "BackingStore" "on" ' produced same lock-ups/crashes, even with 'nv' driver - in fact, with any driver. All this on KDE4 only, no other DE/WM.

Very hard sometimes to track down root cause of problems. Try without the Xinerama and AIGLX stuff in xorg.conf, and tell livna-config-display to "lay off".

V

[wintersm]

I have just posted on the nvidia forums, will have to see what they say..

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=1725922#post1725922

nothing i try seems to work..

[Ray Ward]

Hold that thought.
I just did an update and down came some Nvidia modules.
Rebooted with no blue line.
A few more reboots should tell if this is fixed.

[wintersm]

what version rpm did you get - do a rpm -qa | grep nvidia and list the output..

thanks.

[wintersm]

it seems there was a new kernel - that appeared day before yesterday that i may not have updated to yet - though i am having trouble finding what the changes are - maybe its fixed it.. not holding my breath though..

[Ray Ward]

Cold boot this morning still working...
Here is the output from rpm -qa | grep nvidia

akmod-nvidia-173.14.09-3.lvn9.i686
kmod-nvidia-2.6.25.10-86.fc9.i686-173.14.09-4.lvn9.i686
kmod-nvidia-2.6.25.11-97.fc9.i686-173.14.09-5.lvn9.i686
kmod-nvidia-173.14.09-5.lvn9.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-173.14.09-1.lvn9.i386

[Ray Ward]

New Kernel looks like.
Linux localhost.localdomain 2.6.25.11-97.fc9.i686 #1 SMP Mon Jul 21 01:31:09 EDT 2008 i686 athlon i386 GNU/Linux

[wintersm]

i have those modules, but still no luck - can you post your xorg.conf so i can have a look at what you might have enabled/disabled.

Thanks.

[Ray Ward]

Just checking in
I'm not at my terminal right now so I'll post the xorg.conf file in the morning (Uk).
However I can tell you it's not very far from the Livna xorg.conf.
Were you able to get anywhere with fiddling with the drivers?
I know it's dancing round the problem but the developers need to know as much about what works and what does not.

[Ray Ward]

Just a thought.....
Do you have a KVM switch. I have.
I'm not sure if this also might contribute.

[Ray Ward]

Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
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 "ServerFlags"
Option "AIGLX" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# keyboard added by rhpxl
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
ModelName "Monitor 1024x768"
HorizSync 30.0 - 75.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 120.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

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

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x400" "640x350"
EndSubSection
EndSection

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

[Ray Ward]

Right..
This is what I think.
X or xorg.conf needs the Hsync and Refresh rates in the xorg.conf as well as the modes line.
livna flattened my xorg.conf and the problem came back. Clearly either the Nvidia driver does not report back the right monitor display information or the current version of X is not setting the correct modes (For some monitors at least). There is some talk in other forums that the current release of X is less than perfect and that retro fitting X is the best solution.

At this point the problem is paling into insignificance as my current install is now rapidly going from wounded to terminal so i'm going back to Fedora 8 this week.

Best of Luck with this problem.

[winston154]

I just install ubuntu to see if this would help and I am able to log in but the screen will just scramble for no reason, I get lines across the screen and I can not see my desktop.

[dawanma750307]

Hi,

I am a new Fedora user, and have exactly the same problem after installing the nvidia driver from livna: blank screen with a thin blue line on top. Any solution?

My graphics card is an on board nvidia 6100 chip. I have PCLinuxOS and Mythbuntu 7.10 on another hard disk in the same computer, and they are working fine.

If I do not install the driver, there is display, but with only max 800x600 resolution. Is there a way to "force" it to higher resolution without the driver installation?

Appreciate any suggestion. Thanks in advance.

Edit note: My Fedora installation is fresh installation with all latest updates. No additional software and changes to config except hooking up to the livna repository and install nvidia driver.


Regards

[Ray Ward]

I would assume its the same problem as with the blue line.
HorizSync and VertRefresh need to be added to your xorg.conf (Check your monitor specification details).
Also add Modes "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x400" "640x350"
to the screen section.

I do remember the Flash Gordon effect's from early days of setting up X and it was always these that caused problems.
I was a former Ubuntu user and I know that 7.10 worked fine again the assumption is that fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04 are using the same X version. The problem is fairly rare I have work colleagues who have installed Ubuntu with no display problems.

[Ray Ward]

Just for the hell of it I tried Xorg -configure to see what would happen an got this.
Which by any stretch of the imagination cannot be right

[Ray Ward]

Ok the attachment did not attach.....
Get back to you later..
I can however say Xorg -configure created a section for every Nforce device display adapter or not
in the xorg.conf.new (USB, Disk controller Ect..).

[Hlingler]

I would assume its the same problem as with the blue line.
HorizSync and VertRefresh need to be added to your xorg.conf (Check your monitor specification details).
Also add Modes "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480" "640x400" "640x350"
to the screen section.

I do remember the Flash Gordon effect's from early days of setting up X and it was always these that caused problems.
I was a former Ubuntu user and I know that 7.10 worked fine again the assumption is that fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04 are using the same X version. The problem is fairly rare I have work colleagues who have installed Ubuntu with no display problems.No: F9 is using the very latest (still pre-release and unfinished, "beta"-ish) X11R7.4/Xorg-1.5 (actually: 1.4.99*+), while Ubuntu 8.04 uses X11R7.3/Xorg-1.4. For further comparison, F8 uses X11R7.2/Xorg-1.3. This does not mean that a similar regression/glitch with the software is not involved - after all, they're all still "Xorg". But in general, The X11/Xorg stuff in F9 is sufficiently different from prior releases to void such assumptions. Add into the mix the proprietary NVidia driver, which incorporates some non-standard features, and which was somewhat hastily patched/updated (under extremely vocal pressure) to work with that newest X11/Xorg stuff in F9. Finally, this appears to be a somewhat rare/isolated problem.

Unfortunately, therefore, there are a very large number of possible causes for this problem, but so far, it seems that none of the usual fixes work. I wish that I could offer more concrete suggestions, but depending on how important this is to you to solve, it seems to me that only a very thorough, methodical troubleshooting exercise is necessary. Either that, or just plain luck at stumbling across the right techno-magical formula that works.

There are some troubleshooting guides available, and some other ideas have already been offered, if you wish to try them.

Good Luck,
V

[Ray Ward]

I stand corrected.
I wonder if it makes a difference if this happens to users on intergrated graphics over say PCI or AGP expansion cards?
Im on intergrated graphics (It was cheap).

[Hlingler]

Theoretically of course, it should not matter much. To the best of my understanding, the biggest difference between integrated graphics (possibly using shared system RAM) and PCI/AGP cards is available VRAM. But X11/Xorg has a slightly less than spectacular history at auto-configuring all the various hardwares. I believe I already mentioned that Xorg will default to the highest resolution supported by the monitor (unlike some other OSs), even if the result is a failed GUI due to insufficient VRAM. /var/log/Xorg.0.log would show that happening.

My monitor supports up to 1600x1200. Integrated GeForce 6150 LE (with separate 256 MB VRAM). I consider this to be fairly good specs, but I've never even attempted 1600x1200 - I'm sure I could do it, but performance would plummet - or worse. So, I enforce a limit of 1200x960 @ 24[32] bpp color depth, which I personally find to be an adequate balance between performance and graphical quality. YMMV.

V

[Ray Ward]

Fedora 8 now has the same problem.

kmod-nvidia-173.14.12-1.lvn8
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-173.14.12-1.lvn8
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173.14.12-1.lvn8
kmod-nvidia-2.6.25.11-60.fc8-173.14.12-1.lvn8

Looks like it's very much the driver.

[Ray Ward]

Think I've got it .
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1280X960"
EndSubSection
I have not had a blue line for 3 days