8600 GT: Xorg.conf settings diff btwn 'nv' and 'nvidia' drivers?

vfulco · #1 13th March 2009, 10:51 PM

Installed F10 on a Tyan mobo and GS 7300 card works fine on twin monitor setup. Switching to new 8600 GT, neither nvidia direct nor livna config will format xorg.conf properly.

Switching to 'nv' driver, one monitor will work and using display GUI, can choose dual head but settings will not take. Manual xorg.conf file with simplest settings will not launch startx successfully. Any attempt to launch 'nvidia' driver, monitor goes into power save within 5 seconds.

Have tried drivers 180.29 and 180.35...

TIA, Vince

vfulco · #2 20th March 2009, 05:24 AM

Running 182.xx driver thru livna configuration, dual monitor setup @ startx halts at the same point "NVIDIA(1): DELL SE198WFP (DFP-1): Internal Dual Link TMDS". Monitor goes immediately into power save. Would appreciate another contributor posting a working copy. TIA, Vince

savage · #3 20th March 2009, 12:28 PM

Can you post your xorg.conf and have a look in /var/log/Xorg.0.log for any clues as to whats going wrong.

WIld Wolverine · #4 20th March 2009, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vfulco

Installed F10 on a Tyan mobo and GS 7300 card works fine on twin monitor setup. Switching to new 8600 GT, neither nvidia direct nor livna config will format xorg.conf properly.

Switching to 'nv' driver, one monitor will work and using display GUI, can choose dual head but settings will not take. Manual xorg.conf file with simplest settings will not launch startx successfully. Any attempt to launch 'nvidia' driver, monitor goes into power save within 5 seconds.

Have tried drivers 180.29 and 180.35...

TIA, Vince

Log in as root, and try using the " NVIDIA X Server Settings " utility, ,just make sure you are using the nvidia driver not livna.

You must be logged in as root for the " NVIDIA X Server Settings " utility to write to xorg.conf.

vfulco · #5 20th March 2009, 12:54 PM

Savage- Not set up to SSH in to the box but will try Wild Wolverine's suggestion and report back.

Thanks much. Vince

WIld Wolverine · #6 20th March 2009, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WIld Wolverine

Log in as root, and try using the " NVIDIA X Server Settings " utility, ,just make sure you are using the nvidia driver not livna.

You must be logged in as root for the " NVIDIA X Server Settings " utility to write to xorg.conf.

At the login screen do:
1. Ctrl-Alt-F2
2. log in as root
3. init 3
4. log in as root
5. " startx "
6. The utility is located in the " Settings ' menu if you are using kde Classic menu style.

I assume that you are using the .run driver from the Nvidia website.

vfulco · #7 20th March 2009, 01:28 PM

Correction: using 180.29 driver, not 182.xx. After wiping out livna modules, reinstalled direct from NVIDIA one with no errors & ran 'nvidia-xconfig'. Looking at xorg.conf, only recognized 1 monitor (DFP-0). Xorg.0.log shows aborting in the same place as in the past, i.e. ) attempting to initialize the GPU GART 9x 2) aborting, 3) moving to 'setting mode "DFP-0:1440x900+0+0", 4) halting at this last line 'WAIT: (E, 0 , 0x827d, 0)' and 5) display entering power save w/i 2 seconds.

I wonder if it relates to the DELL power save feature which I can not turn off? In the last day or so set up a windows box and while running the hardware changes function had to power off and on the display in order for WXP to identify it as being connected for driver install.

Thanks again.

vfulco · #8 20th March 2009, 01:45 PM

Just checked. Not installed. On another note, the only other 'out of the norm' settings I have and wonder about are ACPID turned off in grub and the option "ConnectToAcpid" "false".

vfulco · #9 20th March 2009, 01:54 PM

To follow-up, switching to 'nv' allows startx to fire up one monitor. But going into nvidia x server settings GUI menu raises an error "you do not appear to be using the nvidia x driver. please edit your x configuration file..." Using CLI, i can run the nvidia-xconfig command w/o an error so this is somewhat circular problem?!? Entering the GUI based display sub-menu and trying to switch to dual head & spanning desktops doesn't allow new settings to be saved.

WIld Wolverine · #10 20th March 2009, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vfulco

To follow-up, switching to 'nv' allows startx to fire up one monitor. But going into nvidia x server settings GUI menu raises an error "you do not appear to be using the nvidia x driver. please edit your x configuration file..." Using CLI, i can run the nvidia-xconfig command w/o an error so this is somewhat circular problem?!? Entering the GUI based display sub-menu and trying to switch to dual head & spanning desktops doesn't allow new settings to be saved.

'nv' is the wrong driver to use with nvidia x server setting gui..

I am using Fedora 10 right now, with an Nvidia 8500 gt.
I used the driver from the nvidia website, works fine here.
The .run file from the nvidia website is what installs the Nvidia x server setting gui menu, so you need to use the same driver for the gui.

Example: My driver from the website is : NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.29-pkg1.run for the 8500 gt.

"Entering the GUI based display sub-menu and trying to switch to dual head & spanning desktops doesn't allow new settings to be saved"

If you can get the nvidia x server utility to run, you can set up a seperate x screen, and setup twin view with it. At least mine allows me to do that, not sure about yours.

This might help you too: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=201652

vfulco · #11 20th March 2009, 06:09 PM

After cleaning up some errant livna files, the problem remains. I may just revert back to the 7 series card as I've spent 15+ hours on this. Are the 7 and 8 series cards so different that a good xorg.conf in the former won't work in the latter????

savage · #12 20th March 2009, 09:12 PM

Hey, just back from work, here's my xorg.conf for a working dual-monitor setup with the 8800GT, both monitors run at 1280x1024 - it has UK keyboard setup, so you may want to change that.

This works fine on my system with compiz and so forth, using the rpmfusion driver 180.29.

Code:

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

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

Section "ServerFlags"
	Option	    "AIGLX" "on"
	Option	    "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

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

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Unknown"
	ModelName    "Sharp LL-T15A4-B"
	HorizSync    22.0 - 62.0
	VertRefresh  50.0 - 75.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor1"
	VendorName   "Unknown"
	ModelName    "Sharp LL-T15A4-B"
	HorizSync    22.0 - 62.0
	VertRefresh  50.0 - 75.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "nvidia"
	VendorName  "NVIDIA Corporation"
	BoardName   "GeForce 8800 GT"
	Option	    "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard1"
	Driver      "nvidia"
	VendorName  "NVIDIA Corporation"
	BoardName   "GeForce 8800 GT"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
	Screen      1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	Option	    "TwinView" "1"
	Option	    "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "CRT-0"
	Option	    "metamodes" "CRT-0: 1280x1024_60 +0+0, CRT-1: 1280x1024_60 +1280+0; CRT-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0, CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0; CRT-0: 1280x1024 +0+0, CRT-1: 1280x1024 +1280+0"
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen1"
	Device     "Videocard1"
	Monitor    "Monitor1"
	DefaultDepth     24
	Option	    "TwinView" "0"
	Option	    "metamodes" "CRT-1: 1280x1024_60 +0+0; CRT-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0; CRT-1: 1280x1024 +0+0"
EndSection

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

You may have noticed that TwinView is enabled on one screen and disabled on the other, this seems to stop it doing "horizontal spanning" mode, which annoys the hell out of me (where apps maximize over both monitors).

vfulco · #13 20th March 2009, 09:47 PM

Savage- Thanks very much. Will try this asap. Are you running this on nvidia direct drivers or through the livna setup? Best, Vince

savage · #14 20th March 2009, 10:18 PM

Through Livna (rpmfusion now I think?), the drivers installed through yum anyway, rather than from nvidia.com.