F16,F15 & F14 Nvidia driver guides

[Optimus1970]

HI, I have read this thread and others concerning the nvidia drivers. I installed F13 from full CD on a sony vaio VPCCW21FX laptop with a GForce 310M video card. I am running the stock video drivers that comes with the install. When I run a software update and a new kernel gets installed my system hangs right before the login for the gnome desktop. I have tried the three step installation above, I have tried akmods, I have tried to install the nvidia drivers from nvidia following the steps in the fedora project site. When I hit esc to see what is going on in the boot process right before the login screen starts my screen goes to 6 little screens that flash on and off for awhile then just stops. If I hit cnt-alt-del and enter it will reboot. If I run the new kernel without installing any of the drivers from the multiple sources then it hangs and I have to pop the battery out to get the thing to shut down for a restart. I filed a bug, and posted a log from the message file, you can see it here

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=629803

While I am new to linux I do read and research before I go asking questions... I need help here!! I don't think what I am doing is incorrect just I am doing things incorrectly. I have had to reinstall 3 times trying all the update driver help....

[leigh123linux]

HI, I have read this thread and others concerning the nvidia drivers. I installed F13 from full CD on a sony vaio VPCCW21FX laptop with a GForce 310M video card. I am running the stock video drivers that comes with the install. When I run a software update and a new kernel gets installed my system hangs right before the login for the gnome desktop. I have tried the three step installation above, I have tried akmods, I have tried to install the nvidia drivers from nvidia following the steps in the fedora project site. When I hit esc to see what is going on in the boot process right before the login screen starts my screen goes to 6 little screens that flash on and off for awhile then just stops. If I hit cnt-alt-del and enter it will reboot. If I run the new kernel without installing any of the drivers from the multiple sources then it hangs and I have to pop the battery out to get the thing to shut down for a restart. I filed a bug, and posted a log from the message file, you can see it here

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=629803

While I am new to linux I do read and research before I go asking questions... I need help here!! I don't think what I am doing is incorrect just I am doing things incorrectly. I have had to reinstall 3 times trying all the update driver help....

You haven't blacklisted nouveau in grub.conf.

4.4.4-10) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Fri Aug 27 08:56:01 UTC 2010
Sep  4 13:31:42 Apollo2 kernel: Command line: ro
root=/dev/mapper/vg_apollo2-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_apollo2/lv_root
rd_LVM_LV=vg_apollo2/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8
SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
Sep  4 13:31:42 Apollo2 kernel: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:

nouveau is loading.

Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: usb 1-1.2: new high speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 3
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16
(level, low) -> IRQ 16
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Detected an NV50
generation card (0x0a8a80a2)
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Attempting to load
BIOS image from PRAMIN
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=05ca,
idProduct=18b5
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1,
Product=0, SerialNumber=0
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: Ricoh co. Ltd.
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: usb 1-1.6: new full speed USB device using
ehci_hcd and address 4
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: ... appears to be
valid
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: BIT BIOS found
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Bios version
70.18.35.00
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Pointer to BIT
loadval table invalid
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: TMDS table revision
2.0 not currently supported
Sep  4 13:32:50 Apollo2 kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: Found Display

[Optimus1970]

Hmmm... I had it in the grub.conf file. What that could be is the working kernel booting??? I just now deleted it from the file. But it is a moot point now as the guys on irc helped me out and I have it working again. This is what I had to do for anyone else ing from the same....
Download the latest drivers from nVIDIA
Put a 3 in the kernel line in file grub.conf to boot without X
login, su, go to where you downloaded the driver package
sh NVIDIA-Linux*
follow directions, yes to everything
when finished make sure you have removed any prior attempts.... I had to yum remove kmod-nvidia*, akmod-nvidia*, and kmodtools. If you remove kmodtools you are going to remove some glib files, so after removing all the kmod. akmods, then run yum install glib*
Then edit your grub.conf file to remove the 3 and the blacklisting if you had it in there and reboot....

This is what worked for me using the GForce 310M...

Thanks for the help and the quick reply though Leigh12Linux!!!

[gadgetwiz]

The updated Kernel 2.6.32.21.166.fc12 (i686) broke nVidia 96xx drivers (nVidia MX-4000 card).

Resulted in a quickly flashing cursor in the upper left corner, with no X startup.

The kmod that downloaded with the new kernel had the problem so I removed it and let it build via akmod. Still have the same problem. When I revert back to the previous kernel (2.6.32.19-163.fc12.i686), all is well.

Anyone else?

Any ideas?

[Jared84]

Not sure if I am doing this right...

I have 2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE kernel.

On step 4 edit grub.conf this is my input output:

[root@Linux Jared]# sed -i '/root=/s|$| rdblacklist=nouveau|' /boot/grub/grub.conf
[root@Linux Jared]# mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r)-nouveau.img
[root@Linux Jared]# dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)
[root@Linux Jared]#

Is this right or am I doing it wrong?

[leigh123linux]

Not sure if I am doing this right...

I have 2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE kernel.

On step 4 edit grub.conf this is my input output:

[root@Linux Jared]# sed -i '/root=/s|$| rdblacklist=nouveau|' /boot/grub/grub.conf
[root@Linux Jared]# mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r)-nouveau.img
[root@Linux Jared]# dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)
[root@Linux Jared]#

Is this right or am I doing it wrong?

Check grub.conf to see if it is already edited, installing the driver packages should automatically edit grub.conf for you.

[Jared84]

Can I check grub.conf with gedit or through the terminal?

Edit: When I boot to 2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE kernel I recieve this boot message:

Checking kmods exist for 2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE [ OK ]
Files needed for building modules against kernel
2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE could not be found as the following
directories are missing:
/usr/src/kernels/2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE/
/lib/modules/2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE/build/ [FAILED]

Checking for module nvidia.ko: [FAILED]
nvidia.ko for kernel 2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE was not found. [WARNING]
The nvidia driver will not be enabled until one is found. [WARNING]
Driver already disabled.

---------- Post added at 06:03 PM CDT ---------- Previous post was at 12:03 PM CDT ----------

I did a fresh install/update of Fedora 13 and now have kernel 2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686.PAE. I also have 00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] (rev a2) graphics card. I did su rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/...ble.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfr...ble.noarch.rpm
yum install akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686. Now to edit the grub.config all I have to do is copy and paste su -
sed -i '/root=/s|$| rdblacklist=nouveau|' /boot/grub/grub.conf
mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r)-nouveau.img
dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r) to the terminal. Do I copy and paste 1 at a time or all at the same time?

[Jeff91]

F13 Howto for the rpmfusion nvidia drivers


This is a Four-Step Process. If you don't follow all three steps, your install will fail!


1. Update the kernel and reboot

su
yum update kernel*
reboot

2. Install the nvidia driver. ( if you have 4Gb of RAM or more you will probably have a PAE kernel [32bit only] so follow the PAE part )

For GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9, 200 & 300 series cards

su
rpm -Uvh   http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm     http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum install kmod-nvidia  xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686

If you use a PAE kernel

su
rpm -Uvh   http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm     http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum install  kmod-nvidia-PAE

Or (akmod builds the required kmod on bootup )

su
rpm -Uvh   http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm     http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum install akmod-nvidia  xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686

For GeForce FX cards

su
rpm -Uvh   http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm     http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum --enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing install kmod-nvidia-173xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs.i686

If you use a PAE kernel

su
rpm -Uvh   http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm     http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum--enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing  install kmod-nvidia-173xx-PAE

Or (akmod builds the required kmod on bootup )

su
rpm -Uvh   http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm     http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm
yum --enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing install akmod-nvidia-173xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs.i686

3. Edit grub.conf ( if you omit this step the driver will fail to work )


this command adds rdblacklist=nouveau option to /boot/grub/grub.conf

su -
sed -i '/root=/s|$| rdblacklist=nouveau|' /boot/grub/grub.conf
mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname   -r)-nouveau.img
dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

4. Reboot

Followed these instructions exactly on a fresh install of fedora 13 32bit (non-PAE). nVidia 260m GTX graphics card (Supported by the latest driver). System now hangs at start up when the loading bar gets all the way across the screen. What did I mess up/how can I resolve this?

~Jeff

[ozjd]

If you have the latest kernel and have a Wacom tablet plugged in that will be the problem. Unplug it and it will work.

[itsjustarumour]

Followed these instructions exactly on a fresh install of fedora 13 32bit (non-PAE). nVidia 260m GTX graphics card (Supported by the latest driver). System now hangs at start up when the loading bar gets all the way across the screen. What did I mess up/how can I resolve this?

~Jeff

Exactly the same for me after I've done all 4 stages, with NVidia GT240 card. Leigh's how-to has aways worked great for me before so I'm a bit baffled.

Have tried the 2.6.33.x kernel and also the latest 2.6.34.x kernel (which caused other weirdness, so I've gone back to 2.6.33.x). I've also tried the Akmod kernel. NVidia 256.53-1 driver. No Wacom tablet installed.

[Adunaic]

Exactly the same for me after I've done all 4 stages, with NVidia GT240 card. Leigh's how-to has aways worked great for me before so I'm a bit baffled.

Have tried the 2.6.33.x kernel and also the latest 2.6.34.x kernel (which caused other weirdness, so I've gone back to 2.6.33.x). I've also tried the Akmod kernel. NVidia 256.53-1 driver. No Wacom tablet installed.

I am having the same problem. I have a PAE kernel, did a fresh install and then followed the instructions (akmod) and it just hung. So I tried a fresh install again and did kmod and get

Error: Package: 1:kmod-nvidia-2.6.34.6-47.fc13.i686.PAE-256.53-1.fc13.i686 (rpmfusion-nonfree-updates)
           Requires: kernel-uname-r = 2.6.34.6-47.fc13.i686.PAE
           Installed: kernel-PAE-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 (@anaconda-InstallationRepo-201005130056.i386)
           Installed: kernel-PAE-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686 (@updates)
           Available: kernel-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 (fedora)
           Available: kernel-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686 (updates)
           Available: kernel-PAEdebug-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 (fedora)
           Available: kernel-PAEdebug-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686 (updates)
           Available: kernel-debug-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 (fedora)
           Available: kernel-debug-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686 (updates)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

[itsjustarumour]

I am having the same problem. I have a PAE kernel, did a fresh install and then followed the instructions (akmod) and it just hung. So I tried a fresh install again and did kmod and get

Error: Package: 1:kmod-nvidia-2.6.34.6-47.fc13.i686.PAE-256.53-1.fc13.i686 (rpmfusion-nonfree-updates)
           Requires: kernel-uname-r = 2.6.34.6-47.fc13.i686.PAE
           Installed: kernel-PAE-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 (@anaconda-InstallationRepo-201005130056.i386)
           Installed: kernel-PAE-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686 (@updates)
           Available: kernel-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 (fedora)
           Available: kernel-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686 (updates)
           Available: kernel-PAEdebug-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 (fedora)
           Available: kernel-PAEdebug-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686 (updates)
           Available: kernel-debug-2.6.33.3-85.fc13.i686 (fedora)
           Available: kernel-debug-2.6.34.6-54.fc13.i686 (updates)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

FWIW I've now tried a fresh install of Fedora 13, but I'm still having the same issue. Looking at the verbose output when booting doesn't throw up any errors - everything appears to be "OK", "found" and "already present" just as it should be.

[leigh123linux]

FWIW I've now tried a fresh install of Fedora 13, but I'm still having the same issue. Looking at the verbose output when booting doesn't throw up any errors - everything appears to be "OK", "found" and "already present" just as it should be.

Use akmod if the kmod isn't available (I don't use the release kernel or the rpmfusion provided drivers )

[root@localhost leigh]# uname -r
2.6.35.4-23.fc14.x86_64
[root@localhost leigh]# rpm -qa |grep nvidia |sort
kmod-nvidia-2.6.35.4-14.fc14.x86_64-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
kmod-nvidia-2.6.35.4-23.fc14.x86_64-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
nvidia-settings-1.0-6.fc13.x86_64
nvidia-xconfig-1.0-4.fc13.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-devel-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-260.19.04-1.fc13.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
[root@localhost leigh]#

[Adunaic]

when I used akmod though I got a blank screen.

[itsjustarumour]

Use akmod if the kmod isn't available (I don't use the release kernel or the rpmfusion provided drivers )

[root@localhost leigh]# uname -r
2.6.35.4-23.fc14.x86_64
[root@localhost leigh]# rpm -qa |grep nvidia |sort
kmod-nvidia-2.6.35.4-14.fc14.x86_64-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
kmod-nvidia-2.6.35.4-23.fc14.x86_64-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
nvidia-settings-1.0-6.fc13.x86_64
nvidia-xconfig-1.0-4.fc13.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-devel-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-260.19.04-1.fc13.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-260.19.04-1.fc13.x86_64
[root@localhost leigh]#

Thanks for the post Leigh. I'll give the Akmod another try tonight when I'm back home in front of my Fedora box.