[Solved] Yet another strange Xorg + NVIDIA problem

bubbl07 · Last edited by bubbl07 on Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:07 am; edited 1 time in total

Before I begin, let me just say that I've already tried searching through google and these forums to no avail. Neither gave me a solution to my specific error and a search for "xorg nvidia" returns way too many results to be significant.

With that out of the way, I haven't been able to get X started since I installed gentoo on this computer a few weeks ago. I originally installed linux (2.6.18-gentoo-r2), xorg-x11 (7.1), nvidia-drivers (1.0.9629), gnome (2.14), and beryl (0.1.2, installed using the guide on gentoo-wiki.com), but unfortunately got the infamous "white screen" problem wherein all I would see was the NVIDIA logo, then the beryl logo, and be left at a completely white screen. I had a cursor and could move it around, but couldn't do anything useful on the screen.

Using a suggestion I found on the forums, I did the following:

CrazyPyro · n00b Joined: 21 May 2003 Posts: 51 Location: Michigan, USA

Have you tried not using beryl? To me, that seems the likely suspect. I know compositing is great n' all, but see if X comes up without it.

richfish · Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 2:10 am Post subject:

The AddARGBGLXVisuals option should be in the Device section. Not sure if this will fix the problem, but it is an error I see in your xorg.conf file.

bubbl07 · Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 4:33 am Post subject:

@CrazyPyro: I know beryl can be a hassle, but the problem seems to arise before any window managers get called. It seems to be a problem with X itself. I've tried with Gnome, KDE, and fluxbox with no luck. Besides, I like shiny things =P.

@richfish: I didn't see that, and I fixed it, but it didn't solve the problem =/.

bubbl07 · Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 7:49 pm Post subject:

NVIDIA just released a new driver (1.0.9631) yesterday. I realize now that I kept compiling the nvidia-drivers modules with the /usr/src/linux symlink pointed to the 2.6.19-gentoo-r1 kernel. Maybe that's why it didn't work :roll:

.

When I get home, I'll try the new driver and if that doesn't work, I'll point the symlink back at a 2.6.18-series kernel. Wish me luck.

TiMiD · n00b Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 46 Location: Osaka

The 9629 version of the nvidia drivers crash when launching OpenGL application if you have a geforce4 based video card, that could be your problem.
I use the 9626 version which just works.

bubbl07 · Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:24 am Post subject:

So, after hours of tinkering and two new Gentoo installs (it's becoming second nature at this point), I've finally fixed the problem.

After reinstalling Gentoo twice (neither time with beryl) and still presenting the same problem, I tried real troubleshooting.

Using the Xorg nvidia driver ("nv"), I was presented with the same error. I commented out every line in my xorg.conf file except for the device driver, and X suddenly started with the nv driver (albeit at a very awkward resolution, but that's expected). This worked again when I used the nvidia binary driver, so I was getting pretty excited. Slowly and painfully I uncommented everything that I commented in my xorg.conf kept restarting xdm after every change to find the culprit. If X crashed using '/etc/init.d/xdm restart', even though I couldn't see anything I could alt-F1 over to a terminal and type in 'reboot' blindly; 'startx' would just freeze everything -- but I digress. I finally uncommented the line