Help for nForce2 users

[blakeyez]

Hey all

My first post here, though I've been using Gentoo for quite awhile now....

Anyway, after installing on my new system (Shuttle XPC SN41G2, which is a barebones pc w/ nforce2-based mobo, using integrated graphics) using GRP just for kicks, I could not get the nvidia drivers to work. I followed the install guide to the letter, everything seemed to install fine, X logs showed that the driver and GLX modules were loading fine, but the screen would just go totally corrupt and the system would be essentially hung until I hit ctrl-alt-del.

My solution is to install the latest nvidia drivers, which still have the ~x86 keyword associated with them (1.0-4496). Something like this did the trick:

root# ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge nvidia-kernel nvidia-glx

Maybe a little note in the install guide might save some other people the same headaches I had with this!

Dave

Edit: forgot to mention this is using the integrated graphics of the nForce2 chipset!

[Ch1lly]

I would love to get some confirmation about that because in the Desktop Configuration Guide there is a section :

[blakeyez]

It is a good idea to install the nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx packages if you will be using X, with integrated graphics enabled on an nForce(2) machine.

There is an agpgart patch provided with nvidia's nforce driver package (I don't think there's an ebuild for this part of it, only for the net/audio components), however it is only there to provide support for the AGP port of the nForce(2) boards if you are running a NON-nvidia addon video card.

Technically, with X-windows, you could use the "nv" driver that comes with a standard xfree distribution. However, to allow the use of opengl acceleration, etc etc, you should use the drivers distributed by nvidia, packaged as nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx in gentoo. Essentially the integrated graphics on an nForce(2) board is just like having an nVidia graphics card on a regular motherboard.

Hope that helps you - that's my understanding from the past day or so of research and crashing my computer over and over again!

Dave