Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Christian Unger]

Hi Everyone

I'm not sure if this has been done to death or not, but i can not get the 4496 
and 5328 versions of the NVidia kernel to work on the 2.6.1 version of (you 
guessed it) Linux.

I've googled about but not really found any great stuff. I did find this:

http://www.kerneltrap.org/node/view/1804
and from there the link to http://minion.de

I've tried it with both versions of the driver, with both versions of the 
drivers Makefile (Makefile.nvidia and Makefile.kbuild). 

With the installer and with just make install (make kernel_module_install).
The message i get is that the module is the wrong format.
The files that i can get to appear in:
/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video are nvidia.ko & nvidia.o
Originally i thought they were the same file, but they have different sizes 
(afterall)
chakkerz@stormcrow:/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video$ ls -l
total 4648
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     root      2376880 Jan 21 12:14 nvidia.ko
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     root      2376702 Jan 21 12:15 nvidia.o

so: i've tried unpatched, patched, old and new drivers, installer and make, 
make in the installers root, and it's sub director usr/src/nv ... oh yes, and 
different versions of the patch.

could someone please tell me where to find out how to make this work, because 
linux without GUI is little use to me.

In case it matters:
This is an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ on a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 MoBo (nforce2). The 
FFX is an Abit Siluro GeForce 4 Ti4200 OTES. 2 sticks of 256 Corsair DDR in 
dual channel. The kernel compiles i tried were with AGPGART integrated (and 
the nforce/nforce2 also integrated) as well as AGPGART as a module. Most of 
the stuff i tried with AGPGART as a module.
-- 
with kind regards,
  Christian Unger

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision" (Faithless - Reverence)

  Mobile:            0402 268904
  Internet:          http://naiv.sourceforge.net
  NAIV Status:
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"May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins" (Animatrix)

Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Christian Unger]

Hi Everyone

I'm not sure if this has been done to death or not, but i can not get the 4496 
and 5328 versions of the NVidia kernel to work on the 2.6.1 version of (you 
guessed it) Linux.

I've googled about but not really found any great stuff. I did find this:

http://www.kerneltrap.org/node/view/1804
and from there the link to http://minion.de

I've tried it with both versions of the driver, with both versions of the 
drivers Makefile (Makefile.nvidia and Makefile.kbuild). 

With the installer and with just make install (make kernel_module_install).
The message i get is that the module is the wrong format.
The files that i can get to appear in:
/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video are nvidia.ko & nvidia.o
Originally i thought they were the same file, but they have different sizes 
(afterall)
chakkerz@stormcrow:/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video$ ls -l
total 4648
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     root      2376880 Jan 21 12:14 nvidia.ko
-rw-rw-r--    1 root     root      2376702 Jan 21 12:15 nvidia.o

so: i've tried unpatched, patched, old and new drivers, installer and make, 
make in the installers root, and it's sub director usr/src/nv ... oh yes, and 
different versions of the patch.

could someone please tell me where to find out how to make this work, because 
linux without GUI is little use to me.

In case it matters:
This is an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ on a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 MoBo (nforce2). The 
FFX is an Abit Siluro GeForce 4 Ti4200 OTES. 2 sticks of 256 Corsair DDR in 
dual channel. The kernel compiles i tried were with AGPGART integrated (and 
the nforce/nforce2 also integrated) as well as AGPGART as a module. Most of 
the stuff i tried with AGPGART as a module.
-- 
with kind regards,
  Christian Unger

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision" (Faithless - Reverence)

  Mobile:            0402 268904
  Internet:          http://naiv.sourceforge.net
  NAIV Status:
     Stable       Testing       Development
      0.2.3r2      0.3.0         0.3.1 - File Handling

"May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins" (Animatrix)

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Tomasz Torcz]

On Thu, Jan 22, 2004 at 10:12:17AM +1100, Christian Unger wrote:
> I'm not sure if this has been done to death or not, but i can not get the 4496 
> and 5328 versions of the NVidia kernel to work on the 2.6.1 version of (you 
> guessed it) Linux.

 Complain to nVidia.

-- 
Tomasz Torcz                Only gods can safely risk perfection,     
zdzichu@irc.-nie.spam-.pl     it's a dangerous thing for a man.  -- Alia

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Diego Calleja]

El Thu, 22 Jan 2004 10:12:17 +1100 Christian Unger <chakkerz@optusnet.com.au> escribió:

Have you tried to contact Nvidia? If lots of people ask them for the
drivers they'll develop them faster, me thinks...

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Christian Unger]

>  Complain to nVidia.

yeah i did think about that, except
"
NVIDIA provides superior 3D graphics processors to the computer industry's 
leading add-in card manufacturers and PC OEMs. We do not sell any products 
directly to end users so we do not have a staff dedicated to end-user 
technical support. If you are having a problem with any NVIDIA-based product, 
please contact either the PC or board manufacturer of your product. 
"

So who writes the drivers??
-- 
with kind regards,
  Christian Unger

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision" (Faithless - Reverence)

  Mobile:            0402 268904
  Internet:          http://naiv.sourceforge.net
  NAIV Status:
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"May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins" (Animatrix)

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Paul Misner]

On Wednesday 21 January 2004 05:12 pm, Christian Unger wrote:
> Hi Everyone
>
> I'm not sure if this has been done to death or not, but i can not get the
> 4496 and 5328 versions of the NVidia kernel to work on the 2.6.1 version of
> (you guessed it) Linux.
>
> I've googled about but not really found any great stuff. I did find this:
>
> http://www.kerneltrap.org/node/view/1804
> and from there the link to http://minion.de
Did you try the installers from http://www.sh.nu/download/nvidia/ ?
 http://minion.de refers to them, and they appear to work fine here.

>
> I've tried it with both versions of the driver, with both versions of the
> drivers Makefile (Makefile.nvidia and Makefile.kbuild).
>
> With the installer and with just make install (make kernel_module_install).
> The message i get is that the module is the wrong format.
Wrong (or no) module-init-tools?  Mine currently is 
module-init-tools-3.0-0.pre5.2mdk from the Mandrake cooker, although I've not 
had trouble for some time with any version.  The nvidia.ko file is the one 
that will load under a 2.6 kernel.  The wrong format message sounds like you 
don't have module-init-tools installed, although I would expect getting your 
nvidia card to run would be the least of your problems.

You could also switch over in your XFConfig-4 to the nv driver that is part of 
the kernel build.  That should get your system running with X, letting you 
solve the nvidia driver problems later.

> The files that i can get to appear in:
> /lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video are nvidia.ko & nvidia.o
> Originally i thought they were the same file, but they have different sizes
> (afterall)
> chakkerz@stormcrow:/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video$ ls -l
> total 4648
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root      2376880 Jan 21 12:14 nvidia.ko
> -rw-rw-r--    1 root     root      2376702 Jan 21 12:15 nvidia.o
>
> so: i've tried unpatched, patched, old and new drivers, installer and make,
> make in the installers root, and it's sub director usr/src/nv ... oh yes,
> and different versions of the patch.
>
> could someone please tell me where to find out how to make this work,
> because linux without GUI is little use to me.
>
> In case it matters:
> This is an AMD Athlon XP 2800+ on a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 MoBo (nforce2).
> The FFX is an Abit Siluro GeForce 4 Ti4200 OTES. 2 sticks of 256 Corsair
> DDR in dual channel. The kernel compiles i tried were with AGPGART
> integrated (and the nforce/nforce2 also integrated) as well as AGPGART as a
> module. Most of the stuff i tried with AGPGART as a module.
What messages do you get about what is going wrong?  What happens when you so 
a modprobe nvidia?  What does your log file from XFree show?

Paul

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Christian Unger]

About module-init-tools ... dunno ... never heard of it, I'm on Slackware 9.1 
so ... dunno ... Not sure. But like you say, if i could not initalize modules 
the nvidia module should be the least of my worries, plus everything loads in 
2.4.22

>
> What messages do you get about what is going wrong?  What happens when you
> so a modprobe nvidia?  What does your log file from XFree show?
on make install i get:
FATAL: Error inserting nvidia (/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video/
nvidia.ko): Invalid module format

That's the same thing that modprobe nvidia gets. 
I'll check the nv thing out.

One interesting error / warning i get during boot is this (from /var/log/
syslog) :
Jan 22 10:43:08 stormcrow kernel: nvidia: version magic '2.6.1 preempt K7 
gcc-3.2' should be '2.6.1 preempt K7 gcc-3.3'
Jan 22 10:46:15 stormcrow kernel: nvidia: version magic '2.6.1 preempt K7 
gcc-3.2' should be '2.6.1 preempt K7 gcc-3.3'

Not sure what to make of this. I know that 4496 had issues with the gcc 
version i was running a while backed, and i had to hack the installer script 
to ignore that (though i'm sure there is a switch for this stuff ... i was 
over reading at that point).

As for the XFree log ... i don't have that one ...

-- 
with kind regards,
  Christian Unger

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision" (Faithless - Reverence)

  Mobile:            0402 268904
  Internet:          http://naiv.sourceforge.net
  NAIV Status:
     Stable       Testing       Development
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"May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins" (Animatrix)

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Paul Misner]

On Wednesday 21 January 2004 06:05 pm, Christian Unger wrote:
> About module-init-tools ... dunno ... never heard of it, I'm on Slackware
> 9.1 so ... dunno ... Not sure. But like you say, if i could not initalize
> modules the nvidia module should be the least of my worries, plus
> everything loads in 2.4.22

The 2.6 kernel needs new tools to load the kernel modules, because they have a 
different format (not just a different extension with .ko).  
module-init-tools provides those necessary upgrades, and also aids in 
creating /etc/modprobe.conf, which is used instead of /etc/modules.conf under 
the 2.6 kernels for loading modules on startup.  If you don't have 
module-init-tools, then I'm not surprised you are having problems.  You 
probably need an updated mkinitrd as well if you are using an initrd on 
system startup.

They should be at http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/

You probably want to read a document that summarized the changes that happened 
in 2.6, which is where the link above was located.  It is 
http://www.linux.org.uk/~davej/docs/post-halloween-2.6.txt

Not knowing much about Slackware, I couldn't give you much help about where 
the best place to get your tools from might be, except for the source above.

> > What messages do you get about what is going wrong?  What happens when
> > you so a modprobe nvidia?  What does your log file from XFree show?
>
> on make install i get:
> FATAL: Error inserting nvidia (/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video/
> nvidia.ko): Invalid module format
>
> That's the same thing that modprobe nvidia gets.
> I'll check the nv thing out.
>
> One interesting error / warning i get during boot is this (from /var/log/
> syslog) :
> Jan 22 10:43:08 stormcrow kernel: nvidia: version magic '2.6.1 preempt K7
> gcc-3.2' should be '2.6.1 preempt K7 gcc-3.3'
> Jan 22 10:46:15 stormcrow kernel: nvidia: version magic '2.6.1 preempt K7
> gcc-3.2' should be '2.6.1 preempt K7 gcc-3.3'
>
> Not sure what to make of this. I know that 4496 had issues with the gcc
> version i was running a while backed, and i had to hack the installer
> script to ignore that (though i'm sure there is a switch for this stuff ...
> i was over reading at that point).
>
> As for the XFree log ... i don't have that one ...

/var/log/XFree86.0.log would be the place.  I don't think there will be 
anything interesting there until you get your module-init-tools installed.

I hope this has helped.

Paul

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Rob Couto]

On Wednesday 21 January 2004 19:24, Paul Misner wrote:
> On Wednesday 21 January 2004 06:05 pm, Christian Unger wrote:
> > About module-init-tools ... dunno ... never heard of it, I'm on Slackware
> > 9.1 so ... dunno ... Not sure. But like you say, if i could not initalize
> > modules the nvidia module should be the least of my worries, plus
> > everything loads in 2.4.22

Slackware 9.1 comes with module-init-tools in anticipation of 2.6. did you run 
a full install or select by hand?

-- 
Rob Couto
rpc@cafe4111.org
Rules for computing success:
1) Attitude is no substitute for competence.
2) Ease of use is no substitute for power.
3) Safety matters; use a static-free hammer.
--

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Robin Rosenberg]

torsdagen den 22 januari 2004 00.28 skrev Christian Unger:
> >  Complain to nVidia.
> 
> yeah i did think about that, except
> "
> NVIDIA provides superior 3D graphics processors to the computer industry's 
> leading add-in card manufacturers and PC OEMs. We do not sell any products 
> directly to end users so we do not have a staff dedicated to end-user 
> technical support. If you are having a problem with any NVIDIA-based product, 
> please contact either the PC or board manufacturer of your product. 
> "
> 
> So who writes the drivers??

NVidia does. Check the download link for Linux/FreeBSD drivers and in particular the link to the Nvidial Linux forum.

-- robin

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Christian Unger]

> Hi, i have this drive working great for me.
> I aply a patch, then i recompile the source.
> If you prefer, i can send the source for you.
>

Well ... i've applied the patch and downloaded the pre-patched drivers, 
sacrificed a virgin, installed the module loading stuff (just in case) and 
still no joy. 

So i think the fault is not with NVidia. or the patch. Maybe it's a flaw in 
Slackware 9.1, or i'm just too thick. 

I did get X to work with nv, but since i have a dodgy old monitor i can't get 
the vertical alignment right (there probably is a way to do it -- SAX in SuSE 
does the trick).

-- 
with kind regards,
  Christian Unger

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision" (Faithless - Reverence)

  Mobile:            0402 268904
  Internet:          http://naiv.sourceforge.net
  NAIV Status:
     Stable       Testing       Development
      0.2.3r2      0.3.0         0.3.1 - File Handling

"May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins" (Animatrix)

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Kieran]

How strange. I run slack 9.1 and 2.6.1, just grabbed the 4496 
pre-patched file from http://www.sh.nu/download/nvidia/ and installed it 
as I would on 2.4. Works a charm.

> Well ... i've applied the patch and downloaded the pre-patched drivers, 
> sacrificed a virgin, installed the module loading stuff (just in case) and 
> still no joy. 
> 
> So i think the fault is not with NVidia. or the patch. Maybe it's a flaw in 
> Slackware 9.1, or i'm just too thick. 
> 
> I did get X to work with nv, but since i have a dodgy old monitor i can't get 
> the vertical alignment right (there probably is a way to do it -- SAX in SuSE 
> does the trick).
> 

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Bob Gill]

Hi.  I also have an Nvidia Ti4200, running on Fedora Core with the
2.6.2-rc1 kernel.  The easiest way to get the driver installed was to
grab a pre-built no-fuss installer from
http://www.sh.nu/download/nvidia/linux-2.6/ and after you build your new
kernel, boot into it, kill X and make sure it stays dead by modifying
/etc/inittab by changing 
respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
to
# x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
(save) and type init q  ...if X wasn't dead before, it is now.  You
should now be able to install the driver (where ever you put it) by just
running >sh <drivername>
Assuming your XF86Config is still setup to deal with the binary nVidia
driver, when you uncomment the line in the /etc/inittab file and re-run
init q, X should start with an nvidia splash screen.  Please be aware
that there are problems with agpgart on via chipsets (I don't have one,
I'm quoting from the minion page).  And there is a procedure for getting
mesa (and optionally glut) installed alongside the binary nvidia driver
(and a bit more if you want tv with overscan).  

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Josh McKinney]

On approximately Wed, Jan 21, 2004 at 06:24:10PM -0600, Paul Misner wrote:
> On Wednesday 21 January 2004 06:05 pm, Christian Unger wrote:
> > About module-init-tools ... dunno ... never heard of it, I'm on Slackware
> > 9.1 so ... dunno ... Not sure. But like you say, if i could not initalize
> > modules the nvidia module should be the least of my worries, plus
> > everything loads in 2.4.22
> 
> The 2.6 kernel needs new tools to load the kernel modules, because they have a 
> different format (not just a different extension with .ko).  
> module-init-tools provides those necessary upgrades, and also aids in 
> creating /etc/modprobe.conf, which is used instead of /etc/modules.conf under 
> the 2.6 kernels for loading modules on startup.  If you don't have 
> module-init-tools, then I'm not surprised you are having problems.  You 
> probably need an updated mkinitrd as well if you are using an initrd on 
> system startup.
> 
> They should be at http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/rusty/modules/
> 
> You probably want to read a document that summarized the changes that happened 
> in 2.6, which is where the link above was located.  It is 
> http://www.linux.org.uk/~davej/docs/post-halloween-2.6.txt
> 
> Not knowing much about Slackware, I couldn't give you much help about where 
> the best place to get your tools from might be, except for the source above.
> 
> > > What messages do you get about what is going wrong?  What happens when
> > > you so a modprobe nvidia?  What does your log file from XFree show?
> >
> > on make install i get:
> > FATAL: Error inserting nvidia (/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video/
> > nvidia.ko): Invalid module format
> >
> > That's the same thing that modprobe nvidia gets.
> > I'll check the nv thing out.
> >

My guess is you need to have a "built" kernel tree.  Basically just
build the kernel, install, reboot, then without touching the kernel
tree you built rebuild the nvidia driver.  I hope that makes sense.

-- 
Josh McKinney		     |	Webmaster: http://joshandangie.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             | They that can give up essential liberty
Linux, the choice       -o)  | to obtain a little temporary safety deserve 
of the GNU generation    /\  | neither liberty or safety. 
                        _\_v |                          -Benjamin Franklin

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Christian Unger]

On Thursday 22 January 2004 23:12, Kieran wrote:
> How strange. I run slack 9.1 and 2.6.1, just grabbed the 4496
> pre-patched file from http://www.sh.nu/download/nvidia/ and installed it
> as I would on 2.4. Works a charm.

Hmm ... that does worry me a little then ... as there then is absolutely NO 
reason for it not to work. 

Maybe the virgin was not pure enough ... :)

Would you be able to possibly mail me a copy of your kernel configuration 
file. In case i mucked something in it up .... i can't imagine what ... but 
still if you could forward me a copy of the file, i'll try that.

-- 
with kind regards,
  Christian Unger

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision" (Faithless - Reverence)

  Mobile:            0402 268904
  Internet:          http://naiv.sourceforge.net
  NAIV Status:
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"May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins" (Animatrix)

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Thu, 22 Jan 2004 @ 22:52 +1100, Christian Unger said:

> Well ... i've applied the patch and downloaded the pre-patched drivers, 
> sacrificed a virgin, installed the module loading stuff (just in case) and 
> still no joy. 
> 
> So i think the fault is not with NVidia. or the patch. Maybe it's a flaw in 
> Slackware 9.1, or i'm just too thick. 

I have no problem myself.

I use the driver *.run files that have been patched to work with 2.6 
kernels.

I don't have to build a thing, I just install them like I would under
kernel 2.4.

If you look at the minion website, there is a mirror in the download
list, and that mirror has install packages modified for 2.6.

It's completely automatic.

Maybe you should try that.

It will fail when it goes to the nvidia website to find precompiled glue
code, and then proceed to build the glue locally.


-- 
UNIX/Perl/C/Pizza____________________s h a n n o n@wido !SPAM maker.com

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Thu, 22 Jan 2004 @ 12:12 +0000, Kieran said:

> How strange. I run slack 9.1 and 2.6.1, just grabbed the 4496 
> pre-patched file from http://www.sh.nu/download/nvidia/ and installed it 
> as I would on 2.4. Works a charm.

How's the performance?

I have found the 4496 and 5328 drivers lowered my performance.

5328 is supposed to be faster mip-mapping and faster when running with
vertical blank sync, but I didn't see it myself.  It also caused quite a
few sound artifacts from my Live! sound card.

Anyone done a driver-by-driver benchmark?

I got tired of it, but here's the performance order on my system from
fastest to slowest:

4620
3xxx (last stable 3xxx driver)
4496
5328

Mostly what I look for are not benchmark numbers, but notable hesitation
in programs and interactive response, and side effects like bad sound
artifacts.




-- 
UNIX/Perl/C/Pizza____________________s h a n n o n@wido !SPAM maker.com

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Christian Unger]

Kieran (et al)

Ok i tried the configuration you sent, and after working out that you have a 
different motherboard chipset which caused the kernel to hang here whenever i 
did anything that involved the hard disk (copy the drivers from my backup 
partition to my work partition for instance - to ensure that i was using 
"good copies") i even had signs of success.

Mere signs though. I continue being told it's an invalid format:
FATAL: Error inserting nvidia (/lib/modules/2.6.1/kernel/drivers/video/
nvidia.ko): Invalid module format

So ... i'm out of ideas ... i don't get why it ain't doing for me what it is 
doing for everyone else. I am wondering IF something screwed up when i 
upgraded Slackware 9.1 from 9.0 ... and in the interest of testing that 
theory might do a rm -f / later and start from scratch. I haven't decided if 
2.6 is worth that much yet though. 
-- 
with kind regards,
  Christian Unger

"You don't need eyes to see, you need vision" (Faithless - Reverence)

  Mobile:            0402 268904
  Internet:          http://naiv.sourceforge.net
  NAIV Status:
     Stable       Testing       Development
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"May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins" (Animatrix)

Re: Nvidia drivers and 2.6.x kernel

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Mon, 26 Jan 2004 @ 10:24 +1100, Christian Unger said:

> So ... i'm out of ideas ... i don't get why it ain't doing for me what it is 
> doing for everyone else. I am wondering IF something screwed up when i 
> upgraded Slackware 9.1 from 9.0 ... and in the interest of testing that 
> theory might do a rm -f / later and start from scratch. I haven't decided if 
> 2.6 is worth that much yet though. 

nVidia has released drivers supporting kernel 2.6 on their website.

They run nicely for me.

Hmmm... why do people say "they" when talking about a "driver"?


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["An Irishman is never drunk as long as he
can hold onto one blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth."]