GeForce4 420 Go 32M

[silversun]

Hi,

I have a samsung X10 Laptop. It comes with a Geforce4 420 GO 32M and centrino chipset. I am running RedHat 9.0. When I try to use the lates Linux drives (1.0-4349) I just get a full screen with flickering lines. Text console also, just flickering lines (grey and black, so I guess it's the chopped screen).
Any Idea? The OpenSource XFree drivers seem to work (they destroy the text console like the NVIDIA drivers, but work for X)

I tried w/o AGP, nothing. What else can I try? Is GeForce4 420 Go / Centrino known to work/notwork?

Cheers, Peter

[andysan]

Hi Peter,

I also have the Samsung X10 (the 1.6GHz version which has the NVidia 440GO 64Mb) and have had exactly the same problems with NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4349 on RedHat 9. I get an X display with the XFree nv driver, but random horizontal lines when I exit from X. With the NVidia driver I get random horizontal lines when X is running too. It seems to me that the computer is responding properly and that probably the server is running OK but somehow that the panel hasn't been detected properly and there is a sync type of problem. I would be very keen to hear for anyone's ideas on fixing this as NVidia OpenGL under Linux was one of my main criteria for buying this otherwise very nice laptop!

Andy.

[silversun]

Hi Andy,

Unfortunately I noticed, that the opensource drivers don't work propperly aswell. WHen displaying video in fullscreen mode (with xine/mplayer/etc) every other horizontal line is displaced, which makes the picture look like very badly de-interlaced.

it would be great to here from any progress.

Cheer, Peter


BTW, did you get the battery to work? (Or just anything ACPI related?)

[andysan]

What do you mean about the battery and ACPI?

Andy.

[silversun]

I mean that I don't get information about the remaining battery lifetime. My old laptop shows a nice icon with the state of filling of the battery and will suspend to disk when I close the cover. All this doesn't work with the X10.

Cheers Peter

[andysan]

No it doesn't, but I'm using a standard kernel at the moment which doesn't have apm support compiled in I think. I will try building a new kernel soon and see if that works.

Also think I might try RedHat 8 and the older NVidia drivers.

Andy.

[silversun]

I see. I also noticed, that I can't switch on DMA transfer for neither hda nor hdc. without DMA disk access is really poor. It cannot be a big problem since it works with KNOPPIX 3.2 which also uses a 2.4.20 kernel. I guess the RedHat 2.4.20 kernel is missing the necessary DMA support. The question is, which kernel configuration parameter is the one?

Cheers, Peter

[andysan]

I can't help you much with that DMA stuff I'm afraid.

In case any NVidia helpers are reading this, I'm posting my XF86Config and XFree86.0.log files as suggested. I've tried both the standard setting and with the options in /etc/modules.conf suggested in the "configuring a laptop" section of the README.
Thanks!

Andy.

[Andy Mecham]

I'll track one of these down and check it out. Thanks!

--andy

[andysan]

Thanks a lot --- would very much appreciate any help!

Andy.

[andysan]

Hi Andy,

Have you had any luck yet in looking at the problem with the Samsung X10? Is there any more I can help with debugging info?

Thanks a lot,
Andy.

[andysan]

Some slight progress on the Samsung X10 with Geforce 440GO. The NVidia driver works when I connect to an external monitor, though still not on the built-in panel. I'm very keen to get it working properly to use in my work on real-time computer vision.

I'm now using the 4363 version of the driver. It seems like the panel on this laptop does not agree with Linux very well at all and the problem is there rather than with the graphics card.

Connecting the laptop to an external monitor before boot, booting into Linux and then starting X with the NVidia driver the display comes up fine on the external monitor, very fast 3D and all. At the same time, on the internal panel I see something which obviously resembles the display in terms of overall colours but looks like the sync is way off leading to horizontal patterns. Interestingly (?), with the XFree driver although the flat internal panel works OK it doesn't seem to drive an external monitor properly. With either driver still, when I quit X the console display does not come up properly on the internal panel.

I have tried some of the different driver settings suggested in the NVidia README (EDID stuff, FlatPanelProperties) but with no apparent difference.

Would be very grateful for any more help.
Andy.

[Andy Mecham]

It could be that the panel is very sensitive to correct hsync and vrefresh values - are they listed somewhere on the net?

--andy

[andysan]

I can't find anything yet. Would I be able to get those values from my working config with the XFree driver? Which ones are they and how should they be used in XF86Config? I attach here my working XFree log file.

Andy.

[Andy Mecham]

A verbose log will print out the panel's EDID - try startx -- -logverbose 5

--andy

[andysan]

Hi again,

With the working XFree driver,
startx -- -logverbose 5
produced almost exactly the same output as normal startx --- certainly no new information about the monitor was added.

I ran that command with the nVidia driver too (not working properly) and attach the output from that.

Thanks again.
Andy.

[Andy Mecham]

According to the log you posted, your panel's native resolution is 2000x1536 (which is a very interesting mode), and your ranges should be vrefresh 60 and hsync 29-77. Can you try setting those?

--andy

[andysan]

Hi again Andy,

Sorry to keep bugging you with this one.

Everything I've ever read about my laptop tells me that the maximum resolution of the panel is 1024x768 --- certainly that is the max resolution in Windows and with the XFree driver. However,
I tried setting the resolution to 2000x1536 as the EDID return suggests, but that just gives an "unknown mode" error (verbose log file attached).

So it seems that the EDID is returning bogus values doesn't it. I tried setting the Nvidia driver option "IgnoreEDID" "true" as suggested in the README and used the following values which seem to work with the XFree driver:
hsync 31.5 - 57.0, vrefresh 50.0 - 70.0,
resolution 1024x768.
However, as usual I get a screen with horizontal patterns. I'll attach the log for that with the next message.

Andy.

[andysan]

Here is the log file with "IgnoreEDID" "true":

[Andy Mecham]

I tried setting the resolution to 2000x1536 as the EDID return suggests, but that just gives an "unknown mode" error (verbose log file attached).That's expected - X doesn't know about that mode. You'd have to write a modeline for it.

So it seems that the EDID is returning bogus values doesn't it. I tried setting the Nvidia driver option "IgnoreEDID" "true" as suggested in the README and used the following values which seem to work with the XFree driver:
hsync 31.5 - 57.0, vrefresh 50.0 - 70.0,
resolution 1024x768.
However, as usual I get a screen with horizontal patterns. I'll attach the log for that with the next message.Something doesn't seem quite right. Do other modes work?

--andy

[andysan]

Hi again Andy,

I've familiarised myself with modelines and tried various things: 800x600, 1024x768 with various frequencies, etc. Nothing works yet. With 1024x768, always get patterns that look the same whatever vrefresh I try. Different patterns for 800x600. Don't know what's going on... thought it could be some fundamental problem or a BIOS setting but the fact is that the same XF86Config file works with the XFree nv driver...

Andy.

[echtler]

Well, I can't offer anything new, just wanted to note that I went through exactly the same stuff as andysan. I'm writing this on a X server running the nv driver, silently cursing Samsung for their bloody flat panel. One suggestion: is it possible to tell the nvidia driver to just leave the flat panel alone? Whatever the nv driver does to the DFP port obviously doesn't mess it up. The kernel module has an option FlatPanelMode.. what does this one do?

Yours,
Florian

[andysan]

Hi Andy M,

It seems like there are at least 3 of us (and I've seen some more on the net) with exactly the same problem with the NVidia drivers on this laptop. I for one am extremely keen to get it working but completely stuck about how to proceed at the moment. Would be very glad of some more tips.

Thanks,
Andy.

[andysan]

A small tip for fixing the problem that the console doesn't work when you leave X (the free version --- still no-one out there seems to know how to get the NVidia driver to work) on the Samsung X10: put vga=791 as a kernel parameter (need support for Frame buffer devices and nVidia RIVA driver set in the kernel, but these are set by default at least in RH9 kernel). e.g. in /etc/grub.conf you need something like:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdc=ide-scsi vga=791

This was from a guy with a webpage with some tips for the X10:
http://www.creative-sadness.de/cgi-bin/index.pl?Site=samsung

Andy.