GeForce4 MX 420 and Mandrake 8.1

[scorpious007]

I have downloaded the source tars. They have been built. They have been installed.

I have made the neccesary changes to the following files

/etc/modules

replaced NVdriver with nvidia

/etc/modules.conf

replaced /dev/nvidia* nvidia with

char-major-195 nvidia

/etc/X11/XF86Config-4

add or changed the required areas

rebooted

took a look at /sbin/lsmod

nvidia is loaded but not being used even while I am in X


I am not sure if this is a Mandrake thing or a nVidia thing.

Can anybody shed some light on this for me?

Thanks

Jimmy

[bwkaz]

If you add nvidia to /etc/modules, you do not need any alias in modules.conf.

However, if you have anything in modules.conf, it should not be char-major-195. char-major-195 is for systems that do not run devfs, and Mandrake 8.1 definitely does use it. The /dev/nvidia* alias that was there is right. Use it if you use anything.

However, as far as lsmod goes, is it showing an (unused) after the module, or does it just not list anything using it? My NVdriver (I'm still on 3123 -- 4191 has missing symbol issues in libGLcore on my system) isn't used by any other modules, but it doesn't say (unused). If yours does, you should probably post your XF86Config-4 file.

[scorpious007]

For whatever reason when I had my nvidia card installed during the installation I was not ever given a choice as to which X-server to install. It just installed XF86Dev version 3. something. So I removed the nvidia card and re-installed linux using an ATI card. This allowed me to choose the most recent X-server that shipped with ML8.1. I then downloaded the drivers source files complied them made all the necessary changes XF86Config-4 and left the modules files alone.

And so far I am working great. I've gotten this far before but I had always used the pre-complied drivers and they always broke at some point and I could never recover from that. I am still fairly new to linux. I've never stuck with it long enough to move past being a novice.

There is one thing I would like to know and that is how I would change my screen resolution without using the Mandrake Contol Center.

Later

Jimmy

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by scorpious007
There is one thing I would like to know and that is how I would change my screen resolution without using the Mandrake Contol Center. See my Screen section:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "GeForce4 Ti 4200"
Monitor "My Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection You would want to change the Modes line of the SubSection whose Depth corresponds to the DefaultDepth (or DefaultColorDepth) that's up higher. The first mode that's listed is the default resolution, and others are available with Ctrl-Alt-KeypadPlus and Ctrl-Alt-KeypadMinus