Mandrake 9.0: Is it just me?

[Seth]

I've installed the latest drivers for NVIDIA...(no problem there) but I have found that after I've installed the drivers if I'm working in GUI for 45 minutes to a good hour, the computer will freeze, it locks hard. The keyboard does not except input and the screen will display a bunch of colors mostly pink and purple, my only option is to reset to correct the problem.

Is anyone else experienceing this or is just me, and if you are experienceing this, is there a cure? OpenGL applications rock with Nvidia's drivers. I'd like to keep them rocking for more then 45 min.

Also, I've checked my XFree86 log and I can't find anything that shows an error with the NVIDIA' drivers. Please someone tell me I'm not alone!

By the way I have a G4Ti4600.

[mi6]

I had the same problems with MDK 9.0 and nVidia. I am currently troubleshooting. I am using a 1.0 Ghz Athlon T-bird with a Geforce 2 MX 400, KT133 Via Chipset. The Drivers I am using are the 4191 i586 rpms. They installed flawlessly and worked the first go round. Sadly they started crashing between games of TuxRacer. About every 3 to 5 games on Average.

So far I have disabled AGP by adding this line to my XF86Config-4: Option "NvAGP" "0"

Yes, this disables AGP, but I didn't lose any fps on glxgears and TuxRacer isn't affected (by my eye). I am going to run out and buy a copy of UT2003 today to see how that runs. I will try AGP off and AGP on to see what differences I notice.

I don't believe it is so much a nVidia problem as an AGPGart problem.

On a side note, I found the above information in the nVidia manual. Do yourself a favor and check that out, it has a ton of good troubleshooting information.

[Seth]

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one.
I'll give the AGP a shot and see what develops and I'll start digging into the Nvidia's manual. One question thou,
If graphics are transferred by the AGP port and that port becomes disabled how are you still able to receive them?

Thanks, again

[bwkaz]

The AGP port itself isn't disabled. The AGP port is just on a sub-bus of the PCI bus, so you can still access the card as if it were a PCI device. Turning off AGP with Option "NvAgp" "0" makes X do this -- access it as if it were a normal PCI device rather than a special PCI device that has access to system memory (which is all AGP is).

This is also why the BusIDs for graphics cards are PCI:1:x:x, in case you ever wonder -- they're PCI bus 1 (bus 0 is onboard stuff, bus 1 is generally AGP, and bus 2 is addon cards, I believe), and you can access them using that naming scheme (that is, bus, device, function).

[Seth]

That's very cool, I understand now thanks for the clarification.
As for mi6 please keep me informed with the happenings of UT2003 I'd be very curious to hear how it handled with the AGP on and off.

Thanks

[mi6]

yeah, well......

I went out a bought a shiny new copy of UT2003 and am getting my ass kicked trying to install it!! The auto-mount (or whatever Mandrake calls it) really collides with the installer!! It keeps prompting me for the same CD (over and over and over).

I will keep you posted on what I sort out AGP and Non-AGP wise. Have a little patience, I am new to Linux as well :D

[bwkaz]

The UT2k3 installer uses different names for the CDs than what is printed on the CDs, because the installer was added extremely late, and in great haste.

One cross-reference is given here (down by the bottom):

http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2002/1028.unreal.html?post=1022&lastpage=1

But in short, just put CD 3 in before you run the installer, then give it CD 1, CD 2, and CD 3, in that order.

If it still doesn't work after trying it like that, then do something like umount /mnt/cdrom && mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom before running the installer, opening up another terminal window (to do the disk-switch stuff from), cd'ing to somewhere that isn't /mnt/cdrom or anywhere under that in both terminals, running /mnt/cdrom/path/to/linux_installer.sh from the first terminal, then when it wants a different CD, do a umount /mnt/cdrom in the second terminal, switch the disks, and mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom in the second terminal again. Then hit OK and let the installer continue. Do a umount /mnt/cdrom && mount /mnt/cdrom after you're done, to re-enable supermount.

You can also prevent a bunch of "mounting /dev/floppy" or "failed to mount /dev/floppy" messages by doing, in your first shell, an export SETUP_CDROM=/mnt/cdrom before starting the installer.

[mi6]

big thanks bwkaz!

I don't have access to my Mandrake box for a while, but I have a similar setup on a Debian box and I will give it a shot.

Seth- It has the same geforce card as my Mandrake box, so I will have those numbers once I get nvidia drivers up and running....which could be a little longer than expected :rolleyes:

thanks again guys

[lpxtpclpxtpc]

Any further news on this?
I've been experiencing similar problems on Mandrake 9.0 with a GF2MX 440 PCI version. The computer just locks completely after a while of using it.
I don't think its an AGP thing (cos I dont have an AGP port ;-) and so I am wondering if it might be either the card overheating, or some problem with memory timings. It tends to crash more with certain apps (web browser, mpeg player) then others (terminal window).

[mi6]

honestly I have no concrete data...but I have abandoned MD 9 for Debian now. I am have NO lockup troubles running AGP on woody with 28xx drivers. Also my frame rates are MUCH faster. I am not sure if it is because I installed the drivers from tarballs in debian or why exactly I had so many troubles in MD 9.

Since you aren't having AGP trouble, I would try downgrading to 31xx drivers and see if you have better luck. They seem to be more stable for most users in MD 9.