4349 Driver blanks display on Dell I8K

[tbeckman]

After installing the 4349 driver on my Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop with a NVIDIA2Go chip, starting X results in a blank display. However, the computer is not locked up. The keyboard still responds. I can ssh into the box from another machine.

I can hit ctrl-alt-backspace and X shuts down - the display does not return, but I know X is no longer running since I can type in the shutdown command and the machine shuts down. Before hitting ctrl-alt-backspace, sshing in from another machine shows that X is running and KDE has started.

I had the same symptoms with the 4191 drivers as well. So I've had to go back to the 3123 drivers.

Now here is the really bizzare part. When I uninstall the 3123 drivers and install the 4349 drivers, X starts up and works normally as long as I don't reboot. But once I shut the machine down and reboot, X behaves as I described above.

I have tried the option:
Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "CRT"

but it makes no difference.

I've tried 4191 with AGP off and with AgpNv of "1". I didn't bother trying 4349 with AGP on since it has the same symptoms.

Has anyone else seen this? I have sent the linux bugs an email but haven't heard back...

Thanks
Tim

[johnpullan]

I have the same problem with my Inspiron 8100,. Starting X results in a shimmery effect and thats it :(


Any solutions out there ?

[andyb@b5]

I've an 8200 running debian sarge and the problem is even worse, on that one starting X hard locks the machine :-( I'm about to try several configs to see if anything works but its hard
work when you have to reboot every attempt....

With your reboot problem..... on debian the installer does not remove NVdriver from /etc/modules and does not put in nvidia instead. It may be you simpy have to ensure that the module is being demanded in on boot, a dmesg | less will let you scan to see if it is doing this or not.

Regards
Andy

[tbeckman]

Andi replied to my email to the linux bugs email address. He suggested trying a mode switch (i.e. ctrl-alt-+) to see if it helped. Luckily, it did. So all I have to do it a "ctrl-alt-+" followed by a "ctrl-alt-minus" to get back to the original resolution and everything works great.

I sent him some additional logs and BIOS version so hopefully it will be permanently fixed in the next driver.

[nosrema]

I have had the same problem. I have a Dell Inspiron 8100. In 4349 and 4191 I can use it once, but when I reboot I get the panel bloom. However, 3123 works fine. Does anyone with a 15" screen on the Dell Inspiron have the new 4349 drivers working. If so could you post your XF86Config?