RedHat 9 SMP problem

[bloch]

Hardware:

2 x Athlon MP 2200
Tyan m/b
GF4 Ti4600
1.5GB
2 x Eizo L565 monitors, 1 DVI 1 VGA

The driver has installed correctly.
When I try to start X the machine freezes completely i.e. doesn't even respond to pings.

Booting to the RH uniprocessor kernel, there's no apparent problem.

Couldn't see any relevant message in XFree86.0.log

[mrjones69]

I just loaded RedHat 9 yesterday and encountered a similar problem. However, I found an work-around that has nothing to do with SMP vs UP. I have a Dell Workstation 650 with dual 2.4 GHz P4's and an nVidia Quadro 4 900 XGL. This card has dual DVI outputs (no VGA). I have it hooked up to a Dell 1900FP flat panel monitor. Now... don't ask me why I tried this, but I did and it fixed the problem. I added one of the DVI->VGA adapter plugs that came with the monitor and hooked it up to the VGA input of the monitor. Bingo.. got graphics. Works fine. Now, I'm no expert on the difference between DVI and VGA (besides digitial vs. analog), but there quite a few pins removed on the DVI side of this adapter plug. The problem has something to do with the signals going over those missing pins.

When I did try it DVI all the way to the monitor, I too experienced a total system lockup, with a blank screen. I will try booting to UP kernel later and go back to the DVI and see what happens.

[nutball]

I have the same problem with RH7.1 on an SMP Athlon box. I was just about to start a thread on the subject ;)

Asus A7M266-D mobo
2 x Athlon MP 1600
GF3 Ti200
1GB
SGI flat-panel driven via DVI

I get the exact same symptoms, after starting X the machine freezes, I can't ssh in (any ssh session active before starting X freezes).

Booting the UP kernel works fine, X trundles along swimmingly.

I've tried disabling AGP, and I have the noapic and mem=nopentium as kernel options on the SMP kernel.

[Andy Mecham]

Thanks for the reports - i'll look into this here.

--andy

[mrjones69]

Okay, I tried booting into the UP kernel and I had an interesting result. When I try to 'startx', it craps out and goes back to the text screen saying that I have a screen defined, but that it's not valid and it does not load the nVidia driver. I made NO changes to my XF86Config between SMP and UP boots. I then rebooted back to the SMP kernel and everything worked fine again.

While I was booted UP, I did try the pure DVI connection to the monitor again. I lost video instantly (text-mode screen). Putting the DVI->VGA adapter back in the line restored video instantly.

I have a stock RedHat 9 installation with the 03/31 nVidia driver (Linux IA32 1.0-4349). I've attached my XF86Config file for reference. Also just remembered one other thing. During the actual OS installation, before I installed the nVidia driver, the installation X-server (nv driver, I assume) would not display either. That was when I originally tried the VGA adapter. Note that this same hardware was running RedHat 7.3 before with no video problems using the pure DVI connection.

Hopefully this info will assist in someone's debugging efforts.

[Andy Mecham]

If you change kernels, you have to rebuild the driver - a driver built for your SMP kernel won't work with your UP kernel.

--andy

[mrjones69]

Thank you. I should have thought of that. Duh. :o

So on my setup, it appears that the only issue is the DVI vs. VGA monitor connection. That's still bizarre. I'll stay tuned.

[Andy Mecham]

If you're seeing a lockup when using the DVI port, then it sounds very similar to something we're tracking down right now.

Thanks!

--andy

[bloch]

I can confirm that using the analog connection instead of DVI means I'm able to use the NVIDIA drivers with an SMP kernel on RH9.

[krazydime]

Just to let you guys know, we're having the EXACT same problem here. Dell precisions with dual 2.4ghz, nvidia quadro pro's. We tried the default redhat drivers, got crazy purple lines every where. Went to the new nvidia driver, and the 1900fp screens just go off and the machine locks up. We don't have the connector you're speaking of, only the one that plugs into one of the DV ports on the card, and allows you to plug in a analog cable.

But what DOES fix it, is going to an analog cable instead of digital. Plain as day, that fixes it. Hope that helps you guys at Nvidia track it down.

[Andy Mecham]

Yep, we're hot on it. Thanks for your help!

--andy