Text mode not working w/new drivers?

[luckyy]

Hey,

I just installed the new 1.0-4349 drivers, and all went well. The new installer worked as advertised.

However, although X works just great... if I switch back to text mode, the screen goes blank, and my monitor reports "overscan" and then eventually goes to sleep.

If I switch back to X, the screen comes back, and otherwise everything works just great. But I kinda like to be able to use text mode on occasion, esp. if X is acting up, or to take down X to upgrade say, the video driver ;)

If I reboot and don't bring X up, text mode works fine. It's only after the nvidia module runs for the first time, that text mode then never works again.


Any suggestions?

Specs:

RedHat 8.0, 2.4.18-27.8.0 kernel, 1.0-4349 nvidia drivers. Generic GeForce4 MX 420 AGP card, XFree86 4.2.0.

[CSlayeR]

I use redhat 9.0 and it does to me to
My monitor is not going to |sleep" but my computer hangs
I can not close the x server and go back in textmode

Redhat 9.0-
Epox 8RDA+
GF4ti4200 8x
2.4.20

[bwkaz]

There are issues with Epox BIOS versions. Someone has said (sorry, I don't remember where -- perhaps search for it) that going back to an older BIOS revision can be helpful on Epox boards.

For the original poster, does your kernel use a framebuffer console? Check the output of cat /proc/fb -- if the file doesn't exist, then you're not using fbcon, and if it says anything other than "VESA VGA", something in your kernel is misconfigured as far as fbcon goes (especially, if it says "rivafb", then get rid of that option in your kernel config).

Try enabling fbcon if it's disabled -- pass vga=number (where "number" is something like 788, 794, or whatever) to your kernel at boot time, and see if that helps.

[luckyy]

Yeah, I saw a post earlier about trying a VGA text mode, and I did try that, but it made no change to my missing text mode problem.

My system isn't hanging, it's definately still running underneath my dead display, it just seems that the nvdriver is setting my text mode refresh parameters way out of whack, which makes my monitor decide it can't handle it, and assume it's a dead video signal and goes to sleep.

So this afternoon I felt adventurous and upgraded my distro to RedHat 9... no change, incase anyone was wondering :(

[sammy]

I have had the same problem with the current driver and with at least 5 previous driver releases (all I have tried). At first, the problem was that the monitor did suspend when I switched to the console. Now, with previous two releases my machine hangs totally when I try to switch to the console. Even logout (from X) hangs my machine. With every driver release (in a year) from nvidia I have reported these problems. Only fix I have figured is to use nv driver when acceleration is not needed (on nvidia -> nv driver switch, the boot is obviously necessary).

Hardware: GF4MX460, AMD Duron, Asus Motherboard, Flat panel with DVI interface.

[Andy Mecham]

luckyy: what's your vbios revision? Check /proc/nvidia/driver/cards/0 while X is running.

--andy

[CSlayeR]

With bioses later than this nvidia latest drivers (4349) does not work 8RDA+ 1/29/03 but even with 1/29/03 bios the vt-console switching hangs the computer.

Any solution?

SlayeR

[amircea]

here I can return to console mode when using the VGA output, however when using the DVI output and exiting Xwindows, the computer hangs, I must reset it to regain control.
My card is Leadtek WinFast A280 LE TD. Using the last driver (4349). Kernel 2.4.19.

[luckyy]

Hi Andy,

The machine is a Dell Dimension 8200, this is a Dell supplied card.

Here's what the proc provided me:

Model: GeForce4 MX 420
IRQ: 3
Video BIOS: 04.17.00.45.42
Card Type: AGP


I have three other identical machines here with this issue, and the proc info is the same on them as well.

[Andy Mecham]

Luckyy: thanks - i'll look into this here.

--andy

[pxlfx]

Can't seem to get it working either...I tried all sorts of bios / kernel options.

[Dreoth]

I gave up on fixing it. The new drivers didn't work for me, so I uninstalled them and went back to the 3xxx driver. The damn bug still exists... I've recompiled my kernel several times. Nothing fixes it... :(

[pxlfx]

my system:

MSI K7N2G-LISR m/b
512MB ddr
athlon 2200+

Text mode (after exiting X) doesn't reappear, though the system is still alive. I can still type commands (such as 'startx'). It's funny, because it seems that the driver switches modes twice before entering X, perhaps it doesn't exit fully...i dunno, i obviously didn't write it.

- Jacob

[bahamot]

Originally posted by CSlayeR
With bioses later than this nvidia latest drivers (4349) does not work 8RDA+ 1/29/03 but even with 1/29/03 bios the vt-console switching hangs the computer.

Any solution?

SlayeR


mine with 1/29/03 have same prob, how bout 1 version older than that??is it still the same?

[luckyy]

bahamot:

It's looking like it happens with any of the 4xxx series of drivers from what I am hearing from others :(

[jmoney]

Got the same system here myself except the CPU is a 2000+. It appears to activate the tvout interface when I switch to a virtual console or exit X. I found that shoving my GF2 GTS in makes the problem go away. Hopefully there will be a fix soon.(hint hint Nvidia. We have an ETA on this yet?)

-James


Originally posted by pxlfx
my system:

MSI K7N2G-LISR m/b
512MB ddr
athlon 2200+

Text mode (after exiting X) doesn't reappear, though the system is still alive. I can still type commands (such as 'startx'). It's funny, because it seems that the driver switches modes twice before entering X, perhaps it doesn't exit fully...i dunno, i obviously didn't write it.

- Jacob

[CSlayeR]

I changed my motherboard :) (i had one 8RDA+)
for one NF7-S. I think is in Epox AGP's the problem with the texmode ...

Cya Later !

SlayeR

ex 8RDA+ owner of one NF7-S

[Dreoth]

Asus a7v8x here, KT400... could be why...

[moali]

Originally posted by luckyy
It's looking like it happens with any of the 4xxx series of drivers from what I am hearing from others :(

On my GF 2 GO not even the 3123 worked. The last working drivers were the 2960...

moali

PS.: driver 2960 /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/0:
Model: GeForce2 Go
IRQ: 10
Video BIOS: 03.11.01.53
Card Type: AGP

XFree86 4.3.0
Kernel 2.4.21pre3

[Jon_e]

I had the same problem as CSlayeR.

Maybe this info may be useful to someone.

First some Specs:
Motherboard: Asus A7V133-C
CPU: AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1333
Graphics Card: Asus V9280/TD with TI 4200 128 Mb
Kernel: Linux 2.4.20


I got my brand new card, which I wanted to replace with my oldish Voodoo 3000. :)

Installation of the nvidia drivers went like a breeze, even on my heavily customized Debian installation. Module loaded, X started, glxgears whizzed away at 15 times the speed of my voodoo. Everything seemed fine until I tried switching VT.
Then the whole machine locked up real hard, no keyboard response, no <ALT><SysReq> and no trace of the incident in any logfile.

I had a loadful of tdfx specifik drivers as modules, and compiled into the kernel. I tried recompiling in order to remove all of those with no luck. Then I tried to add a standard vesa framebuffer to the kernel, as suggested by bwkaz - also no go. I set the AGP bus to 1x as suggested somewhere in here, still no result.

Then I saw a post about the driver failing to figure out which display to use, and I tried to remove the tv-out cable and reboot. Suddenly my console worked again. :D

I'd really love to have my tv-out going again of course, but this might be configured to work now that I know what caused the problem.


As an afterthought I really liked the way my old Voodoo card and driver handled tv-out. It didn't care about what was connected to the card, everything was handled by a kernel module. Which makes things so much easier to configure. Does the card or the chip try to autodetect my TV?

Anyway this story got a bit long, but there's a new thing to try for those who have problems.

[Funar]

At the risk of sounding like a "me too" post:

I'm also experiencing the same problem.

Computer: Dell Dimension 8200
Model: GeForce4 MX 420
IRQ: 3
Video BIOS: 04.17.00.45.42
Card Type: AGP
Driver Installed: 4349
OS: Linux Kernel 2.4.20 (RedHat 9.0's 2.4.20-9)

The fault seems to only be limited to text mode. I'm able to switch back to X just fine. Connecting remotely via ssh/telnet confirms the state of the machine is running.

[chrisj314]

i can not get the new drivers to work with text mode i have a leadtek a280 le tdh .... it works fine in framebuffer mode with mandrake 9.1 but it won't work in text mode... well actually it works X just won't shut down once its started so your left with no choice but to hard reboot..... screen goes black no response from keyboard..... i would like to use it in text mode so that i could try the rivatv drivers to use the tv in feature of my board.... does anyone know of any other drivers that support the tv in feature of Vivo boards?

thanks
chris