1.0-8762 results in "black screen", 1.0-7676 does not. Using FX5200. - Page 2

alaric · 12-04-06, 07:11 PM

I wanted to add this follow up, a few months later.

What happened after this was this: Someone suggested that the
legacy drivers might still work for me, even with the newer kernel.
They did. So, I installed them - upgraded my kernel and finally could
use my DVD+RW again.

Later I needed to upgrade again- this required a new kernel upgrade
and for some reason I could only have one kernel at a time before
that upgrade - so I deleted my old kernel (that worked with the non-legacy
drivers) and upgraded the kernel again.... Result: X didn't work anymore
with the legacy drivers. The new drivers still didn't work either.
I tried EVERYTHING - but there was no way I could get X to work again.
I couldn't find the old kernel on the net either- I was totally ****ed.
How ****ed? ... Well, I had to buy a new PC.

Now the fun part: AFTER I bought a new PC and rescued my data, and
got a working workstation again - I finally was able to do a complete reinstall
of the OS on the old box, from scratch. And guess what: X started again.

Conclusion: This was not a hardware problem (in combination with kernel
version and nvidia drivers). The reason that X didn't start anymore on my
box was because something (software) had been screwed up beyond repair
and only a complete new reinstall of the OS could fix that.

I have a very clear idea now about what that has been: the nvidia installer.
NVidia's installer is PURE evil: they overwrite shared libraries left and right.
Sure - they make a backup, but that is hardly helpful: Normally you upgrade
your system many times (every time you upgrade your kernel, at least - or
do an apt-get upgrade etc). Every time after that you need to reinstall the
nvidia drivers - every time you do that, they make a backup, overwriting the
old libraries with their own nvidia libraries - or (I didn't look at that) if they
don't, leaving the old libraries as "backup". Therefore, if later you uninstall
the nvidia drivers you end up with a totally screwed system. Using their
installer you should, EVERYTIME you upgrade anything on your box (do
you have any idea what they overwrite? I don't) UNINSTALL the nvidia stuff,
THEN upgrade your OS and THEN reinstall the nvidia stuff. I don't think ANYONE
does that...

I've learned from this - I'm not using their installer anymore. I changed from
fedora to debian now - they have nvidia* packages that keep correct administration
of stuff so you don't run into this kind of thing.

PS I have reported - both, in this thread as well as emailed to nvidia - the BUG that
the EDID isn't read anymore correctly (while the data is still there as one can see: there is prove that this is a decoding problem). Yet - NOTHING has happened. We are several versions further now of nvidia drivers - and the EDID is still garbled. I still have to add Options to my xorg.conf telling X to ignore any EDID data. I guess this will never be fixed.

pe1chl · 12-05-06, 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alaric

Using their
installer you should, EVERYTIME you upgrade anything on your box (do
you have any idea what they overwrite? I don't) UNINSTALL the nvidia stuff,
THEN upgrade your OS and THEN reinstall the nvidia stuff. I don't think ANYONE
does that...

I don't think that is correct. When you start the installer with an existing version still in place, the first thing it does is to call the uninstaller to remove the previous version and supposedly restore the backups. So what the installer then saves is the original file.

Of course this does not mean it cannot go wrong. But not as easily as you describe. Maybe there are problems when the install is interrupted or crashing, or when you do things that the installer does not expect (like using another package management system to update files that the nvidia driver also affects). The installer will put error messages in a logfile in /var/log when it detects such problems.

With kernel updates, there are always the same problems with closed drivers. I know that every time I upgrade the kernel I have to fiddle with the nvidia driver and VMware. But I never had to buy a new computer to fix it.

12-04-06, 07:11 PM	#13
alaric Cyber Jedi Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 75	Re: 1.0-8762 results in "black screen", 1.0-7676 does not. Using FX5200. I wanted to add this follow up, a few months later. What happened after this was this: Someone suggested that the legacy drivers might still work for me, even with the newer kernel. They did. So, I installed them - upgraded my kernel and finally could use my DVD+RW again. Later I needed to upgrade again- this required a new kernel upgrade and for some reason I could only have one kernel at a time before that upgrade - so I deleted my old kernel (that worked with the non-legacy drivers) and upgraded the kernel again.... Result: X didn't work anymore with the legacy drivers. The new drivers still didn't work either. I tried EVERYTHING - but there was no way I could get X to work again. I couldn't find the old kernel on the net either- I was totally **ed. How *ed? ... Well, I had to buy a new PC. Now the fun part: AFTER I bought a new PC and rescued my data, and got a working workstation again - I finally was able to do a complete reinstall of the OS on the old box, from scratch. And guess what: X started again. Conclusion: This was not a hardware problem (in combination with kernel version and nvidia drivers). The reason that X didn't start anymore on my box was because something (software) had been screwed up beyond repair and only a complete new reinstall of the OS could fix that. I have a very clear idea now about what that has been: the nvidia installer. NVidia's installer is PURE evil: they overwrite shared libraries left and right. Sure - they make a backup, but that is hardly helpful: Normally you upgrade your system many times (every time you upgrade your kernel, at least - or do an apt-get upgrade etc). Every time after that you need to reinstall the nvidia drivers - every time you do that, they make a backup, overwriting the old libraries with their own nvidia libraries - or (I didn't look at that) if they don't, leaving the old libraries as "backup". Therefore, if later you uninstall the nvidia drivers you end up with a totally screwed system. Using their installer you should, EVERYTIME you upgrade anything on your box (do you have any idea what they overwrite? I don't) UNINSTALL the nvidia stuff, THEN upgrade your OS and THEN reinstall the nvidia stuff. I don't think ANYONE does that... I've learned from this - I'm not using their installer anymore. I changed from fedora to debian now - they have nvidia packages that keep correct administration of stuff so you don't run into this kind of thing. PS I have reported - both, in this thread as well as emailed to nvidia - the BUG that the EDID isn't read anymore correctly (while the data is still there as one can see: there is prove that this is a decoding problem). Yet - NOTHING has happened. We are several versions further now of nvidia drivers - and the EDID is still garbled. I still have to add Options to my xorg.conf telling X to ignore any EDID data. I guess this will never be fixed. __________________ Get my email address from my homepage.