Nvidia driver & mdk 9.2

[ellianef]

Updated:
Advanced a little bit: just removing the /dev/nvidiactl directory let startx run quitly.
Now the question: why this directory stays there at shutdown or is not cleaned at bootup ?
__________________________________________________ ____________
I'm trying to move to mdk9.2. I did a fresh install and can't get the nvidia driver working nice. (worked nice with 9.1)
At bootup I have to:
-log as user
-su
-delete the directory /dev/nvidiactl
-install the driver
-exit su
-startx
Then all is working until next boot.
The card is a FX 5200 and the diver is at the latest level:
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run

If I don't delete the /dev/nvidiactl, then the install driver goes fine but startx breacks with a problem accessing the /dev/nvidiactl.
I suspect some rights problem for the directory or with devfs.
How could I solve this problem ?

This is solid and repetitive at each bootup.
Many thanks for help.

[guigouz]

Maybe you're dealing with permissions problems (I've had them sometimes, don't know why)... try

chmod -R 777 /dev/nvidiactl

[ellianef]

Nope, changing rights does nothing. The only way is to rd /dev/nvidiactl.
Thanks for any idea.

[bjoernP]

/dev/nvidiactl is a directory? Sure?
Could you please post
$ ls -l /dev/nvidia*
and
$ ls -l /lib/dev-state/nvidia*

My guess is either the backup in dev-state being reloaded by devfsd on boot and | or file permissions ( msec is a mess... )

[iplayfast]

I'm using a sis motherboard, with a nvidia gforce 4 graphics. When I ssh to the machine, top shops 99% of cpu time is spent doing X. X seems stalled at the dm (login prompt).

[ellianef]

Hello bjoernP,
Here are the info:
Sure it's a directory, that's nvidia complains about when trying to start.

At bootup in console mode ie: state after shutdow:
ls -l /dev/nvid*
Total 0.
ls -al /dev/nvid*
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 déc 18 2003 ./
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 jan 1 1970 ../

ls -l /lib/dev-state/nvid*
Total 0
ls -al /lib/dev-state/nvid*
drwxr-xr-t 2 root root 4096 déc 14 00.04 ./
drwxr-xr-t 15 root root 4096 déc 15 19.10 ../

After removing the /dev/nvidiactl, startx and kde in su mode:

[root@rominet jm]# ls -l /dev/nvid*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 0 jan 1 1970 /dev/nvidia0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 255 jan 1 1970 /dev/nvidiactl
[root@rominet jm]# ls -al /dev/nvid*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 0 jan 1 1970 /dev/nvidia0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 255 jan 1 1970 /dev/nvidiactl
[root@rominet jm]# ls -l /lib/dev-state/nvid*
total 0
[root@rominet jm]# ls -al /lib/dev-state/nvid*
total 8
drwxr-xr-t 2 root root 4096 déc 14 00:04 ./
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 déc 15 19:10 ../

Lots of differences about rights, note also the "déc" with an accent .... and the dates.
Thanks.

[iplayfast]

I got mine working. In order to do it I had to turn off agp.
I think the syntax was in the section modules (the same one as nvidia driver):

Load "AGP" "0"

[bjoernP]

Youre right, seems there is a directory there, which is not supposed to be there. Directories are a typical devfs-thing but the nvidia-driver does not support devfs, AFAIK, does it the old style...

So, you could try to delete the nvidia*-stuff in /lib/dev-state, I guess it's being backupped from there on demand by devfsd or something like that.

Permissions look fine, you need to rw- as user to run glx-things in X. To hinder msec from overriding perms there I have the following set in perm.local:

[root@blackbox root]# cat /etc/security/msec/perm.local
/dev/nvidia0 root.games 4660
/dev/nvidiactl root.games 4660

where games is a group \me lives in. "current" would tell it not to touch these things, if I remember right. I do not exactly remember what the magic 4660 mean, but... works.

/dev/nvidia* looks like this here:

$ ll /dev/nvidia*
crw-rw---- 1 root games 195, 0 Dez 19 2003 /dev/nvidia0
crw-rw---- 1 root games 195, 255 Dez 19 2003 /dev/nvidiactl

1970 dates are a trace to devfs, it's the beginning of time on Unix-Systems, devfs|d will set this date on dev-nodes it creates dynamically.


goodLuck, have a nice Xmas!

-bjoernP