SuSE 8.2 - GF 4 Ti4200 AGP 8x - 8RDA+

[kulturlaus]

Hello there,

I'm working with SuSE 8.2 (Kernel 2.4.20) with an Epox Mainboard 8RDA+ and GeForce 4 Ti4200 AGP 8x.
I've read that there where some problems with nVidia-Cards and the 8RDA+ under Linux. Is this true?

I have some hard problems with the new drivers since 4349. That means my machine freezes while closing the X-session (rebooting, shutdown, changing to console). I've tried to disable AGP and a view more things but all did not work.

Now I'm working with driver 4191. With this one I can change to console and reboot/shutdown my PC, but console always stays black... in case of shutting down I'm also just looking on a black screen.

I've read different documentations and looking at this forum for some time. The only thing I got to know is, that this may be a mainboard problem that will be fixed with the next release of the BIOS for 8RDA+ ?!

On the other hand I can say, that the performance is ok (2D and 3D) and X is working fine.

Thank you for some answers :-)
Andreas

[bwkaz]

Which motherboard BIOS are you using? Anything newer than 3129 (for the moment) has problems, but if you're using 3129 still, then you should be OK.

The problem you're describing sounds like you need to turn on a framebuffer console. What does cat /proc/fb tell you (you can do that in X)?

[kulturlaus]

Hello,

it's true that I use a newer BIOS then 3129. I will try to downgrade to this version and tell you more...

Here's my output...
> cat /proc/fb
0 VESA VGA

Thank you so far,
Andreas

[kulturlaus]

Hello...

now I have BIOS 3129 on my Epox 8RDA+.

I removed the nVidia 4191 and installed the nVidia 4363 graphics driver but nothing changed. Shutting down, restarting, changing to console, ... does not work.

That means my PC freezes in case of...
1) Shutting down or restarting
with horizontal lines on the screen that looks like a distortion of my login screen oder desktop,
2) changing to console
with a black screen, where I cannot change back.

I don't know what to do and I'm hoping with every new release that it will work...

If there are hints or something that I could do, please tell me...

Thanx a lot,
Andreas

[bwkaz]

Try passing the option vga=none to your kernel when you boot.

Edit the kernel command line inside your bootloader, and add this option to the end. In lilo, you can just highlight the Linux entry, then type space, and then vga=none, then hit return. In grub, I think you have to hit e to edit the command line.

[kulturlaus]

Hmm...
I think vga=none is not a valid kernel parameter...
Testing this parameter will bring up an error.

I don't think that my problem is a result of the vga-value given through the kernel-parameter. Starting with vga=normal has the same result if shutting down (that is a hanging pc with weird things on the screen) as vga=0x314 (was the std. value).

I now will change the nVidia graphics driver back to 4191, so that I can shutdown my PC... without pressing the reset-button ;-)

If I can test something else, please write!

Thanx a lot,
Andreas

[bwkaz]

Does vga=normal give you an 80x25 screen?

That was what I was intending to do... if vga=none doesn't exist, then err... oops.