4496 drivers Mandrake gforce4-MX440

Barry Mead · 09-28-03, 07:32 PM

I have used nvidia drivers for years and have installed them numerous times. I know what I am doing. When I bought a new Giga-Byte
GA-7VA motherboard with AGP 8X support and an XFX GeForce4 MX440 AGP 8X video card, I thought I would be on solid ground. Both are listed as compatible in the Mandrake Linux 9.1 supported hardware database.
I was wrong. after installing the driver properly by running the "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run from init 3 terminal mode, and verifying that the nvidia drivers were loaded by doing an ls -l /dev/nv*.
I edited the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file and changed the Driver "nv" to "nvidia" and
ran startx from the /root directory.

The nvidia driver didn't even display the nvidia splash screen. The screen went black and the computer hung. I am enclosing the installer log and the mangled XFree86.0.log for your examination.
Other times I tried to run this the nvidia driver mangled many other files in the /etc directory including modules, modules.conf
/X11/XF86Config-4. This time I got lucky and the nvidia driver was not destructive enough to render my linux unbootable. This motherboard/video card combination is highly unstable with the current driver, yet suprisingly stable in Windows 98 SE.
For this reason I am assuming that there is
a problem with the nvidia driver. Please look into this issue and if you need any additional details don't hesitate to let me know

Toker · 09-28-03, 07:45 PM

I'm glad to hear it's just not me... I'm a brand new nix user and I can't get my 440MX running on drake9.1 either. I started a thread for my problem here. but I haven't gotten a responce on it.

If I can find a solution, I'll let you know (I have the same topic at a couple linux forums,) and I also wanted to subscribe to this post to keep an eye on it...

Sorry I can't help.

Barry Mead · 09-28-03, 09:44 PM

More data for the folks at nvidia
I rebooted with init 3 mode and tried to generate a more comprehensive XFree86.0.log file. I manually loaded the nvidia driver and verified that it was loaded. and did the
startx -- -logverbose 5 as indicated in the troublshooting thread, but the nvidia driver crashes before it even starts writing to the /var/log/XFree86.0.log file. I verified this by first deleting the log file and checking to see if a new one was created by the verbose startx.
So the log is useless, because there isn't one. Sometimes when I run this test the log file gets written to and sometimes not. Sometimes it writes crap all over my hard drive and obliterates my linux installation. I have had to reinstall linux 6 times trying to run these tests. The instability is way beyond just bad affects on the video output, it corrupts files on the hard drive also.
Since I could not get a reliable XFree86.0.log file, I interrogated the /proc/driver/nvidia tree and I am including everything in the tree for your examination. The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card showed:
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 8x 4x
Registers: 0x1f000e1b:0x00000000
The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge showed:
Host Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400 AGP] Host Bridge
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 8x 4x
Registers: 0x1f000a5b:0x1f000000
The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status showed:
Status: Disabled
The /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/o showed:
Model: GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
IRQ: 16
Video BIOS: ??.??.??.??.??
Card Type: AGP
The motherboard Giga-Byte motherboard
bios version is GA-7VA-F9

Does this information give you enough to
diagnose the problem?

Barry Mead · 09-28-03, 09:49 PM

Is the rumor that I heard true?
The rumor says that Microsoft is secretly paying nvidia to quit supporting linux.
Is this rumor true?

**saturnotaku** · 09-28-03, 10:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry Mead
Is the rumor that I heard true?
The rumor says that Microsoft is secretly paying nvidia to quit supporting linux.
Is this rumor true?

Linux conspiracy theorists crack me up.

Barry Mead · 09-28-03, 10:40 PM

I went to the XFX web site and looked for
drivers and their web site referred me to the older nvidia 4191 version of the drivers.
After I reinstall linux again (yeah the nvidia driver wiped out my hard drive again) I will try to install the older drivers to see if I have any luck. (I am not too hopeful).

Barry Mead · 09-28-03, 10:54 PM

Does anyone know of "ANY" nvidia card that
works with linux and supports 8X AGP?

vnpenguin · 09-29-03, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry Mead
More data for the folks at nvidia
I rebooted with init 3 mode and tried to generate a more comprehensive XFree86.0.log file. I manually loaded the nvidia driver and verified that it was loaded. and did the
startx -- -logverbose 5 as indicated in the troublshooting thread, but the nvidia driver crashes before it even starts writing to the /var/log/XFree86.0.log file. I verified this by first deleting the log file and checking to see if a new one was created by the verbose startx.
So the log is useless, because there isn't one. Sometimes when I run this test the log file gets written to and sometimes not. Sometimes it writes crap all over my hard drive and obliterates my linux installation. I have had to reinstall linux 6 times trying to run these tests. The instability is way beyond just bad affects on the video output, it corrupts files on the hard drive also.
Since I could not get a reliable XFree86.0.log file, I interrogated the /proc/driver/nvidia tree and I am including everything in the tree for your examination. The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card showed:
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 8x 4x
Registers: 0x1f000e1b:0x00000000
The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge showed:
Host Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400 AGP] Host Bridge
Fast Writes: Supported
SBA: Supported
AGP Rates: 8x 4x
Registers: 0x1f000a5b:0x1f000000
The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status showed:
Status: Disabled
The /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/o showed:
Model: GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
IRQ: 16
Video BIOS: ??.??.??.??.??
Card Type: AGP
The motherboard Giga-Byte motherboard
bios version is GA-7VA-F9

Does this information give you enough to
diagnose the problem?

Hi,
I use "GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x" under RH9 (kernel 2.4.22) with nVidia driver 4496. It works fine for X but I can not boot in frame-buffer vga=791 console mode.

Code:

# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/0 
Model:           GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
IRQ:             10
Video BIOS:      04.18.20.13.00
Card Type:       AGP
[root]~
# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/    
card         host-bridge  status       
[root]~
# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card 
Fast Writes:     Supported
SBA:             Supported
AGP Rates:       8x 4x 
Registers:       0x1f000e1b:0x1f000102
[root]~
# cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status 
Status:          Enabled
Driver:          NVIDIA
AGP Rate:        8x
Fast Writes:     Disabled
SBA:             Disabled

Barry Mead · 09-29-03, 02:28 AM

Who Manufactured you GeForce4MX440?
The one I have is made by XFX and they don't even have the guts to put a version number in thier bios! They put Question marks.
I cannot do any more testing as the XFX video card has burned up two of my motherboards.
Both were Giga-Byte GA-7VA brand new motherboards. Now I am really screwed.

hellwood · 10-03-03, 04:46 AM

a lot of people have had problems getting mx cards to work under linux. I get scrambled ascii text and a hard lockup when trying to start X. XFree86.0.log ends after it says it is initializing 1024x768 etc etc.... Tom's Hardware even failed to get their mx to work in their nvidia under linux article. nvidia is aware of this, but as far as I know it hasn't been fixed. If I pull my mx440 and pop in my cousin's gf3, no problem. sigh

09-28-03, 09:44 PM	#3
Barry Mead Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 13	More data for the folks at nvidia I rebooted with init 3 mode and tried to generate a more comprehensive XFree86.0.log file. I manually loaded the nvidia driver and verified that it was loaded. and did the startx -- -logverbose 5 as indicated in the troublshooting thread, but the nvidia driver crashes before it even starts writing to the /var/log/XFree86.0.log file. I verified this by first deleting the log file and checking to see if a new one was created by the verbose startx. So the log is useless, because there isn't one. Sometimes when I run this test the log file gets written to and sometimes not. Sometimes it writes crap all over my hard drive and obliterates my linux installation. I have had to reinstall linux 6 times trying to run these tests. The instability is way beyond just bad affects on the video output, it corrupts files on the hard drive also. Since I could not get a reliable XFree86.0.log file, I interrogated the /proc/driver/nvidia tree and I am including everything in the tree for your examination. The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card showed: Fast Writes: Supported SBA: Supported AGP Rates: 8x 4x Registers: 0x1f000e1b:0x00000000 The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge showed: Host Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400 AGP] Host Bridge Fast Writes: Supported SBA: Supported AGP Rates: 8x 4x Registers: 0x1f000a5b:0x1f000000 The /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status showed: Status: Disabled The /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/o showed: Model: GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X IRQ: 16 Video BIOS: ??.??.??.??.?? Card Type: AGP The motherboard Giga-Byte motherboard bios version is GA-7VA-F9 Does this information give you enough to diagnose the problem? Last edited by Barry Mead; 09-28-03 at 10:13 PM.

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09-28-03, 07:45 PM	#2
Toker Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 6	I'm glad to hear it's just not me... I'm a brand new nix user and I can't get my 440MX running on drake9.1 either. I started a thread for my problem here. but I haven't gotten a responce on it. If I can find a solution, I'll let you know (I have the same topic at a couple linux forums,) and I also wanted to subscribe to this post to keep an eye on it... Sorry I can't help.

09-28-03, 09:49 PM	#4
Barry Mead Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 13	Is the rumor that I heard true? The rumor says that Microsoft is secretly paying nvidia to quit supporting linux. Is this rumor true?

09-28-03, 10:40 PM	#6
Barry Mead Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 13	I went to the XFX web site and looked for drivers and their web site referred me to the older nvidia 4191 version of the drivers. After I reinstall linux again (yeah the nvidia driver wiped out my hard drive again) I will try to install the older drivers to see if I have any luck. (I am not too hopeful).

09-28-03, 10:54 PM	#7
Barry Mead Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 13	Does anyone know of "ANY" nvidia card that works with linux and supports 8X AGP?

09-29-03, 02:28 AM	#9
Barry Mead Registered User Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 13	Who Manufactured you GeForce4MX440? The one I have is made by XFX and they don't even have the guts to put a version number in thier bios! They put Question marks. I cannot do any more testing as the XFX video card has burned up two of my motherboards. Both were Giga-Byte GA-7VA brand new motherboards. Now I am really screwed.

10-03-03, 04:46 AM	#10
hellwood Registered User Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 3	a lot of people have had problems getting mx cards to work under linux. I get scrambled ascii text and a hard lockup when trying to start X. XFree86.0.log ends after it says it is initializing 1024x768 etc etc.... Tom's Hardware even failed to get their mx to work in their nvidia under linux article. nvidia is aware of this, but as far as I know it hasn't been fixed. If I pull my mx440 and pop in my cousin's gf3, no problem. sigh