Problem with Linux/NVidia drivers

[SeanClarke]

Hi,
I'm an experienced Linux user and have been using the NVidia Linux drivers with great effect for a number of years, however I have a problem that I just can't figure out...

When I run glxinfo I get :-
glxinfo
name of display: :0.0
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Segmentation fault

and glxgears gives me :-
glxgears
Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual

Ahh, I hear you say, you haven't configured the XF86Config file correctly, well this is what puzzles me, because I *think* I have.

The XFree.log shows the nvidia driver being used and the glx module loaded, I'm just a bit stuck.

When I start X I get the NVidia spash screen, however the reason why I was aware of the problem is that the 2D performance didn't appear to be what I'd come to expect.

Nvidia driver: 4496
Machine: dual PII 500, 512MB RAM.
Graphics: 16MB TNT (AGP)
Linux distro: SuSE 9.0 + KDE 3.2 beta 2

Has anyone got any ideas? Have I missed something?

[patbob]

maybe the forum will let me post using _this_ browser... if it does, I have a reply to post.

[patbob]

While trashing on another Linux/Nvidia driver problem, I accidently/intentionally caused a very similar problem to what you describe.. perhaps it offers some avenues to try and diagnose.

In my case, I hand-installed the module to test it, forgetting that there are a whole set of Nvidia-supplied libraries that go with it. When I started X, I got the Nvidia splash screen and everything seemed to work... until I tried to run gears. I can't recall the exact error message, but both gears and glxinfo complained about GLX errors of some sort. For me, the fix was to undo the hand-install of the module and use the Nvidia installer to do the whole job correctly.

Perhaps Nvidia's libraries are incompatible with your OS load in some way or failed to install. First place to check is the log file from the installer. It shoudl list al the files that are to be installed and report any errors. Next is to check to see if your have libraries by the same name anywhere in the search path that are being loaded instead. ldd on gears can help there as it'll tell you what shared libraries gears is going to try to use.

Hope this helps.

[SeanClarke]

Good point!!.

However the install log looks Ok (attached for confirmation).

ldd /usr/X11R6/bin/glxgears
libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/tls/libGL.so.1 (0x4002f000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x4009a000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x400a8000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/i686/libpthread.so.0 (0x401a4000)
libm.so.6 => /lib/i686/libm.so.6 (0x401f5000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/i686/libc.so.6 (0x40219000)
libGLcore.so.1 => /usr/lib/tls/libGLcore.so.1 (0x4034c000)
libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x4082c000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

ls -l /usr/lib/tls |grep libGL
libGLcore.so.1 -> libGLcore.so.1.0.4496
libGLcore.so.1.0.4496
libGL.so -> libGL.so.1
libGL.so.1 -> libGL.so.1.0.4496
libGL.so.1.0.4496

And as a belt and braces :-

ls -l /usr/lib/ |grep libGL

libGLcore.so.1 -> libGLcore.so.1.0.4496
libGLcore.so.1.0.4496
libGL.so -> libGL.so.1
libGL.so.1 -> libGL.so.1.0.4496
libGL.so.1.0.4496
libGLU.a
libGLU.so -> libGLU.so.1.3
libGLU.so.1 -> libGLU.so.1.3
libGLU.so.1.3
libMesaGL.a -> libGL.a
libMesaGL.so -> libGL.so
libMesaGL.so.3 -> libGL.so.1
libMesaGLU.a -> libGLU.a
libMesaGLU.so -> libGLU.so
libMesaGLU.so.3 -> libGLU.so.1

ls -l /usr/lib/GL/ |grep libGL

libGL.so.1 -> libGL.so.1.2
libGL.so.1.2

[patbob]

Hmmm.. I looked at the XF log and nvidia installer log, and looked at the files that are installed on my system (RH EL3 & Nvidia 4496), and they look fine. There's slight differences, but nothing that screams any problems. Interestingly, both XF logs claim that GLX is initialized yet it doesn't work for you and does for me.

I'm out of ideas for now. Attached are the same output and logs from my system, in case they might help somehow.