Nvidia 5336 driver with Fedora Core 2

[alaoglu]

Hi,

I just installed the 5336 NVIDIA driver on my system and after doing
startx I got a black screen.
Ctrl+Alt+F1 didn't work, neither Ctrl+Alt+BS, neither Ctrl+Alt+Del so
I had to reboot the dirty way :-(
Then I uninstalled the driver and installed it again but I got the same.
Any suggestion ?
Thanks.


Hardware
Shuttle SN41G2 - Athlon 2400+ - 512MB
Motherboard: Shutttle FN41
Video card: GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU (nforce2)

Software
Video Bios revision: 04.1f.00.07.00
Video driver: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run
Distribution: Fedora Core 2 test 2 (with updated kernel to 2.6.4-1.305)

Complete XFree86.0.log is attached.

[LordMorgul]

Originally Posted by frli8848

As del above I can't find the CONFIG-4STACKS option in the stock kernels (2.6.4 and 2.6.5). I use RH9 and the 5336 driver hungs at the nvidia splash screen.

This is not an option in the stock kernels, it is introduced by patches in the Fedora Development RPM rebuild process. It is also part of Andrew Morton's kernel patches (-mm) and I believe in Con Kolivas' patches (-ck). This is not your problem if you are using stock kernels. You should look at AGP being the culprit first.

[LordMorgul]

Originally Posted by Eddy

Hi,
CONFIG_4STACKS = n ( no )
and
CONFIG_REGPARMS = n ( no )

The kernel .config file (before you rebuild the kernel) should have these lines (to be exact):

# CONFIG_4KSTACKS is not set
# CONFIG_REGPARM is not set

CONFIG_4KSTACKS is an option in the "Kernel Hacking" section of the config utilities (menuconfig / xconfig). CONFIG_REGPARM is an option in the "General Setup" section (I think...).

[LordMorgul]

Originally Posted by alaoglu

Hi,

I just installed the 5336 NVIDIA driver on my system and after doing
startx I got a black screen.
<snip>
Distribution: Fedora Core 2 test 2 (with updated kernel to 2.6.4-1.305)

You are using a kernel that is affected by the subject of this thread, any kernel newer than 2.6.4-1.253 is definitely affected. In order to use the nVIDIA driver you must rebuild the kernel without the option discussed above -- or you can compile a stock kernel version rather than the Fedora Devel kernel, but I recommend rebuilding the RPM instead.

[alaoglu]

Originally Posted by LordMorgul

You are using a kernel that is affected by the subject of this thread, any kernel newer than 2.6.4-1.253 is definitely affected. In order to use the nVIDIA driver you must rebuild the kernel without the option discussed above -- or you can compile a stock kernel version rather than the Fedora Devel kernel, but I recommend rebuilding the RPM instead.

Thank you. I will try that ASAP !

[tidixon]

I can not find the CONFIG_4KSTACKS option under kernel-2.6.5-1.309 of the Fedora devel branch. Any help?

[LordMorgul]

This post to the mailing list is all I know for now: http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedor.../msg01184.html

Apparently 4KSTACKS has now been removed.. but another issue introduced, I have not yet built this kernel.
A patch linux-2.6.5-nostack.patch applied in the kernel SRPM needs to be removed (note that rebuilding the kernel-source rpm probably will not deal with this). More when I try it out..

[carcifier]

Ok, this is clearly the thread with the issue I have.

Fedora Core 2 test 2 (2.6.5-1.315smp)
Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200 128

Installed the driver(5336), and X barfs or is it the kernel that barfs actually...

I have the source files for the kernel I have installed, via RPM.

The previously mentioned kernel parameters I could not find in the kernel config file.

I tried downloading different kernels, from kernel.org. Same issue.
I abandoned making a custom kernel.

Since I failed with that, I would like to try to do the other method mentioned, here...

"Re: Kernel 2.6.5-1.309 & Nvidia & 4KSTACKS

* From: Matias Feliciano <feliciano matias free fr>
* To: For testers of Fedora Core development releases <fedora-test-list redhat com>
* Subject: Re: Kernel 2.6.5-1.309 & Nvidia & 4KSTACKS
* Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 11:46:27 +0200

Le sam 10/04/2004 �* 10:16, H. van de Kolk a écrit :
> I want to comment out linux-2.6.5-nostack.patch, but cannot find where to do
> it?
>

rpm -i kernel-2.6.x.src.rpm

>From somewhere/redhat/SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec :
Patch200: linux-2.6.5-nostack.patch

Comment out this line and rebuild the package with "rpmbuild -bb
somewhere/redhat/SPECS/kernel-2.6.spec" .

Or apply the patch somewhere/redhat/SOURCES/linux-2.6.5-nostack.patch
with "patch --reverse" in /usr/src/linux-2.6.x after installing
kernel-source-2.6.x. Then build your custom kernel.


> Rikus van de Kolk
> "

However, I don't understand the instructions. The issue is, I have no knowledge of how rpms are built. I can not find any spec files as I believe I need to edit to rebuild the rpm.

I know how to build custom kernels. I don't know how to make rpm's.

I need someone who can dumb down to a level, assuming that I have NEVER built a rpm in my life, that can clue me in on how to do this.

RTFM me, is fine too. Just get me started, I'm spinning my wheels.

I know, just from reading the instructions above, this is an INCREDIBLY easy thing to do, but I am lost.

How does one pull apart a rpm that is already installed??
Is that what I need to do??
Do I need to download the rpm file itself??

I know this is braindead simple, someone translate to English for me.

I'm going crazy without 3d acceleration.

[GNUnderdog]

carcifier -

Download the kernel-2.6.5.x.src.rpm.

>> rpm -i kernel-2.6.x.src.rpm

This "installs" or unpacks everything into the build tree, placing the source tarball, any patches, and pre-made kernel config files in /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES. The master build script or ".spec" file (the one you need to edit) is unpacked into /usr/src/redhat/SPECS. Go there.

In this case, kernel-2.6.spec must be edited before building, commenting out the nostacks patch. This has two steps.

1. Near the top of kernel*.spec, comment out the reference line "Patch200: linux-2.6.5-nostack.patch"
2. Comment out the spot where the patch is actually applied, "%patch200 -p1".

Save and close. In same dir (/usr/src/redhat/SPECS), rebuild rpm with "rpmbuild -bb kernel-2.6.spec". You may need to install rpm-build if you don't have it. (You may also wish to toggle on SMP, usually a boolean near the top of the .spec)

That's it...assuming the kernel config doesn't need to be changed also to reflect the lack of the nostacks patch (??). Install the resulting rpm using "rpm -ivh", NOT "-Uvh". It will appear near the end of the long build process as "Wrote: /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/kernel*.i386.rpm".

[carcifier]

Originally Posted by GNUnderdog

carcifier -
>> rpm -i kernel-2.6.x.src.rpm

This "installs" or unpacks everything into the build tree, placing the source tarball, any patches, and pre-made kernel config files in /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES. The master build script or ".spec" file (the one you need to edit) is unpacked into /usr/src/redhat/SPECS. Go there.

This is my problem, and I think is what is creating my confusion. When I downloaded and installed the rpm, there were NO files placed in the "/usr/src/redhat" directory.

I see all the sub directories in there, and they are empty.

It creates the directory "/usr/src/linux-2.6.5-1.315"

Inside of that, the kernel source can be found.

However, I have no spec files, nothing.

I must not be using the correct RPM?
I got this rpm from the kernel.org mirror site...

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/cor...1.315.i386.rpm

Thanks for the instructions btw, very easy to understand. Now, if only I could install the right rpm.

Any suggestions?

[LordMorgul]

Originally Posted by carcifier

I must not be using the correct RPM?
I got this rpm from the kernel.org mirror site...

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/cor...1.315.i386.rpm

You are installing the kernel-source rpm which provides the source code that was used to build the matching kernel rpm. This is not what you want.. you're looking for the src.rpm which was used to create ALL the kernel rpms for that version, including the binary kernel, kernel-source, kernel-docs, and kernel-smp packages for each architecture.

http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/cor...-1.315.src.rpm

Incidentally this kernel has the 4KSTACK patch merged so that the option is no longer available for compiling without the stack change. This is now permanent for the development kernels in FC2test2 and onward.. and will become permanent in the mainline kernel very soon (speculation says 2.6.6). Recompiling this kernel probably will not provide a working setup. If it does please report back.

[hppnq]

It works the following way:

. install the kernel sources (kernel-source-2.6.5-1.315)
. install the kernel SRPM (kernel-2.6.5-1.315.src.rpm)
. cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.5-1.315
. patch -R -p1 < ../redhat/SOURCES/linux-2.6.5-nostack.patch

Now configure, compile and install the kernel and reboot into a non-graphical runlevel (2 or 3).
Uninstall and re-install the Nvidia driver. Everything should be fine now. Not extremely stable, but at least you can now switch back and forth between VTs.

Good luck. ;-)