Linux on NForce 430 + GeForce 6150

[joffe]

Is this driver tweaked exclusively for ASUS products? When I installed it on my Toshiba Satellite 2450-201 with a Geforce4 420 Go it froze completely when starting up KDE, giving me a black screen and frozen top-left text cursor. And this with all the goodies - RenderAccel and composite - turned off. With the 7xxx-series it only stalls upon displaying the KDE splash with RenderAccel turned on.
I really hope the Nvidia team is aware of this and that it will be remedied for sure in the release version...

[fishermd]

The network drivers worked as well. The version was the same as what is currently available for download--but I haven't tried the "official" ones to confirm that they are identical.
Sound is being a little uncooperative, but that may be the normal challenge of tweaking apps use the nvsound. I believe a newer version of alsa will support sound on this board (but I can't confirm this yet), and would eliminate the need to mess with nvsound anyway.

**UPDATE**
Well, not so much on the network driver... It originally came up (obtaining an IP address, etc) and I was able to surf around a bit--but when I tried to DL the latest kernel--and probably any other decent sized download--the interface died. The system didn't freeze, and there were no messages in the log, but the card would no longer pass any traffic. Removing & reloading the module didn't help either... <grr>

[fishermd]

Alright... Let me first say that I had previously used my Knoppix 4.0.2 (cd version) to surf around and do stuff without any problems.

Take this with a grain of salt, since I can't seem to make an accurate definitive statement: the nvnet module seems to work fine after all.

Because I hadn't completed an OS install on this system, I had been doing testing with the aforementioned version of knoppix. Building and installing the graphics drivers seemed to work fine, and so did the nvnet module.
After running glxgears for a while, and surfing a couple of web pages--I concluded that both were good.
Shortly thereafter, when trying to download the latest kernel (also within the knoppix environment), the NIC stopped passing traffic. I tried bringing the interface down and back up, and unloading/reloading the module; nothing helped until rebooting, then it stopped again after a little traffic (there was never any indication of a problem in syslog, either). I concluded that it was a driver problem with this new chipset, and that I'd just wait until the official release came out.

Because an internet-connected box is pretty useless without a working NIC, I dropped in an old netgear (that I *KNEW* worked), booted into Knoppix, and preceeded to download the kernel again. Until I experienced the same problem: not passing traffic, unloading/reloading not helping, and nothing from syslog. This was unexpected.
I began to think that there may be a problem somewhere between the knoppix networking subsystem or the kernel from that disk (2.6.12 or 2.6.13, I think) and this hardware... Remember, it worked fine on a previous system and I've now used two different cards/chipsets with one KNOWN good)
I finally installed slackware 10.2 with the stock 2.4.31 kernel and rebuilt the nvnet drivers. I re-downloaded the kernel four times (for some relatively heavy traffic), and it no longer died.

Bottom line: with minimal/moderate testing, the video and network drivers seem to work. I don't know if there is an issue with 2.6.12/13 (whichever is in that version of knoppix), or with that particular compilation of networking stuff; but in the standard Slackware 10.2 distribution w/ 2.4.31; everything seems to function.

[vedragan]

There is a new ForceDeth version 0.47: 26 Oct 2005: Add phyaddr 0 in phy scan. Has anybody any experience with this? It is from the 2.6.15-rc

The diff says:
* Known bugs:
* We suspect that on some hardware no TX done interrupts are generated.

What does it imply? If the 2.4.x branch is working there cannot be a hardware problem.

0.47 version here: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/k...et/forcedeth.c

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I have even under Windows XP SP2 32Bit the folowing problem: Hardware Asus Mobo 430/6150. I use the onboard grafic. As I use an IDE PATA HDD as soon as the install CD boots there is a black screen and the disk is accessed quite wild... And is just goes on.... Wierd! Has anybody experenced this?

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Suse 10.0 install but the network works a while as described in the earier posts. Suse 9.3 doesn't recognize IDE.

----

It is quite frustrating... My original intent was to use this board as HTPC: as intended. Linux + MythTV: not as Bill and the Nvidia Official Linux Drivers intended. I cannot even throw a MCE on this. Very sad... I will try (hard) my luck for another week then send the board back...

[vedragan]

Originally Posted by joffe

Is this driver tweaked exclusively for ASUS products? When I installed it on my Toshiba Satellite 2450-201 with a Geforce4 420 Go it froze completely when starting up KDE, giving me a black screen and frozen top-left text cursor. And this with all the goodies - RenderAccel and composite - turned off. With the 7xxx-series it only stalls upon displaying the KDE splash with RenderAccel turned on.
I really hope the Nvidia team is aware of this and that it will be remedied for sure in the release version...

I don't think so! Maybe is just a BETA Driver after all... BUT I think that could be the Geforce4 420 support broken. If I remember correctly there is not first time when an older hardware support is broken... Such a report should acctualy make Nvidia to give away Betas. There is a HUGE user base there willing to risk a test a provide valuable feedback.

I must say that I am not quite pleased with Nvidia Linux support. Will this post get "moderated" because I am an "unsatisfied customer"? (I ask because yesterday I got one post gone - I dare to ask about the leaked drivers: anyway I got them). Nvidia, play nice: I am your CUSTOMER!

[syntho]

I have an Asus a8n-vm csm (430/6150), and the forcedeth driver included with the latest 2.6.14 kernel in Fedora Core 4 x84_64 is working with the on-board NIC. It did not work with the 2.6.11 kernel from the FC4 install distribution.

Twice however the NIC has mysteriously stopped responding, usually after tweaking something unrelated in the bios. After hard cycling the machine it comes back fine. A soft reboot has no effect - forcedeth reports "No link during initialization".

[netllama]

That's a forcedeth bug which is resolved in later versions. Try using the latest from here:
http://www.colorfullife.com/~manfred...nel/forcedeth/

Thanks,
Lonni

[joffe]

Originally Posted by vedragan

BUT I think that could be the Geforce4 420 support broken. If I remember correctly there is not first time when an older hardware support is broken...

Could be... However, I have been explicitly told by netllama that the problem with KDE locking up on my particular card would go away.

[rsrtfm]

Hi,
- asus a8n-vm csm amd 3200, geforce 6600 gigabyte,...
- suse 10.0, 9.3, super,.....

all dead in the water, black screen plague,...
- locks up couple of time on install,....
- win xp , runs fine, unreal, bf2,..
- no network
- yast, knows 6600, but locks up,
- install and run from buildin 6150 with 128mb, same results
- no sound
- 7676 driver, checksum error, running x error , even in init 3 , single user
- nforce 306 installs, yast, locks up on network configure,....
- 9.3, is loosing the cd mount point at install,...

so far, it's been a total desaster,... usually expect that from windoze,....
now with LiNux,...

any help or pointers welcome,
thanks, Robert Schultz

[netllama]

The GeForce 6150 will be supported in the next official driver release, and is not expected to work with 1.0-7676.

If you're having problems with a GeForce 6600, please generate and post a bug report.

Thanks,
Lonni

[ssv102]

When will be the next release? Is it going to be this month, next month or next quarter? I would like to know so I can decide if I have to buy a new video card or if I can wait it out until my onboard nvidia 6100 is supported? Is there a beta or alpha version that I can use, I would gladly be a tester as I do have quite a bit of programming and Linux experience.
Regards,
Shane

[syntho]

Originally Posted by netllama

That's a forcedeth bug which is resolved in later versions. Try using the latest from here:
http://www.colorfullife.com/~manfred...nel/forcedeth/

Thanks,
Lonni

Thanks Lonni - I actually also tried switching to nvnet 0306, and I still see the same occasional lockups. Is this expected? Is forcedeth preferred right now? I have forcedeth aliased to off in modprobe.conf and there is no evidence of it being loaded in the logs.

It reliably happens when I soft reboot from Windows into Linux. If I power down the machine completely and the PSU then boot into Linux, the NIC is usually fine.

Also with nvnet I've see a couple of kernel panics "Not syncing" when the NIC is brought up during DHCP negotiation - only with nvnet, not forcedeth.