Alienware 51m laptop with Geforce FX go5

[yates]

*edit "geforce fx go5700"

Hi,

when i start x after installing the nvidia linux drivers the spotted background of
X appears and no cursor, the system seems to freeze then my lcd display
starts to slowly melt into different colours, i have tried editing my xf86 config
file but have had no success, any ideas? im running Debian.

/Rob.

[alaric]

This COULD be an instability problem (of the whole system).
I've just gone through having an instable system, and I've run into a lot of weird behaviour, including (once) that X didn't get further than the spotted background.

If you are using AGP, then you could try if things improve when you turn it off with Option "NvAGP" "0". This might be enough, because the AGP architecture is one of the most instable busses ever designed; so, it might be that your system is instable, but not instable enough to not function without AGP. Note that it is also possible that turning off AGP helps because you ran into an agp driver bug - but in that case things should be more reproducible, less eratic. For example, you always have the exact same behaviour when starting X. Or you always get a black screen when running THAT application. If a system runs for a while and then crashes at seemingly random times - and/or when you see other errors, like like dma_intr error messages in your kernel log etc, then it's more likely an instability problem then a driver problem.

So, I'd say - start looking for randomness and/or reproducablity .

Alaric

[yates]

thanks for the tip :-) but it didnt work, however i got a different result,
now when i start x i get a black screen for a few seconds then the
screen goes really bright and locks up.

[_hg_]

I've had terrible problems with everything except the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7184 legacy drivers. I think I've got the same laptop you do, Alienware Area51m 770...

Give 'em a shot and report back!

Now that I say that, everyithing works but GLX so no fancy screensavers (whoopdy-do) and no Google Earth (*that* sucks). If I find a solution you know I'll post it here.

-hg

[netllama]

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=46678

[_hg_]

I added these three lines to my xorg.conf and now GLX works fine, the only problem is Beryl will not work with these options so now I am on another quest:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

Give it a try.

[netllama]

Right, beryl requires the Composite extension.