NVRM: Xid errors only with Beryl: potential fix

[Ironi]

tl;dr: This is long. Read it all, twice, or wait until someone else condenses and summarizes everything.

If you see "NVRM: Xid" errors with Beryl but never without, then I may have discovered a workaround. Unfortunately, I'm not certain which option (or combination of options) stabilizes* it. At the moment, I don't have the patience to toggle single options and then wait, either. So, I'll provide a list of information and my settings below.

IMPORTANT: You MUST reboot after changing the settings. Otherwise, you may still experience problems.

Debian package versions:

beryl-core			0.2.0~0beryl1
nvidia-glx			1.0.9746-2 (not the latest, I know)
xserver-xorg			7.2-1
xserver-xorg-core		1.2.99.901-1

Relevant options in the Device section of my xorg.conf:

Option		"MultisampleCompatibility"	"true"
Option		"AllowGLXWithComposite"		"true"
Option		"AddARGBGLXVisuals"		"true"
Option		"RenderAccel"			"true"

Beryl Settings Manager - General Options:
Sync to VBlank: unchecked
(very important - resolved a black screen issue when Ctrl-Alt-Fn switching to the X server running Beryl from another one outputting to same monitor)

Advanced Beryl options: (right-click the Beryl Manager systray icon; I left nothing on "Automatic")
Rendering Path: Texture From Pixmap
Composite Overlay Window: Don't use COW
Rendering Platform: Force Nvidia
Binding: XGL Binding (yes, I'm using Xorg)
Rendering: Indirect Rendering
Disable GL Yield setting: checked

Just to reiterate: After changing these settings, I strongly recommend rebooting. Especially if you have any NVRM: Xid errors in your syslog. Also, please ensure that the settings were changed (and stayed that way) before reporting that you're still having problems.

* By that I mean, eliminates the Xid errors. Beryl still has other bugs that will not be fixed by the above changes. Don't report those issues here, please; instead, try the Beryl Forum:
http://forum.beryl-project.org/

[linux23dragon]

I was only able to get "Xid" after playing around with the resoultion settings in Gnome-2.14.3 (Metacity-2.16.3). Berly-2.1 was installed and running at the time when I was playing with the resolution settings. I then played a DVD (Movie Player "Totem-1.4.3") for a little while. And the system needed a soft reset when I was about to load a Doom3 map.

I have a funny hunch that I won't get this issue if I don't play with the resolution settings. I did check to see if the Advanced Berly Options was still set as requested.




Also worth a note. Before, I did keep on getting "Xid" errors with Linux-2.6.20.1 at any time (without doing anything fancy). I've found that Linux-2.6.21-rc2 is alot more stable (in this case).

Below is my kernel log with the Xid issues (might of happened after, or while I was playing around with the resolution settings):-


Mar 20 08:28:24 dragon23dragon kernel: UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcinn
g readonly mount
Mar 20 08:28:24 dragon23dragon kernel: UDF-fs INFO UDF 0.9.8.1 (2004/29/09) Mounn
ting volume 'EQUILIBRIUM', timestamp 2003/09/30 13:33 (1276)
Mar 20 08:32:59 dragon23dragon kernel: UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcinn
g readonly mount
Mar 20 08:32:59 dragon23dragon kernel: UDF-fs INFO UDF 0.9.8.1 (2004/29/09) Mounn
ting volume 'EQUILIBRIUM', timestamp 2003/09/30 13:33 (1276)
Mar 20 09:03:09 dragon23dragon kernel: NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 13, 0003 00000000 000
005097 00000f10 00000000 00000040
Mar 20 09:03:09 dragon23dragon kernel: NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 30, L1 -> L0
Mar 20 09:03:42 dragon23dragon kernel: UDF-fs: Partition marked readonly; forcinn
g readonly mount
Mar 20 09:03:42 dragon23dragon kernel: UDF-fs INFO UDF 0.9.8.1 (2004/29/09) Mounn
ting volume 'EQUILIBRIUM', timestamp 2003/09/30 13:33 (1276)
Mar 20 09:17:48 dragon23dragon kernel: NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 8, Channel 00000003
Mar 20 09:17:48 dragon23dragon kernel: NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 30, L1 -> L0
Mar 20 09:18:00 dragon23dragon kernel: NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 8, Channel ffffffff
Mar 20 09:18:00 dragon23dragon kernel: NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 30, L0 -> L0

Soft reboot needed here:

Mar 20 09:19:05 dragon23dragon kernel: klogd 1.4.1, log source = /proc/kmsg starr
ted.
Mar 20 09:19:05 dragon23dragon kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.6.21-rc2

And so on.

[Ironi]

Originally Posted by linux23dragon

I was only able to get "Xid" after playing around with the resoultion settings in Gnome-2.14.3 (Metacity-2.16.3).

Ah. I'm using KDE here, so I can't try to reproduce that. Changing resolutions with Ctrl-Alt-Keypad[Plus|Minus] works fine here. It does cause some odd visual artifacts with Beryl's cube, but that's easily fixed by restarting it. No NVRM: Xids whatsoever.

I have a funny hunch that I won't get this issue if I don't play with the resolution settings.

Maybe. Could you paste the output of the following command, please?

awk '/Section "Device"/, /EndSection/' /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[linux23dragon]

Section "Device"

# The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override
# the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.
# Chipset "generic"
# The Driver line must be present. When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module. Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.
# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for. When this line isn't present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device. For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used. This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# intalled.
# BusID "PCI:0:10:0"
# VideoRam 256
# Clocks 25.2 28.3
# Identifier "Standard VGA"
# Driver "vga"
# VendorName "Unknown"
# BoardName "Unknown"
#EndSection
#Section "Device"
#VideoRam 262144
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
Identifier "GforceFX"
Driver "nvidia"

EndSection

[linux23dragon]

Originally Posted by Ironi

Ah. I'm using KDE here, so I can't try to reproduce that. Changing resolutions with Ctrl-Alt-Keypad[Plus|Minus] works fine here. It does cause some odd visual artifacts with Beryl's cube, but that's easily fixed by restarting it. No NVRM: Xids whatsoever.

Please try changing the screen resolution using the Nvidia X Server Settings GUI tool. (If you haven't already)

I happen to have KDE-3.5.6 installed (running with Beryl-0.2.1). And I found that the system will freez right away. No log output about Xids , but it's the same issue. The system freez happens too fast for any log output (by the looks of things).

I'm still checking to see if the Advanced Berly Options was still pre set as requested. (all looks good)

[Ironi]

Originally Posted by linux23dragon

Section "Device"
[--SNIP--]
EndSection

No options at all...? ... You missed "Relevant options in the Device section of my xorg.conf." Anways, make a backup copy of your xorg.conf and then replace that entire block with the following, please.

Section "Device"
        Identifier     "GforceFX"
        Driver          "nvidia"

        Option          "RenderAccel"                   "true"
        Option          "AllowGLXWithComposite"         "true"
        Option          "AllowDDCCI"                    "true"
        Option          "RandRRotation"                 "true"
        Option          "AddARGBGLXVisuals"             "true"
        Option          "TripleBuffer"                  "true"
        Option          "MultisampleCompatibility"      "true"
EndSection

After you place that in there, save it and restart your X server / display manager (or reboot). Then try to resize the screen in both KDE and GNOME.

If you still you have problems, you should probably start your own thread. Although the nVidia employees will probably ignore you if it only happens when you're running Beryl.

Please try changing the screen resolution using the Nvidia X Server Settings GUI tool.

I don't have that installed. Resizing with kcmshell display (which uses the RandR extension) does seem to work fine, however.

[linux23dragon]

Originally Posted by Ironi

No options at all...? ... You missed "Relevant options in the Device section of my xorg.conf."

Oh, sorry about that, I had let the Nvidia installer configure the xorg.conf file. You will find the Options in the Screen section.

awk '/Section "Screen"/, /EndSection/' /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "GforceFX"
Monitor "Samsung"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "NvAGP" "0"
#Option "AllowDDCCI" "on"
Option "Coolbits" "1"
Option "RandRRotation" "true"
#Option "XvmcUsesTextures" "true"
#Option "ExactModeTimingsDVI" "true"
#Option "TripleBuffer" "True"
#Option "backingstore" "true"
Option "MultisampleCompatibility" "true"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"

SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
Modes "1600x1200_75" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
Modes "1600x1200_75" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200_75" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 32
Modes "1600x1200_75" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Originally Posted by Ironi

Anways, make a backup copy of your xorg.conf and then replace that entire block with the following, please.

--Snip--

After you place that in there, save it and restart your X server / display manager (or reboot). Then try to resize the screen in both KDE and GNOME.

Yep, I'll give that a go.

Originally Posted by Ironi

I don't have that installed. Resizing with kcmshell display (which uses the RandR extension) does seem to work fine, however.

Oh yea, the CLI command is "nvidia-settings"



I've noticed that you added software versions to your first post. I only have Xorg-7.1, so I'll need to update that too. I hope that my Modular build works out (This might take some time).

Thanks Very much for your help anyway. I'll post back once I have updated my Modular X server to version 7.2

[Ironi]

Originally Posted by linux23dragon

Oh, sorry about that, I had let the Nvidia installer configure the xorg.conf file. You will find the Options in the Screen section.

Oh, the options can be in either section. Annoying.

Oh yea, the CLI command is "nvidia-settings"

Oops. Yeah, I have that installed (ver 1.0 from 2006), but I can't change resolutions with it.

Thanks Very much for your help anyway. I'll post back once I have updated my Modular X server to version 7.2

Not a problem. Also, I recommend trying the xrandr tool, like so: xrandr -s 1024x768 (or whatever resolution). That way I'm not left wondering about software bugs in KDE/GNOME/nvidia-settings.

[tmasscool]

thanks a lot.
It seems that it fixed the issues i had with beryl/compiz (Xid errors and some random freezes i had specially with scrolling in firefox).

[tmasscool]

Originally Posted by tmasscool

thanks a lot.
It seems that it fixed the issues i had with beryl/compiz (Xid errors and some random freezes i had specially with scrolling in firefox).

Nope : seems that i was speaking too early. I still have the Xid errors :s

[Ironi]

Thanks for trying, though.

[linux23dragon]

Well I've just finished installing Xorg-7.2 to prefix "/opt/X11R7"

It was worth the upgrade IMO. But I still get Xids if I change the resolution running Linux-2.6.21-rc2.

I just hope that kernel upgrades are not the cause of the issues.


Just to justify why I 'm saying:

My entire Linux system (and yours) are built against the “original system” kernel headers. It could be a fact that they might have changed some headers in the updated kernels, which might cause issues like we are having.

For example:
My system was built around the 2.6.16 kernel headers to run Linux-2.6.16-??. 12 months later, I upgraded my PC from an AMD 3200+ to an Intel Core2 Duo E6600 and got a Geforce-8800-GTX (upgrade from a AGP 5900-Ultra). I find support for the Core2 Duo and the 680i chipset with Kernel-2.6.20, and had to upgrade the kernel accordingly. After the kernel upgrade I came across Xids at any moment, so I try to upgrade the kernel again (Linux-2.6.21-rc2) and now only get Xids when I change the resolution while using Beryl-0.(what ever version).

But I could be wrong. The only way to test that is to reinstall the original kernel that the system was first built with.

Also worth pointing out. The kernel and/or driver developers should know what is going on here. They are the ones that developed the software, and should have the correct tools to debug the issues.

We have done our part, and I think its time to move forward.