help plse to get nvidia drivers working for geforce GT 440 on pclinuxos 2011 kde

[arjay]

I have installed and have running OK a copy of pclos 2011.9 for kde. I have done all the updates etc through Synaptic.

However, Xorg log shows only vesa drivers running.  Synaptic shows  dkms-nvidia-current installed.  I can't find nvidia-settings in the menus or in synaptic.  I have installed nvdock but clicking on it produces nothing.  There is no xorg.conf file any more of course.  I have searched Google and here but can't find anything relevant.  I'll go the route of making my own xorg.conf file if necessary but surely I shouldn't have to do that in this day and age?  Linux Mint/other distros etc offer you the option of installing proprietary drivers as soon as they detect the video card.  Anything like that here?

I want to get the proprietary nvidia drivers working so that I can get my second monitor up and running with TwinView etc.

TIA

[gseaman]

I believe the proprietary nvidia driver no longer works with the current X.org. You might be able to get 3d acceleration with the nouveau driver, but you probably are left with just 2d acceleration with the nv driver. In a previous post it was recommended to get a newer video card. You also have the choice of using an older distro with xorg earlier than 1.10.x.

Galen

[DeBaas]

MX440 is from about the year 2002
Latest nVidia drivers only XP from end of 2006
No nVidia drivers for Vista or W7
Latest nVidia Linux support about 1 yeart ago for the older xorg versions.
Now is the support limited for Vista and W7 to only VGA or VESA.
For Linux to the VGA, VESA, nv and nouveau drivers, where the nouveau driver has quirks on some hardware combinations.
You can forget 3D support on these older nVidia (also older ATI Radeon) chipsets with the now available operating systems.
Time to crunch your piggy bank...........

Ed

[arjay]

Time to crunch your piggy bank...........
Ed

Thanks for the helpful reply - interesting stuff.  However, I don't think this answers my central point - about auto-detection.

I have five networked PCs which I use for various purposes including web design, media centre etc.  I run Debian stable for my "production machine", Mythbuntu or Mythdora for my media centre,  SimplyMepis for my wife's PC, Win XP for testing websites with IE, and a test box for just trying things out.

Up to about a 1-2 years ago, I found it normal to have to download and manually install proprietary nvidia drivers.  However, more recently, most distros seem to be able to auto-detect the video card and offer to install the correct drivers.

I have a Geforce GT8500, a GT 440, a G210 and even a (fanless) FX5200 for my media centre. Old though they are, they run happily with nvidia drivers and do more or less what I need of them.  I don 't need the latest all-singing/dancing cards - sometimes all that happens is there isn't yet a Linux driver for them!  I haven't had to do more than click "install" for drivers for ages on any of these cards or distros I have tried.

I last used PCLOS for about a year up until last year. It was great through the early versions of KDE4, but then it began to lose sound and the desktop settings. Now I try PCLOS again, just to see how it is getting along and the best it can do is install VESA drivers for the nvidia 400 series card.  As far as I can see, PCC doesn't recognise the card or offer to install the nvidia drivers. I have dkms-nvidia-current installed but can even find nvidia-settings in the repos - I needed this to help set up TwinView across two monitors.  Linux is supposed to be supreme at getting things to work on moderate/ageing hardware - but this doesn't look like it. I do know how to manually install the drivers and even how to write my own xorg.conf from scratch, but don't see why I should have to in this day and age - just to try out a distro.

Off-topic but relevant:

BTW: during install PCLOS did pick up Mepis on another partition and added it to the boot menu.  But clicking on it during boot just produces error messages and it won't boot.  Since all my wife's stuff is on the Mepis partition she was not best please to be unable to boot to her own distro.  I had to download a copy of Mepis 11, burn a live DVD, boot to it, and use their excellent "Repair Grub" facility to restore a workable boot menu. Not very reassuring.

Anyway - I am persevering and will have another play/read more about PCLOS and see if/where I might have gone wrong.

But I'm afraid that buying a new video card isn't "on the menu"

[Texstar]

Are you talking about the GeForce 4 MX440 that was produced like 8-10 years ago? If so, Nvidia no longer provides a certified video driver for that card with xorg server 1.10.4. You need an older distribution or one that caters to legacy hardware with an older xorg server and old legacy nvidia drivers.

There are 3 kinds of Linux distributions.

1 - Bleeding edge. This kind distribution provides support for the newest hardware at the expense of some stability. Many software packages are pulled from git development so be prepared to run into some glitches, crashes or software that doesn't work as intended.

2 - Modern. This kind of distribution provides support for most recent hardware within a few years. Most of the software packages are current stable or recent releases. This distribution works with the majority of Linux users hardware.

3. Legacy. This kind of distribution provides support for legacy hardware that is old. Most of the software packages are dated many versions back.

So Linux can run on a lot of hardware but the trick is to identify the proper distribution for your hardware instead of trying to force a distribution to work on something it wasn't designed for.

[menotu]

had to download a copy of Mepis 11, burn a live DVD, boot to it, and use their excellent "Repair Grub" facility to restore a workable boot menu. Not very reassuring.

Could of run the excellent Redo MBR which is installed by default on PCLinuxOS (on KDE at least)

[arjay]

had to download a copy of Mepis 11, burn a live DVD, boot to it, and use their excellent "Repair Grub" facility to restore a workable boot menu. Not very reassuring.

Could of run the excellent Redo MBR which is installed by default on PCLinuxOS (on KDE at least)

I did exactly that and it just recreated the faulty Grub boot menu

[arjay]

Are you talking about the GeForce 4 MX440 that was produced like 8-10 years ago?

Sorry if I misled you all.  I didn't know there was an old 440

I am talking about the Geforce GT 440 which I understand was first issued by OEMs back in Oct 2010 and then uprated by Nvidia themselves and first released in February of 2011 when I bought one. If I am right, not exactly that old

RJ

EDIT: I have corrected the subject for this post to include GT 440 before I mislead anyone else....

[Swanie]

Having a similar problem here with the GeForce GT 440. All was working fine until about 3 days ago and then a message appeared during boot saying the nvidia proprietary drivers could not be found and was reverting to the open source drivers.  The dkms drivers are being used   Have yet to sort this!

[arjay]

Sorry - can't help you.  I got so fed up with the hardware probs in PCLOS that I dumped it in favour of trying other distros.  I still use Mepis 11 as it seems to work without a hitch for me.

[AS]

Having a similar problem here with the GeForce GT 440. All was working fine until about 3 days ago and then a message appeared during boot saying the nvidia proprietary drivers could not be found and was reverting to the open source drivers.  The dkms drivers are being used   Have yet to sort this!

"All was working fine until about 3 days ago ..."  ... and then what happened ?

Did you installed new kernel ? new packages ? updates ?  Check Synaptic -> File -> History.

System crash ? Try to check filesystems booting from a LiveCD.

please, open a terminal a report the output of the following command:
rpm  -qa  |  grep  nvidia


AS

[JohnW_57]

Having a similar problem here with the GeForce GT 440. All was working fine until about 3 days ago and then a message appeared during boot saying the nvidia proprietary drivers could not be found and was reverting to the open source drivers.  The dkms drivers are being used  Have yet to sort this!

"All was working fine until about 3 days ago ..."  ... and then what happened ?

Did you installed new kernel ? new packages ? updates ?  Check Synaptic -> File -> History.

System crash ? Try to check filesystems booting from a LiveCD.

please, open a terminal a report the output of the following command:
rpm  -qa  |  grep  nvidia


AS

If it's like this

[wimwillemsen@localhost ~]$ rpm  -qa  |  grep  nvidia
x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-290.10-1pclos2011
dkms-nvidia-current-290.10-1pclos2011

Did the previous nvidia drivers working on your install?
A possibly workaround:

Downgrading to the 280.13 driver:

Download: http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/apt/pclinuxos/2010/RPMS.nonfree/dkms-nvidia-current-280.13-1pclos2011.i586.rpm  and  http://ftp.nluug.nl/os/Linux/distr/pclinuxos/pclinuxos/apt/pclinuxos/2010/RPMS.nonfree/x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-280.13-1pclos2011.i586.rpm
Remove the current nvidia drivers with synaptic.

Start Konsole (terminal) and su to root
Go to the folder where the rpms are downloaded.
Type rpm -Uvh *.rpm

After installing reboot your computer.

Another option is removing the current drivers with synaptic and then reinstalling the current drivers.

JohnW

[Just18]

Having a similar problem here with the GeForce GT 440. All was working fine until about 3 days ago and then a message appeared during boot saying the nvidia proprietary drivers could not be found and was reverting to the open source drivers.  The dkms drivers are being used   Have yet to sort this!

Just to add here my experience in the last two or three days ......

nearing the end of booting this message is displayed on screen ......

The proprietary driver for your graphics card can not be found, the system is now using the free software driver (nvidia).
Reason:   New release. reconfiguring  X  for nVidia Coprporation|Device 1244

My graphics card is a GTX 550Ti identified in PCC Hardware as  Device 1244

I have made no changes to the install except normal updates which may have come through.

According to PCC - Hardware this is the driver

Module: ‎Card:NVIDIA cards not working with nv

In use, I see no difference at all .......  Kwin effects are still operating (the few I use) and resolution etc seems to be the same as previously displayed.

In fact it appears to me that the driver has not changed at all.

regards

Code:

rpm  -qa  |  grep  nvidia
dkms-nvidia-current-290.10-1pclos2011
x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-290.10-1pclos2011

The only other nvidia drivers listed as installed are

x11-driver-video-nouveau
x11-driver-video-nv

[menotu]

Same grep command shows:

Code:

rpm  -qa  |  grep  nvidia
x11-driver-video-nvidia-current-290.10-1pclos2011
dkms-nvidia-current-290.10-1pclos2011
x11-driver-video-nvidia173-173.14.30-1pclos2011
dkms-nvidia173-173.14.30-1pclos2011

and nvidia-settings screenshot

[JohnW_57]

Just18; is nouveau blacklisted in /etc/modprode.d/display-driver ?

On my system:

Code:

alias nvidia nvidia-current
blacklist nouveau

JohnW