Nvidia driver won't play nice

[firefly]

Got a new PCLinuxOS install today on a T61 Thinkpad with Nvidia Quadro NVS 140M vid card (128 meg ram).  The Thinkpad is docked and is running a 1920x1200 flatscreen. 

After updates and a dvdcss library install, I went into VLC and started watching a video.  The video was jerky because the vid card needed hardware acceleration.  I go into the configure center to install the driver and the script tells me that a proprietary driver was available.  I installed it (it chose Geforce 6 & later driver).  On reboot, it blanks the screen.  I went back into the configure center and chose the driver that said something like "will not run with the nvidia driver".  I've got good resolution but I stil don't have hardware acceleration.  Video is poor.

The hardware is ok.  I'm dual-booting Windows and I watch DVD's/BD's on various drives with no problems.  Any ideas what Nvidia driver to use or what procedure I need to follow for full hardware acceleration??

[Dragynn]

Ya lost me there somewhere Firefly

If your screen went black, how did you get back into the PCC configuration center? And is the Nvidia driver you installed the latest (260 series)? And did you also install "dkms-nvidia-current" to get the Nvidia Settings GUI?

A quick Google search shows that some other linux users using this same graphics card are having some issues similar to yours, and a few have filed bug reports with Nvidia. There are also a couple of older versions of Nvidia drivers in the repo, but checking the Nvidia site here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-ia32-260.19.29-driver.html, shows that the current driver should work for it.

[firefly]

Ya lost me there somewhere Firefly

If your screen went black, how did you get back into the PCC configuration center?

Hard reboot and safe mode.

And is the Nvidia driver you installed the latest (260 series)? And did you also install "dkms-nvidia-current" to get the Nvidia Settings GUI?

I'll check when I get back into the good partition tonight.  I assume I'll check in Synaptic?

[firefly]

And is the Nvidia driver you installed the latest (260 series)? And did you also install "dkms-nvidia-current" to get the Nvidia Settings GUI?

Going into Synaptic and searching on Nvidia, reveals:

dkms-nvidia-current (260.19.29-1)
dkms-nvidia96xx (96.43.18-1)
dkms-nvidia173 (173.14.28-1)

X11-driver-video-nv
X11-driver-video-nvidia173
X11-driver-video-nvidia96xx
X11-driver-video-nvidia-current
 

One thing -- I did not select these Nvidia modules.  

During initial boot of the LiveCD, the loading would only go so far and then the screen would blank.  I guessed the LiveCD had tried to install the NVidia driver.  So I booted the LiveCD in VESA mode and then installed to the hard disk.  After the new install, I did an update with synaptic and I assume these modules were installed at that time.  

What would be a good method to troubleshoot this down?

[Dragynn]

Okay.

PCLOS does not to my knowledge install any proprietary Nvidia drivers directly without any action on your part. Are any of those packages you listed actually installed on your machine right now?  The checkbox to the left of each entry that is not installed will be clear (white in color), installed packages will have a colored checkbox (on mine it's green). Doing an update won't install proprietary drivers if you have none already present.

From the info we have, it seems you would want to install "dkms-nvidia-current" and "X11-driver-video-nvidia-current" if they are not installed.

Good job on booting into vesa, looks like you already know your way around linux, once your video issue is sorted I believe you're gonna like this distro a lot.

[firefly]

Okay.

PCLOS does not to my knowledge install any proprietary Nvidia drivers directly without any action on your part. Are any of those packages you listed actually installed on your machine right now?  The checkbox to the left of each entry that is not installed will be clear (white in color), installed packages will have a colored checkbox (on mine it's green). Doing an update won't install proprietary drivers if you have none already present.

All of the modules listed above are shown as installed in Synaptic.  If the LiveCD did not try to install the proprietary driver, I wonder why the screen went blank and power button changed from blue to yellow?  It's the identical problem I get when trying to install Nvidia drivers.  Puzzling. 

Maybe the LiveCD allowed me to use vesa but, noting the video hardware, installed the Nvidia drivers and left them inactive?

Is there a step by step guide or another method I can use to troubleshoot this? 

[Dragynn]

Wow, all of them? Haven't seen that one...hmmm...might need a ninja here. If it were me, i'd uninstall the other drivers and dkms packages and stick with the current ones if they work.

When you go into the PCC, under hardware>configure video card>options, do you see some options similar to this?:



The dkms front-end should be listed as Nvidia Display Settings in system>preferences or administration and looks like this:

[firefly]

Wow, all of them? Haven't seen that one...hmmm...might need a ninja here. If it were me, i'd uninstall the other drivers and dkms packages and stick with the current ones if they work.

When you go into the PCC, under hardware>configure video card>options, do you see some options similar to this?:

Ok, I used Synaptic to remove the Nvidia173 and Nvidia96xx drivers.  Examination of /etc/X11/xorg.conf shows that I am using the "NV" driver so I left "NV" and the "current" driver installed.

My "Configure Video Card" screen is similar to the above but only has the first two entries under "Graphic Card Options"

The dkms front-end should be listed as Nvidia Display Settings in system>preferences or administration and looks like this:

I can find nothing like this listed in the menu system.

[Dragynn]

Then you are not using the Nvidia current driver, go into PCC and change to it, re-boot and you should be good. Adjust the Nvidia Display settings as desired.

[firefly]

Then you are not using the Nvidia current driver, go into PCC and change to it, re-boot and you should be good. Adjust the Nvidia Display settings as desired.

Same problem.  The flatscreen blanks and turns off on boot.  

On a hunch, I opened the Thinkpad while booting.  When the flatscreen went blank, the native Thinkpad screen came to life.  Played around with the settings and got it to recognize the external flatscreen by checking "duplicate monitor" settings.  I'm gonna reinstall the OS with the Thinkpad undocked and see what happens.

You know anything about kmail workings??  :-)  

[Dragynn]

Then you are not using the Nvidia current driver, go into PCC and change to it, re-boot and you should be good. Adjust the Nvidia Display settings as desired.

Same problem.  The flatscreen blanks and turns off on boot.  

On a hunch, I opened the Thinkpad while booting.  When the flatscreen went blank, the native Thinkpad screen came to life.  Played around with the settings and got it to recognize the external flatscreen by checking "duplicate monitor" settings.  I'm gonna reinstall the OS with the Thinkpad undocked and see what happens.

You know anything about kmail workings??  :-)  

So, you're running a laptop (Thinkpad) and had an external monitor attached?

Aww heck, that's it right there, I should have read your post closer, I run dual monitors, and when I do a fresh install and install drivers and re-boot, one goes black until I go into PCC and enable the second monitor and then Nvidia settings to setup X-screen and configure Twinview. It's usually the wrong one that goes black too for some reason.

Don't know a thing about kmail brother, I don't speak Klingon, you're probably gonna need fanboy fer that thar

[Timothy]

I had a similar problem with a Sony Vaio, worked with vesa and nv drivers.  Blank (black) screen with nvidia driver.

The problem was the nvidia driver failed to read the screen EDID information.  See here:  http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,68276.0.html

Strangely, the nvidia driver worked with a flat panel Sony Bravia TV.

Some help, maybe?