<Solved> i915 module fatal error - no such device. nvidia driver problems..

[AS]

1) First I tried to remove my new Graphics card, reverting to the onboard one. I booted up and PCLinuxOS started to boot. In verbose mode I could read all kinds of info about things loading up.... and then the monitor goes absolutely blank and disconnects. There is absolutely nothing on the monitor, and trying typing blind - assuming a text mode log in - I tried root>password>reboot etc but nothing happened. Had to hit the reset button...
Watched the screen on reboot and exactly the same happened. Clearly, my onboard graphics card now refuses to work, as does my new one.

After removing the nvidia card, did you run again XFdrake ?

If not, remove the nvidia again, restart the machine at runlevel 3 (at grub screen press F3 for options and add a 3 on kernel options line),
login in a text console, run XFdrake, setup the Intel video card, when done reboot. (shutdown -r now).

AS

[CJ]

This is such a long shot, but...
What happens if you boot from a live CD, does the DE show up as before?
Reason I ask... didn't someone once have an issue with Windows interfering with a specific cards firmware?
As I said, long shot...

Cheers!
CJ

[t20racerman]

After removing the nvidia card, did you run again XFdrake ?
If not, remove the nvidia again, restart the machine at runlevel 3 (at grub screen press F3 for options and add a 3 on kernel options line),
login in a text console, run XFdrake, setup the Intel video card, when done reboot. (shutdown -r now).

AS

Hey thanks so much - we've had some progress! I'm typing this in Firefox in PCLinuxOS... yay!  

However, I now have a 'new' graphics card lying uselessly on my bench, along with a large flat screen monitor that has a non vga input and can't be used with the onboard graphics. I'm back to a small monitor with low spec graphics.  

So, now I can log back on and use synaptic and other tools - how do I get this Nvidia GeForce Gt220 going again, just as it did perfectly before the update?

[Old-Polack]

t20racerman:

As suggested to Crow, and worked for him, do you have more than one kernel installed? If so, try to boot to another kernel. Any other kernel should already have the 260.19.44 driver module compiled, so if it worked before, should still work now.

Sadly no, this is quite a fresh install and I don't have any other options.

Put the nVidia card back in. If on reboot, you again get the VT login, try installing a different kernel using apt-get, while logged in as root.

[root@localhost ~]# apt-get update                                 <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# apt-get install kernel-2.6.37.4-pclos1.bfs                         <Enter>

On reboot again, dkms should then build the nvidia 260.19.44 module for the new kernel. You may have to run XFdrake yet again, to select first the proper monitor, then the nvidia card and the resolution. If it asks whether you want to use the proprietary drive say yes, then once again reboot.

Post your results.

[t20racerman]

Can I install a different kernel with synaptic whilst logged on now, in preparation for refitting my card, or does the card need to be 'in place' when I do this?

[Old-Polack]

Can I install a different kernel with synaptic whilst logged on now, in preparation for refitting my card, or does the card need to be 'in place' when I do this?

The point is to install the kernel after the hardware is as you actually want it. The nvidia card would need to already be installed when any involved hardware scans take place.

[t20racerman]

The point is to install the kernel after the hardware is as you actually want it. The nvidia card would need to already be installed when any involved hardware scans take place.

OK, thought that might be the case - thanks. It is getting late here in the UK and I'm slowly falling asleep.... I'll do this tomorrow and post back then as I'll be a lot fresher. Thanks fro everyone's help - I'll be back!

[t20racerman]

Put the nVidia card back in. If on reboot, you again get the VT login, try installing a different kernel using apt-get, while logged in as root.

[root@localhost ~]# apt-get update                                 <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# apt-get install kernel-2.6.37.4-pclos1.bfs                         <Enter>

On reboot again, dkms should then build the nvidia 260.19.44 module for the new kernel. You may have to run XFdrake yet again, to select first the proper monitor, then the nvidia card and the resolution. If it asks whether you want to use the proprietary drive say yes, then once again reboot.

Post your results.

OK, did as asked.
 - refitted Graphics card
 - booted up and again got text mode
 - then:

[root@localhost ~]# apt-get update                                 <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# apt-get install kernel-2.6.38.4-pclos1.bfs                         <Enter>

(NB I was already usng the kernel in your example, so loaded the above one instead.)

Then rebooted with new kernel... and again in text mode. However, lots of messages on boot about kernel modules being loaded including:
nvidia 260.19.44 module, nvidia 173 (173.14.28-1pclos2010) and nvidia 96xx (96.43.19-1pclos)
After all the messages it booted into text mode!

Logged on as root, ran XFdrake and chose the correct options. It told me it was using driver 'nvidia' but DIDN'T' ask me if I wanted to use a proprietary driver (I'll try again to see if I can get it to ask by changing some things..)

I then rebooted, and it went back to text mode... :-(
No messages now about i915 module and 'DRM can't work with Intel AGP module', but no graphics either.

I did get a message I've seen before though that might be relevant. It said:

using 'etc/ nvidia-current/ld.so.conf' to provide 'gl_conf'
FAILED

I'm really puzzled at all this - the card worked beautifully last week.. 

[Old-Polack]

From a terminal:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf |grep Driver

Post your results.

[t20racerman]

From a terminal:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf |grep Driver

Post your results.

From a terminal... I can't do anything OTHER than text mode! 

Anyway, results:
'nvidia'

I then tried XFdrake and this time chose the proprietary driver. Then rebooted and guess what.... text mode boot up only.
Once again did:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf |grep Driver

And got same result - 'nvidia'.

[Old-Polack]

From a terminal:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf |grep Driver

Post your results.

If xorg.conf shows the correct Nvidia driver which I doubt is correct, how about having him blacklist the i915 driver to prevent it from getting loaded and also check modprobe files to see if there is a agp driver getting loaded for the now defunct i915 driver.

Those errors don't show now, with this kernel, so I suspect they were included as part of the former /etc/X11/xorg.conf.. The error was that the module did not exist on the path searched. With the new kernel's devel package, the /lib/modules/2.6.38.4-pclos1.bfs would seem to either contain the modules sought, so if they are still being called for, are being loaded without issue, or they are already no longer being called for..

No messages now about i915 module and 'DRM can't work with Intel AGP module', but no graphics either.

t20racerman:

From the terminal:

$ startx

Post any error messages, exactly as shown. Unfortunately you will have to take notes by hand and type them out, unless you have a digital camera and can take a shot of the screen.

[t20racerman]

Phew - glad I have a digital camera to hand....

http://www.t20suzuki.com//cz/P5062741.JPG

Screen pic link above

[Old-Polack]

Phew - glad I have a digital camera to hand....

http://www.t20suzuki.com//cz/P5062741.JPG

Screen pic link above

OK

Now:

# less /etc/X11/xorg.conf

You should be able to scroll the screen with the PageUp/PageDown keys to take as many shots as needed to post the whole thing. Mine would only take two shots, with a lot of overlap

[AS]

"could not open device file /dev/nvidia0"
The above error suggest something is broken before, at kernel/modules level.  t20racerman, please try the following command:

lsmod | grep nvidia

(lsmod = LSMOD lowercase)

[Old-Polack]

"could not open device file /dev/nvidia0"
The above error suggest something is broken before, at kernel/modules level.  t20racerman, please try the following command:

lsmod | grep nvidia

(lsmod = LSMOD lowercase)

Could be filesystem corruption, as it notes an I/O error when trying to access the device node. An fsck -f on the partition couldn't hurt.