openbox on older computer ?

[melodie]

Well granted you have the experience...but when nouvaeou-firmware  is not installed ?
Let me have a clear crack at it, as if it were my own machine, later.

I had the experience back 2 years ago when nouveau was still experimental and I didn't try it. I had deep freezes at the start of the machine, and searched the cause and the fix during several months, half a year I think. That has been a painful experience, and I solved it only when some people who had experienced it before told me how they fixed it themselves. I think there also may exist some options which can be added in xorg.conf when it is a nvidia driver -- non free -- which is installed. I don't remember quite well just now.

[Muppet]

Hi,

this morning it looks like it is going more stable as ever before. (knock,knock on wood)........

since i have changed the driver from nouveau into nv it is liking this more i think. no freezes so far.

will update how it works out during the day.

Willem

[Muppet]

nope, not over yet  

if i have opened the program 'terminal' and type 'htop' , program is opened

is see, cpu/mem/swp on the left side above. memory is very low, sometimes 100 from 1009 available memory.
swap is 0, but sometimes the cpu goes to 100%, this is when a new page is loaded in midori, but i guess that is normal.

when i have closed all the programs and watch only htop, i see sometimes that the cpu rockets to 100%.

when i watch all the command lines in htop is see under the column 'ni' that all is '0' , except for the line;

/sbin/udevd -d

i have this line 3 times and they all have negative numbers, like -4 and -2 and -2
should these lines have negative numbers ?

Edit; when i was typing this, htop was already stopped working, uptime 15.30minutes. i could still type here but had to make another hard reset. all was stalled. something very curious..............
Willem

[Muppet]

Hi,

Muppet again..............

i have done something naughty, i have installed another linuxdistro to see what videocard was detected.
the info i got is;

################### PC INFORMATION - graphics #####################
#################### Press CTRL  + C to exit ######################

Graphics:  Card: nVidia NV5 [RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro] X.Org 1.11.1 Res: 1024x768@0.0hz
           GLX Renderer Software Rasterizer GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 7.11

i noticed there is an addition of GLX............

i haven't seen this before in pclos info. could this be the addition we are looking for perhaps ?

greetings,

Willem

[melodie]

i noticed there is an addition of GLX............

i haven't seen this before in pclos info. could this be the addition we are looking for perhaps ?

greetings,

Willem

No, in Openbox full and Openbox Bonsai it is installed. What you must do is add "noapic nolapic" at the end of the kernel line : this is the main point. Or try just "noapic", and see how it goes before adding the second option. Then to get your card work to it's full capacity, install the one nvidia graphic driver as I explained just above.

[Yankee]

Misc
Module: ‎Card:NVIDIA RIVA TNT to GeForce 2

is this all looking as it should be ?

It looks perfect.   From that same screen click "run config tool", then
click "graphic card", then open the Nvidia section.   After installing the
x11-driver-video-nvidia96xx package from Synaptic there should be one
and hopefully two choices for GeForce 2.   Try them all as one may work better.

Have a good one.


edit: if you go with RIVA and GeForce 2 options you should be OK, but they
may mess up the video requiring a quick reinstall.   But then again they may work
perfectly all around.   Probably worth one try, you'll have to decide.   If so
the do-vesa in Synaptic can be used in the console at reboot.

[Muppet]

Hi,

i will test several settings and come back in a few days how it is going.......

regards,

Willem

[Muppet]

hello,

i have installed the driver package x11-driver-video-nvidia96xx from synaptic. however i do not see a choice for Geforce2 in the menulist when i want to configure the videocard.

i have seen that i should configure it in XFdrake. i have opened this program but also there i could not find it.

do i overlook something perhaps ?

Willem

[melodie]

Hi Muppet.

1) Have you deactivated **apic** and **lapic** ?

If not, type in console:
gksu <your_preferred_editor> /boot/grub/menu.lst and add "noapic nolapic" -- without the quotes -- at the end of the line which starts with "kernel"
 
2) For the Video card, reinstall task-X11, then in PCC > Hardware > Configure Video Card > Graphic Card > Nvidia (click on the arrow to expand) > Riva TNT to Geforce2.

[Muppet]

Hello Melodie,

i have added in the /boot/grub/menu.lst at the end of the kernelline 'noapic'and 'nolapic'

then i did a removal in synaptic for task-x11 and a reboot.
then i did a reinstall in synaptic for task-x11 and a reboot.

then i did go to pcc- configure your videocard- made selection Riva TNT to Geforce2

i noticed that as driver 'nouveau' is installed when i made that selection as above mentioned . is this correct ? even if i have installed the package x11-driver-video-nvidia96xx ?

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
    BoardName "NVIDIA RIVA TNT to GeForce 2"
    Driver "nouveau"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Willem

[melodie]

Hi,

I didn't tell you to reboot after you install task-X11, but to configure the Nvidia section in PCC. Try to get rid of "nouveau" and have "nvidia" instead. If needed, edit the xorg.conf file by hand.

Regards,
Mélodie

[Muppet]

hello,

did a new install for openbox bonsai. then edit the boot/grub/menu.lst with ' noapic nolapic '

then did a install for x11-driver-video-nvidia96xx in synaptic. did see that x11-driver-video-nouveau was not installed at that time in synaptic.

then i did go to PCC and configured the card by choosing Riva TNT to Geforce2. i did see that it was getting the filelist and did the install.

then i did go to the file ect/X11/xorg.conf and the output was again;
Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
    BoardName "NVIDIA RIVA TNT to GeForce 2"
    Driver "nouveau"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

so by making the choice for RNT2 to Geforce2 it automaticly installs the nouveau driver and ignores the 96xx package.......

i did make change the Driver 'nouveau' into ' nvidia ' but after rebooting got the message;

The proprietary driver for your graphic card can not be found.the system is now using the free software driver (nouveau)

reason; the proprietary kernel driver was not found for 'nvidia' x.org driver

it seems very persistant and have no appetite for nvidia so it seems..........

Willem

[melodie]

Hi,

I also had to struggle to get rid of nouveau in the Dell P4. I suggest you install all versions of nvidia drivers available in Synaptic, remove x11-driver-video-nouveau, reconfigure the driver in PCC, then reboot.

If this does not work the right way reboot once more and come back say how it goes. I have a few more ideas, but theses steps should be done first (keep the noapic nolapic, in the kernel line, of course !)

[Yankee]

but theses steps should be done first (keep the noapic nolapic, in the kernel line, of course !)

 but theses steps should be done first=but these steps... (remember ?)

I wonder if anything is in Synaptic to replace "noapic nolapic"
when you've finally got Muppet running stable without them
and whichever nvidia graphics card package is better.

Those do provide some vital services (noapic nolapic).  Have to take a look later
for alternate thermal controls or whatever they do, etc..    Right  ?
Don't have all day to research that just some moral support !

Sounds like just a step or 2 from a complete solution then.

Nice to get an old computer working another 5 or 10 years anyway.
Was probably expensive way back then.

Have a good one.

[Hootiegibbon]

hello,

did a new install for openbox bonsai. then edit the boot/grub/menu.lst with ' noapic nolapic '

then did a install for x11-driver-video-nvidia96xx in synaptic. did see that x11-driver-video-nouveau was not installed at that time in synaptic.

then i did go to PCC and configured the card by choosing Riva TNT to Geforce2. i did see that it was getting the filelist and did the install.

then i did go to the file ect/X11/xorg.conf and the output was again;
Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
    BoardName "NVIDIA RIVA TNT to GeForce 2"
    Driver "nouveau"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

so by making the choice for RNT2 to Geforce2 it automaticly installs the nouveau driver and ignores the 96xx package.......

i did make change the Driver 'nouveau' into ' nvidia ' but after rebooting got the message;

The proprietary driver for your graphic card can not be found.the system is now using the free software driver (nouveau)

reason; the proprietary kernel driver was not found for 'nvidia' x.org driver

it seems very persistant and have no appetite for nvidia so it seems..........

Willem

Willem,

The age of your nvidia card makes it incompatible with the proprietary xserver, so it switches you to the "free" xserver (nouveau), on my older machines with nvidia graphics cards I never was able to get really good results with that xserver.

I would try selecting (under the xorg section of the xserver selection list) the nv xserver, you may find it better - however 'nv' lacks 3d acceleration,  another option to try is )(with either nvidia, or nouveau) is to add the following line to xorg.conf

Option "UseFBDev" "True"

this line forces the use of the LinuxFramebuffer device, of which most but not all graphics cards can access.

I would suggest using PCC>hardware>graphics to set up the nv xserver first as an alternative to nouveau.

Jase