nasty problem after install new video card

[Jonathan Berry]

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 17:10:15 +0100, Alexander Volovics <awol at home.nl> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 09:25:52AM -0600, Kenny Gow wrote:
> > Alexander Volovics wrote:
> > >I replaced the video card in an AMD64 pc with FC3-x86_64 with
> > >a new card (nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 replaced by a nVIDIA GeForce
> > >FX5700 LE) and used kudzu to remove the old adapter and install
> > >the new. (Kudzu reacted correctly at boot).
> > >However now 'startx' either remains at the black screen or progresses
> > >to the blue Gnome startup background (on which normally the Fedora splash
> > >screen appears with the changing icons before you see the panel, etc.)
> > >but then no Gnome desktop.
> 
> > I think that the FC3 nv driver does not support newer nvidia cards.
> > I have a 5700 Ultra card and the FC3 install put the nv driver into
> > xorg.conf but it doesn't work--won't start X. So I booted into run
> > level three to do the post-install configuration. To get X windows
> > I initially changed from the "nv" driver to the "vesa" driver. But
> > I quickly installed the nvidia driver to get the full 3D capabilities.
> 
> > Everything works fine with the nvidia driver.
> 
> If you read the Xorg.0.log the "nv" driver should support all nVidia
> cards up to FX5800. I don't like using the "nvidia" driver, too much
> trouble and I don't need 3D.

Okay, this is driving me crazy.  Why in the world did you buy another
card if you are not going to really use it?  The FX5700 LE is a much
better 3D card than the 5200, but I doubt your performance will be
much better with the nv driver.  3D is not that much trouble: download
a file, init 3, sh NVIDIA..., vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf, change "nv" to
"nvidia", cp the nvidia devices for udev, init 5.  If it works for
you, I'd say it would take less time than you have spent debugging so
far.  Sure you have to reinstall for each kernel update, but that only
takes the init 3, sh NVIDIA..., and init 5.  And livna and ATrpms have
rpm packages too.  I think it would be at least worth it to see if
worked.

> I think the problem I ran into has to do with a combination of
> mobo(arch), digital/analog cable, video adapter and "nv" driver.
> 
> I tried the GeForce FX5700LE (AGP8) in an Intel mobo with AGP4 using
> the digital cable. To my surprise 'startx' indeed started X using the
> "nv" driver. But the desktop was unusable because everything was fuzzy.
> Using the analog cable with this same PC I got a quite good image.
> 
> On trying the FX5700LE with an analog cable with the MSI AMD64 mobo
> startx again worked and I got a reasonable, but not perfect image.

Perhaps the nv driver has trouble with the DVI output.  What do you
mean by "not perfect"?  Do you get artifacts, or what is going on?

> The "nv" driver worked quite well with a FX5200 in both the Intel
> and MSI AMD64 mobo PC's using the digital and analog cables.
> 
> Maybe it has something to do with the video card manufacturars:
> FX5200 is from AOpen and the FX5700LE from XFX.

It shouldn't, or at least I would doubt it.  The drivers are for the
chipset, and the manufacturers don't mess with that.  It is more
likely an interaction with your motherboard, I would guess since it
works on another.  Maybe you have some subtle settings for AGP that it
doesn't like.  You might try poking around in the BIOS some
(carefully).

> Alexander

Jonathan