Module rivafb

[Jonathan Berry]

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 13:45:42 +0100, Helge Tore Hoeyland
<helgetore.hoeyland at c2i.net> wrote:
> on den 16.03.2005 Klokka 15:54 (-0500) skreiv Scot L. Harris:
> > On Wed, 2005-03-16 at 13:21, Jochen Schmitt wrote:
> > > On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 10:15:50 -0500, you wrote:
> > >
> > > >I am not clear though what circumstance requires the rivafb module?
> > >
> > > I think, that rivafb was developed as a frame buffer device for
> > > aloder NVidia graphics cards, which was brande as RIVA.
> > >
> > > Best Regards:
> > >
> > > Jochen Schmitt
> >
> > Thanks for the clarification.  So as long as you don't have one of these
> > older cards then running the Nvidia driver appears to be OK.
> 
> But is it not the clue here that my maskine having trouble with two
> drivers consistant, and not knowing who to choose for the kernel? And
> the fact that my kernel has "rivafb" built as a static part of it and
> not a module. That would make a conflikt when the two at the same time
> is running and trying to conekt to my card, a NVidia GeForce 2 GTS, as
> whould be when "rivafb" is the old kernelpart to suport my kard, and I
> am forcing my pc to use the new "nvidia" module.
> 
> I am still asking for anyone knowing a way to get my "rivafb" part of my
> kernel out of there, when not being a module, and still conserve the
> rest of my kernel as it is? Is there any possibilities doing this under
> the installation? My system is preatie fresh and a reinstalation is
> considered.
> 
> I whant to thank all taking part in this topic.

If you are running a pre-built Fedora kernel, then rivafb *is* built
as a module.  If this is the case, it should not be loaded, and if it
is not loaded, then it won't conflict.  If it is being loaded for some
reason, then you have configured something to do it (I'm not sure what
you can do to load this, perhaps putting "vga=..." on the GRUB command
line).  If you issue the command "rmmod rivafb" as root and it gives
you an error, that means the module was not loaded, which is the error
you mention in your first email.  You should not have a problem (with
the rivafb module) if this is the case.
If you have re-compiled your kernel (you will know if you have done
this) and included rivafb statically in the kernel, then you will have
to recompile it, changing your config file to not build rivafb
(probably safest if you want to use nVidia's module), or build it as a
module.  You cannot remove something statically compiled in the kernel
without recompiling (...well, at least not easily and safely :)).  You
do not need to re-install FC3.

One thing you should probably do is remove the words "rhgb quiet" from
your GRUB command line.  Look around and there should be plenty of
info about doing this.  Also, you have to install the nVidia drivers
for the kernel you want to run.  So if you installed them while
running a previous kernel, you need to reinstall.  You can use the
installer from nVidia or the packages from one of the repos around.

Jonathan