Debian nvidia video problem

[Giles Orr]

On 11 February 2010 20:12, Giles Orr <gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 11 February 2010 10:57, Lennart Sorensen
> <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 07:35:33AM -0500, Giles Orr wrote:
>>> I'm running a Debian testing system on my main desktop.  Up until a
>>> couple days ago it was running three monitors on two video cards (one
>>> PCI-E and one PCI, both Nvidia 6200) on kernel 2.6.30-1-amd64 with the
>>> nvidia drivers.  I have the latest nvidia-glx, module-assistant,
>>> nvidia-kernel-common, and the headers for all installed kernels.
>>> After an upgrade to kernel 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 I ran "m-a clean, a-i -t
>>> nvidia -l 2.6.32-trunk-amd64" as I had with the previous kernel.  It
>>> built without any obvious errors, but an attempt to run X gives this:
>>>
>>> (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
>>> dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so: undefined symbol:
>>> resVgaShared
>>> (EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so
>>> (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (loader failed, 7)
>>> (EE) No drivers available.
>>>
>>> Fatal server error:
>>> no screens found
>>>
>>> All attempts to build the module for other kernels have given the same
>>> results: even reverting to the 2.6.30-1 kernel, and despite the fact
>>> that "m-a ..." seems to simply unpack the previously built module,
>>> which should be identical and should work?
>>>
>>> Am I missing a step?  Or has something else recently upgraded in
>>> Debian messed up my system?  Google hasn't helped much: references to
>>> the errors I'm seeing are for Fedora or Arch three years ago.
>>> Attempts to revert to the "nv" driver (even using only a single
>>> screen) get me bizarre colour bars on the screen, so I'm currently
>>> working on a laptop.
>>
>> What does this give:
>>
>> dpkg -l |grep nvidia
>>
>> I suspect you updated the nvidia-kernel-source, compiled the module and
>> installed it, but did not then finish the upgrade to get a new matching
>> nvidia-glx.
>>
>> Of course since testing doesn't yet have ndidia packages in it, you will
>> have to get those from unstable.
>
> I had the nvidia-glx and nvidia-kernel-source packages v185.18.36-2 -
> since testing is still at 173.14.09-5 and unstable is now at 190.53-2,
> I had clearly downloaded unstable a while ago.  So I fetched those two
> packages from unstable and installed them.  Then built the module
> against 2.6.32-trunk.  startx brought up all three screens ... but
> very slowly, and shortly thereafter locked up solid.  This is
> repeatable: sometimes I can get to a console, sometimes not.  The OS
> is still available, so I ssh in and reboot - as killing X doesn't seem
> to do the trick.
>
> Not quite sure where to go from here ...  Should I be grabbing the
> unstable kernel, or would that only make things worse?  Compile
> against one of the 2.6.30 kernels?  Should I cut back to just one
> screen?
>
> Here are the error lines (nothing but, grabbed with grep) from the Xorg.0.log:
>
> (EE) ioctl EVIOCGNAME failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
> (EE) PreInit returned NULL for ""Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button Mouse
> with IntelliEye(TM)""
> (EE) ioctl EVIOCGNAME failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
> (EE) PreInit returned NULL for ""Macintosh mouse button emulation""

This morning the computer came up chunks and blocks instead of a BIOS
screen at power-up.

After I removed the second hard drive and both the dual head (but
air-cooled) Nvidia cards, not only does the computer seem to be fine,
but sound, which has been deceased for a couple weeks now, has
returned.

My guess is that the Dell power supply ("Lite-on, 350w") is aging and
was probably borderline for the stuff I'd put in the case.  Does that
sound reasonable?  If so, I should buy a new power supply: what
wattage would you recommend putting in there (two Nvidia cards, two
hard drives, C2Q 2400MHz)?  What make?

Thanks for the help with X: it's probably fixed, but it'll be another
couple days before I'm in a position to check.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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