Salix Forums

Solved
Thanks to all, thanks to TracyTiger who gave me direct link to download version 304.108.
This version installed and work.
The problem was that http://www.nvidia.com give me only 304.88 as latest but it is to old for salix 14.1

VAA wrote:Solved
Thanks to all, thanks to TracyTiger who gave me direct link to download version 304.108.
This version installed and work.
The problem was that http://www.nvidia.com give me only 304.88 as latest but it is to old for salix 14.1

Hi, VAA,
I'm glad to hear that you were able to determine the correct version of the driver, install it and get your problem sorted out. I apologize again if my advice was confusing. (I've been sick the past couple of days and I think my brain is running with less than a full tank of gas ... to badly mix metaphors).

Kudos to TracyTiger, who did a great job of clarifying things.

TracyTiger wrote:

gaucho wrote:I just finished installing 14.1 (32-bit) on my test partitions [a root partition of 12 GB, and a /home of 25 GB]. It looks very nice, and it booted up perfectly using Nouveau.

When you type "lspci -v" as root on your system when using nouveau what driver does it show running for your VGA device.

When I first installed Salix64 14.1 my system was missing the usual "Kernel driver in use:" line and instead just showed
"Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau". I may or may not have been using nomodeset in the kernel at the time.

Hi, TracyTiger,

First off, congratulations and thank you for helping VAA. You did an excellent job -- certainly better than I was doing. I see now that you were awake because you're in the Pacific Time Zone.

To answer your question about "lspci -v", here's what the relevant output looks like on my freshly installed 14.1 (32-bit) system:
I've downloaded both the 304.119 and 304.108 Nvidia drivers. Later today, I'll carefully read through the installation instructions and try to install (one or both). I will post again to report the results of my experiment.

TracyTiger wrote:Should the "lspci -v" output show the Kernel driver as nouveau? I've not used nVidia for a while and never used the nouveau driver before so I don't know what should display.

I'm asking because I'd like this system to run as close to default as possible but I've had video problems. Most of the problems have been because of the 19" Coby TV being used as a display on this system. I may make another attempt to get the display to work good enough with the nouveau driver.

Sorry, but I don't know the answer to that one. For my desktop monitor, I'm using a 20" HP 2010i LCD which has been a reliable performer with every distro I've tried.
(http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=HP2010I)

Although I'm not positive, based on my regular use of Fedora (which usually packages the latest kernels) and regular perusal of the Fedora User Forum, I suspect that the video problems are due to some sort of new kernel -- newer Nouveau incompatibility or conflict with these older integrated Nvidia GPUs (especially where Firefox is concerned). Multiple users have reported this, and IIRC, someone (who sounded very knowledgeable) commented that the incompatibilities began cropping up more frequently as of kernel 3.6x [?]. I've tried the workarounds / kludges I mentioned previously, but they didn't entirely solve the problem.

The best solution is to install the proprietary Nvidia driver; in our case, the 304xx "legacy branch" support will supposedly last until the end of 2017. After that, I have no idea how difficult it will be to keep using this particular chipset ... I try to support and use open-source solutions whenever possible; I also respect the work being done by the Nouveau developers, but there are times when one has little realistic choice but to use a proprietary product.

From my personal experience with Fedora 19 Xfce Spin, the freezes / hangs with Firefox were so frequent that I reluctantly switched over to using Google Chrome, with Midori as a backup browser. (Midori is maturing, but still seems to have problems with certain websites). I'm now using the Fedora 20 LXDE Spin; to be honest, I haven't even installed Firefox on it.

(Apologies for the off-topic rambling).

gaucho wrote:

Code: Select all

00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 < snip >
	Kernel driver in use: nouveau
	Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau

What your system displayed is what I expected to see on my system (but didn't). That is, the "Kernel driver in use: nouveau" line.

I only installed the 64 bit version of 14.1. In a few days I'll try the 32 bit version of Salix 14.1 and see what I get. I don't expect a difference however.

The fact that you can run the default installation with the nouveau driver gives me some encouragement since I have the same nVidia hardware version as you.

I'll also test it with a different monitor. I suspect my main problem is the Coby TV being used as a monitor. It returns EDID values that the nVidia hardware says is a 24" model when it's really a 19" model. When I connected a "real" 19" computer monitor into the system with 14.0.1 installed things worked much better.

--------------------
In the Slackware forum Erik_FL responded and clarified that it was the 304.88 version that wouldn't build. The same experience that VAA had in this thread. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... 175496942/


This has been an interesting experience, exploring Salix when trying to put together an older no-cost computer system for a friend.

gaucho wrote: I've downloaded both the 304.119 and 304.108 Nvidia drivers. Later today, I'll carefully read through the installation instructions and try to install (one or both). I will post again to report the results of my experiment.

Quick update: I managed to successfully install the Nvidia 304.119 driver on my 14.1 (32-bit) system. The relevant "lspci -v" now shows:
And here's a screenshot of the "NVIDIA X Server Settings":



It seems to be working fine thus far, but I think it will take some time to tell for sure. (Now I'm off to see if I can get a doctor's appointment at the night clinic).

< Edit:
I installed Mozilla Firefox (24.3.0 ESR) and it has been performing well with the proprietary Nvidia driver -- no freezes or hangs last night, or today. >