Salix 14.1 Firefox crashed xorg

[VAA]

I have installed Salix 14.1 on desktop computer with nVidia 7025. Default configuration work well. But when I installed and start mozilla-firefox then the xorg crashed:
the picture on the screen is as on old analog TV without synchronization, no reaction for keyboard.
The same situation for firefox and seamonkey of last wersion installed by gslapt.
I have tried old version of firefox:
- version firefox 17.0 crashed the same way,
- version firefox 12.0 (slackware 13.37} work well.

I tried to install nVidia driver from producer but not successfully.
Please, what else I can try to install more fresh firefox?

[gapan]

If it's not the driver, then it's definitely hardware problems. Install the proprietary driver and try again. Otherwise, find what's wrong with your hardware (run memtest, check your hard drive's health, stress-test the cpu etc).

[gaucho]

Hi, VAA,

Based on your description, it sounds to me like a problem with your Nvidia card. (I have an integrated Nvidia card, too, and I've experienced this behavior in Fedora when using the Firefox browser). I think that installing a proprietary Nvidia driver might solve your issue(s).

The Salix Wiki has instructions on how to install the Nvidia driver:

http://docs.salixos.org/wiki/How_to_Ins ... DIA_driver
"How to Install the proprietary NVIDIA driver."

The discussion thread below has links to some alternative methods of installing the proprietary driver:

http://forum.salixos.org/viewtopic.php? ... dia#p32724
"Re: Dark screen." 31 Dec. 2013.

It looks like the Nvidia driver you need for your GeForce 7025 nForce 630a can be downloaded from here. You will need the Legacy driver [304.xx] because your card is now considered to be a "legacy" product. (You might want to double-check my searching):

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html
"What's a legacy driver?"

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverRe ... 9826/en-us
(32-bit driver, Linux 304.88 [39 MB])

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverRe ... 9827/en-us
(64-bit driver, Linux 304.88 [68 MB])

HTH and Good Luck.

P.S.
I'll mention another possible workaround which you might consider trying, if you do not wish to install the proprietary Nvidia driver, but want to continue using the open-source Nouveau driver. (I tried this myself in Fedora 19's Xfce Spin; however, it did not work that well. This method also assumes that you can actually get Firefox to start without it causing a screen freeze/lockup -- which can pose a challenge ).

You could try turning off hardware acceleration in Firefox:

Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General tab > Browsing > "Use hardware acceleration when available"

If that fails, a last resort might be to try turning off Nouveau's acceleration option altogether .... (Caveat: The method below was suggested for a Fedora OS system; I don't know whether it would also be safe to use it in Salix OS. I recommend that you ask one of the Salix gurus, such as gapan, to confirm this before you try it):

Create a file named /etc/modprobe.d/noaccel.conf

It has only one line of content:

Code: Select all

options nouveau noaccel=1

[VAA]

Thanks to gaucho!
I have problem with my nVidia 7025 not first time and solved previous problems by installing of proprietary nVidia driver.
But now I can not install it.
What I do:
1. Download driver version 304.88
2. Installed kernel-source
2. Installed xf86-video-nouveau-blacklist
3. Reboot
4. Run as user
5. Start sudo mc (there is no root!)
6. Made driver installer executable and run
7. Answering questions until you get an error: Unable to build the nVidia kernel module
8. Look up /var/log/nvidia-installer.log but I can not see what is wrong...

[TracyTiger]

@VAA - Sorry to hijack your thread ... but it's Nvidia related.

@gaucho Your forum signature shows "Nvidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 integrated GPU". I'm setting up my first Salix system using the same video chipset in a Compaq computer using an M2N68-LA motherboard.

Which proprietary Nvidia Driver do you use for your set up?

The Nvidia site shows 304.119. I'm currently using 304.108 (64bit) after reading this LQ post ( http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... 175496942/ ) although the Nvidia chipset he references is not the same a ours. I had some trouble when using the 304.119 version, but I was juggling many variables at the time so the issue may not have been the driver.

I bring this up because if Erik_FL is correct about the Nvidia driver not being correctly referenced on the website, it's something we should be aware of. That is, some legacy drivers may not be correctly referenced on the web site (for 14.1).

Again sorry for the hijack but I thought information related to legacy Nvidia drivers may be useful to those of us with older Nvidia hardware.

I'm new here. If it's not appropriate to link to the Slackware forum at LQ please slap my wrist and let me know.

[gaucho]

@VAA,

I sincerely hope that I haven't supplied you with incorrect information. I apologize if I did; I promise that it was unintentional.

After searching more carefully on Nvidia's website (it is confusing ), it looks like the driver you need to download is ver. 304.1190. (Please read my comments to TracyTiger below).

Hopefully one of the experts (gapan, mimosa, laprjns, et al.) can provide some advice on how to successfully install the proprietary driver. I'm not clear what went wrong, or why, and I don't want to give you more bad advice. (It appears to me that you followed the correct steps).

@TracyTiger,

Yes, I have the same chipset as you, but mine is integrated into a MSI K9N6PGM2-V motherboard. I'm currently running Salix 14.0.1 Xfce (32-bit) and am using the open-source Nouveau driver, which is working fine -- even with Firefox 24.3.0 ESR (no freezes/hangs, like in Fedora).

Code: Select all

david[~]$ glxinfo | grep -i vendor
[ ... ]
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
OpenGL vendor string: nouveau

Code: Select all

david[~]$ glxinfo | grep renderer
[ ... ]
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on NV4C

This weekend, I downloaded the new 14.1 Xfce release (32-bit) and I plan to install it on a spare partition, but I'm not quite ready to do that. I will post back and provide some details after I finish.

About the dang-blasted Nvidia website: The "driver finder" is confusing. I did my initial search fairly quickly (while at work), but now that I can search more leisurely at home, I get different results depending on my selection criteria:

The Nvidia website instructs me to download ver. 325.15 (Linux 32-bit [27 MB]) after selecting
GeForce > GeForce 6 Series > Linux 32-bit > English (US)
[N.B.: I suspect -- but am not 100% certain -- that this is the current version of the driver, not the Legacy version].

However, when I begin by selecting
Legacy > nForce 4 Series > nForce 430/GeForce 6150SE > the only "Operating System" choice is Windows (different versions)!

If I use the "Beta and Older Drivers" link further down the webpage, I get these results:
ver. 304.1190 (released Jan. 23, 2014)
(I did not see this link when I first searched, and I believe that it is probably the correct link for the Legacy driver).

Here are two screenshots which I hope will clearly illustrate this:





I read the post by Erik_FL; he sounds knowledgeable but I wish he would've provided more details about why he thinks that the 304.1190 driver is the wrong choice. At this point, my instinct is to try installing 304.1190 in Salix 14.1 Xfce, and see what happens ... I will also double-check my Fedora 20 LXDE partition, where I have the proprietary Nvidia driver installed (and working fine), and report back what version number it is. < I checked; it's ver. 304.119 (32-bit). >

< Edit:
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. I'm posting this from the default Midori browser. I've downloaded the Nvidia 304.119 proprietary driver but will wait until tomorrow evening to try installing it. Otherwise, as tired as I am now, I'll just make careless mistakes ... >

[TracyTiger]

@VAA
Rather than I, others experienced in Salix should guide you through the steps in installing the nVidia driver. I was able to load the nVidia drivers a couple of times both in Salix 14.0.1 and Salix64 14.1 by following the instructions on the wiki that gaucho referenced. I may have not followed the instructions on the wiki exactly. For example in "sudo" distributions I typically use "sudo /bin/bash" to do my work as root rather then "sudo <cmd>". I don't know how sensitive the nVidia installation program is to environmental variables but it may make a difference.

I also read somewhere (probably on this forum) that it's possible that different versions of the kernel headers may be available in the repository so one should specify the version in slapt-get or at least check afterwards that the right version was downloaded. I wouldn't think was the case with the "new" release of Salix 14.1 but it wouldn't hurt to check which headers you actually installed.

Once you're able to successfully install the driver, if it's not working for you, you may want to try a different one. The versions that seem to be in play now for older hardware are 304.108 & 304.119, though the nVidia site lists others in the 304 series.

Until now, I hadn't used an nVidia chipset for several years so I haven't kept up with their driver issues. (for example I just realized I was capitalizing the word wrong) I have nothing against nVidia, it's just chance that different video hardware was used on the equipment I purchased/acquired the last few years. I do remember from the previous decade that when the newest nVidia driver failed to work that the fix was often to install the previous version.

@gaucho
My use of the nVidia site also yielded the 304.119 driver but I got there through the "UNIX Drivers" link just below the one you used. All nVidia roads seem to lead us to 304.119.

I'll post on LQ and ask Erik_FL why he thinks the 304.108 is needed for the 14.1 kernel.

[TracyTiger]

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.

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.

EDIT: My apology VAA. I really have hijacked your thread now. This isn't helping you solve your Firefox crashing X issue. I'll start my own thread if I want to continue this.

[VAA]

Sorry, but now I totally can not understand what version of driver I need?
lspci show:

Code: Select all

VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation C61 [GeForce 7025 / nForce 630a] (rev a2)

Searching driver on http://www.nvidia.com I select:

Code: Select all

Product Type: GeForce
Product Series: GeForce 7 Series
Operating System: Linux 32-bit
Language: English US

Мaybe I was wrong, but was prompted to download version 304.88.
Is it right? Or I need other Series?
P.S. I tried to download and run a version for the series 600. It says that version 304.xx needed for my card. So 304.88 is right. What is wrong?

[TracyTiger]

Sorry, but now I totally can not understand what version of driver I need?

The 304.119 version (probably).

------------------

My interpretation of the nVidia web site shows you need a 304 series (32bit) driver. gaucho supplied a link showing your hardware is supported by the 304.xx driver.

The next question is which version of the 304.xx driver?

gaucho initially thought you needed the 304.88 version but later changed that to your needing the 304.119 version.

@VAA,
I sincerely hope that I haven't supplied you with incorrect information. I apologize if I did; I promise that it was unintentional.

After searching more carefully on Nvidia's website (it is confusing ), it looks like the driver you need to download is ver. 304.1190.

I had noticed that in the LQ Slackware forum someone posted that the 304.108 version should be installed because of the kernel used in Salix 14.1. gaucho and I don't know if this is true. It is just another option to consider when choosing the version of the driver.

I suggest following gaucho's advice and installing the 304.119 first and see if that works. If it doesn't then switch to the 304.108 version. The 32bit version can be found here http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... 04.108.run.

Remember, it is only a guess that your Firefox problem is a video driver problem.

@gaucho - I Don't mean to interfere with your assistance of VAA. But I was still awake so thought I would respond.