6.04B4 System Freezes
Posts: 93
Fresh install on Athlon XP, 1GB, older Nvidia graphics; everything seemed fine.
Installed the Legacy Nvidia driver, using Mepis Assistant. Rebooted, fired up Tux Racer (or whatever it's called now) as a test. Excellent.
Went to set static IP with Mepis Network Assistant, when window appears, before it finishes drawing the window, it freezes. Mouse can move around but does nothing. Zero keyboard.
Rebooted and tried a bunch of programs. Seems like most things work fine, like Gimp, Synaptic, Klamav, etc. The Mepis assistants crash (the ones that need root) and the kInfoCenter.
I suppose the Windoze answer would be "don't upgrade your Nvidia" but the difference in performance between Vesa and the Nvidia driver is HUGE. Is there any way to fix this?
John
Are you using psi express card?
Posts: 2280
If so there is a known problem with the nvidia driver and the 64bit systems. Cant remember the particulars now & dont know if a fix has been found.
Google your card version & im sure you can find it if that applies to you. If youre not using one of those i would run memtest at the grub splash screen for a couple hours or all night long at bed time to eliminate that possibility. You are basically on a search mission so process of elimination applies. Good luck!
jim
nvidia drivers
Posts: 93
Ok, I'll try the new driver. From past experience on earlier Mepis's, I don't think it will work...but who knows.
I was just trying to supply some feedback--seemed like the consistent pattern (ie most programs work fine and a few specific ones crash) might make it easy to track down the bug.
Also, sorry about posting in the 64 bit area initially--don't know how that happened because I WAS aware of the distinction. Must have had one of those brain blackouts.
system freeze
Posts: 93
Could you try the new nvidia driver?
Tried it, just got black screen, which makes sense because the graphics card is probably 6 years old.
Don't feel too bad
Posts: 110
I'm fighting the same problem with an FX5200 card. I'm considering coping some of the things out of the X11 on a working 32 bit Mepis 6.0 into the X11 conf file in the 64 bit and see if that works. It probably won't work and hopefully at worst it won't break any hardware. LOL
Hey!
Posts: 110
I just did the update that Warren mentioned, X11 7.1 and Nvidia 1.0.0746 and it seems to have fixed the problems.
There's now an upgrade in
Posts: 4077
There's now an upgrade in dev pool, that would most likely solve the problem, however I don't think it's very easy to do -- it needs a little bit of knowledge with apt-get and stuff (not recommended to newbies)
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It wasn't too hard
Posts: 110
On the first go round synaptic didn't pick up all the upgrades when I marked them so I let it do the first round. Then I went through and and manually marked the rest of the upgrades and let it do those. Then I used the Mepis assistant to download and install the Nvidia driver and rebooted, started synaptic and noticed that there was a broken package so I reinstalled that and all seems to be well.
Nvidia freezes
Posts: 93
There's now an upgrade in dev pool, that would most likely solve the problem, however I don't think it's very easy to do -- it needs a little bit of knowledge with apt-get and stuff (not recommended to newbies)
Gee, I think I can handle an apt-get. However, here's some other feedback:
a) I have video going to an LCD with DVI input, so normally I don't adjust anything and the picture is properly located on the monitor. I did notice at least once during messing with 6.04B4 BEFORE changing the video driver, that the display was about 1/2 inch UP on the monitor. Couldn't see the top of the display. That's AS INSTALLED (nv driver, right?), before upgrading.
b) I just installed 6.0 release version and it updates to nvidia legacy without problems for me.
John
pci express
Posts: 93
Jim, thanks, but it's not PCI express. I originally posted to the 64bit forum, in error. Sorry about that.
John
Quote:Gee, I think I can
Posts: 4077
Gee, I think I can handle an apt-get.
John, I didn't mean it that way... 
But there are many newbies who read this forum and might be tempted to try it out.
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don't know if I mentioned
Posts: 2299
don't know if I mentioned this to you in another post. Try editing xorg.conf, add to device section:
"Option" "NvAGP" "0"
Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question
fwiw - using a 5200 myself -
Posts: 9
fwiw - using a 5200 myself - this version of mepis is the first that the 'new' nvidia driver has worked for me - always had to use the legacy. just about to do the latest updates so we'll see if it survives that
atb
chris
update
Posts: 9
done the upgrades to the newer xorg and nvidia stuff - went smoother than a babys backside- out of the 19 updates available in synaptic about 6 had to be manually upgraded, ie forcing the upgrade rather than just 'mark all upgrades' - followed the asvice of reverting back to 'nv' first tho' - different nvidia splash screen on bootup - all is sweet, damn i just love mepis!!
atb
chris
upgraded mine, too
Posts: 1109
I just upgraded my 6.0-4 Beta 4 partition to the newer Nvidia Driver.
Just before that, I had installed the nvidia-settings package and that appeared to break my x (installed with no errors -- but system was broke at bootup with no x, startx returning errors).
So, I booted into a 6.0-4 Beta 4 CD and used the Mepis X-Windows assistant to reinstall x.
Then, I booted back into the hard disk install OK and used it again to select NVidia. It then downloaded and installed the newer Nvidia Drivers.
The new Nvidia Driver is working fine with my FX5200. I also see a new Nvidia splash screen at bootup (different compared to the older one).
In addition, the nvidia-settings utility (that appeared to break my x install) is working fine with the new nvidia driver, too. It was tough to find in menus. It got buried under KMenu>All Applications>Browse All Apps>Tools>nvidia-settings. But, it works just fine.
Jim C.
Could you try the new nvidia
Posts: 4077
Could you try the new nvidia driver?
Also, this is for everybody: please pay attention, Beta repository goes though some big changes and it's not a good idea to upgrade (unless you do want to find bugs in order to report them to ) This is not for people who lack experience (those should use stable 6.0, if you already instastalled Beta you can comment out the Mepis dev repo).
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