[NTLUG:Discuss] "nvidia" vs "nv"drivers

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 20:19, Terry Henderson wrote:
> BS> What kernel?  What card?  What chipset?  What mainboard?
> 2.4.20-24.9

Don't forget to update to "Legacy."  ;-p

> NV18 [GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x] (rev a4)
> Biostar MV7VIW-A01 VER:1.0 VIA KT266A/VT8235, Socket A

Ahhh, an AGPx8 card in a legacy AGPx4 slot.  Hmmm, I wonder if the ViA
mainboard is using 3.3V or 1.5V?  The AGPx8 cards typically use 1.5V or
0.8V.

> BS>  $ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/*
> Fast Writes:     Supported
> SBA:             Supported
> AGP Rates:       4x 2x 1x
> Registers:       0x1f000217:0x1f000104
> Host Bridge:     VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8367 [KT266]
> Fast Writes:     Not Supported
> SBA:             Supported
> AGP Rates:       4x 2x 1x
> Registers:       0x1f000207:0x00000104
> Status:          Disabled

Hmmm, looks like AGP is "Disabled."  That might be the issue right
there.  We'll need to tell the driver that.

You might need to force this AGP mode with the line under the

 Section "Device"
      Option      "NvAGP" "0"

Where (from the README):  

      Option "NvAGP" "integer"
        Configure AGP support. Integer argument can be one of:
          0 : disable agp
          1 : use NVIDIA's internal AGP support, if possible
          2 : use AGPGART, if possible
          3 : use any agp support (try AGPGART, then NVIDIA's AGP)
          Please note that NVIDIA's internal AGP support cannot
          work if AGPGART is either statically compiled into your
          kernel or is built as a module, but loaded into your
          kernel (some distributions load AGPGART into the kernel
          at boot up).  Default: 3 (the default was 1 until after
          1.0-1251).

It might also be that we have to use a setting to "2" if AGPgart is
built into your kernel.  People bitch and moan about nVidia's
proprietary kernel support, but the reality is that the AGPgarts in the
kernel absolutely _suck_ to the 10th power.  Why?  Because Intel horded
the spec as a "trade secret" (until just recently).

I've never used the AGPgart modules from the kernel, and never seen it
statically built either.  You're running a stock kernel, correct?

> >  $ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/cards/0
> Model:           GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
> IRQ:             11
> Video BIOS:      ??.??.??.??.??
> Card Type:       AGP

Interesting, it doesn't read the BIOS revision.  Hmmm, that's not good.

> >  $ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version
> NVRM version: NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module  1.0-6629  Wed Nov
>  3 13:12:51 PST 2004
> GCC version:  gcc version 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-5)

GCC looks good.  No issue there.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                    b.j.smith at ieee.org 
-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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