[SOLVED] Newbie Q: how to replace onboard video with nvidia fx5200 (8.04) [Archive]

arjay1

March 26th, 2008, 11:56 AM

I am running a clean install of 8.04 beta after some months with a working setup of 7.10. In 7.10 I was using an nvidia fx 5200 pci card - it worked OK.

When I tried 8.04 it wouldn't open as a live cd with the fx5200 card - just a black screen. It also would not install mythbuntu if the card was present - just rebooted in the middle of the install somewhere between "recognising hardware" and the grub install.

I then installed mythbuntu using the onboard video and it went perfectly. However, the picture is much poorer - fuzzier/out of focus - than with the fx5200 - even after tweaking different settings. (I have a composite connection of a skybox to a Sony Bravia W3000 tv.)

After this I stuck the fx5200 back in, disabled onboard video and booted up mythbuntu. It dumped me to a command prompt rather as I expected. I edited the xorg.conf file, trying "nv" and "vesa" as drivers but never got to the mythbuntu desktop. Worst of all, when I took the card out, re-enabled onboard video and replaced the modified xorg.conf with the original xorg for the onboard video, I STILL could not get a desktop.

Finally I had to reinstall 8.04 from scratch - a real PINA as although i had backed up the mysql database and the *.xmltv file, I still lost all the channel numbers (these have to be added by hand twice for each of my channels - all 80 of them). Took the better part of an hour in mythtv backend setup.

My quesion is this - I want to use the fx5200 card which has always worked just fine with mythbuntu, mythdora etc but don't want to have to reinstall again and lose all my settings.

Can anyone in the know explain how best to replace the on-board video with a separate graphics card and get a working 8.04 desktop??

TIA

RJ

Sam Lars

March 26th, 2008, 12:20 PM

When you put in the Nvidia and set it to default and boot to a terminal, run this command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Follow the instructions, specifically selecting "nv" as the driver.

majoridiot

March 26th, 2008, 01:37 PM

When you put in the Nvidia and set it to default and boot to a terminal, run this command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg
Follow the instructions, specifically selecting "nv" as the driver.

once you do this and can boot into a desktop, open mythbuntu-control-centre and
select "Restricted Drivers". enable the nvidia proprietary driver ("nvidia 5xxx new") and let it install.

after reboot, open the control center again and select Restricted Drivers again. in the pane to the right,
you can launch nvidia-setup to make any adjustments to resolution, tv-out, etc. you might want.

arjay1

March 26th, 2008, 02:55 PM

Thanks for your prompt reply. Actually, I did try the first part which created a new xorg.conf file, but it never allowed me to boot into the desktop. I usd nano to look at the xorg.conf file from a command prompt, but it was one of those stupid new files which doesn't show any of the configurations - just stuff like "video card configured" "mouse configured" etc.

So I over-wrote it with the config file from my 7.10 install where the card had worked perfectly. It was here that I tried the nvidia, nv, and vesa drivers but none of them gave me a desktop - just a command prompt. Never got to the point where I could use the restricted drivers option in MCC.

I did look at Xorg.0.log but the different warnings did not seem to add much.

I am willing to try reinstalling again with the fx5200 in place, but only if I can figure out what files to back up to preserve my mythtv settings (database, channel list and actual channel settings). As I said above, I thought I had backed up the necessary files, but sill lost the actual channel number settings.

Sam Lars

March 26th, 2008, 03:14 PM

So your old xorg.conf works fine with the Nvidia? Can you post it?

volkswagner

March 26th, 2008, 03:26 PM

Some of this may help if you can ssh into the machine. You may get better results if you can to the work with X-server not running.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=711591&highlight=constant+circle

arjay1

March 26th, 2008, 03:45 PM

So your old xorg.conf works fine with the Nvidia? Can you post it?

thanks for your interest Here is the file I used. Made a few changes here and there - see different variations in Mode lines. Might no longer be exact - but near enough.

# xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200]"
Driver "nvidia"
# BusID "PCI:2:2:0"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
Option "ModeValidation" "NoMaxPClkCheck"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Sony Bravia kdl-40w3000"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 30-90
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200]"
Monitor "Sony Bravia kdl-40w3000"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1920x1080_60" "1280x720_60" "720x480_60"
# Modes "1680x1050" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1280x768" "1152x768" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"

# Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
# InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
# InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection
#

Sam Lars

March 26th, 2008, 04:09 PM

So does the file you posted work?
If you do
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE
it should return only the errors from the Xorg log.

arjay1

March 26th, 2008, 06:22 PM

The file I posted worked for 7.10 but not 8.04.

Thanks for the tip re grepping the log file. It will make it a lot easier - it seems to get longer and longer each time I look at it.

Sam Lars

March 26th, 2008, 07:27 PM

Try loading that log file and then post what the grep command gives you.

arjay1

March 27th, 2008, 04:03 AM

Thanks Sam. At the moment I am running the setup with just onboard video - no errors of course. To do as you suggest I will have to refit the video card and then try. This means potentially borking my mythtv setup.

I am willing to try - indeed I really need to have a separate video card up and working as the onboard is pretty pathetic. It is just the WAF issue - she who must be obeyed is fed up with the media centre being "down again". I get the "Why couldn't you stick with what worked before" or even worse "Why don't you just use Windows MCE - that always worked"!!

I'll give it a go later today. I'll try backing up everything to do with the database etc and hope that I am going to be able to preserve my Sky settings.

I appreciate your continued interest in this.

stefangr1

March 27th, 2008, 04:41 AM

I had an fx5200 untill a few months ago, and it always worked fine with the drivers from the NVIDIA site. It has to be installed from non graphical mode, installing and altering xorg.conf is basically automated.

I know using closed source 3rd party drivers is a bit against the open source idea, but I think it might be the easyest way to get things to work in your case.

arjay1

March 27th, 2008, 07:35 AM

I had an fx5200 untill a few months ago, and it always worked fine with the drivers from the NVIDIA site. It has to be installed from non graphical mode, installing and altering xorg.conf is basically automated.

I know using closed source 3rd party drivers is a bit against the open source idea, but I think it might be the easyest way to get things to work in your case.

Thanks for that. I have used the nvidia site driver setup software before (IIRC it was for one of my other machines running Mepis). That's the one where you boot into run level 3 and run the software from there - right?

I could do that again in this case, I suppose, but I thought the whole idea was to use the drivers provided by mythbuntu mcc - though I do need a desktop to do it from!

What I am going to do first, is to refit the fx5200, disable the onboard video and then try and fire up the 7.10 and 8.04 disks. I will then see if they auto-detect the 5200 at least as far as getting to a desktop. Then we'll go from there. If I get errors along the way - I'll post the error report extracts from Xorg.0.log as requested above...

Cheers

zhang.ozzie

March 27th, 2008, 09:19 AM

stefangr1

March 27th, 2008, 09:32 AM

Thanks for that. I have used the nvidia site driver setup software before (IIRC it was for one of my other machines running Mepis). That's the one where you boot into run level 3 and run the software from there - right?

I could do that again in this case, I suppose, but I thought the whole idea was to use the drivers provided by mythbuntu mcc - though I do need a desktop to do it from!

What I am going to do first, is to refit the fx5200, disable the onboard video and then try and fire up the 7.10 and 8.04 disks. I will then see if they auto-detect the 5200 at least as far as getting to a desktop. Then we'll go from there. If I get errors along the way - I'll post the error report extracts from Xorg.0.log as requested above...

Cheers

Yep, thats the one. However, Ubuntu does not have runlevel 3, you can just log out and then log in again with the "console" option.

stefangr1

March 27th, 2008, 09:41 AM

Hi,stefangr1,

I have the same issue, my nvidia is GeForce fx 5200, and the system update from 7.10 to 8.04, now the desktop can not work properly,and it is black screen. and I had tried the following nvidia installers:
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.19-pkg1.run NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.04-pkg1.run
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.05-pkg1.run
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-171.06-pkg1.run

but no one can work. the following kernels: 2.6.24-12 , 2.6.22-14, 2.6.20-15 are tried.
my gcc is 4.2.3.

|

What error message do you get when you attempt to run the NVIDIA installer?

Did you log out the gui, and into console mode first? Did you run the installer with a command like:
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linuxblablabla.run ?

And: does xorg work when you change (in your xorg, at the "Device" section) "nvidia" to "nv" ?

majoridiot

March 27th, 2008, 01:41 PM

have you checked your BIOS settings to see if there is a default video device setting? some BIOSes
have default settings that can cause problems properly detecting and initializing the video card- e.g.
defaults to PCI and your card is AGP and vice-versa.

the setting is generally in the "chipset features", "advanced", "boot" or simiar menu in BIOS.

zmerch

March 27th, 2008, 08:34 PM

What I am going to do first, is to refit the fx5200, disable the onboard video and then try and fire up the 7.10 and 8.04 disks. I will then see if they auto-detect the 5200 at least as far as getting to a desktop. Then we'll go from there. If I get errors along the way - I'll post the error report extracts from Xorg.0.log as requested above...

I'm running a 128Meg Nvidia 5200 on the MythTV unit I just put together - one word of advice I can offer is this: Make sure that you have a "real" monitor hooked up to the machine - I couldn't get Ubuntu to boot (even in LiveCD mode) visibly from the SVideo port, which my TV is hooked to. If you only get to black screen on a TV from the LiveCD, plug a monitor into the VGA port of the card; you'll probably see a picture. If you do and Ubuntu's in Xwindows, you can run Synaptic or Mythbuntu Control Center and access the "restricted" ports for the NVidia driver from there.

Hope this helps!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

zhang.ozzie

March 28th, 2008, 02:16 AM

Hi,stefangr1

now my desktop can work, but only in gnome-failsafe mode. my current environment are linux ubuntu 2.6.20-15-generic, NVIDIA's 169.12 driver, 8.04 desktop.

I wish desktop can work under normal mode not failsafe mode.

thank your reply and post.

this is my xorg.conf:
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 30.0 - 110.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 150.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

stefangr1

March 28th, 2008, 08:54 AM

Be carefull to back up your xorg.conf file before you make any changes to it!

I'm not really an expert, so I'm not the first person to consult regarding manually changing a xorg.conf file.

However, a few things you could try:

(1) Lower refresh rates in Section "Monitor":

HorizSync 31.0-80.0
VertRefresh 55.0-75.0

(2) In section "Screen", after Default Depth, you could put some display modes, like (make sure the settings you want are in there too):

SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSubSection

What could also be there (but I'm not sure if that will work) is:

SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "nvidia-auto-select"

(3) In Section "Module"

I have only one entry here:
Load "glx"
But again: I have really no ideas what the other entries I see in your xorg.conf are meant for, so if you're going to change that it's really getting to trial and error.

zhang.ozzie

March 28th, 2008, 09:34 AM

stefangr1

thank you for your advice, I will get to trial. your answer is very valuable.

arjay1

March 29th, 2008, 06:02 AM

I'm running a 128Meg Nvidia 5200 on the MythTV unit I just put together - one word of advice I can offer is this: Make sure that you have a "real" monitor hooked up to the machine - I couldn't get Ubuntu to boot (even in LiveCD mode) visibly from the SVideo port, which my TV is hooked to. If you only get to black screen on a TV from the LiveCD, plug a monitor into the VGA port of the card; you'll probably see a picture. If you do and Ubuntu's in Xwindows, you can run Synaptic or Mythbuntu Control Center and access the "restricted" ports for the NVidia driver from there.

Hope this helps!
Roger "Merch" Merchberger

Thanks for the tip about using an ordinary monitor - see below.

OK - to update everyone. I have run a lot of experiments but have only a partial solution.

1. I tried the fx5200 with Live Environment from 8.04 and Start/Install mythbuntu 7.10 with my Sony Bravia 42W3000 LCD Screen. Result: persistent reboot after the mythbuntu logo appears but before any desktop.

2. Tried the same as above but with an ordinary PC Monitor - same result.

3. Tried an ATI Radeon 9200Pro as per both 1 and 2. Got past the mythbuntu logo to a blank screen. Tried CTRL-ALT-BSPACE and got the logon screen.Changed the session to xfce and logged on again. Got a desktop OK.

4. Tried an old ATI Rage Pro I had lying around. Worked perfectly from boot to a functioning desktop!!

5. Used the Rage setup to install a fresh copy of mythbuntu 8.04 beta on a spare hard disk. Went OK but LiveTV would'nt run (probably because of the old card and wrong drivers?) - but everything else functioned fine.

6. Then I replaced the Rage with the ATI Radeon 9200 and mythbuntu automagically found the new card and set it up OK. I was then able to run all of mythbuntu including LiveTV on both PC monitor and the big Sony LCD W3000.

7. Tried 6 again but this time substituting the fx5200 for the ATI Radeon. No go on either monitor or TV/screen - just rebooted constantly as soon as I chose 8.04 from the menu list. Tried the recovery version of 8.04 but still no go.

8. Tried the fx5200 in an ordinary linux setup (Mepis) on another PC and it works fine - don't think there is any problem with the actual card.

So where are we now? Well I am using the ATI Radeon and all works fine, but am p**ssed off that I can't get the fx5200 to work. I am playing around with the possibility that there is a BIOSS conflict and/or an xorg.conf problem.

Getting close to being out of my depth on this one. If anyone is still tracking this thread and has any ideas - I'd be very grateful!

Sam Lars

March 29th, 2008, 08:11 AM

If it's immediately rebooting, that sounds like something more related to the motherboard or BIOS.
And where are you setting the BIOS default card in these tests?

arjay1

March 29th, 2008, 03:13 PM

If it's immediately rebooting, that sounds like something more related to the motherboard or BIOS.
And where are you setting the BIOS default card in these tests?

Yeah - you're right Sam. It turned out to be some bios settings. What I did was to use the Simplymepis 7.0 live CD which has a great failsafe boot setting. It stops about 16 different possible functions running - cpufreq, sound, acpi, apic, dma etc etc. I just eliminated one at a time and rebooted and rebooted until I found the culprit.

It turned out to be APIC and possibly ACPI - still have to verify the latter. For those who are even less knowledgeable than me (if that is possible) ACIP stands for Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller. It (roughly speaking) manages the allocation of IRQs amongst other things. The PC I am using for mythbuntu has a Via chipset which apparently is well-known for problems with IRQ allocations and with APIC causing random boots/freezes etc. I am sure someone will chip in with a better technical explanation!

Following various guides, I added noacpi and nolacpi to the # kopt statement in /boot/grub/menu.lst. I also disabled apic in the bios. Then I ran sudo update-grub. GERONIMO I now have a working mythbuntu and mythtv setup on this PC.

Anyway, thanks to you and all the other who have helped in this thread. I hope my solution helps anyone else who visits here!