[arch-general] Nvidia Driver woes on Macbook 3,2
First of all, I'm sorry if the general discussion list isn't for questions like this. I wasn't sure how to figure out what's appropriate. Per https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=154496, I've had a real ordeal trying to get video working on Arch on a repurposed late 2010 Macbook Air. I've never had issues like this with video / X in Arch before. I'm wondering if anyone can give me a push in the right direction to at least diagnose this problem. It's getting pretty hard to work without a browser! $ lspci | grep VGA 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 [GeForce 320M] (rev a2) Here's what I've tried in EFI mode: - all the proprietary drivers listed on the nvidia page on the Arch wiki; each of them either wouldn't load X or showed a blank screen; ctrl-alt-fN didn't work and I had to do a hard reboot - standard nouveau setup - X sort of starts up but there are weird artifacts, mouse doesn't work, and it freezes up pretty quickly. - nouveau with mesa-git - as above - nouveau with mesa-full - above I've also tried BIOS compatibility mode, but I wasn't able to get my drives to mount. At any rate, it was very slow to boot, so I really want to stick with the EFI + GRUB2 setup. My Xorg.0.log when loading the proprietary driver, which just shows a black screen: http://pastie.org/5556341 My Xorg.0.log when loading nouveau, which has strange artifacts, incomplete rendering of windows, and soon locks up: http://codepad.org/QFdP9Fax I have no .xinitrc file. For nouveau, I have the default X config. For the proprietary drivers, I can nvidia-xconfig. I've been trying everything both as a normal user and as root. Video was working fine under OSX the day before I installed Arch so I don't think it's the hardware. I'm at a loss here and would appreciate any advice. Thanks, Daniel
On Dec 20, 2012 6:27 AM, "Daniel Bryan"
First of all, I'm sorry if the general discussion list isn't for questions like this. I wasn't sure how to figure out what's appropriate.
Per https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=154496, I've had a real ordeal trying to get video working on Arch on a repurposed late 2010 Macbook Air. I've never had issues like this with video / X in Arch
before. I know this creature... I used to own one. Used to.
I'm wondering if anyone can give me a push in the right direction to at least diagnose this problem. It's getting pretty hard to work without a browser!
$ lspci | grep VGA 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation MCP89 [GeForce 320M] (rev a2)
Here's what I've tried in EFI mode:
- all the proprietary drivers listed on the nvidia page on the Arch wiki; each of them either wouldn't load X or showed a blank screen; ctrl-alt-fN didn't work and I had to do a hard reboot
The proprietary nvidia driver cannot work in EFI mode -- it depends on the bios being available for various parameters in locating the screen.
- standard nouveau setup - X sort of starts up but there are weird artifacts, mouse doesn't work, and it freezes up pretty quickly. - nouveau with mesa-git - as above - nouveau with mesa-full - above
This is actually progress based on bug reports I read a while ago and in line with my previous comment. The *only* choice at the time was bios mode with the nvidia driver.
I've also tried BIOS compatibility mode, but I wasn't able to get my drives to mount.
Probably because in EFI mode, the sata disk uses native AHCI rather than PATA compat (ata-generic and pata-acpi). You likely tried to use a auto detect trimmed image which didn't have the proper modules. Using the fallback image would have gotten you far enough to rebuild the pruned initramfs with the right modules.
At any rate, it was very slow to boot, so I really want to stick with the EFI + GRUB2 setup.
My Xorg.0.log when loading the proprietary driver, which just shows a black screen: http://pastie.org/5556341
My Xorg.0.log when loading nouveau, which has strange artifacts, incomplete rendering of windows, and soon locks up: http://codepad.org/QFdP9Fax
I have no .xinitrc file. For nouveau, I have the default X config. For the proprietary drivers, I can nvidia-xconfig.
I've been trying everything both as a normal user and as root.
Video was working fine under OSX the day before I installed Arch so I don't think it's the hardware.
Ah. But it is... Just not in the way you expect. Mac hardware is not off the shelf hardware you find anywhere else. The nvidia 320M is an MBA only device, and as such, drivers work best on OSX and only by luck elsewhere.
I'm at a loss here and would appreciate any advice.
I'm afraid I have nothing positive to add. I ended up selling my MBA.
Thanks,
Daniel
Daniel Bryan:
Here's what I've tried in EFI mode:
- standard nouveau setup - X sort of starts up but there are weird artifacts, mouse doesn't work, and it freezes up pretty quickly.
I had the same problem and found the following solution: - Install xf86-video-fbdev - Create a new file at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-fdbdev.conf, with the following content: Section "Device" Identifier "gfx" Driver "fbdev" EndSection
Daniel Bryan:
Here's what I've tried in EFI mode:
- standard nouveau setup - X sort of starts up but there are weird artifacts, mouse doesn't work, and it freezes up pretty quickly.
I had the same problem and found the following solution:
- Install xf86-video-fbdev
This is very interesting. I was confronted with a similar problem with an old Nvidia card. I had weird visual artifacts with Nouveau and my card support has been dropped by the latest Nvidia driver. Their latest driver that supported it required Linux 2.6 I ended up installing xf86-video-vesa as suggested in the Beginner's installation guide. It works well except for a reduction of the maximum resolution to what was available prior to switching to Arch. (this Pc is coming from Linux 2.6 Ubuntu system) I could not find much info about xf86-video drivers by finding such pages like: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-fbdev/ What is the difference between fbdev and vesa x driver? If my system is booting fine with the fb video driver for the vconsole, should I be better with the X fbdev video driver? ________________________________ CONFIDENTIALITY : This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. If you are not a named recipient, please notify the sender immediately and do not disclose the contents to another person, use it for any purpose or store or copy the information in any medium.
LANGLOIS Olivier PIS -EXT:
What is the difference between fbdev and vesa x driver?
man vesa man fbdev
If my system is booting fine with the fb video driver for the vconsole, should I be better with the X fbdev video driver?
On the MBA, I haven't noticed any performance difference between *nouveau* and *fbdev* (my framebuffer device is provided by *nouveau*). Greetings, -- b.d (| |) ^ ^
On Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 12:07 AM, LANGLOIS Olivier PIS -EXT < olivier.pis.langlois@transport.alstom.com> wrote:
Daniel Bryan:
Here's what I've tried in EFI mode:
- standard nouveau setup - X sort of starts up but there are weird artifacts, mouse doesn't work, and it freezes up pretty quickly.
I had the same problem and found the following solution:
- Install xf86-video-fbdev
This is very interesting. I was confronted with a similar problem with an old Nvidia card. I had weird visual artifacts with Nouveau and my card support has been dropped by the latest Nvidia driver. Their latest driver that supported it required Linux 2.6
I ended up installing xf86-video-vesa as suggested in the Beginner's installation guide. It works well except for a reduction of the maximum resolution to what was available prior to switching to Arch. (this Pc is coming from Linux 2.6 Ubuntu system)
I could not find much info about xf86-video drivers by finding such pages like:
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-fbdev/
What is the difference between fbdev and vesa x driver? If my system is booting fine with the fb video driver for the vconsole, should I be better with the X fbdev video driver?
The fbdev video driver uses the linux framebuffer that is exposed by the kernel driver to draw the X surfaces. Basically, the kernel driver (nouveau or whatever) exposes the video memory as a big chunk of linear memory: you write to that memoy, you get a pixel on the screen. Easy but slow, AFAIK no acceleration at all. Everything is `memcpy()` and such. The vesa driver uses the VESA extensions to talk directly to the graphic card. That is an old interface that intended to standardize access to different graphic cards back in the 16-bit era, and as such the nouveau or whatever driver is not needed). Some modern graphic card still implement it. Some 2D acceleration may be available, but I don't know if it is actually used. HTH -- Rodrigo.
participants (5)
-
Bastien Dejean
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Daniel Bryan
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Dave Reisner
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LANGLOIS Olivier PIS -EXT
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Rodrigo Rivas