[arch-general] Strange Xorg issue - no init of NV 8800GT - reboot -> late init?

[David C. Rankin]

Guys,

	I don't know if this is software or hardware related, but after a shutdown
(power outage that exhausted the UPS), I boot my box and I get no display at
all. The nvidia platinum SLI board has an onboard vga controller that is turned
off in the bios and the box uses an nv8800gt for the display. After ssh'ing into
the box I looked at the pci bus with lspci:

<snip>
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C77 [nForce 750a SLI] (rev a2)
05:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA
Controller (rev 03)
05:00.1 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA
Controller (rev 03)

	There was no 8800gt shown and the vga controller was shown as a nForce 750a SLI
(huh?). Also, the timestamp looks huge (maybe fsck ran?) Checking the Xorg.0.log
showed the 'No display devices found' error:


[  1795.823] (**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
[  1795.823] (==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
[  1795.823] (==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[  1795.823] (==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
[  1795.823] (**) NVIDIA(0): Option "Coolbits" "1"
[  1795.823] (**) NVIDIA(0): Enabling RENDER acceleration
[  1795.823] (II) NVIDIA(0): Support for GLX with the Damage and Composite X
extensions is
[  1795.823] (II) NVIDIA(0):     enabled.
[  1795.977] (II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU nForce 750a SLI (C77) at PCI:2:0:0 (GPU-0)
[  1795.978] (--) NVIDIA(0): Memory: 524288 kBytes
[  1795.978] (--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 62.77.2f.00.05
[  1795.978] (--) NVIDIA(0): Interlaced video modes are supported on this GPU
[  1795.978] (--) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s) on nForce 750a SLI at
PCI:2:0:0
[  1795.978] (--) NVIDIA(0):     none
[  1795.979] (EE) NVIDIA(0): No display devices found for this X screen.
[  1796.111] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[  1796.111] (II) UnloadModule: "wfb"
[  1796.111] (II) UnloadModule: "fb"
[  1796.111] (EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
[  1796.111]
Fatal server error:
[  1796.111] no screens found
[  1796.111]
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
         at http://wiki.x.org
 for help.


	After shutdown (power-off) and reboot, there was no bios screen and no boot
loader display, but then after kdm init, the display appeared. Checking with
lspci, the 8800GT magically appeared:

<snip>
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce 8800 GT] (rev a2)
04:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA
Controller (rev 03)
04:00.1 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA
Controller (rev 03)

	Checking the Xorg.0.log after the display was up. all looks OK:

<snip>
[    23.539] (II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce 8800 GT (G92) at PCI:2:0:0 (GPU-0)
[    23.539] (--) NVIDIA(0): Memory: 524288 kBytes
[    23.539] (--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 62.92.24.00.01
[    23.539] (II) NVIDIA(0): Detected PCI Express Link width: 8X
[    23.539] (--) NVIDIA(0): Interlaced video modes are supported on this GPU
[    23.539] (--) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s) on GeForce 8800 GT at
PCI:2:0:0
[    23.539] (--) NVIDIA(0):     Acer V223W (DFP-0)
[    23.539] (--) NVIDIA(0): Acer V223W (DFP-0): 330.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
[    23.539] (--) NVIDIA(0): Acer V223W (DFP-0): Internal Dual Link TMDS
[    23.698] (II) NVIDIA(0): Assigned Display Device: DFP-0
[    23.698] (==) NVIDIA(0):
[    23.698] (==) NVIDIA(0): No modes were requested; the default mode
"nvidia-auto-select"
[    23.698] (==) NVIDIA(0):     will be used as the requested mode.


	What I don't know is whether this can be kernel/new xorg related or whether
this looks more like a hardware issue? Given the lack of bios/grub display, it
sounds like it was still looking at the wrong controller until kdm start. I
don't see how the system could change its mind mid-stream and fix itself, but
the display/card is working fine now. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com