[arch-general] New nvidia driver - video mode not recognized - remove vga= from kernel line?

[Heiko Baums]

Am Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:06:53 -0500
schrieb "David C. Rankin" <drankinatty at suddenlinkmail.com>:

> Not yet, but I don't know what else could have caused this. I have
> used scan (same thing as just pressing enter) and I get about 50
> valid modes to enter. Everything thing from vga to 1920x1200. I have
> tried entering the listed modes (e.g. 31A) and it just gives me the
> same 'invalid mode' prompt.
> 
> I've been through the KMS page that just refers you to
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA for nvidia cards. This
> card is an 8800GT so I have always used:
> 
> # pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils
> 
> to install the driver and I've never had any issues. I haven't
> specifically set anything for KMS with nvidia boxes. So I'm at a loss
> at what changed.
> 
> The problem I have is that I don't know what process does the mode
> check and then throws the invalid mode error? Is it a kernel process,
> nvidia driver process. (I suspect a driver process since it is
> setting the framebuffer, but I could be totally wrong)
> 
> I'm open to all suggestions. I'll give the downgrade a try tomorrow
> or Friday when I get a chance. Thanks for the suggestions.

This problem has nothing to do with the nvidia driver. The nvidia
driver is only for X.

And entering "scan" at this prompt is not the same as just pressing
Enter. Enter shows you all possible vesa modes. Entering "scan" shows
you only the modes which are valid for your video card.

And you need to decide whether you want to use KMS or not. If you want
to use KMS you need to remove the vga kernel parameter. Otherwise you
need to add the two kernel parameters vga and nomodeset (both of them)
to the kernel line of your bootloader.

Heiko