No Nvidia Splash Screen (Solved)

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer video hardware
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nitehawk
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No Nvidia Splash Screen (Solved)

#1 Post by nitehawk »

I have an older Nvidia Geforce4 MX440 card (in my Dell PIII). I installed the .pet nvidia driver "nvidia-96.43.13" (also have tried the older "nvidia-96.43.07").
My /etc/X11/xorg.conf file shows that the video driver is listed as "nvidia" and "nvidia corporation". However,....I have no nvidia splash screen on start-up,.....and can't run glxgears. So I don't know if the nvidia driver is properly installed or not.
Last edited by nitehawk on Wed 16 Dec 2009, 23:26, edited 1 time in total.

disciple
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#2 Post by disciple »

Did you install OpenGL as well? You need it for glxgears, although I can't say I use any programs that use it :)
I think you can install the nvidia driver without OpenGL... surely there is an error message when you try to run glxgears? Are you running it from a terminal, or a configuration gui or something.

BTW, depending on the monitor and the video card you sometimes can't see the splash screen as it happens too fast.
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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nitehawk
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#3 Post by nitehawk »

Thanks for answering so fast! Now that you mention it,..I don't think I installed OpenGL on this Puppy install (did so on another one). Don't think my card or computer is fast enough to flash the splash without me seeing it. But my xorg.conf file does have nvidia listed for the video driver. I'll try to install OpenGL, then,...and then see what happens (to be able to check gxlgears). Maybe there's another way to check if I have 3D, as well. I heard that the new Linux kernal is going to come with the "Nouveau" (the open-source nvidia driver) already in it. That's just great for folks like me that struggle with the proprietary one.

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nitehawk
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#4 Post by nitehawk »

EDIT: EGADS!!!! DOUBLE POST!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

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8-bit
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#5 Post by 8-bit »

Have you tried opening a terminal (rxvt), and typing "nvidia-settings".
I installed the nvidia package for my card using the linux installer from the nvidia site.

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nitehawk
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#6 Post by nitehawk »

Yeah,..I've done the "nvidia-settings" thing,...and I get the rectangle box with the settings display (but it's EMPTY! There's no nvidia info in it). And I got my nvidia driver from here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=46686
...and it was supposed to have the gxlgears installed with the driver...
(but I don't get anything but error messages when I try to run gxlgears. I'd try to install the nvidia driver the hard way,...(i.e. from nvidia.com,..and not from the .pet package)....but I'm all "left thumbs" when it comes to that, it seems.

As of now,..I get no splash screen from nvidia,...and I can't yet tell if I have any kind of 3D going. I'm trying to check that right now,...(gotta be an easy way).

disciple
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#7 Post by disciple »

If glxgears fails then you obviously don't have whatever kind of 3D acceleration or whatever it is that glxgears tests for.

FWIW I have one of those cards and it flashes up the splash screen too quickly for one of my monitors. If your xorg.conf says the driver is nvidia I'd assume the driver must be installed properly. I imagine that most or perhaps all 3D programs on Linux would use OpenGL, so if you need it you should install it...
but I don't get anything but error messages when I try to run gxlgears
If you're trying to get help for a problem the first thing you should do is post the error messages.

If I run `which glxgears`, it tells me that my glxgears is in /usr/bin. I can then change to /usr/bin and run this to see what it depends on:

Code: Select all

/usr/bin# ldd glxgears
        linux-gate.so.1 =>  (0xffffe000)
        libglut.so.3 => /usr/X11R7/lib/libglut.so.3 (0xb7f3f000)
        libGLU.so.1 => /usr/X11R7/lib/libGLU.so.1 (0xb7ec9000)
        libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 (0xb7e3d000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0xb7e1b000)
        libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0xb7d34000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0xb7c39000)
        libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R7/lib/libX11.so.6 (0xb7b67000)
        libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R7/lib/libXext.so.6 (0xb7b5b000)
        libXxf86vm.so.1 => /usr/X11R7/lib/libXxf86vm.so.1 (0xb7b56000)
        libgcc_s.so.1 => /usr/lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0xb7b4b000)
        libGLcore.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGLcore.so.1 (0xb72c5000)
        libnvidia-tls.so.1 => /usr/lib/tls/libnvidia-tls.so.1 (0xb72c2000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0xb72be000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7f73000)
        libXau.so.6 => /usr/X11R7/lib/libXau.so.6 (0xb72bb000)
        libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/X11R7/lib/libXdmcp.so.6 (0xb72b6000)
I think libGLUT, libGLU, libGL and libGLcore are all part of OpenGL, so I'm guessing your error messages are saying that it can't find these. Is that right?
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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8-bit
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#8 Post by 8-bit »

Just maybe your Nvidia driver is not running.
Did you happen to install xorg-dri after installing the Nvidia driver?
If so, it modified xorg.conf and you should re-install the Nvidia driver to correct it.

disciple
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#9 Post by disciple »

How would that work? Surely if xorg.conf says it is using the nvidia driver then it is?
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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8-bit
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#10 Post by 8-bit »

If xorgdri is installed after installing the nvidia driver, it overwrites the nvidia settings for xorg.conf
I had that happen to me and had to re-install the nvidia driver which I got from the nvidia website.
There is an nvidia backup of xorg.conf in the /etc/X11 directory that supposedly can be used to reinstate the loading of the true nvidia driver.
Not the driver supplied by the default xorg setup wizard when selecting xorg instead of xvesa.

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nitehawk
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#11 Post by nitehawk »

"Leapin lizards, Batman! I just may have discovered my problem. I went back into the xorg.conf files,....and saw that my original video chipset, as well as another video card and driver I (previously) had in this computer,...are BOTH listed. I'm deleting both of those,...and leaving the xorg.conf file that just lists nvidia. Gonna see what happens,....

That did it!!!! Houston, we have a Splash! (Ooooooo, just look at them little gears turn!)

disciple
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#12 Post by disciple »

that's weird...
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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#13 Post by nitehawk »

that's weird...
It certainly is! Considering that I had completely removed the old Matrox Mystique video card quite sometime BEFORE I added the nvidia card,...and BEFORE I installed Puppy 4.3. Now how-in-the-world my X111 folder was showing about 3 xorg.conf files,......I have no clue. Talk about a "ghost-in-the-machine". It sure has me scratching my head,...'cause the Matrox card has been LONG pulled out and put away. Well,...at least the nvidia card and driver are working now.

EDIT: Wait a minute. I have several Puppy installs on several computers. I think on THAT particular one,...I just did an "upgrade" (not a complete re-install). OK,...that could explain the curious situation. (And thanks, 8-bit & disciple,...you guys gave me a clue to look closer at the X11 directory in the first place)...

disciple
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#14 Post by disciple »

Puppy has some sort of hardware profiling these days, so he saves your old configurations and will use them again if you put him back on the same hardware. What is weird is that the other files shouldn't have an effect on your current configuration... are you sure you didn't do something else that would have fixed it?
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#15 Post by nitehawk »

Hmmm,...can't think of anything else I did,...just looked and discovered there were 3 xorg.conf files (one with the original Intel i810,...the Matrox Mistique,..and one with nvidia.)....And I deleted the 2 un-needed ones. Then again,...I'm not the smartest thing around (when it comes to Linux)...so anything is possible. Of the possible 250,000,000 things there are to be known about Linux,..I may actually know about a dozen or so. :lol: (wish I could tell you more,...but that's all I can think of I did).

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Nvidia GeForce2 MX

#16 Post by gabreal2k »

Hi, all. I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I have a Dell 8200 desktop pc, with an nvidia geforce2 mx vga card. When I boot puppy (4.3.1 full HDD install) X works fine in terms of getting to the desktop and everything; but the resolution is off.

My monitor is a Dell IN1910N @ 1366x768 resolution but X reports it's resolution as 1024x768. I tried using the nvidia settings thing and that is successful in adjusting my resolution to 1360x768 but when I reboot; X won't start and I have to redo the X wizard and choose 1024x768 to get back to my desktop. Does anybody have any idea how to set up X to use my graphics card and get 1366x768 resolution?

Any help will be appreciated as I'm new to Linux and Puppy but not necessarily afraid of the CLI or even breaking something; spelled FULL RE-INSTALL.


As a side note that may be helpful: this is a triple boot system:
1) Windows XP
2) Ubuntu 9.10
3) Puppy

XP has no problem with my card or 1366x768, I did use the terminal and did nvidia-settings in Ubuntu and have 1360x768 resolution running fine.

Maybe there is something in Ubuntus' XORG.CONF I could copy/paste into Puppys' XORG file?? I don't know just thinking out loud.

Thanks in advance for ANY help.

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