The Great Wakka's Journal: nVidia Linux GLX

Argargargarg! If I read the directions correctly, installing the nVidia drivers would be as easy as
# rpm -ivh NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2313.i386.rpm
# rpm -ivh NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2313.mdk81up.i686.rpm
and then adding in the "Modules" section of etc/X11/XF86Config:
Load "glx"
Load "dri"
Load "GLCore"
and then simply restarting. They lied. Whenever I try and start Chromium, I get the error message:
WARNING: could not read config file (/home/elliot/.chromium)
WARNING: could not read score file (/home/elliot/.chromium-score)
randomizing.
SDL initialized.
Couldn't set GL mode: Couldn't find matching GLX visual
with BZFlag, something different:
Can't create window. Exiting.
and with glxgears:
Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual
However, glxinfo returns apparently normal:
      visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
  id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 15 tc 0 0 0 c . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x24 15 tc 0 0 0 c . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x25 15 dc 0 0 0 c . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x26 15 dc 0 0 0 c . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None

This vexes me. Why do these things work like this? How do I fix it? Where can I go for troubleshooting? And yes, I have tried searching Google for it.

It is

[rendler]

Easy as anything, I've done it 3 times on 2 different distros (RedHat and Mandrake) using the pre-compiled binary kernel drivers. And so far I've never had a problem with it. The cards I've also installed the drivers for have been TNT2, GF2MX200, GF3 and all have worked flawlessly with the drivers. First of all as root after you install the rpms you might want to try rmmod NVdriver then insmod NVdriver and see if there are any errors. If there are none do a cat /proc/nv/card0 and if you're card is listed there all should be dandy. If you can't get to that stage you might want to consider re-installing the stock kernel along with the nvidia kernel kernel rpm. If you can get past all of that and come to editing the X config file first do ls -l /etc/X11/X this should be pointing to /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 or something similar, this is version 4.X.X of XFree86 if it points to something else like XF86_SVGA or similar it's still using version 3.X.X you'll want to delete the symlink and create it again to point to version 4. Also you said you've been editing /etc/X11/XF86Config? I don't know what distro you're using but on RH, MDK, DEB the config file for X4 is /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and these drivers are designed for 4 not 3. So if you haven't been doing so and the file does exist edit the one with the -4 prefix. If all goes well you should see an official nvidia logo on the screen when you goto restart the X server. If you don't and none of you GL stuff works (I usually use the 3D vis plugin in XMMS) check the config file which is usually at /var/log/XFree86.0.log.

Re:It is

[The Great Wakka]

Well, as it turns out, it appears that I did, in fact, edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, instead of the other file. The NVidia logo has been appearing at startup since I installed Mandrake 8.1 (sorry for not mentioning that!) but for some reason, it appears not to work.

Re:It is

[rendler]

If you have "nvidia" for the driver in XF86Config-4 and have the card listed in /proc/nv/card0 then the next thing you'll be wanting to do is check the XFree86 log file and look for errors.

Re:It is

[The Great Wakka]

This might be of interest... entire log file [geocities.com]

(II) Loading extension NV-GLX
(II) Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
(II) Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension
(II) Initializing built-in extension XTEST
(II) Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD
(II) Initializing built-in extension LBX
(II) Initializing built-in extension XC-APPGROUP
(II) Initializing built-in extension SECURITY
(II) Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA
(II) Initializing built-in extension XFree86-Bigfont
(II) Initializing built-in extension RENDER
(II) [GLX]: Calling GlxExtensionInit
(II) [GLX]: associated 0 out of 0 GLX visuals

Re:It is

[rendler]

That looks good to me, but to be honest I can't remember what it should look like when using nvidia's driver instead of the built in. Do any other apps with require 3D (such as the xmms vis plugin) work at all?

Re:It is

[The Great Wakka]

No apps work that I know of. I don't have the 3D plugin for XMMS (don't use it), so I couldn't test that. Mostly I just want 3D for games though :D

Re:It is

[rendler]

Okay from reading your log again I see it goes to load the GLCore, dri modules which the README for the drivers specifically say to remove from the Module section from /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and have glx in there if not already. Also apon going through the log file I see (II) Loading extension NV-GLX which leads me to belive that it could possibly be using the nv driver from xfree86 and not nvidia's, are you sure that the driver line you have is still not Driver "nv" where it should be Driver "nvidia". If all those things check out okay then I really don't know what the problem could be but you might want to check out #nvidia@OPN where there are a lot more people who could help you troubleshoot it better than me.

Re:It is

[rendler]

Ooops I should have read the log file more throughly:

(II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.o
(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation" compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.1251

So that looks good at least, but I think you're using XFree86 4.1.0 and the module itself says compiled for 4.0.2, that may be the problem but I'd doubt it because X is pretty backwards compatible when I comes to drivers and the module seems to load fine. Of course you can't rule it out, so maybe try downloading the drivers again if there is a newer version avaliable.

Re:It is

[The Great Wakka]

Here's a link. However, I made those changes (removing GLCore, dri) after I posted the file, so disregard those lines. [geocities.com]

Removing the modules doesn't seem to do much...

Re:It is

[The Great Wakka]

Woops! Forgot the /a tag. Sorry about that. :)