Hello !
I decided recently to try a new Fedora (15) on my desktop computer with old GF6200 TurboCache (64MB physical memory). Installation was pretty easy, however the screen was full of artifacts on default driver (Nouveau). Therefore installed nvidia drivers following this guide
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=204752. It seemed to be working... until I opened more than 5/6 windows - every new window was appearing black. Resizing the window helps but it looks like the total display area is limited (memory problem?) - I can downsize the visible windows to give more resources for the new one. Played with nvidia-config for some time without any luck. Google showed me I was not alone with this problem -
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=119478. However no solution is apparently available yet. Let's start with some debug information:
Code:
# rpm -qa *\nvidia\* *\kernel\*|sort;uname -r;lsmod |grep -e nvidia -e nouveau;cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
abrt-addon-kerneloops-2.0.3-1.fc15.i686
akmod-nvidia-275.09.07-1.fc15.i686
kernel-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.i686
kernel-2.6.38.8-35.fc15.i686
kernel-devel-2.6.38.8-35.fc15.i686
kernel-headers-2.6.38.8-35.fc15.i686
kmod-nvidia-2.6.38.8-35.fc15.i686-275.09.07-1.fc15.2.i686
nvidia-settings-1.0-10.fc15.i686
nvidia-xconfig-1.0-8.fc15.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-275.09.07-1.fc15.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-275.09.07-1.fc15.i686
2.6.38.8-35.fc15.i686
nvidia 10659833 40
i2c_core 21384 2 nvidia,i2c_i801
# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings: version 270.41.06 (mockbuild@hephaestus.wilsonet.com) Sun May 1 15:55:22 EDT 2011
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 270.41.06 (mockbuild@) Sun May 1 14:42:33 EDT 2011
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from data in "/etc/sysconfig/keyboard"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "HIQ L70N"
HorizSync 31.5 - 80.0
VertRefresh 60.0 - 75.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM)"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Modes "nvidia-auto-select"
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "0"
Option "metamodes" "1400x1050 +0+0; nvidia-auto-select +0+0; 1280x1024 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Discovered this at startup:
Code:
Jul 19 09:31:41 pc-linux systemd[1]: akmods.service: control process exited, code=exited status=128
Jul 19 09:31:41 pc-linux systemd[1]: Unit akmods.service entered failed state.
systemctl confirms the problem:
Code:
# systemctl list-units --failed
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB JOB DESCRIPTION
akmods.service loaded failed failed LSB: Builds and install new k
LOAD = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.
JOB = Pending job for the unit.
1 units listed. Pass --all to see inactive units, too.
# systemctl status akmods.service
akmods.service - LSB: Builds and install new kmods from akmod packages
Loaded: loaded (/etc/rc.d/init.d/akmods)
Active: failed since Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:31:41 +0200; 31min ago
Process: 756 ExecStart=/etc/rc.d/init.d/akmods start (code=exited, status=128)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/akmods.service
here however they say its normal:
http://fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=266780
Since "black windows issue" depends on number of open windows - there could be a problem with video memory sharing (since physical memory on my card is only 64MB multiplied by 4 by magic word "TurboCache"). This should be however handled by the driver (correct?). Anyway it was worth to try:
/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
showed
33554432
which is 32MB only
so increased to 512 MB permanently by adding to /etc/sysctl.conf these two lines:
kernel.shmmax=536870912
kernel.shmall=536870912
Also added to xorg.conf:
Code:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VideoRam 524288
EndSection
Did it although nvidia states "VideoRam" is obsolete. Anyway nothing changed. Before and after Xorg.log shows this:
Code:
# more /var/log/Xorg.0.log | egrep Mem
[ 216.478] (--) PCI:*(0:4:0:0) 10de:0161:107d:203c rev 161, Mem @ 0xcf000000/16777216, 0xd0000000/268435456, 0xce000000/16777216, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
[ 217.083] (--) NVIDIA(0): Memory: 262144 kBytes
"BIOS @ 0x????????" looks interesting so tried to change the video ram sharing options in BIOS but...it was impossible. Anyway Windows system handles the card pretty well so I believe the problem lies on driver side which is buggy for linux. This issue doesn't appear in fallback mode by the way.
Finally the question - does onyone of you (who experienced the similar problem) has some workaround for this issue?
Linear Mode
