nvidia - continuing problems - HOWTO SOLVE?

[Lexje]

Hi folks,

First of all many thanks to all the people that already replied to my posts, and tried to help me out.
I still haven't got my system running the way I'd like it to run.
During all my experiments I'm starting to have a better feel of how it should go..

I'll try to narrow down:

Preliminary:
Dell Precision 670
1st try: MSI nvidia 8600GT
-> I took this card out for several reasons, most importantly because it did not fit in properly because of the huge cooling element on the side. I could'nt get this card to decently run, I achieved various levels of success but I think the main reason this card failed is because it has so many ways of output: 2 x DVI, S-Video, Component...
2nd try: nvidia 6600GT, also many many setup woes. Worst of all the live Kubuntu CD wouldn't start, so I could only install in safe graphics mode... (Does this choice exists on the DVD?) (Mind DVD won't work on this machine, I've tried in vain...)

So where am I now?
Kubuntu (7.10) is setup allright. (with LVM) I have set up a separate volume for 'diskless'
The proprietary nvidia drivers are successfully installed.
The nvidia 6600GT has 3 outputs to my knowledge: DVI-0, DVI-1, and S-video.
I have modified /etc/X11/xorg.conf so that it reads

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Option   "ConnectedMonitor" "DVI-0"I have 2 x 19" LCD's connected.
LCME Beta4 fully installed.

At first everything looked good.
At a certain point LMCE modified my xorg.conf and I was out of bussiness again...
After reediting xorg.conf I had Launch Manager running, could switch to KDE, could visualize the Orbiter so all seemed fine. I let Sarah config some stuff, and all went fine.
Up to here, I did not run the AVWizard.

Next I tried to play a DVD. Popped it in, and my screen went all green gobbles... It seems to switch to wide-screen
When I just pushed the eject button, the DVD was ejected, and after a while the orbiter came back again.

Now what is my question?
1. Is it possible at all to just use LMCE as hybrid with ONLY a couple of LCD's attached? (I seem to have read somewhere, but can't find it though, that one should only attach ONE screen...?)
2. When I try to run the AVWizard, I am unable to get the wizard visually on the screen;
    - when I issue ps -aux on a console, I can see that X is always attached to tty8
    - I do hear the beeps, pressing shift doesn't seem to react apart from continuous beeps approx. 1 sec apart.
    - It seems like the AVWizard is frantically trying to connect but doesn't succeed, I see the power led from my monitors change and turn from green to orange and back, I have the impression when I try to press 1 or any number according to AVWizard, that the system tries to connect but simply does not succeed... I aslo lose the Num Lock led on my keyb...

At the moment, when I reboot, the system comes up, no visual, nothing, but I do hear a beautifull noise coming out of my stereo telling me LMCE is UP... No X, no KDE, no nothing.
When I press Alt-F2, I can see following errors from X:
xauth: creating new authority file /home/erwin/.serverauth.975
a lot of bla bla
(EE) Failed to load module "type1" (module does not exist, 0)
(II) Module already built-in
The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning: Type "ONE_LEVEL" has 1 levels, but <RALT> has 2 symbols
> Ignoring extra symbols
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server


in /var/log/Xorg.0.log I find
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module type 1
(II) UnloadModule: "type 1"
(EE) Failed to load module "type1" (module does not exist, 0)

Looking forward to running additional tests..

Thanks for your patience and help!

Erwin   

[Lexje]

I found this on the wiki:

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So, we recommend you run 2 versions of X on separate terminals: one with LinuxMCE's window manager, and the other with your own preferred choice. here http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/I%27m_a_Linux_user_already._Should_I_use_LinuxMCE%27s_distribution

So ideally this is exactly where I want to head:
2 x 19" LCD, one with LMCE's windows manager, one with KDE
When all this runs, I intend to attach a LCD TV to the S-Video or evt. via HDMI

But how to get the first stage running?

[Zaerc]

Currently LinuxMCE only supports one screen, maybe someday that will change, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

I don't know why the AVWizard won't run, but I'm pretty sure that isn't related to the "type1"-module error as that one isn't fatal (the log on my MD, which runs just fine, shows the exact same thing). 

This type of thing usually boils down to X not being configured correctly, see also: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers for some more info on setting up X manually.

[Zaerc]

I found this on the wiki:

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So, we recommend you run 2 versions of X on separate terminals: one with LinuxMCE's window manager, and the other with your own preferred choice. here http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/I%27m_a_Linux_user_already._Should_I_use_LinuxMCE%27s_distribution

So ideally this is exactly where I want to head:
2 x 19" LCD, one with LMCE's windows manager, one with KDE
When all this runs, I intend to attach a LCD TV to the S-Video or evt. via HDMI

But how to get the first stage running?

That wiki page is so old it even refers to Ubuntu instead of Kubuntu, that was how it was in lmce-1.0 if I recall correctly. 

[Lexje]

Zaerc, thanks for replying.
I already figured this info was outdated..
So in your opinion I can connect ONE and ONLY ONE device to my VGA card?

I'm struggling to get X back on rails, but to no avail...
It just won't work..
This machine seems daunted..

Thanks anyway

[Lexje]

Proceeding...
Okay, here's what I've done:

As X really wouldn't appear on my screen, I did the

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sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg-thing.
During this reconfig I chose 1024 x 768 as my resolution.
I think, I even chose nv instead of nvidia, how can I check this? lsmod? I don't see nvidia nor nv listed there..
Anyway, KDE looks horrible because of faulty resolution, but at least stuff works now.
When I pop in a DVD it starts playing nicely.

I still haven't run AVWizard at the mo, and honestly I don't feel like it as it will probably put me back where I was..

[Blackhat]

If the MCE manager is open when you switch to KDE you can click on the video tab and look there.

or

do a "sudo pico /etc/X11/xorg.conf" and look for the Nvidia device.  It'll have a line that says "nv" or "nvidia" (or "vesa" if you're really unlucky) 

There's probably an easier way, but I don't know what it is

[Lexje]

Blackhat, thanks for the tip:
I'm running nv...

[Blackhat]

Have you had the system working with the nvidia driver?  I know the nvidia utilities won't work unless you get it working, and all those cool extras (including the extra DVI connector) probably won't work either.

I'd offer you try what I just did for my 8500gt, but I have no clue how it'd work with the CD install.  Maybe just try with the existing install, who knows...   http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=4609.0  Just backup your xorg.conf and if all doesn't go as it's supposed to those nv drivers will be there when you go back to your current settings.

if you haven't tried the envy script I think it's worth a shot.  It might get you using the right driver (or better one at least).  If you get the nvidia driver working I'd be afraid to run the AVwizard again (it nuked my graphics every time), so if you want to play with the UI mode I'd suggest doing that first.  Then again, my problem might have been a little different.

If you do get the nvidia driver going you can try to play with the nvidia wizard to see if you can get the extra DVI connector to do anything worth while.