Slowness starting X (nvidia)

[Jondot]

When I start X (whatever the window manager), I have a (essentially) black screen for 12 seconds, and then, and then only, the nvidia logo is displayed and the window manager loaded.

When I switch to XFree server, there is no such waiting so it is nvidia related.

(With older drivers under Mandrake, I hadn't encountered this problem.)

What could I do to understand what is done during this time ? (I did not find anything unusual on /var/log/XFree..., I tried the different agp options in XF86Config with no change...)

Any idea ?

[Malakin]

Possibly some of that monitor probing crap, read the readme nvidia has on their site where you download the drivers, it describes how to disable this.

[Jondot]

That's an idea, so I added the following options
option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT"
option "IgnoreEDID" "true"

I don't know if it speeded up (a little) the starting of X or not...

The only remaining warnings of /var/log/XFree80.0.log... are :
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)

(Support of APM is indeed not compiled in the kernel. I don't see any reason why it should.)

and
(WW) System lacks support for changing MTRRs


Indeed, I suppose it would be a good idea to enable it in the kernel, so I'll do it...

If it does change anything, I'll let you know...

[Guest]

Using an S3 Virge card I get a delay that last about two minutes before X starts. After some investigating I realized that libddc.a is calling a linux kernel call that is failing, and it simply gets in a loop calling it literally millions of times before it gives up. Renaming libddc.a so that it couldn't find it made it start up nice and fast.

I wouldn't delete the file, since I later switched to a different video card and X wouldn't start at all without that file (although thankfully not with the delay with the new card.) I guess it was something in the s3virge module that made libddc.a get stuck in this loop, so maybe it's the same thing with your problem.

[Jondot]

I have no library of that name.

The delay is now around 8 seconds...

(Once, as I was compiling the kernel, there wasn't any delay at all... I thought my problem was gone but it wasn't quite...)

I'll try the new nvidia drivers (which are responsible for this (quite small) delay) when they are out !

[chuzwuzza]

I've got this problem too. About a 5 second black screen before the nvidia logo and X starting up. It doesn't really bother me though, but if you do find out what's going on, post it here

[dacoval]

I had the same problem, but discovered it was an error in the GLX extension.... maybe this could be your problem?? (Glx wasnt loading properly, and the timeout of it trying to load was causing the delay.) Fixed it by re-emerging the nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx ebuilds....... maybe this is causing your slowness...

[Jondot]

Well I tried re-emerging nvidia-glx, nvidia-kernel, just in case...

Didn't change anything.

Some posts in gentoo-user mailing lists were evoking this problem, and attributed it to the scanning by the driver of different modes for the display. It's seems to be what the driver does indeed starting X.

Don't know why it should though, but indeed would like to know how to prevent this anyhow...

Some of the lines of /var/log/XFree...log are :
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "1600x1200" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou
blescan)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "800x600" (hsync out of range)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "1792x1344" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou
blescan)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "896x672" (hsync out of range)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "1856x1392" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou
blescan)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "1856x1392" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou
blescan)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "928x696" (hsync out of range)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "1920x1440" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou
blescan)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "1920x1440" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou
blescan)
(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "960x720" (hsync out of range)

It is probably quite normal but
at the exception of 800x600, none of these so-called default modes does appear in my XF86Config, of which this is the relevant part :

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "Diamond Viper 550"
Monitor "IIyama"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1408x1056" "640x480" "768x576" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1
024"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection

[Framba]

[Jondot]

in the "Device" section.

[Framba]

Thanks a lot.
Now I've got another problem: my pc has gone into a loop (I tried startx ) so I restarted. Now my XF86Config is empty. EMPTY!

[Jondot(not logged)]

Couldn't you kill the X server with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace ?

Too bad you didn't have a backup of XF86Config... You'll have to regenerate it...

You could try the script xf86config to help you creating a working skeleton, end edit it later to adjust it to your needs...

[Framba]

Ok, I regenerated my XF86Config (and create a backup ). Now my system seems to work fine. Thanks a lot

[deadbeat]

bumping this because i have the exact same problem, did anyone ever figure anything out? my log complains about the horiz and vert settings too even though i KNOW they are right. the screen flickers about 10 times (black and blue when it flickers) then nvidia logo then works...


help?

[Guest]

i had some problems with slowness in starting up X
it seemed to occur when X couldn't resolve the hostname of my machine