nvidia-kernel driver won't work with RAM > 960MB

Yama

Okay, here's what happened. I did a fresh installation of Gentoo on my system, an Athlon XP 2100+ with 1024MB of RAM. The kernel (gentoo-sources r5) was compiled for Athlons, but I had forgotten to turn on high-memory support (in the Processor type and features section of the kernel config). I didn't realise this at the time, and after a reboot I emerged nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx. The NVIDIA drivers worked fine with my GeForce 3 Ti200, but then I realised that free was reporting that I only had 880MB RAM total. I recompiled my kernel, changing High memory support (CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM) to 4GB but keeping everything else the same. I rebooted into the new kernel, and all my memory was now visible.

Then things became screwy. The emerge nvidia-kernel nvidia-glx went fine, but X refused to start. The XFree86 nv driver worked fine. After reading through these fora, I decided to try changing some kernel options in the hope of fixing the problem. I've tried compiling for Pentium III and compiling without MTRR support, with high memory support and without. On these kernels the NVIDIA driver would only load when high memory is disabled.

This means that I have to choose between having all my RAM visible with mediocre graphics or having less RAM with a good graphics driver. I've chosen the latter, but I'm not too happy about it. Any ideas, people?

delta407 · Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2002 4:16 pm Post subject:

I'm running a GeForce 4 Ti 4400 on a dual P3 system with 1 GB of RAM and the full GB is being reported. It can work, it's just a matter of finding out why it doesn't want to.
_________________
I don't believe in witty sigs.

Yama · Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 7:42 am Post subject:

Yama · Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 12:49 pm Post subject:

I tried recompiling the kernel again (using gentoo-r7 this time round), leaving CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM at 4GB but this time modularising agpgart (the AGP driver), which before I had compiled into the kernel itself. I tried both with and without the module loaded. I also tried altering the NvAgp option in /etc/x11/XFree86config, trying all possible values (0-3). Still no luck

delta407, would you please be so kind as to post your kernel .config file so that I may compare it with my own? It's probably too long for a forum like this so you can mail me at Yama_I@yahoo.com.au. Thanks.

delta407 · Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 4:14 pm Post subject:

E-mailed.
_________________
I don't believe in witty sigs.

format c: · Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 4:33 pm Post subject:

On my K7 with 1024 MB RAM single CPU the nvidia-driver and nvidia-glx work with the new vanilla 2.4.19 and with the gentoo-patched kernel.

curt@joy curt$ cat /proc/meminfo
total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached:
Mem: 1058848768 1051144192 7704576 0 11538432 846032896
Swap: 1998700544 827392 1997873152
MemTotal: 1034032 kB
MemFree: 7524 kB
MemShared: 0 kB

fmalabre · Guru Joined: 19 Jun 2002 Posts: 376 Location: Chicago

Ram is so cheap nowadays...

delta407 · Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 7:52 pm Post subject:

fmalabre · Guru Joined: 19 Jun 2002 Posts: 376 Location: Chicago

That's amazing, I used to have 64Mb for this price few years ago, and I was at the top of the tech!

phong · Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2002 8:45 pm Post subject:

fmalabre · Guru Joined: 19 Jun 2002 Posts: 376 Location: Chicago

Well, I remember before that, I had my first PC, a 8088, and I think my memory was like 128Kb, which was pretty good at this time...

You were rich to afford a 1Mb ram drive!

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

Wasn't this a thread about nvidia and more RAM than 960MB?

_________________
Quis separabit? Quo animo?

fmalabre · Guru Joined: 19 Jun 2002 Posts: 376 Location: Chicago

Nvidia didn't exist at this time, and I was happy with my Hercule card.

Sorry, stop talking about unrelated subject...

Yama · Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2002 4:48 am Post subject:

Thank you so much delta407!

format c: · Posted: Fri Aug 09, 2002 9:00 am Post subject:

e-mailed

Yama · Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2002 9:16 am Post subject: All fixed!

Everything's working now

After comparing my .config file to that of delta407 and format c: (thanks guys), and doing lots of experimentation, I managed to get a 2.4.19-gentoo-r7 kernel that gives me the full 1024MB of RAM and works with the NVIDIA graphics drivers. As a cool side-effect, my system no longer hangs when I try fo switch to a virtual console and back again

I compared my new working .config to the original one and found two main differences. Firstly, the new kernel is far more modularised. Secondly, the new kernel has Grsecurity completely turned off. I think that Grsecurity was the problem in the first place. The fact that the NVIDIA driver only worked with Highmem switched off was a red herring, and was the reason why I had so much trouble. Since this machine sits behind a separate firewall box, there's no pressing need for Grsecurity.

Thanks to all those who tried to help.

Pigeon · Guru Joined: 21 Jun 2002 Posts: 307

The "hang when switching to a virtual console and back again" is very, very likely because you had the riva framebuffer installed. (haven't seen your .config so I couldn't tell ya) The damned thing is broken in so many ways it's ridiculous. IMO it should get booted from the kernel until it goes after active development again...

Yama · Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2002 4:42 am Post subject: yep

Pigeon · Guru Joined: 21 Jun 2002 Posts: 307

Miles · Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2002 5:51 pm Post subject:

I don't think it's grsecurity because I've got it working with the Gentoo kernel sources with 1GB RAM and the nvidia driver. If you're still interested in finding the root of the problem I'll send you my .config.

Yama · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 3:21 am Post subject:

Miles · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 6:13 am Post subject:

I've sent my .config.

format c: · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 11:52 am Post subject:

I'm interested in a .config with working grsecurity too. Miles would you please so kind sent me ( pop.py@arcor.de ) your .config too? During install gentoo_1.4_beta I compiled a new, smaller kernel. Gnome starts in 6 sec. (with the nvidia-agp-driver, agp-rate 4x) now. Before gnome needs 10 sec. (gentoo_1.2) to come up. That seems to be o.k., but I've no working grsecurity.

Miles · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 10:32 pm Post subject:

Done.

harv · n00b Joined: 15 Nov 2002 Posts: 10

This thread is rather old now, but I have a similar problem.

I added a 512MB module today so I got 1GB ram, added high memory support and the kernel booted up just fine and showed 1GB ram..

Trying to start X results in error messages about DMA, (framebuffer, LUT, context) changing at almost every try.

Rebooting to the old kernel without high memory support made X die even earlier with fatal io error 104 (connection reset by peer).

I've tried both 3123 and 4191 nvidia drivers.
running gentoo-sources 2.4.20-r1
Athlon XP 2200+
Asus MB with kt400 chipset
everything but the nvidia driver compiled into the kernel (not as modules),
Running XFree's nv driver atm, which works fine.

Does anyone have any idea how to solve this?