Problems with graphic cards using nVidia chips

Support knowledgebase (wengel_glx_nv)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Version 7.0
This article refers to an older version of SuSE Linux. Therefore some of the informations given in this article may be outdated or the article may contain stale links.

XFree86: Version 4.0

Symptom:

One of the following things happens:

You are using a graphic card with an nVidia chip like Riva TNT or GeForce. During the configuration with sax 2 or by launching some programs, like xmms or the configuration of the screen saver, the GUI turns black or the system hangs completely.

Cause:

The 3D support is not activated. This is an error of the nVidia driver and that's why the desktop crashes. The drivers are binary only. This means, it is as stable as the developers of nVidia prepared these driver for linux. SuSE is only able to wait for new updates from nVidia.

Solution:

First we have to know which driver your system uses. Type the command:
grep "NVIDIA Corporation" /var/log/XFree86.0.log
If there output looks like this:
   (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
   (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
all is configured correctly.

In case there is no line with "glx" the 3D acceleration is not configured. If that happens you have to add

Load "glx"
to the file /etc/X11/XF86Config at the section "Module". The section should look like this afterwards:
Section "Module"
  Load          "dbe"
  Load          "type1"
  Load          "speedo"
  Load          "extmod"
  Load          "freetype"
  Load          "glx"
EndSection
If that leads to no solution get the update from our FTP server:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/x3d2/nvdriver.rpm

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/update/7.0/x3d2/nv_glx.rpm

Please install these packages by using yast1 It is described in the chapter 2.4 "Yast - yet another setup tool". You have to select "Install packages" there.

You can also use the rpm command as root:

   rpm -hUv --force nvdriver.rpm
   rpm -hUv --force nv_glx.rpm
If these commands are executed with no error messages, the modules are ready for working.
Keywords: NVIDIA, GLX, GRAPHIC CARDS, SCREEN SAVER, XMMS, XSERVER, KDE, BLACK, RIVA, TNT, GEFORCE2

SDB-wengel_glx_nv, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 02. Okt 2000
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 02. Okt 2000 by snbarth (sdb_gen 1.40.0)