doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml,v 1.21 2006/01/13 16:06:46 neysx Exp $ -->
<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">

<guide link="/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml">
<title>Gentoo Linux nVidia Guide</title>

<author title="Author">
  <mail link="swift@gentoo.org">Sven Vermeulen</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="curtis119@gentoo.org">M Curtis Napier</mail>
</author>
<author title="Editor">
  <mail link="jackdark@gmail.com">Joshua Saddler</mail>
</author>

<abstract>
Many Gentooists have an nVidia chipset on their system. nVidia provides specific
Linux drivers to boost the performance of your card. This guide informs you how
to install and configure these drivers.
</abstract>

<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
<license/>

<version>1.18</version>
<date>2006-01-21</date>

<chapter>
<title>Introduction</title>
<section>
<body>

<p>
nVidia release their own Linux drivers which provide good performance and full
3D acceleration. The driver releases are split up into two parts:
<c>nvidia-kernel</c> and <c>nvidia-glx</c>.
</p>

<p>
<c>nvidia-kernel</c> is a kernel driver which handles the low-level
communication with your video hardware. This is simply a kernel module, named
<c>nvidia</c>, which installs against your kernel sources and needs to be loaded
whenever you want to use the nvidia drivers.
</p>

<p>
As well as the kernel driver, you need to install the X11 GLX layer
(<c>nvidia-glx</c>). This is used by X to render graphics, which internally
uses the <c>nvidia-kernel</c> kernel driver to interface with the hardware.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Configuring your Card</title>
<section>
<title>Kernel Configuration</title>
<body>

<p>
As mentioned above, the nVidia kernel driver installs and runs against your
current kernel. It builds as a module, so it makes sense that your kernel must
support the loading of kernel modules. If you used <c>genkernel</c> to configure
the kernel for you then you're all set. If not, double check your kernel
configuration so that this support is enabled:
</p>

<pre caption="Enabling the Loading of Kernel Modules">
Loadable module support ---&gt;
  [*] Enable loadable module support
</pre>

<p>
You also need to enable <e>Memory Type Range Register</e> in your kernel:
</p>

<pre caption="Enabling MTRR">
Processor and Features ---&gt;
  [*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support
</pre>

<p>
nVidia's modules and libraries are combined in two packages: <c>nvidia-glx</c>
and <c>nvidia-kernel</c>. The former are the X11 GLX libraries while the latter
are the kernel modules.
</p>

<p>
The nvidia-kernel ebuild auto discovers your kernel version based on the
<path>/usr/src/linux</path> symlink. Please ensure that you have this symlink
pointing to the correct sources and that your kernel is correctly configured.
Please refer to the Configuring the Kernel section of the <uri
link="/doc/en/handbook/">Installation Handbook</uri> for details on configuring
your kernel.
</p>

<p>
If you are using gentoo-sources-2.6.11-r6, your <path>/usr/src</path> directory
might look something like this:
</p>

<pre caption="Check your /usr/src/linux symlink">
# <i>cd /usr/src</i>
# <i>ls -l</i>
<comment>(Check that linux points to the right directory)</comment>
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root   22 Apr 23 18:33 linux -&gt; linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root  120 Apr  8 18:56 linux-2.4.26-gentoo-r4
drwxr-xr-x  18 root root  664 Dec 31 16:09 linux-2.6.10
drwxr-xr-x  18 root root  632 Mar  3 12:27 linux-2.6.11
drwxr-xr-x  19 root root 4096 Mar 16 22:00 linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6
</pre>

<p>
In the above output, you'll notice that the <c>linux</c> symlink is pointing
to the <c>linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6</c> kernel.
</p>

<p>
If the symlink is not pointing to the correct sources, you must update the link
like this:
</p>

<pre caption="Create/Update /usr/src/linux symlink">
# <i>cd /usr/src</i>
# <i>ln -snf linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6 linux</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Optional: Check for Legacy Card Support</title>
<body>

<note>
Unfortunately, certain legacy video cards are not supported by the newer
versions of <c>nvidia-glx</c> and <c>nvidia-kernel</c>. nVidia provides a <uri
link="http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_18897.html">list of supported cards</uri>.
Please check the list before installing the drivers.
</note>

<p>
The following is a list of <b>unsupported</b> legacy video cards:
</p>

<pre caption="Unsupported cards">
TNT2
TNT2 Pro
TNT2 Ultra
TNT2 Model 64 (M64)
TNT2 Model 64 (M64) Pro
Vanta
Vanta LT
GeForce 256
GeForce DDR
GeForce2 GTS
GeForce2 Pro
GeForce2 Ti
GeForce2 Ultra
GeForce2 MX Integrated graphics
Quadro
Quadro2 Pro
Quadro2 EX
</pre>

<p>
If you own one of these cards, you will have to mask the newer versions of the
nVidia drivers, and install an older version:
</p>

<pre caption="Masking newer drivers">
# <i>echo "&gt;media-video/nvidia-kernel-1.0.6629-r4" &gt;&gt; /etc/portage/package.mask</i>
# <i>echo "&gt;media-video/nvidia-glx-1.0.6629-r7" &gt;&gt; /etc/portage/package.mask</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Installing the Appropriate Drivers</title>
<body>

<p>
Now it's time to install <c>nvidia-kernel</c> and <c>nvidia-glx</c>. Since
<c>nvidia-glx</c> depends on <c>nvidia-kernel</c>, installing <c>nvidia-glx</c>
is sufficient.
</p>

<pre caption="Installing the nVidia modules">
# <i>emerge nvidia-glx</i>
</pre>

<impo>
Every time you <uri link="/doc/en/kernel-upgrade.xml">compile a new
kernel</uri> or recompile the current one, you have to run <c>emerge
nvidia-kernel</c> to reinstall the nVidia modules. <c>nvidia-glx</c> is
unaffected by a kernel change and doesn't even need to be rebuilt when you
recompile/upgrade X.
</impo>

<p>
Once the installation has finished, run <c>modprobe nvidia</c> to load the
kernel module into memory.
</p>

<pre caption="Loading the kernel module">
# <i>modprobe nvidia</i>
</pre>

<p>
To prevent you having to manually load the module on every bootup, you probably
want to have this done automatically each time you boot your system, so edit
<path>/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6</path> (or <path>kernel-2.4</path>,
depending on which kernel version you use) and add <c>nvidia</c> to it. Don't
forget to run <c>modules-update</c> afterwards.
</p>

<pre caption="Running modules-update">
# <i>modules-update</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Configuring the X Server</title>
<body>

<p>
Once the appropriate drivers are installed you need to configure your X Server
(XFree86 or Xorg) to use the <c>nvidia</c> driver instead of the default
<c>nv</c> driver.
</p>

<p>
Open <path>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</path> (or <path>/etc/X11/XF86Config</path> if you
still use the older configuration file location) with your favorite editor
(such as <c>nano</c> or <c>vim</c>) and go to the <c>Device</c> section. In that
section, change the <c>Driver</c> line:
</p>

<pre caption="Changing nv to nvidia in the X Server configuration">
Section "Device"
  Identifier "nVidia Inc. GeForce2"
  <i>Driver     "nvidia"</i>
  VideoRam   65536
EndSection
</pre>

<p>
Then go to the <c>Module</c> section and make sure the <c>glx</c> module gets
loaded while the <c>dri</c> module doesn't:
</p>

<pre caption="Updating the Module section">
Section "Module"
  <comment>(...)</comment>
  <i># Load  "dri"
  Load  "glx"</i>
  <comment>(...)</comment>
EndSection
</pre>

<p>
Next, in section <c>Screen</c>, make sure that either the <c>DefaultDepth</c>
directive is set to 16 or 24, or that you only have <c>Display</c> subsections
with <c>Depth</c> settings of 16 or 24. Without it, the nvidia-glx extensions
will not start.
</p>

<pre caption="Updating the Screen section">
Section "Screen"
  <comment>(...)</comment>
  <i>DefaultDepth 16</i>
  Subsection "Display"
  <comment>(...)</comment>
EndSection
</pre>

<p>
Run <c>opengl-update</c> so that the X Server uses the nVidia GLX libraries:
</p>

<pre caption="Running opengl-update">
# <i>opengl-update nvidia</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Adding your Users to the video Group</title>
<body>

<p>
You have to add your user to the <c>video</c> group so he has access to the
nvidia device files:
</p>

<pre caption="Adding your user to the video group">
# <i>gpasswd -a youruser video</i>
</pre>

<p>
This might not be totally necessary if you aren't using <c>udev</c> but it
doesn't hurt either and makes your system future-proof :)
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Testing your Card</title>
<body>

<p>
To test your nVidia card, fire up X and run the <c>glxinfo | grep direct</c>
command. It should say that direct rendering is activated:
</p>

<pre caption="Checking the direct rendering status">
$ <i>glxinfo | grep direct</i>
direct rendering: Yes
</pre>

<p>
To monitor your FPS, run <c>glxgears</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Enabling nvidia Support</title>
<body>

<p>
Some tools, such as <c>mplayer</c> and <c>xine-lib</c>, use a local USE flag
called "nvidia" which enables XvMCNVIDIA support, useful when watching high
resolution movies. Add in "nvidia" in your USE variable in
<path>/etc/make.conf</path> or add it as USE flag to <c>media-video/mplayer</c>
and/or <c>media-libs/xine-lib</c> in <path>/etc/portage/package.use</path>.
</p>

<p>
Then, run <c>emerge -uD --newuse world</c> to rebuild the applications that
benefit from the USE flag change.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Using NVidia Settings Tool</title>
<body>

<p>
Since NVidia released version 1.0.6106 it also provides you with a settings
tool. This tool allows you to change graphical settings without restarting the X
server and is available through Portage as <c>media-video/nvidia-settings</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Troubleshooting</title>
<section>
<title>Getting 2D to work on machines with 4Gb or more memory</title>
<body>

<p>
If you are having troubles with the nVidia 2D acceleration it is likely that you
are unable to set up a write-combining range with MTRR. To verify, check the
contents of <path>/proc/mtrr</path>:
</p>

<pre caption="Checking if you have write-combining enabled">
# <i>cat /proc/mtrr</i>
</pre>

<p>
Every line should contain "write-back" or "write-combining". If you see a line
with "uncachable" in it you will need to change a BIOS setting to fix this.
</p>

<p>
Reboot and enter the BIOS, then find the MTRR settings (probably under "CPU
Settings"). Change the setting from "continuous" to "discrete" and boot back
into Linux. You will now find out that there is no "uncachable" entry anymore
and 2D acceleration now works without any glitches.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>I receive warnings about unsupported 4K stack sizes</title>
<body>

<p>
<c>nvidia-kernel</c> packages older than 1.0.6106 only support kernels using an
8K stack size. More recent kernels (2.6.6 and higher) have support for 4K stack
size's as well. Do not select 4K stack size in your kernel configuration if you
are using such an <c>nvidia-kernel</c> package. You can find this option in the
section <c>Kernel Hacking</c>.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  When I attempt to load the kernel module I receive a "no such device"
</title>
<body>

<p>
This usually occurs when you don't have a matching video card. Make sure that
you have an nVidia-powered graphical card (you can double-check this using
<c>lspci</c>).
</p>

<p>
If you are confident that you have an nVidia card, check your BIOS and see if
the directive <e>Assign IRQ to VGA</e> is set.
</p>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>
  I get "no screens found" and the logs state "Failed to initialize the NVIDIA 
  kernel module!"
</title>
<body>

<p>
You're most likely missing the <path>/dev/nvidia*</path> device files. Create
them using <c>NVmakedevices.sh</c>:
</p>

<pre caption="Creating the nvidia device drivers">
# <i>/sbin/NVmakedevices.sh</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

<chapter>
<title>Expert Configuration</title>
<section>
<title>Documentation</title>
<body>

<p>
The nVidia driver package also comes with comprehensive documentation. This is
installed into <c>/usr/share/doc</c> and can be viewed with the following
command:
</p>

<pre caption="Viewing the NVIDIA documentation">
# <i>less /usr/share/doc/nvidia-glx-*/README.txt.gz</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Kernel module parameters</title>
<body>

<p>
The <c>nvidia</c> kernel module accepts a number of parameters (options) which
you can use to tweak the behaviour of the driver. Most of these are mentioned in
the documentation. To add or change the values of these parameters, edit the
file <c>/etc/modules.d/nvidia</c>. Remember to run <c>modules-update</c> after
modifying this file, and bear in mind that you will need to reload the
<c>nvidia</c> module before the new settings take effect.
</p>

<pre caption="Adjusting nvidia options">
<comment>(Edit /etc/modules.d/nvidia in your favourite editor)</comment>
# <i>nano -w /etc/modules.d/nvidia</i>
<comment>(Update module information)</comment>
# <i>modules-update</i>
<comment>(Unload the nvidia module...)</comment>
# <i>modprobe -r nvidia</i>
<comment>(...and load it once again)</comment>
# <i>modprobe nvidia</i>
</pre>

</body>
</section>
<section>
<title>Advanced X configuration</title>
<body>

<p>
The GLX layer also has a plethora of options which can be configured. These
control the configuration of TV out, dual displays, monitor frequency detection,
etc. Again, all of the available options are detailed in the documentation.
</p>

<p>
If you wish to use any of these options, you need to list them in the relevant
Device section of your X config file (usually <c>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</c>). For
example, suppose I wanted to disable the splash logo:
</p>

<pre caption="Advanced nvidia configuration in the X configuration">
Section "Device"
  Identifier "nVidia Inc. GeForce2"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  <i>Option     "NoLogo" "true"</i>
  VideoRam   65536
EndSection
</pre>

</body>
</section>
</chapter>

</guide>
1	swift	1.1	<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
2	swift	1.22	<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml,v 1.21 2006/01/13 16:06:46 neysx Exp $ -->
3	swift	1.1	<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
4
5			<guide link="/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml">
6			<title>Gentoo Linux nVidia Guide</title>
7
8			<author title="Author">
9			<mail link="swift@gentoo.org">Sven Vermeulen</mail>
10			</author>
11	neysx	1.13	<author title="Editor">
12	fox2mike	1.15	<mail link="curtis119@gentoo.org">M Curtis Napier</mail>
13	neysx	1.13	</author>
14	neysx	1.21	<author title="Editor">
15			<mail link="jackdark@gmail.com">Joshua Saddler</mail>
16			</author>
17	swift	1.1
18			<abstract>
19			Many Gentooists have an nVidia chipset on their system. nVidia provides specific
20			Linux drivers to boost the performance of your card. This guide informs you how
21			to install and configure these drivers.
22			</abstract>
23
24	fox2mike	1.15	<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
25			<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
26	swift	1.1	<license/>
27
28	swift	1.22	<version>1.18</version>
29			<date>2006-01-21</date>
30	swift	1.1
31			<chapter>
32	neysx	1.14	<title>Introduction</title>
33			<section>
34			<body>
35
36			<p>
37			nVidia release their own Linux drivers which provide good performance and full
38			3D acceleration. The driver releases are split up into two parts:
39			<c>nvidia-kernel</c> and <c>nvidia-glx</c>.
40			</p>
41
42			<p>
43			<c>nvidia-kernel</c> is a kernel driver which handles the low-level
44			communication with your video hardware. This is simply a kernel module, named
45			<c>nvidia</c>, which installs against your kernel sources and needs to be loaded
46			whenever you want to use the nvidia drivers.
47			</p>
48
49			<p>
50			As well as the kernel driver, you need to install the X11 GLX layer
51			(<c>nvidia-glx</c>). This is used by X to render graphics, which internally
52			uses the <c>nvidia-kernel</c> kernel driver to interface with the hardware.
53			</p>
54
55			</body>
56			</section>
57			</chapter>
58
59			<chapter>
60	swift	1.1	<title>Configuring your Card</title>
61			<section>
62	neysx	1.21	<title>Kernel Configuration</title>
63	swift	1.1	<body>
64
65			<p>
66	neysx	1.14	As mentioned above, the nVidia kernel driver installs and runs against your
67			current kernel. It builds as a module, so it makes sense that your kernel must
68			support the loading of kernel modules. If you used <c>genkernel</c> to configure
69			the kernel for you then you're all set. If not, double check your kernel
70			configuration so that this support is enabled:
71	swift	1.1	</p>
72
73			<pre caption="Enabling the Loading of Kernel Modules">
74			Loadable module support --->
75			[*] Enable loadable module support
76			</pre>
77
78			<p>
79	swift	1.5	You also need to enable <e>Memory Type Range Register</e> in your kernel:
80			</p>
81
82			<pre caption="Enabling MTRR">
83			Processor and Features --->
84			[*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support
85			</pre>
86
87			<p>
88	neysx	1.21	nVidia's modules and libraries are combined in two packages: <c>nvidia-glx</c>
89			and <c>nvidia-kernel</c>. The former are the X11 GLX libraries while the latter
90	neysx	1.13	are the kernel modules.
91			</p>
92
93			<p>
94			The nvidia-kernel ebuild auto discovers your kernel version based on the
95			<path>/usr/src/linux</path> symlink. Please ensure that you have this symlink
96			pointing to the correct sources and that your kernel is correctly configured.
97			Please refer to the Configuring the Kernel section of the <uri
98			link="/doc/en/handbook/">Installation Handbook</uri> for details on configuring
99			your kernel.
100			</p>
101
102			<p>
103	rane	1.18	If you are using gentoo-sources-2.6.11-r6, your <path>/usr/src</path> directory
104			might look something like this:
105	neysx	1.13	</p>
106
107			<pre caption="Check your /usr/src/linux symlink">
108			# <i>cd /usr/src</i>
109			# <i>ls -l</i>
110	neysx	1.14	<comment>(Check that linux points to the right directory)</comment>
111	neysx	1.13	lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Apr 23 18:33 linux -> linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6
112			drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 120 Apr 8 18:56 linux-2.4.26-gentoo-r4
113			drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 664 Dec 31 16:09 linux-2.6.10
114			drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 632 Mar 3 12:27 linux-2.6.11
115			drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Mar 16 22:00 linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6
116			</pre>
117
118			<p>
119	neysx	1.14	In the above output, you'll notice that the <c>linux</c> symlink is pointing
120			to the <c>linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6</c> kernel.
121			</p>
122
123			<p>
124			If the symlink is not pointing to the correct sources, you must update the link
125	neysx	1.13	like this:
126			</p>
127
128	neysx	1.14	<pre caption="Create/Update /usr/src/linux symlink">
129	neysx	1.13	# <i>cd /usr/src</i>
130			# <i>ln -snf linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6 linux</i>
131			</pre>
132
133	neysx	1.21	</body>
134			</section>
135			<section>
136			<title>Optional: Check for Legacy Card Support</title>
137			<body>
138
139			<note>
140			Unfortunately, certain legacy video cards are not supported by the newer
141			versions of <c>nvidia-glx</c> and <c>nvidia-kernel</c>. nVidia provides a <uri
142			link="http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_18897.html">list of supported cards</uri>.
143			Please check the list before installing the drivers.
144			</note>
145
146			<p>
147			The following is a list of <b>unsupported</b> legacy video cards:
148			</p>
149
150			<pre caption="Unsupported cards">
151			TNT2
152			TNT2 Pro
153			TNT2 Ultra
154			TNT2 Model 64 (M64)
155			TNT2 Model 64 (M64) Pro
156			Vanta
157			Vanta LT
158			GeForce 256
159			GeForce DDR
160			GeForce2 GTS
161			GeForce2 Pro
162			GeForce2 Ti
163			GeForce2 Ultra
164			GeForce2 MX Integrated graphics
165			Quadro
166			Quadro2 Pro
167			Quadro2 EX
168			</pre>
169
170			<p>
171			If you own one of these cards, you will have to mask the newer versions of the
172			nVidia drivers, and install an older version:
173			</p>
174
175			<pre caption="Masking newer drivers">
176			# <i>echo ">media-video/nvidia-kernel-1.0.6629-r4" >> /etc/portage/package.mask</i>
177			# <i>echo ">media-video/nvidia-glx-1.0.6629-r7" >> /etc/portage/package.mask</i>
178			</pre>
179
180			</body>
181			</section>
182			<section>
183			<title>Installing the Appropriate Drivers</title>
184			<body>
185
186	neysx	1.13	<p>
187	neysx	1.21	Now it's time to install <c>nvidia-kernel</c> and <c>nvidia-glx</c>. Since
188			<c>nvidia-glx</c> depends on <c>nvidia-kernel</c>, installing <c>nvidia-glx</c>
189			is sufficient.
190	swift	1.1	</p>
191
192			<pre caption="Installing the nVidia modules">
193	swift	1.3	# <i>emerge nvidia-glx</i>
194	swift	1.1	</pre>
195
196	neysx	1.13	<impo>
197			Every time you <uri link="/doc/en/kernel-upgrade.xml">compile a new
198			kernel</uri> or recompile the current one, you have to run <c>emerge
199	neysx	1.21	nvidia-kernel</c> to reinstall the nVidia modules. <c>nvidia-glx</c> is
200			unaffected by a kernel change and doesn't even need to be rebuilt when you
201			recompile/upgrade X.
202	neysx	1.13	</impo>
203
204	swift	1.1	<p>
205			Once the installation has finished, run <c>modprobe nvidia</c> to load the
206			kernel module into memory.
207			</p>
208
209			<pre caption="Loading the kernel module">
210			# <i>modprobe nvidia</i>
211			</pre>
212
213			<p>
214	neysx	1.14	To prevent you having to manually load the module on every bootup, you probably
215			want to have this done automatically each time you boot your system, so edit
216			<path>/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6</path> (or <path>kernel-2.4</path>,
217			depending on which kernel version you use) and add <c>nvidia</c> to it. Don't
218			forget to run <c>modules-update</c> afterwards.
219	swift	1.1	</p>
220
221			<pre caption="Running modules-update">
222			# <i>modules-update</i>
223			</pre>
224
225			</body>
226			</section>
227			<section>
228			<title>Configuring the X Server</title>
229			<body>
230
231			<p>
232			Once the appropriate drivers are installed you need to configure your X Server
233			(XFree86 or Xorg) to use the <c>nvidia</c> driver instead of the default
234			<c>nv</c> driver.
235			</p>
236
237			<p>
238	neysx	1.14	Open <path>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</path> (or <path>/etc/X11/XF86Config</path> if you
239			still use the older configuration file location) with your favorite editor
240			(such as <c>nano</c> or <c>vim</c>) and go to the <c>Device</c> section. In that
241			section, change the <c>Driver</c> line:
242	swift	1.1	</p>
243
244			<pre caption="Changing nv to nvidia in the X Server configuration">
245			Section "Device"
246			Identifier "nVidia Inc. GeForce2"
247			<i>Driver "nvidia"</i>
248			VideoRam 65536
249			EndSection
250			</pre>
251
252			<p>
253	swift	1.4	Then go to the <c>Module</c> section and make sure the <c>glx</c> module gets
254			loaded while the <c>dri</c> module doesn't:
255			</p>
256
257			<pre caption="Updating the Module section">
258			Section "Module"
259			<comment>(...)</comment>
260			<i># Load "dri"
261			Load "glx"</i>
262			<comment>(...)</comment>
263			EndSection
264			</pre>
265
266			<p>
267	swift	1.12	Next, in section <c>Screen</c>, make sure that either the <c>DefaultDepth</c>
268	neysx	1.21	directive is set to 16 or 24, or that you only have <c>Display</c> subsections
269			with <c>Depth</c> settings of 16 or 24. Without it, the nvidia-glx extensions
270	swift	1.12	will not start.
271			</p>
272
273			<pre caption="Updating the Screen section">
274			Section "Screen"
275			<comment>(...)</comment>
276			<i>DefaultDepth 16</i>
277			Subsection "Display"
278			<comment>(...)</comment>
279			EndSection
280			</pre>
281
282			<p>
283	swift	1.1	Run <c>opengl-update</c> so that the X Server uses the nVidia GLX libraries:
284			</p>
285
286			<pre caption="Running opengl-update">
287			# <i>opengl-update nvidia</i>
288			</pre>
289
290			</body>
291			</section>
292			<section>
293	swift	1.10	<title>Adding your Users to the video Group</title>
294			<body>
295
296			<p>
297			You have to add your user to the <c>video</c> group so he has access to the
298			nvidia device files:
299			</p>
300
301			<pre caption="Adding your user to the video group">
302			# <i>gpasswd -a youruser video</i>
303			</pre>
304
305			<p>
306	fox2mike	1.16	This might not be totally necessary if you aren't using <c>udev</c> but it
307	swift	1.10	doesn't hurt either and makes your system future-proof :)
308			</p>
309
310			</body>
311			</section>
312			<section>
313	swift	1.1	<title>Testing your Card</title>
314			<body>
315
316			<p>
317			To test your nVidia card, fire up X and run the <c>glxinfo \| grep direct</c>
318			command. It should say that direct rendering is activated:
319			</p>
320
321			<pre caption="Checking the direct rendering status">
322			$ <i>glxinfo \| grep direct</i>
323			direct rendering: Yes
324			</pre>
325
326			<p>
327	neysx	1.21	To monitor your FPS, run <c>glxgears</c>.
328	swift	1.1	</p>
329
330			</body>
331			</section>
332	swift	1.11	<section>
333			<title>Enabling nvidia Support</title>
334			<body>
335
336			<p>
337			Some tools, such as <c>mplayer</c> and <c>xine-lib</c>, use a local USE flag
338			called "nvidia" which enables XvMCNVIDIA support, useful when watching high
339			resolution movies. Add in "nvidia" in your USE variable in
340			<path>/etc/make.conf</path> or add it as USE flag to <c>media-video/mplayer</c>
341			and/or <c>media-libs/xine-lib</c> in <path>/etc/portage/package.use</path>.
342			</p>
343
344			<p>
345			Then, run <c>emerge -uD --newuse world</c> to rebuild the applications that
346			benefit from the USE flag change.
347			</p>
348
349			</body>
350			</section>
351	swift	1.19	<section>
352			<title>Using NVidia Settings Tool</title>
353			<body>
354
355			<p>
356			Since NVidia released version 1.0.6106 it also provides you with a settings
357			tool. This tool allows you to change graphical settings without restarting the X
358			server and is available through Portage as <c>media-video/nvidia-settings</c>.
359			</p>
360
361			</body>
362			</section>
363	swift	1.1	</chapter>
364	swift	1.6
365			<chapter>
366			<title>Troubleshooting</title>
367			<section>
368			<title>Getting 2D to work on machines with 4Gb or more memory</title>
369			<body>
370
371			<p>
372			If you are having troubles with the nVidia 2D acceleration it is likely that you
373			are unable to set up a write-combining range with MTRR. To verify, check the
374			contents of <path>/proc/mtrr</path>:
375			</p>
376
377			<pre caption="Checking if you have write-combining enabled">
378			# <i>cat /proc/mtrr</i>
379			</pre>
380
381			<p>
382			Every line should contain "write-back" or "write-combining". If you see a line
383			with "uncachable" in it you will need to change a BIOS setting to fix this.
384			</p>
385
386			<p>
387			Reboot and enter the BIOS, then find the MTRR settings (probably under "CPU
388			Settings"). Change the setting from "continuous" to "discrete" and boot back
389			into Linux. You will now find out that there is no "uncachable" entry anymore
390			and 2D acceleration now works without any glitches.
391			</p>
392
393			</body>
394			</section>
395	swift	1.7	<section>
396			<title>I receive warnings about unsupported 4K stack sizes</title>
397			<body>
398
399			<p>
400	neysx	1.9	<c>nvidia-kernel</c> packages older than 1.0.6106 only support kernels using an
401			8K stack size. More recent kernels (2.6.6 and higher) have support for 4K stack
402			size's as well. Do not select 4K stack size in your kernel configuration if you
403			are using such an <c>nvidia-kernel</c> package. You can find this option in the
404			section <c>Kernel Hacking</c>.
405	swift	1.7	</p>
406
407			</body>
408			</section>
409	swift	1.20	<section>
410			<title>
411			When I attempt to load the kernel module I receive a "no such device"
412			</title>
413			<body>
414
415			<p>
416			This usually occurs when you don't have a matching video card. Make sure that
417			you have an nVidia-powered graphical card (you can double-check this using
418			<c>lspci</c>).
419			</p>
420
421			<p>
422			If you are confident that you have an nVidia card, check your BIOS and see if
423			the directive <e>Assign IRQ to VGA</e> is set.
424			</p>
425
426			</body>
427			</section>
428	swift	1.22	<section>
429			<title>
430			I get "no screens found" and the logs state "Failed to initialize the NVIDIA
431			kernel module!"
432			</title>
433			<body>
434
435			<p>
436			You're most likely missing the <path>/dev/nvidia*</path> device files. Create
437			them using <c>NVmakedevices.sh</c>:
438			</p>
439
440			<pre caption="Creating the nvidia device drivers">
441			# <i>/sbin/NVmakedevices.sh</i>
442			</pre>
443
444			</body>
445			</section>
446	swift	1.6	</chapter>
447
448	neysx	1.14	<chapter>
449			<title>Expert Configuration</title>
450			<section>
451			<title>Documentation</title>
452			<body>
453
454			<p>
455			The nVidia driver package also comes with comprehensive documentation. This is
456			installed into <c>/usr/share/doc</c> and can be viewed with the following
457			command:
458			</p>
459
460			<pre caption="Viewing the NVIDIA documentation">
461			# <i>less /usr/share/doc/nvidia-glx-*/README.txt.gz</i>
462			</pre>
463
464			</body>
465			</section>
466			<section>
467			<title>Kernel module parameters</title>
468			<body>
469
470			<p>
471			The <c>nvidia</c> kernel module accepts a number of parameters (options) which
472			you can use to tweak the behaviour of the driver. Most of these are mentioned in
473			the documentation. To add or change the values of these parameters, edit the
474			file <c>/etc/modules.d/nvidia</c>. Remember to run <c>modules-update</c> after
475			modifying this file, and bear in mind that you will need to reload the
476			<c>nvidia</c> module before the new settings take effect.
477			</p>
478
479	jkt	1.17	<pre caption="Adjusting nvidia options">
480			<comment>(Edit /etc/modules.d/nvidia in your favourite editor)</comment>
481			# <i>nano -w /etc/modules.d/nvidia</i>
482			<comment>(Update module information)</comment>
483			# <i>modules-update</i>
484			<comment>(Unload the nvidia module...)</comment>
485			# <i>modprobe -r nvidia</i>
486			<comment>(...and load it once again)</comment>
487			# <i>modprobe nvidia</i>
488			</pre>
489
490	neysx	1.14	</body>
491			</section>
492			<section>
493			<title>Advanced X configuration</title>
494			<body>
495
496			<p>
497			The GLX layer also has a plethora of options which can be configured. These
498			control the configuration of TV out, dual displays, monitor frequency detection,
499			etc. Again, all of the available options are detailed in the documentation.
500			</p>
501
502			<p>
503			If you wish to use any of these options, you need to list them in the relevant
504			Device section of your X config file (usually <c>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</c>). For
505			example, suppose I wanted to disable the splash logo:
506			</p>
507
508			<pre caption="Advanced nvidia configuration in the X configuration">
509			Section "Device"
510			Identifier "nVidia Inc. GeForce2"
511			Driver "nvidia"
512			<i>Option "NoLogo" "true"</i>
513			VideoRam 65536
514			EndSection
515			</pre>
516
517			</body>
518			</section>
519			</chapter>
520
521	swift	1.1	</guide>