doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml

<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml,v 1.19 2005/10/21 20:35:46 swift 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>

<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>1.16</version>
<date>2005-10-25</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>Installing the Appropriate Drivers</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>

<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. nvidia-glx 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>
</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	<?xml version='1.0' encoding="UTF-8"?>
2	<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml,v 1.19 2005/10/21 20:35:46 swift Exp $ -->
3	<!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	<author title="Editor">
12	<mail link="curtis119@gentoo.org">M Curtis Napier</mail>
13	</author>
14
15	<abstract>
16	Many Gentooists have an nVidia chipset on their system. nVidia provides specific
17	Linux drivers to boost the performance of your card. This guide informs you how
18	to install and configure these drivers.
19	</abstract>
20
21	<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
22	<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
23	<license/>
24
25	<version>1.16</version>
26	<date>2005-10-25</date>
27
28	<chapter>
29	<title>Introduction</title>
30	<section>
31	<body>
32
33	<p>
34	nVidia release their own Linux drivers which provide good performance and full
35	3D acceleration. The driver releases are split up into two parts:
36	<c>nvidia-kernel</c> and <c>nvidia-glx</c>.
37	</p>
38
39	<p>
40	<c>nvidia-kernel</c> is a kernel driver which handles the low-level
41	communication with your video hardware. This is simply a kernel module, named
42	<c>nvidia</c>, which installs against your kernel sources and needs to be loaded
43	whenever you want to use the nvidia drivers.
44	</p>
45
46	<p>
47	As well as the kernel driver, you need to install the X11 GLX layer
48	(<c>nvidia-glx</c>). This is used by X to render graphics, which internally
49	uses the <c>nvidia-kernel</c> kernel driver to interface with the hardware.
50	</p>
51
52	</body>
53	</section>
54	</chapter>
55
56	<chapter>
57	<title>Configuring your Card</title>
58	<section>
59	<title>Installing the Appropriate Drivers</title>
60	<body>
61
62	<p>
63	As mentioned above, the nVidia kernel driver installs and runs against your
64	current kernel. It builds as a module, so it makes sense that your kernel must
65	support the loading of kernel modules. If you used <c>genkernel</c> to configure
66	the kernel for you then you're all set. If not, double check your kernel
67	configuration so that this support is enabled:
68	</p>
69
70	<pre caption="Enabling the Loading of Kernel Modules">
71	Loadable module support --->
72	[*] Enable loadable module support
73	</pre>
74
75	<p>
76	You also need to enable <e>Memory Type Range Register</e> in your kernel:
77	</p>
78
79	<pre caption="Enabling MTRR">
80	Processor and Features --->
81	[*] MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support
82	</pre>
83
84	<p>
85	nVidia's modules and libraries are combined in two packages: <c>nvidia-glx</c>
86	and <c>nvidia-kernel</c>. The former are the X11 GLX libraries while the latter
87	are the kernel modules.
88	</p>
89
90	<p>
91	The nvidia-kernel ebuild auto discovers your kernel version based on the
92	<path>/usr/src/linux</path> symlink. Please ensure that you have this symlink
93	pointing to the correct sources and that your kernel is correctly configured.
94	Please refer to the Configuring the Kernel section of the <uri
95	link="/doc/en/handbook/">Installation Handbook</uri> for details on configuring
96	your kernel.
97	</p>
98
99	<p>
100	If you are using gentoo-sources-2.6.11-r6, your <path>/usr/src</path> directory
101	might look something like this:
102	</p>
103
104	<pre caption="Check your /usr/src/linux symlink">
105	# <i>cd /usr/src</i>
106	# <i>ls -l</i>
107	<comment>(Check that linux points to the right directory)</comment>
108	lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 Apr 23 18:33 linux -> linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6
109	drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 120 Apr 8 18:56 linux-2.4.26-gentoo-r4
110	drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 664 Dec 31 16:09 linux-2.6.10
111	drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 632 Mar 3 12:27 linux-2.6.11
112	drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 4096 Mar 16 22:00 linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6
113	</pre>
114
115	<p>
116	In the above output, you'll notice that the <c>linux</c> symlink is pointing
117	to the <c>linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6</c> kernel.
118	</p>
119
120	<p>
121	If the symlink is not pointing to the correct sources, you must update the link
122	like this:
123	</p>
124
125	<pre caption="Create/Update /usr/src/linux symlink">
126	# <i>cd /usr/src</i>
127	# <i>ln -snf linux-2.6.11-gentoo-r6 linux</i>
128	</pre>
129
130	<p>
131	Now it's time to install <c>nvidia-kernel</c> and <c>nvidia-glx</c>. Since
132	<c>nvidia-glx</c> depends on <c>nvidia-kernel</c>, installing <c>nvidia-glx</c>
133	is sufficient:
134	</p>
135
136	<pre caption="Installing the nVidia modules">
137	# <i>emerge nvidia-glx</i>
138	</pre>
139
140	<impo>
141	Every time you <uri link="/doc/en/kernel-upgrade.xml">compile a new
142	kernel</uri> or recompile the current one, you have to run <c>emerge
143	nvidia-kernel</c> to reinstall the nVidia modules. nvidia-glx is unaffected by
144	a kernel change and doesn't even need to be rebuilt when you recompile/upgrade
145	X.
146	</impo>
147
148	<p>
149	Once the installation has finished, run <c>modprobe nvidia</c> to load the
150	kernel module into memory.
151	</p>
152
153	<pre caption="Loading the kernel module">
154	# <i>modprobe nvidia</i>
155	</pre>
156
157	<p>
158	To prevent you having to manually load the module on every bootup, you probably
159	want to have this done automatically each time you boot your system, so edit
160	<path>/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6</path> (or <path>kernel-2.4</path>,
161	depending on which kernel version you use) and add <c>nvidia</c> to it. Don't
162	forget to run <c>modules-update</c> afterwards.
163	</p>
164
165	<pre caption="Running modules-update">
166	# <i>modules-update</i>
167	</pre>
168
169	</body>
170	</section>
171	<section>
172	<title>Configuring the X Server</title>
173	<body>
174
175	<p>
176	Once the appropriate drivers are installed you need to configure your X Server
177	(XFree86 or Xorg) to use the <c>nvidia</c> driver instead of the default
178	<c>nv</c> driver.
179	</p>
180
181	<p>
182	Open <path>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</path> (or <path>/etc/X11/XF86Config</path> if you
183	still use the older configuration file location) with your favorite editor
184	(such as <c>nano</c> or <c>vim</c>) and go to the <c>Device</c> section. In that
185	section, change the <c>Driver</c> line:
186	</p>
187
188	<pre caption="Changing nv to nvidia in the X Server configuration">
189	Section "Device"
190	Identifier "nVidia Inc. GeForce2"
191	<i>Driver "nvidia"</i>
192	VideoRam 65536
193	EndSection
194	</pre>
195
196	<p>
197	Then go to the <c>Module</c> section and make sure the <c>glx</c> module gets
198	loaded while the <c>dri</c> module doesn't:
199	</p>
200
201	<pre caption="Updating the Module section">
202	Section "Module"
203	<comment>(...)</comment>
204	<i># Load "dri"
205	Load "glx"</i>
206	<comment>(...)</comment>
207	EndSection
208	</pre>
209
210	<p>
211	Next, in section <c>Screen</c>, make sure that either the <c>DefaultDepth</c>
212	directive is set to 16 or 24, or that you only have <c>Display</c> subsections
213	with <c>Depth</c> settings of 16 or 24. Without it, the nvidia-glx extensions
214	will not start.
215	</p>
216
217	<pre caption="Updating the Screen section">
218	Section "Screen"
219	<comment>(...)</comment>
220	<i>DefaultDepth 16</i>
221	Subsection "Display"
222	<comment>(...)</comment>
223	EndSection
224	</pre>
225
226	<p>
227	Run <c>opengl-update</c> so that the X Server uses the nVidia GLX libraries:
228	</p>
229
230	<pre caption="Running opengl-update">
231	# <i>opengl-update nvidia</i>
232	</pre>
233
234	</body>
235	</section>
236	<section>
237	<title>Adding your Users to the video Group</title>
238	<body>
239
240	<p>
241	You have to add your user to the <c>video</c> group so he has access to the
242	nvidia device files:
243	</p>
244
245	<pre caption="Adding your user to the video group">
246	# <i>gpasswd -a youruser video</i>
247	</pre>
248
249	<p>
250	This might not be totally necessary if you aren't using <c>udev</c> but it
251	doesn't hurt either and makes your system future-proof :)
252	</p>
253
254	</body>
255	</section>
256	<section>
257	<title>Testing your Card</title>
258	<body>
259
260	<p>
261	To test your nVidia card, fire up X and run the <c>glxinfo \| grep direct</c>
262	command. It should say that direct rendering is activated:
263	</p>
264
265	<pre caption="Checking the direct rendering status">
266	$ <i>glxinfo \| grep direct</i>
267	direct rendering: Yes
268	</pre>
269
270	<p>
271	To monitor your FPS, run <c>glxgears</c>.
272	</p>
273
274	</body>
275	</section>
276	<section>
277	<title>Enabling nvidia Support</title>
278	<body>
279
280	<p>
281	Some tools, such as <c>mplayer</c> and <c>xine-lib</c>, use a local USE flag
282	called "nvidia" which enables XvMCNVIDIA support, useful when watching high
283	resolution movies. Add in "nvidia" in your USE variable in
284	<path>/etc/make.conf</path> or add it as USE flag to <c>media-video/mplayer</c>
285	and/or <c>media-libs/xine-lib</c> in <path>/etc/portage/package.use</path>.
286	</p>
287
288	<p>
289	Then, run <c>emerge -uD --newuse world</c> to rebuild the applications that
290	benefit from the USE flag change.
291	</p>
292
293	</body>
294	</section>
295	<section>
296	<title>Using NVidia Settings Tool</title>
297	<body>
298
299	<p>
300	Since NVidia released version 1.0.6106 it also provides you with a settings
301	tool. This tool allows you to change graphical settings without restarting the X
302	server and is available through Portage as <c>media-video/nvidia-settings</c>.
303	</p>
304
305	</body>
306	</section>
307	</chapter>
308
309	<chapter>
310	<title>Troubleshooting</title>
311	<section>
312	<title>Getting 2D to work on machines with 4Gb or more memory</title>
313	<body>
314
315	<p>
316	If you are having troubles with the nVidia 2D acceleration it is likely that you
317	are unable to set up a write-combining range with MTRR. To verify, check the
318	contents of <path>/proc/mtrr</path>:
319	</p>
320
321	<pre caption="Checking if you have write-combining enabled">
322	# <i>cat /proc/mtrr</i>
323	</pre>
324
325	<p>
326	Every line should contain "write-back" or "write-combining". If you see a line
327	with "uncachable" in it you will need to change a BIOS setting to fix this.
328	</p>
329
330	<p>
331	Reboot and enter the BIOS, then find the MTRR settings (probably under "CPU
332	Settings"). Change the setting from "continuous" to "discrete" and boot back
333	into Linux. You will now find out that there is no "uncachable" entry anymore
334	and 2D acceleration now works without any glitches.
335	</p>
336
337	</body>
338	</section>
339	<section>
340	<title>I receive warnings about unsupported 4K stack sizes</title>
341	<body>
342
343	<p>
344	<c>nvidia-kernel</c> packages older than 1.0.6106 only support kernels using an
345	8K stack size. More recent kernels (2.6.6 and higher) have support for 4K stack
346	size's as well. Do not select 4K stack size in your kernel configuration if you
347	are using such an <c>nvidia-kernel</c> package. You can find this option in the
348	section <c>Kernel Hacking</c>.
349	</p>
350
351	</body>
352	</section>
353	<section>
354	<title>
355	When I attempt to load the kernel module I receive a "no such device"
356	</title>
357	<body>
358
359	<p>
360	This usually occurs when you don't have a matching video card. Make sure that
361	you have an nVidia-powered graphical card (you can double-check this using
362	<c>lspci</c>).
363	</p>
364
365	<p>
366	If you are confident that you have an nVidia card, check your BIOS and see if
367	the directive <e>Assign IRQ to VGA</e> is set.
368	</p>
369
370	</body>
371	</section>
372	</chapter>
373
374	<chapter>
375	<title>Expert Configuration</title>
376	<section>
377	<title>Documentation</title>
378	<body>
379
380	<p>
381	The nVidia driver package also comes with comprehensive documentation. This is
382	installed into <c>/usr/share/doc</c> and can be viewed with the following
383	command:
384	</p>
385
386	<pre caption="Viewing the NVIDIA documentation">
387	# <i>less /usr/share/doc/nvidia-glx-*/README.txt.gz</i>
388	</pre>
389
390	</body>
391	</section>
392	<section>
393	<title>Kernel module parameters</title>
394	<body>
395
396	<p>
397	The <c>nvidia</c> kernel module accepts a number of parameters (options) which
398	you can use to tweak the behaviour of the driver. Most of these are mentioned in
399	the documentation. To add or change the values of these parameters, edit the
400	file <c>/etc/modules.d/nvidia</c>. Remember to run <c>modules-update</c> after
401	modifying this file, and bear in mind that you will need to reload the
402	<c>nvidia</c> module before the new settings take effect.
403	</p>
404
405	<pre caption="Adjusting nvidia options">
406	<comment>(Edit /etc/modules.d/nvidia in your favourite editor)</comment>
407	# <i>nano -w /etc/modules.d/nvidia</i>
408	<comment>(Update module information)</comment>
409	# <i>modules-update</i>
410	<comment>(Unload the nvidia module...)</comment>
411	# <i>modprobe -r nvidia</i>
412	<comment>(...and load it once again)</comment>
413	# <i>modprobe nvidia</i>
414	</pre>
415
416	</body>
417	</section>
418	<section>
419	<title>Advanced X configuration</title>
420	<body>
421
422	<p>
423	The GLX layer also has a plethora of options which can be configured. These
424	control the configuration of TV out, dual displays, monitor frequency detection,
425	etc. Again, all of the available options are detailed in the documentation.
426	</p>
427
428	<p>
429	If you wish to use any of these options, you need to list them in the relevant
430	Device section of your X config file (usually <c>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</c>). For
431	example, suppose I wanted to disable the splash logo:
432	</p>
433
434	<pre caption="Advanced nvidia configuration in the X configuration">
435	Section "Device"
436	Identifier "nVidia Inc. GeForce2"
437	Driver "nvidia"
438	<i>Option "NoLogo" "true"</i>
439	VideoRam 65536
440	EndSection
441	</pre>
442
443	</body>
444	</section>
445	</chapter>
446
447	</guide>