and other (B)LFS would-be participants:
This is probably my last installment on this
"nouveau" driver problem thread.
PROBLEM SUMMARY:
1. The kernel module kills my video on boot-up.
2. The Xorg ("graphics") module works and doesn't work.
SYSTEM:
i686-pc-linux-gnu, 2.6.34, udev-156, (B)LFS.
NVidia GeForce 8300GS, Monitor - Samsung
SyncMaster 2494, DVI connected.
KDE-3.5.10, Fluxbox 1.1.1+.
'xf86-video-nouveau' and 'libdrm-2.4.21+':
git checkout of last night, Fri Jun 18 23:45 EST.
'autoconf-2.65', 'automake-1.11.1'.
DETAILS (summary):
1. On boot-up to console mode I lose the video at about
the instant Udev loads the kernel nouveau (I think).
About at the end of Udev's sequence when it stumbles
upon the video card. Anyway, I don't get to see
the remaining LFS standard load sequence to the
console prompt.
1.1. Behind the scenes, everything appears OK.
I can fly blind, like login, start up X.org, etc.
A few tidbits:
[]$ ls -l /dev/dri
crw-rw---- 1 root video 226, 0 2010-06-19 12:31 card0
crw-rw---- 1 root video 226, 64 2010-06-19 12:31 controlD64
[]$ lsmod
nouveau 391883 0
ttm 30761 1 nouveau
drm_kms_helper 17119 1 nouveau
drm 106969 3 nouveau,ttm,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 3514 1 nouveau
button 3562 1 nouveau
agpgart 18806 4 ttm,drm,nvidia,intel_agp
In the kernel boot-up log, about 49 "nouveau" lines.
I haven't spotted any discouraging messages among them.
Just an excerpt,
the first - kernel: nouveau 0000:01:00.0:
PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
the last - kernel: [drm] nouveau 0000:01:00.0:
nouveau_channel_free: freeing fifo 2
Note: I also ran Udev in debug mode.
A lot of extra messages; unfortunately, none pertaining to nouveau.
2. Going to graphics mode (X.org)
2.1 KDE works normally as far as I can tell (Firefox, etc.)
However, on exit it returns you to the console of nowhere
(i.e., in limbo, where I started).
2.2 Fluxbox comes up to the graphics screen but
freezes real hard after that.
I haven't tried the work-around BLFS recommended once
(X.org 7.4?) on the mouse(?), keyboard(?), freeze
somewhere in 'xorg.conf'.
I haven't found it yet (it would be just for science, anyway).
FINAL THOUGHTS:
1. Obviously, if a thing is "reverse engineered"
doesn't necessarily mean it works or it works well.
On the very same machine and configuration,
the originally engineered NVIDIA driver just works.
'nouveau' is in "Staging" for a reason.
2. I'm willing to work with a "nouveau" specialist to
help them solve this problem if anybody is interested.
----
Thank you all for your comments and help
-- Alex
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