Bug#557195: Package: xserver-xorg-video-nv

[Julien Cristau <jcristau@debian.org>]

severity 557195 normal
retitle 557195 nv: startup failure on multi gpu (xinerama) - I/O Error when reading vbios
kthxbye

On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 01:25:51 -0600, Kent West wrote:

> I have just done a clean install of Lenny today, with a minimal setup
> (unchecked everything in the tasksel portion of the installation routine,
> then manually aptitude install'd xorg and icewm). The original
> /etc/X11/xorg.conf was very minimal, and did not give me my dual-monitor
> setup.
> 
> So I ran "X -configure" which gave me a dual-monitor configuration, although
> I had to add the line
> 
>  Option "Xinerama"
> 
> to the ServerLayout section to get full use of the second monitor.
> 
> Then I edited /etc/apt/sources.list to add testing as a source, then
> did an "aptitude update" followed by an "aptitude dist-upgrade".
> 
> In the process, apparently the video drivers were uninstalled, because
> startx failed to start X, complaining of no nv modules. So I ran
> "aptitude install xserver-xorg-video-nv".
> 
> Now startx fails with errors like
> 
> (EE) Failed to load module "xtrap" (module does not exist, 0)

The module section shouldn't try to load this.

> (EE) NV(1): Cannot read V_BIOS (3) Input/output error
> 
This one seems more likely to be the problem.

> Fatal server error:
> AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 1
> 

[...]
> VGA-compatible devices on PCI bus:
> 00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51PV [GeForce 6150] (rev a2)
> 04:06.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 440] (rev a3)
> 04:07.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX 4000] (rev c1)

Are you trying to use those 3 cards at the same time, or just two?
Did this setup work previously with the nv driver?  I'd have thought it
would be unable to POST secondary cards, and you'd have to use the
binary nvidia driver for that kind of setup.

Cheers,
Julien