Change PCI Express slot- what do I need to do to get/keep system running?

[T.Durden]

Due to a misunderstanding about my mobo PCI express slot bandwidth (thanks to typical high quality translation of mobo manual), I installed my graphics card in a low BW PCI Express slot then installed Kubuntu 7.10. I would like to move the graphics card from the X2 slot to the X16 slot but I think it is going to cause a problem for my Kubuntu install. What do I need to do to get Kubuntu (X11?) to find the graphics card when it is moved to the other PCI Express slot?

The graphics card is an XFX GeForce 6600. Mobo is a Lanparty nF4 UltraD.

Thanks!

TD

[dibl]

Re: Change PCI Express slot- what do I need to do to get/keep system running?

I thought the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file has a line that specifies the PCI bus ID where the card is, but I just now looked at mine, and it does not. Hmmm -- I'm thinking maybe when you let the nvidia-xconfig write the xorg.conf file, it doesn't need that line. Anyway, if your xorg.conf file does not have a line that shows the PCI slot ID number where the card is, then I don't THINK you'll have a problem after you change it.

However, I'd be making a very complete data backup (not an inherently bad thing anyway), because if it isn't correctly recognized and configured at your reboot, then you will have no video capability of any kind. I think that would require re-installing the OS. :P

[T.Durden]

Re: Change PCI Express slot- what do I need to do to get/keep system running?

After moving the card back to the high BW slot, the system boots but X doesn't start - I just get a login request. After I login, I run startx and then I get the desktop, however, the speed on the graphics is still slow.

I previously had AMD 64 bit ubuntu on this machine and the open-gl screensavers ran very fast. When I changed to 32 bit Kubuntu, I changed the graphics card slot due to a problem with a northbridge cooler that went bad. With the 32 bit kubuntu 7.10 install, the screensavers ran so slowly I thought that moving the graphics card to the other slot was the cause of the problem so I started looking into the PCI express slot issue and discovered that the card was now in a low BW slot.

Do the open GL screensavers always run so slowly on a 32 bit OS? I'm talking about maybe 2-3 frames per sec for stuff like Flux (GL). On the previous 64 bit ubuntu install it used to run at least 10X as fast if not more. The machine has an AMD64 3000+ CPU, 1 GB of ram and XFX GeForce 6600 graphics card with 256 MB of ram. Not highest performance, but no slouch...

It looks like KDM needs to be reconfigured since I have to manually start X. Any ideas?

Thanks,

TD

[T.Durden]

Re: Change PCI Express slot- what do I need to do to get/keep system running?

I reconfigured X to get higher refresh rates and poked around in some KDM related files (didn't change anything there) and after a couple machine restarts, KDM has fixed itself and is working again.

The screensavers still run awfully slow...

TD