Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

[oshunluvr]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Checking /var/log/Xorg.0.log will show whether or not render is enabled by default (it should be).

I had a 6600gt for a while but have since upgraded to an 8800gt so some of these options might not work for you:

Section "Device"

~~~

  Option "TripleBuffer" "True"
#        + Enables triple buffering. "Decreases the time an application stalls while waiting for vblank events, but increases latency slightly" (NVIDIA Readme) 
  Option "UseCompositeWrapper" "True"
#        + Enables the X server's composite wrapper instead of the builtin one. 
  Option "BackingStore" "True"
#        + Cache overlayed areas in case they get redisplayed later 
  Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True"
#        + only fire VBlank interrupts in modes where they are needed

All the other options I used to have to but in my xorg.conf are enabled by default now: render,xrandr,dbe,composite,extmod,glx,record,dri, dri2,fb,wfb,ramdac

[Fintan]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

"Dible:

Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"

no difference

Xorg.0.log: (excerpt)

(==) RandR enabled
(II) Initializing built-in extension Generic Event Extension
(II) Initializing built-in extension SHAPE
(II) Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
(II) Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension
(II) Initializing built-in extension XTEST
(II) Initializing built-in extension BIG-REQUESTS
(II) Initializing built-in extension SYNC
(II) Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD
(II) Initializing built-in extension XC-MISC
(II) Initializing built-in extension SECURITY
(II) Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA
(II) Initializing built-in extension XFIXES
(II) Initializing built-in extension RENDER
(II) Initializing built-in extension RANDR
(II) Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE
(II) Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE
(II) Initializing extension GLX

Section "Device"

~~~

Option "TripleBuffer" "True"
# + Enables triple buffering. "Decreases the time an application stalls while waiting for vblank events, but increases latency slightly" (NVIDIA Readme)
Option "UseCompositeWrapper" "True"
# + Enables the X server's composite wrapper instead of the builtin one.
Option "BackingStore" "True"
# + Cache overlayed areas in case they get redisplayed later
Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True"
# + only fire VBlank interrupts in modes where they are needed

crashed x-server

back to previous xorg.conf.

will now try commenting Option "RENDER" "Enable" out

[Fintan]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

will now try commenting Option "RENDER" "Enable" out

NO effect

[dibl]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

I assume

glxinfo

provides a nice listing of GLX capabilities? 3600 fps in glxgears is not a disaster -- it should provide reasonable 3D.

About the only thing left to try is to add the "coolbits" option, and see if your GPU will accept a little overclocking. (see my xorg.conf file for the example). Once you restart X, run "nvidia-settings" and use the "Test" (or whatever they call it) button to let it speed up your GPU and it will tell you how much OC it can safely tolerate. If you notice an improvement and want to make the OC permanent, I can post the lines you need to add to the .kderc file.

[Fintan]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

3600 fps in glxgears is not a disaster -- it should provide reasonable 3D.

I read glxgears wrong.

it says 3600 in 5 seconds so it is more like 720 fps

without 3D it was 47000 in 5 seconds = 9400 fps

any way I cheated and installed pclinuxos kde4.2 and copied over xorg.conf and everything kwin in .kde/share/config.

Now at least I have OpenGL back and my effects are back as well.

Oh well

[oshunluvr]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

I just have to point out here that GLXgears is in no way a measure of actual speed. The results it gives are effected by so many things as to make it unusable as a speed measuring tool. It really is only useful to indicate that GLX is working or not. As an example, with 9.04 my system gave glxgears scores of 12,000fps and now it gives 300fps.

An easy and much more reliable speed tool is gtkperf. It runs a series of tests and totals the time required to complete them. My system (see specs in sig) gives a gtkperf score of 4.28 seconds with kwin effects on and a half-a-dozen windows open. With 9.04 is was getting around 5 so I've seen a 20% speed increase since the upgrade to 10.04 and yes it's noticeable on the desktop. With kwin effects off I get just above 3.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

I read today that owners of nvidia 6/7 series cards need these options:

Option "PixmapCacheSize" "5000000"
Option "AllowSHMPixmaps" "0"


which are enabled by default for series 8/9 cards

[Telengard]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO


Mods, why isn't this very helpful post stickied? It has already saved me lots of time and work, and I'm sure others who try it will feel the same.

sudo find . -type f -name "nvidia*" -exec rm -f {} \;

This is a scary step. What it says is, "search my computer for regular files whose names begin with nvidia and delete all of them without asking me." When I ran this, I used rm -i so that I would be prompted for each deletion. It removed about 30 or so files, some of which I'm not sure were necessarily related to the drivers.

When I checked the Hardware Drivers applet on my system it searched and found no drivers. So the list was empty. Wonder why?

[Snowhog]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

sudo find . -type f -name "nvidia*" -exec rm -f {} \;

This is a scary step. What it says is, "search my computer for regular files whose names begin with nvidia and delete all of them without asking me."

Dibl is an experienced user, and he would not have provided the above command if it was not safe.

[Telengard]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Dibl is an experienced user, and he would not have provided the above command if it was not safe.

It may be safe, in the hands of someone who understands the command line. If you don't mind losing files with no chance to recover them, then consider it safe. Just understand that any files named similarly to these will be automatically deleted without prompting:

• ~/Pictures/nvidia-card.png
• ~/Documents/nvidia-cards-i-own.txt
• ~/Documents/nvidia-profits-2009.xls
• /any/path/on/your/system/nvidia*

It worked for me. it was safe for me. I understood the command before using it. But that's just me.

[Snowhog]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Good points.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

If you're concerned about what could be removed, then run:

cd /
sudo find -type f -name "nvidia*"

first, and it will give you a list of what is to be removed. You can then either let it run
as specified, or manually delete the files you want removed, or move the ones you want
to save out of the way, etc.

[dibl]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

It may be safe, in the hands of someone who understands the command line. If you don't mind losing files with no chance to recover them, then consider it safe. Just understand that any files named similarly to these will be automatically deleted without prompting:

Yes, I know that it is "blind surgery" on a system to do that. But the practicalities outweigh the risks, in my opinion:

- the user already has a broken or unsatisfactory video situation (no other reason to be reading this post)

- can't find any evidence of any other non-video system files using the "nvidia*" nomenclature

- it is not practical to teach all users the meaning(s) of such a complex command, prior to fixing their video issue

- except for the unlikely scenario that someone has named their favorite pet or child "nvidia", anything removed by the command can be re-installed later if the situation is not remedied

So, we accept that there is no such thing as a risk level of 0.00%, and try to provide a way to fix their broken video.

[Telengard]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

So, we accept that there is no such thing as a risk level of 0.00%, and try to provide a way to fix their broken video.

Right, I don't disagree. I just think it might be better to do something like this:

find . -type f -name 'nvidia*' -exec zip -mT junk-nvidia-files.zip {} +

It is still a single command line, not much longer than the first. It provides for the possibility of recovering files which were accidentally selected for deletion as a safety measure.

• 'nvidia*' files are copied into junk-nvidia-files.zip
• junk-nvidia-files.zip is tested for consistency
• 'nvidia*' files are deleted from the system, not from the archive

...
-m Move the specified files into the zip archive; actually, this
deletes the target directories/files after making the specified
zip archive. If a directory becomes empty after removal of the
files, the directory is also removed. No deletions are done
until zip has created the archive without error. This is useful
for conserving disk space, but is potentially dangerous so it is
recommended to use it in combination with -T to test the archive
before removing all input files.
...
-T Test the integrity of the new zip file. If the check fails, the
old zip file is unchanged and (with the -m option) no input
files are removed.

I do feel that it would be better to err on the safe side, especially when dealing with inexperineced users. OTOH, you're still right because there really is no way to protect them from every possible accident.

[dibl]

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Telengard, you are far more skilled on the command line than my feeble attempts! Yes, this is an excellent contribution -- makes the process more robust and recoverable if it doesn't help the user. I shall adopt your command and edit the guidance accordingly ... and Thank You!