PCLinuxOS 2007: Problems with my Nvidia graphics card

[FulciLives]

I just installed PCLinuxOS 2007 and I attempted to install the Nvidia drivers (I have a Nvidia GeForce PCX 5300 PCIe graphics card ... it is considered a part of the GeForce FX series).

I'm not in PCLinuxOS now but in WinXP Pro but as I recall there is a hardware section where it seems to correctly identify the graphics card BUT in the DISPLAY set-up area it is NOT correctly detecting the card and I think this is a "driver" issue.

Also I had to use the "generic" monitor setting (Flat Panel 1280x1024) setting because my LCD monitor (a ViewSonic VX922) is not on the list under ViewSonic even though this monitor is supposedly one of the better (best?) ViewSonic models and I've had it since December 2006 and even then I don't think it was all that "new" a release model at the time (although by no means an "old" release model either).

Anyways ... Anyone know how to resolve the Nvidia "driver" issue?

I really wanted to give PCLinuxOS a spin but if I can't "fix" this I might have to go back to Ubuntu 7.04 which had great documentation on setting up the Nvidia driver and it seemed to work A-OK there.

As for the current condition with PCLinuxOS ... I did install a Nvidia driver using the built-in package down loader thing and the Nvidia "splash screen" is there and I am in the correct 1280x1024 resolution mode for my LCD monitor but I can't get Beryl to work because it says my card does not support OpenGL or some such nonesense so that coupled with the fact that the DISPLAY set-up says "generic video card" tips me off to the fact that something ain't right *sigh*. I mean I know the Nvidia GeForce PCX 5300 is not a very powerful graphics card but it has native DirectX 9 and OpenGL support so I know something is wrong!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[tekkieman]

Can you post your xorg.conf file?

I use a FX5200, and Beryl works quite well with it.

EDIT - I was looking at the PCLOS site, and it says you need to enable 3D (Control Center - Hardware - Configure 3D Desktop), and restart X (Ctrl-Alt-Backspace should do it) and log in again (with your fingers crossed according to the site)

[betamaxman]

I usually prefer to install the latest nvidia driver from nvidia. Their installer is pretty good and easy to use. Simply download it to your /home directory. As root run the command "init 3" to bring you to a command line only interface, su to root again then "cd /home/whoever, type NVIDIA and hit the tab key (this will automatically fill in the rest of the file name). Press enter and follow the prompts pressing yes to all, especially the one asking if you wish to use the nvidia xorg setup tool. You can hit alt, ctrl, backspace and relog into x. If you get a waiting for x error reboot and then setup your monitor "generic lcd" is usually all that is required. Restart X again and all should be golden. I suggest you uninstall "compiz", and "xgl". And run beryl natively. There is a setting in the control center to do this.

When you get things sorted out and you will, try the command as root "remasterme" and create a live cd/dvd iso of your pclinux install. I mean everything settings etc you name it.

[FulciLives]

... I installed Beryl but so far I'm not all that impressed by it. I don't like the fact that I have I have lost being able to "drag and drop" the corners to shrink a window etc. and now I have to click on the TAB at the bottom to resize and move and that is annoying.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

I got Beryl working correctly.

I got help from the #beryl IRC channel.

Turned out I had to type some cryptic shit into the Linux terminal. Some sort of known bug fix for (some?) Nvidia cards.

Now if that promised version of AviSynth for Linux would come out ... I'd be a happy camper. I've installed wine but so far haven't played with it much ... it looks a bit confusing.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

I realized that instead of trying to replay to a post that I instead edited that post ... so some stuff was lost.

In short I decided to dump PCLinuxOS 2007 and went with Ubuntu 7.04 codename "Feisty Dawn". It seemed to work a lot better especially with correctly recognizing my ViewSonic monitor (down to the model number) and my Nvidia card (which did need some tweaking but thanks to the extensive Ubuntu help docs it was easy-to-do).

I had some issues first with getting proper DVD playback but finally got that solved. Ubuntu doesn't come with multimedia stuff nor common stuff like Java ... due to most of that stuff not being "open source" but it can all be installed and it really wasn't hard although I did have to install a ton of different shit to get proper DVD playback.

I then installed Beryl but it wasn't working correctly yet I finally did get that fixed as well.

Even got the Linux version of Azureus working and now using Comix instead of CDisplay for my comic book reading and finding it is a decent alternative to CDisplay.

Here is my Ubuntu desktop background graphic:



How you like that? 8)

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
After installing and getting Ubuntu 7.04 the way I want it I found out that there is another version of Linux out there called Mint 3.0 codename "Cassandra" that is a version of Ubuntu but one that already comes with all of the multimedia stuff and other programs (like java and Beryl) that doesn't come with Ubuntu. Best of all since Mint is based on Ubuntu 7.04 you can use the Ubuntu repositories for doing software installs. Might be worth a look for some who haven't tried Linux yet.

For those of you using Linux but not Ubuntu here is another "version" of the above background image but this one is for any flavor of Linux (it just says Linux):



I just wanted to add one more last comment ... I didn't make these images ... I found them on some website. I think the second one is the original as it looks a bit more "smooth" whereas the Ubuntu version the girl is not as "smooth" as she was cut out from the original image with the different Ubuntu background added.

[GMaq]

Fulci,
I must say that I far prefer the desktops to your Avatar! I think you'll like Feisty, I'd agree that it's a bit of a goose chase getting the multimedia stuff going but it's really more legalities than Ubuntu's fault. www.debian-multimedia.org has a lot of the latest video app versions etc. in their repostories, just scroll down the home page and add the"stable" key and make sure you have the "multimedia-keyring" in the Ubuntu repositories installed. I sincerely hope you hang in there with it, There is a real need for people with a high level of video knowledge like yourself in Linux. many of the tools are the same...mencoder,ffmpeg etc. so it's really not all that different under the hood. BTW it's Feisty "Fawn" although you might want to call the desktop girl "Feisty Dawn" (:-b)!

[FulciLives]

www.debian-multimedia.org has a lot of the latest video app versions etc. in their repostories, just scroll down the home page and add the"stable" key and make sure you have the "multimedia-keyring" in the Ubuntu repositories installed.

Well according to that link I want to type the following in terminal:

apt-get install debian-multimedia-keyring

When I do this I get the following message:

E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13 Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?

So what the hell does that mean

Do I have to log-on as ROOT and if so how the hell do I do that?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[GMaq]

www.debian-multimedia.org has a lot of the latest video app versions etc. in their repostories, just scroll down the home page and add the"stable" key and make sure you have the "multimedia-keyring" in the Ubuntu repositories installed.

Well according to that link I want to type the following in terminal:

apt-get install debian-multimedia-keyring

When I do this I get the following message:

E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13 Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?

So what the hell does that mean

Do I have to log-on as ROOT and if so how the hell do I do that?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

OK,
What I did was install the "keyring" from the Applications -> Add/Remove. I don't use the terminal much for installing stuff myself. I'm guessing that when I added the debian-multimedia "stable" key it added the keyring to the Add/Remove list so I could select it, In the meantime www.getdeb.net is also a good place to get fresh versions of video stuff as well, not that the Feisty repos are so bad either, most apps are fairly current or 1 previous version old, this is something that Feisty has vastly improved over previous Ubuntu versions. I'm still pretty wet behind the ears with this stuff too, so i apologize if i can't give you a definitive answer. As far as being "Root" try typing "sudo apt-get install debian-multimedia-keyring" The sudo prefix will identify you as the system administrator and prompt you for your password. "Root" isn't used in Ubuntu like it is in other distros.

[betamaxman]

Glad you got one distro working. Good stuff.

[FulciLives]

Glad you got one distro working. Good stuff.

It's fun using something new although it's nice to see some familiar faces like FireForx and Azureus but when it comes to DVD stuff I doubt I can let go of Windows entirely not to mention I just installed Microsoft Office 2007 because if I am going to send out a resume you better bet it will be in WORD FOR WINDOWS *.doc format and not made from OpenOffice.

I like the look and feel of Linux and I think that it is more than enough ... and just simple enough (knock on wood) ... for the average person.

It just so happens that I rely on a lot of specialty tools that work and work well and they only exist for Windows so ... I'm afraid that Windows is still in my future ... although now I have no intentions of going with Windows Vista unless that day comes along when you need it to run most programs. It happened with all previous older versions of Windows. For instance you can forget running new programs on Win95 or Win98 even so I'm sure there will be a day that the same will happen to WinXP as well.

However once that day does come along I figure one of three things will have happened. Windows Vista will be bugged fixed to the point of being usable (remember WinXP prior to SP1 and even SP2 helped a lot), by then a newer version of Windows may be upon us and I can skip Vista (I went straight from Win98 SE to WinXP so never had Windows ME so yes that could happen again) or Linux will be big enough and popular enough that you really don't need Windows anymore.

Hell you can use Linux now as it is ... very polished ... but I have just grown too accustomed to certain Windows programs yet if Linux versions came out ... and I understand AviSynth Linux is in the works ... then look out Microsoft!

Although who am I fooling?

My computer is still fast enough for now BUT I'll need a new one sooner than later (after all it is circa 2004) so if I end up buying a store bought model or pre-configured model etc. then I'll probably end up with Vista anyways.

Although you can count on Linux being installed by me afterwards 8)

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[GMaq]

Glad you got one distro working. Good stuff.

It's fun using something new although it's nice to see some familiar faces like FireForx and Azureus but when it comes to DVD stuff I doubt I can let go of Windows entirely not to mention I just installed Microsoft Office 2007 because if I am going to send out a resume you better bet it will be in WORD FOR WINDOWS *.doc format and not made from OpenOffice.

I like the look and feel of Linux and I think that it is more than enough ... and just simple enough (knock on wood) ... for the average person.

It just so happens that I rely on a lot of specialty tools that work and work well and they only exist for Windows so ... I'm afraid that Windows is still in my future ... although now I have no intentions of going with Windows Vista unless that day comes along when you need it to run most programs. It happened with all previous older versions of Windows. For instance you can forget running new programs on Win95 or Win98 even so I'm sure there will be a day that the same will happen to WinXP as well.

However once that day does come along I figure one of three things will have happened. Windows Vista will be bugged fixed to the point of being usable (remember WinXP prior to SP1 and even SP2 helped a lot), by then a newer version of Windows may be upon us and I can skip Vista (I went straight from Win98 SE to WinXP so never had Windows ME so yes that could happen again) or Linux will be big enough and popular enough that you really don't need Windows anymore.

Hell you can use Linux now as it is ... very polished ... but I have just grown too accustomed to certain Windows programs yet if Linux versions came out ... and I understand AviSynth Linux is in the works ... then look out Microsoft!

Although who am I fooling?

My computer is still fast enough for now BUT I'll need a new one sooner than later (after all it is circa 2004) so if I end up buying a store bought model or pre-configured model etc. then I'll probably end up with Vista anyways.

Although you can count on Linux being installed by me afterwards 8)

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

@FulciLives
Yes I agree fully that there are a few Can't-Live-Without Windows apps (Vdub, AnyDVD, DVD Decrypter, Avisynth etc. etc. etc.) and Linux can't do anything with ArcOs and RipGuard DVD Encryption ......yet. If Avisynth actually does get ported over it will close the gap significantly. Having said that even though I'm dual booting with XP, I'm really starting to prefer working over on the Linux side, if you observe the development and improvement that just Ubuntu (not to mention other distros) have undergone in the last 12 months it's nothing short of astonishing. Yes we may have to bite the Vista bullet someday but if Linux continues developing and improving at it's current rate that someday may not have to come at all. The fact that so much of the development is at a grassroots community based level (not that there isn't a commercial enterprise side as well) shows that if people will get their heads out of their asses and unite for a common goal some pretty cool stuff can happen......OK I'm starting to get altruistic, but the proof of the pudding is there on your desktop....Ahh yes Feisty Dawn - Warrior Princess of the OS Future!!

[FulciLives]

...Ahh yes Feisty Dawn - Warrior Princess of the OS Future!!

I like how my flubbing the name of Ubuntu 7.04 has resulted in a new "character" if you will

I'm in WinXP Pro now because I was doing some stuff in PhotoShop CS3 but I spent that last few days using Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Dawn (LOL) instead and it was fun.

I'm thinking of using GParted to shrink my Ubuntu Linux install (after all I am not using ALL of the 200GB SATA HDD it is on) and trying to install Mint Linux.

From the reviews I have read and screen shots I have seen etc. it (Mint Linux) looks to be damn impressive since it comes with a lot of the stuff that Ubuntu 7.04 does not (like multimedia support for "restricted formats" etc.) and since it is based on Ubuntu 7.04 you can use those repositories for updates and install packages etc.

However I got Ubuntu 7.04 where I want it now so I guess I don't need Mint Linux but part of the fun of all this Linux stuff is trying something new

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[FulciLives]

I decided to give Linux Mint 3.0 codename "Cassandra" a try and I really like it. Although based on Ubuntu 7.04 codename "Feisty Fawn" I fine Linux Mint to have a better feel not to mention everything works A-OK including Azureus (which was giving me a lot of grief after a while under Ubuntu while working perfect under Linux Mint ... go figure).

For anyone that wants to try a version of Linux I strongly suggest you try Linux Mint since it is basically Ubuntu BUT modified to be multimedia friendly out-of-the-box (without much rig-a-ma-roll) AND has been modified so that it seems to be even better than Ubuntu!

So far I like it a lot

Enough so that for now I'm done playing with other Linux distros ... for now I'm sticking with Linux Mint

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RLT69]

FulciLives you the man.

I'll give Mint - Bianca KDE Edition a try. I like KDE more than Gnome.

I had a similar problem installing Linux with my Nvidia GeForce 6100 video chip set (onboard video with my GA-M61PM-S2 motherboard). Kubuntu 7.04 locked up! It must have tried to configure some nvidia driver. Knoppix and OpenSuse both worked - each used a generic VGA driver. I was able to track it during the configuration phase - when it hit the video part - whammo - it locked up.

I'll try Mint and see what happens. I wouldn't feel bad - XP won't install what so ever.

Downloading a bunch of stuff to get DVD playback to work is nothing. Try having to recompile half the libraries you download to get DVD playback to work

Had to do that on Suse 9.2 64 bit. That took some time but I got it too work. Quicktime playback was still a bitch. Irony, WMV worked fine.

[FulciLives]

FulciLives you the man.

I'll give Mint - Bianca KDE Edition a try. I like KDE more than Gnome.

I had a similar problem installing Linux with my Nvidia GeForce 6100 video chip set (onboard video with my GA-M61PM-S2 motherboard). Kubuntu 7.04 locked up! It must have tried to configure some nvidia driver. Knoppix and OpenSuse both worked - each used a generic VGA driver. I was able to track it during the configuration phase - when it hit the video part - whammo - it locked up.

I'll try Mint and see what happens. I wouldn't feel bad - XP won't install what so ever.

Downloading a bunch of stuff to get DVD playback to work is nothing. Try having to recompile half the libraries you download to get DVD playback to work

Had to do that on Suse 9.2 64 bit. That took some time but I got it too work. Quicktime playback was still a bitch. Irony, WMV worked fine.

My understanding is that Linux Mint 3.0 codename "Cassandra" is a newer version of the OS than the Linux Mint "Bianca KDE Edition" and according to the Linux Mint Newsletter Issue #14 there is a KDE Edition of Linux Mint 3.0 in the works. In fact here is the exact quote:

Development of Cassandra KDE Edition has started. This edition will work on a kernel 2.6.20-15 with either KDE 3.5.6 or KDE 3.5.7. Thunderbird will replace Kontact/Kmail. Sunbird and mintInstall will also be present. NTFS support will be done via ntfs-config.

They are also working on a "Cassandra" that uses XFCE and another that uses E17 although development of the E17 version has been delayed and may not happen now. For an idea of what E17 is all about try the LiveCD of eLive which is a developmental release that uses E16/E17 for the desktop. As for XFCE I experienced it once when I fooled around with the LiveCD of SAM 2007 (based on PCLinux 2007) and it looked fine to me. Apparently XFCE is less demanding and a good choice for older computers.

The thing I like about Linux Mint 3.0 is that it is based on Ubuntu 7.04 but tweaked to be multimedia friendly along with other enhancements (like automatic NTFS read/write capability and Beryl pre-installed and ready-to-run etc.).

In short Linux Mint 3.0 works very well "right out of the box" and it is easy to upgrade since you can use Ubuntu updates and documentation for most stuff and the Linux Mint team even have their own software repositories for even more specialty tweaked programs.

For someone unfamiliar with Linux all of THAT is a godsend!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[betamaxman]

If you like the debian/buntu type distros then give automatix a try you will like it for sure.
It is almost a debian based distro requirement.
http://www.getautomatix.com/

[GMaq]

@FulciLives,
Thanks for the heads-up on Mint 3.0! I know it's essentially Feisty Fawn with lipstick and high-heels but very well thought out with former Windows users in mind. I just re-did my HTPC with it and the Totem MPlayer automatically scales the video to my 16:9 TV without having to do it manually, No more Virus scans, Firewall permissions and Windows apps popping up and phoning home in the middle of a movie! Really cool distro, If Ubuntu has you intrigued, save a few steps and try Mint, all the benefits of Ubuntu without the Multimedia legalities goose-chase!

[FulciLives]

I liked Mint 3.0 Cassandra BUT right now I am playing with Sabayon 3.4 (Final Stable) and damn ... this thing kicks some major ass!

First Linux Distro that could correctly set my resolution to 1280x1024 and enact the Nvidia driver to do 3D effects all while in the LiveCD mode (actually it's a LiveDVD).

Install was a breeze. This is important! Of course it's not alone here.

Full multimedia out-of-the-box including DVD playback etc.

The only distro that set up my video 100% correct without any guess work and all the fonts look good. I had a lot of "font" issues with other distros. Everything looks awesome font wise with Sabayon!

Auto mount of NTFS drives ... can access everything without having to do anything "cryptic" first.

I just installed it so I'm still playing but I am very impressed.

See this link: http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=04372

Give it a try !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
Can be set up to use Gnome or KDE ... I decided to try it with KDE for now.

[RLT69]

First Linux Distro that could correctly set my resolution to 1280x1024 and enact the Nvidia driver to do 3D effects all while in the LiveCD mode (actually it's a LiveDVD).

I'll be the judge of that

Sounds like very good distro. I'll see if it works on my system. Maybe it will have better luck with my Nvidia card than Kubunto 7.04.

[FulciLives]

First Linux Distro that could correctly set my resolution to 1280x1024 and enact the Nvidia driver to do 3D effects all while in the LiveCD mode (actually it's a LiveDVD).

I'll be the judge of that

Sounds like very good distro. I'll see if it works on my system. Maybe it will have better luck with my Nvidia card than Kubunto 7.04.

I guess the main reason why I like Sabayon 3.4 Linux so much is that the install was a snap, including the video card and resolution settings, plus the fact that the fonts looked "normal" ala Microsoft Windows.

The fonts in other versions of Linux always seemed "different" especially when it came to websites such as this one.

It's also nice to have such easy auto-mounting of the NTFS drives ... nothing to do but search for your files.

Also ... like Mint 3.0 ... I like that it is multimedia ready without any rig-a-ma-roll. I had tried to install the DVD version of Fedora 7 but found it a nightmare to try and update it in order to make it do all the multimedia stuff I wanted it to do.

The only thing I haven't tested yet with Sabayon is the package manager ... I've heard it can be a bit cumbersome. Hopefully it isn't "too bad" to use.

Also note that the LiveDVD was really slow for me until I did the install to my SATA HDD. After the install it was a lot faster and responsive. I guess that is to be expected though with any LiveCD/LiveDVD.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[RLT69]

I guess the main reason why I like Sabayon 3.4 Linux so much is that the install was a snap, including the video card and resolution settings, plus the fact that the fonts looked "normal" ala Microsoft Windows.

The fonts in other versions of Linux always seemed "different" especially when it came to websites such as this one.

I know EXACTLY what you mean! I've tried to change the font settings in my browser to match the same setting on windows but it still looks different. I even copied the windows font folder and set them up to use in Linux and still no luck.

I wouldn't expect Live CDs to be very responsive, though the knoppix cd I tried impressed me. Then again I do have 2GB of RAM - I'm sure that helps.

[FulciLives]

I'm not sure what to make of Sabayon 3.4 because now that I've "played with it" a bit I find that I like everything about it and find it a superior Linux distro ... except for one thing.

The entire package download/update thing makes absolutely no sense what-so-ever and is very much geared towards using the terminal.

There is a GUI but it doesn't make much sense and seems to crash and/or just not work "right".

This is really beyond me because everything else is SO perfect yet this appears to be a real "deal breaker" as they say.

Even more annoying is the fact that so many of the other distros I have used made the whole package download/update thing really easy with synaptic or some such similar type interface.

It's a real damn shame

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[AlanHK]

I'm not sure what to make of Sabayon 3.4 because now that I've "played with it" a bit I find that I like everything about it and find it a superior Linux distro ... except for one thing.

The entire package download/update thing makes absolutely no sense what-so-ever and is very much geared towards using the terminal.

I haven't used Sabayon, but I do see that it is a Gentoo derivative.
I was surprised to see your glowing report of how easy it was to use, as Gentoo has long had the reputation as the geekiest Linux, for those who want to tweak, customise and optimise every setting.

It looks like Sabayon has made a more user-friendly front end for most things, still its heritage shows through.
But see http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-4154256.html, which mentions some differences between traditional Gentoo and Sabayon.

[FulciLives]

All I know is that Sabayon is the most polished Linux I have used EXCEPT for the software install/update part which pretty much makes it worthless.

It's like having a car that works perfect and looks super awesome ... but ... you can only fill up the gas tank once. In the end it is worthless.

Tis a shame too ... so close to perfection and yet ... blah

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[GMaq]

Hi,
Strange that SageTV would choose Gentoo to launch their PVR software for Linux. I have no personal experience with Gentoo but if you have a successful Windows application and want to expand your customer base to Linux users it seems weird to partner with a distro that is for more experienced Linux users when the recent (Linux) interest and growth has been in people seeking an alternative to XP and Vista in debian based distros like Ubuntu etc. Hopefully they (SageTV) are going to partner with more distros in the future. Right now it looks like a dependency nightmare if you don't use the Gentoo/SageTV live CD.