Xorg nouveau installation issues
 

I have recently downgraded my video card to a GeForce 6600 GT after my 8700 burned out. I installed the nouveau driver both times. I got the 6600 to work with the nouveau driver at one point, but I couldn't get 3D acceleration, which I hear is all I can expect with that card and that driver.

So, I decided to try installing the proprietary nVidia driver. After I wasted too much time trying, I decided to reinstall the nouveau driver and now that doesn't work either.

I recompiled the kernel with the nouveau driver, swapped in the nouveau driver in both the xorg.config and make.config, ran emerge -aDNv world, and ran modules-rebuild rebuild.

Currently, /var/log/Xorg.0.log doesn't report any errors with nouveau. In fact, it even correctly identifies my video card and monitors. Though when running glxinfo, it returns an error saying it can't find the display. However I can run startx with twm and xterm and it works fine.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

ls -l /usr/lib(64)/libGL* would be interesting.

is libGL.so.? pointing at libGL.so.1.2 or thereabouts or is it pointing at libGL.so.nvidia.version? If the latter, the nvidia driver does take a --uninstall option.

Thanks for the reply.

libGL.so is pointing to libGL.so.1.2.

And you're not seeing any linGL*.so.nvidia-version being referenced? good, that means you have the hardest part right. Now get the nvidia module out of your xorg.copnf.d

No, I don't see any reference to the nvidia version of libGL. I already replaced the nvidia driver with the nouveau driver in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

As I said, Xorg appears to be loading the nouveau driver correctly. One question I have about the Xorg log is the last two lines:

(II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
(II) NOUVEAU(0): NVLeaveVT is called.

I'm not sure what they do, but they aren't reported as errors. Does you log give you the same messages?

I never used nouveau. I'm on ATI now but I used the binary blob for my old nvidia card.

Did you run eselect opengl set xorg-x11? What does "eselect mesa list" report?

Can you post the whole X log file to a pastebin and link us to it?

I ran: eselect opengl set xorg-x11

eselect mesa list:

i915 (Intel 915, 945)
i965 (Intel 965, G/Q3x, G/Q4x)
r300 (Radeon R300-R500)
r600 (Radeon R600-R700, Evergreen, Northern Islands)
sw (Software renderer)
[1] classic
[2] gallium *

Here is my Xorg.0.log

I don't see a nouveau mesa driver in that list. Can you post the output for emerge -pv mesa?

emerge -pv mesa

And, please:

It seems strange to me that mesa is compiled with nouveau support but eselect doesn't list a proper mesa driver for nouveau. You only have the software renderer, so that you get a pitiful performance is not strange at all... But admittedly, I haven't ever used the nouveau driver, maybe there's no such renderer yet. I am not aware of the current status of the project. If nothing else works, you might want to test the latest stuff from the x11 overlay (mesa, libdrm and xf86-video-nouveau).

It seems ok, but eselect doesn't list it. I am not sure it has something to do, but can you tell us what eselect version are you using? Maybe it's worth a shot upgrading it and seeing what does it list. An up to date version of eselect list the mesa stuff like this:

But, admittedly, I am using ~amd64.

I am using eselect version 1.2.15, which is the most recent stable version.

Re-reading the thread, I have another couple of questions.

First, what symptoms (besides glxinfo refusing to work) can you see?

Second, when you installed the nvidia binary blob, did you install it by hand? If you did so, then more than probably your problem could be caused by leftovers.