Bug 2391

Summary: X server crashes and freezes from time to time using nvidia-kmod
Product: Fedora Reporter: Christian Wansart <christian>
Component: xorg-x11-drv-nvidiaAssignee: Nicolas Chauvet <kwizart>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: major CC: s.adam
Priority: P5    
Version: 17   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: GNU/Linux   
namespace:
Attachments: Output of nvidia-bug-repot.sh
grub2 config file
/etc/sysconfig/grub file

Description Christian Wansart 2012-06-26 17:24:26 CEST
Since I'm using nvidia-kmod I experience X server crashes from time to time. I'm not sure what exactly causes this problem.

My computer just stops working at some point and the only possible way to get back to normal is using the SysRQ+REISUB combination.

On openSUSE with the 295.49 nvidia drivers everything worked fine. I have a NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT.

I couldn't find any error messages in /var/log/Xorg.0.log nor in dmesg.
Comment 1 Nicolas Chauvet 2012-06-26 17:28:32 CEST
Please attach the output of nvidia-bug-report.sh
Comment 2 Christian Wansart 2012-06-26 17:59:16 CEST
Created attachment 918 [details]
Output of nvidia-bug-repot.sh

OK, here it is.
Comment 3 Nicolas Chauvet 2012-06-26 18:11:43 CEST
[    0.666385] vesafb: mode is 1280x1024x32, linelength=5120, pages=0
[    0.666386] vesafb: scrolling: redraw
[    0.666388] vesafb: Truecolor: size=8:8:8:8, shift=24:16:8:0
[    0.666717] vesafb: framebuffer at 0xf9000000, mapped to 0xffffc90011800000, using 5120k, total 5120k

*** /proc/driver/nvidia/warnings/fbdev
*** ls: -r--r--r--. 1 root root 0 2012-06-26 17:57:47.939019378 +0200 /proc/driver/nvidia/warnings/fbdev
Your system is not currently configured to drive a VGA console
on the primary VGA device. The NVIDIA Linux graphics driver
requires the use of a text-mode VGA console. Use of other console
drivers including, but not limited to, vesafb, may result in
corruption and stability problems, and is not supported.

vesafb is loaded because your grub is running graphically at a very early step which corrupt the nvidia card initialization by the proprietary driver.
You've probably have installed F-17 at a pre-release that has graphical grub2 enabled ? (unless it was enabled manually at a later step).

Can you attach your grub2 default value ?
Comment 4 Christian Wansart 2012-06-26 23:13:26 CEST
Created attachment 919 [details]
grub2 config file

No, I installed Fedora 17 via net installation. My Grub2 boot menu uses the text menu.

What do you mean by grub default? Probably the default boot entry. But I have to admit, I don't know how grub2 works so far. It's the first time I have it.

So I attached you my whole grub2 "grub.cfg" file.
Comment 5 Nicolas Chauvet 2012-06-26 23:24:02 CEST
FYI, I've the same board as you (with nvidia proprieatary driver).
BIOS Information
	Vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
	Version: 1701   
	Release Date: 04/14/2011
...
Base Board Information
	Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
	Product Name: M4N75TD

I seems that my bios is more recent tought (that might help).

But from /etc/grub2.cfg
function load_video {
true
}

Can you attach your /etc/sysconfig/grub file ?
Comment 6 Christian Wansart 2012-06-26 23:27:27 CEST
Created attachment 920 [details]
/etc/sysconfig/grub file

Here it is.
Comment 7 Christian Wansart 2012-07-01 19:16:49 CEST
I had to uninstall the proprietary NVIDIA driver because I couldn't really work anymore. But I still experience those "freezes". But they aren't freezes, it seems that sometimes the "mouseover" doesn't work in GNOME 3.4 and causes some kind of flickering which makes it impossible to click anymore.

So the good news is: the NVIDIA driver only causes the X crashes but not the "freezes" or rather the GNOME flickering.

Thanks
Comment 8 Nicolas Chauvet 2012-07-02 12:07:22 CEST
(In reply to comment #7)
> I had to uninstall the proprietary NVIDIA driver because I couldn't really work
> anymore. But I still experience those "freezes". But they aren't freezes, it

Please consider to update your BIOS.
Comment 9 Christian Wansart 2012-07-02 21:08:06 CEST
According to http://support.asus.com/download/download_item_mkt.aspx?slanguage=en-us&model=M4N75TD 1701 is the latest BIOS.
Comment 10 Nicolas Chauvet 2012-08-04 01:01:40 CEST
FYI, the issue for your problem is known, it's related to grub2 been in graphical boot.  I don't know how to disable graphical grub2 from the driver. IF you can help, that would probably be integrated to the package
Comment 11 Christian Wansart 2012-08-04 11:03:21 CEST
I thought it already is due to the disabled GRUB_THEME line in /etc/default/grub. Or do you mean the loading screen. If yes, it should simply be removing "rhgb" from the /etc/default/grub file according to http://ask.fedoraproject.org/question/767/f16-how-to-disable-plymouth
Comment 12 Nicolas Chauvet 2012-08-04 11:27:56 CEST
(In reply to comment #11)
> I thought it already is due to the disabled GRUB_THEME line in
> /etc/default/grub. Or do you mean the loading screen. If yes, it should simply
grub2 graphical boot =/= plymouth
Comment 13 Christian Wansart 2012-08-18 10:43:16 CEST
I did some research and there are others with the same problem. I found something on the NVIDIA forums (sorry, I can't find the link right now) where someone suggested appending "video=vesa:off vga=normal" to the kernel parameters. So far it works. We'll see how long.
Comment 14 Nicolas Chauvet 2012-11-06 08:39:02 CET
It is possible to fix the root cause of the issue (grub2 graphical boot) by dropping a file in /etc/grub.d/ that will export GRUB_VIDEO_BACKEND=true
So no video backend get loaded and overrides the nvidia driver early initialization.

Now given that the boot line fix the issue without disabling the graphical boot it was implemented instead.

This should be added on new install (or re-install)