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Debian Nvidia can't configure resolution

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minoukat

Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2001
Location
Ottawa, Ontario
Hey guys, I've just installed Debian 6 amd64 Stable on my desktop running an Nvidia Quadro NVS 290 graphics card. So far, I've had experience with Ubuntu 10.04 on my laptop (with an NVidia 7150M chip), and it's been working fine and nice, so I thought I'd give Debian a try (I'm thinking of migrating my server to Debian :))

Anyways, after fighting with the system to install the official Nvidia drivers, I got them on (some conflict with the Nouveau drivers was preventing me to install in X, so I learned about Ctrl-Alt-F1 :)) Got that out of the way, drivers installed.

During driver installation, it gave me some warning about the version of gcc being incompatible (I checked and it's version 4.4.5). Installation finished and I rebooted.

Now the X configuration is messed up with the only resolutions available being 320x240 and 640x480.

I tried manually configuring the Xorg.conf file but either a) I don't know how or b) whatever I'm doing is not working.

I also tried running dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and it does nothing.

I'm running out of ideas, and having linux run at VGA resolutions on a 24in widescreen monitor with native resolution 1920x1080 is quite painful.

Can anybody help me configure my install? :)
 
can you post up your xorg.conf, /var/log/nvidia-installer.log, /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /var/log/syslog (or messages depending on your system)
 
I attached the log files as I can't post them straight in here (seems like they're way too long :().

thanks for the reply guys :)

EDIT: I don't quite know how to check the version of Xorg.... I'm running the version installed on Debian 6.0.4 (latest version downloadable from Debian.org)
 

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So after looking at the logs you posted up, I noticed (as you stated) that the kernel couldn't build the module properly
Don't ignore this error:
The compiler used to compile the kernel (gcc 4.3) does not exactly match the
current compiler (gcc 4.4). The Linux 2.6 kernel module loader rejects
kernel modules built with a version of gcc that does not exactly match that of
the compiler used to build the running kernel.

It tells you everything you need to know!

To fix this you can try the following:
1) aptitude install gcc-4.3

2) when it's done, cd /usr/bin

3) unlink gcc (this deletes the symlink currently created)

4) ln -s /usr/bin/gcc-4.3 /usr/bin/gcc

5) install the nvidia driver as you tried before.

6)in the /etc/default/grub file modify the

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line to look like this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet modeset=0"

7) run "update-grub" (this is important because otherwise you will not have this setting applied at boot

8)reboot in recovery (single-user) mode

9) sudo sh NVIDIA<driver>.run --uninstall
sudo sh NVIDIA<driver>.run

10) Reboot


Also this is in your xorg logs:
Code:
(WW) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0): No valid modes for "1920x1080"; removing.
(WW) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0): 
(WW) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0): Unable to validate any modes; falling back to the default mode
(WW) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0):     "nvidia-auto-select".
(WW) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0): 
(II) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0): Validated modes:
(II) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0):     "nvidia-auto-select"
(II) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 640 x 480
(WW) Feb 28 20:54:08 NVIDIA(0): Unable to get display device CRT-0's EDID; cannot compute DPI

I believe this is due to a lack of kernel module which should be fixed by following the steps above
 
Ok thanks Stratus! I really appreciate you taking the time to look through my logs :) I did what you suggested and indeed, the installation went well with gcc 4.3. However, the display modes were unchanged.

After some tweaking and setting a huge virtual mode in Xorg.conf, I managed to get a resolution of 1360xsomething but not the 1920x1080 that I want! Every time I add the changes manually to the Xorg.conf, they get ignored/removed.

I checked the correct modeline using 'cvt 1920 1080' then added it using xrandr, and finally added it to xorg.conf. The mode is displayed in xrandr but not available in nvidia-settings.

What's going on here? why are my settings being ignored? :(

Thanks for all your help! :)
 
No problem,

everytime you come back with something new please re-up the logs?

try adding this
Code:
Option "UseEDIDFreqs" "FALSE"
Option "UseEDIDDpi" "FALSE"

to your xorg.conf under the "screen" section

alternatively you can try putting this:
Code:
Option "ModeValidation" "NoEdidModes"
Option "UseEDIDFreqs" "FALSE"

under "Device" section. I would try one and then the other, just so you know which one may do it

NOTE: "UseEdid" "FALSE" disables sound over HDMI.

As a dead last alternative you can try this script It used to work for debian, and the last updated time was Jan 2012 so it should work if nothing else does
 
You need to be root to change the default res in some distros. It should work fine after a reboot. I use the 290.20 nvidia drivers and the file is named nvidia-settings in bin.
 
Thanks guys! After performing Stratus' changes, I realized that I the monitor was actually not being detected because the signal was going through a cheap KVM. So I plugged the card directly into the monitor, reran the nvidia xconfig and it worked! Now everything looks good! :D

Thanks again for all your help, especially Stratus! :)
 
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