Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:16:31 -0400 From: Sean Murphy <freebsd@seanmurph.com> To: questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: [Solved] Official Nvidia Drivers, Toshiba Laptop, GeForce 4 440 Cards: Always causes Freeze Message-ID: <4436F2CF.8010703@seanmurph.com>
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I have finally come up with a way to use the official drivers from
nvidia on Toshiba notebooks with a GeForce4 440 Go (and similar) video
card. Normally, using either linux or freebsd and the drivers from
nvidia (instead of the default nv driver) would result in a hard
freeze as soon as X was started. I gave up trying to fix it, but then
came across a solution for Linux last night, which I used as a basis
for this FreeBSD solution...
First of all, much credit goes to [1]this [2]information from the
Ubuntu Document Storage Facility (check out "Problem 8" at the
bottom).
Here's how I applied the same modifications to a FreeBSD system:
The first step under Linux was to change some options in the nvidia
kernel, which was done in Linux under /etc/modprobe.conf (or
/etc/modprobe.d). FreeBSD doesn't use modprobe, which I believe is
used for the loading of a kernel module.
Instead, we can modify the option in the source for nvidia's drivers,
and then compile the nvidia kernel module with this already set the
way we want:
1. First, download the [3]latest[4] nvidia source here. Extract (tar
zxvf NVIDIA-FreeBSD-x86-1.0-8178.tar.gz) and move into the newly
created directory.
2. Edit /src/nvidia_os_registry.c using your fav text editor:
Change the values of the following variables:
- NVreg_SoftEDIDs = 0 (was 1)
- NVreg_Mobile = 1 (was ~0)
Save nvidia_os_registry.c and exit.
3. I didn't want linux compatability built into my nvidia kernel
module, so I changed the following:
Comment out (or undefine) this line:
#define NV_SUPPORT_LINUX_COMPAT
4. Under the NVIDIA-FreeBSD-x86-1.0-8178 directory, compile and
install the drivers:
make install
5. Finally, this part is identical to the linux instructions. We
need to make some tweaks to xorg.conf (and tell X to use the nvidia
drivers also):
Your device directive should have something similar to:
Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 420 Go]"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
Option "IgnoreEDID" "true"
Option "IgnoreEdidFreqs" "true"
Option "GenerateRTList" "0"
Option "OverridePolarity" "1"
EndSection
That's all! This time when you startx with the real nvidia drivers,
it won't crash. This is tested to work on both of my Toshiba
laptops. If there are any errors in this howto, feel free to correct
it! Now, us toshiba users can have 3d acceleration along with support
for OpenGL :).
Hope this helps someone!
- Murph
References
1. http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Latest_Nvidia_Dapper
2. http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Latest_Nvidia_Dapper
3. http://www.nvidia.com/object/freebsd_1.0-8178.html
4. http://www.nvidia.com/object/freebsd_1.0-8178.html
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