TC & NVidia

[SeventhSin]

Hello,

Core-current (10.x, 32 bit)

1. On a laptop with embedded Radeon video, all I have to do to is type tce-load -wi firmware-radeon graphics-4.19.10-tinycore ... and Bob's your uncle.
2. On a laptop with embedded Intel video, all I have to do is type tce-load -wi graphics-4.19.10-tinycore ... and Bob's your uncle.

However, I am unable to generate a "Bob's your uncle" scenario for NVidia adapters.

tce-load -wi xf86-video-nouveau => no luck ( various forum posts suggest it has been disabled (?!) )
tce-load -wi xf86-video-nv => no luck ( couple of KB, seems more like a shim, can't really be expected to work by itself (?!) )
tce-load -wi xf86-video-nv graphics-4.19.10-tinycore => no luck

The way I see it:

- no proprietary NVidia driver in the repositories because ... reasons ...
- nouveau is present, but ain't working because ... reasons ...

How does one generate a "Bob's your uncle" scenario for NVidia adapters on Core?

[Juanito]

Try the NVidia machine with graphics-KERNEL and check the Xorg log to see which video drivers it’s trying to load.

[SeventhSin]

Thank you for the suggestions, Juanito.

I haven't installed Xorg. I'm testing on a vanilla Core (the 11 MB shell only incarnation). graphics-KERNEL resolves to graphics-4.19.10-tinycore.tcz

After installing graphics-KERNEL on the Radeon/Intel machines, the screen goes black for a second and then come back @ max resolution. However, tce-load -wi kernel-GRAPHICS on the NVidia machines results in packages being downloaded, appropriate OKs everywhere but then, nothing happens. No new module loaded by the kernel, nada

[coreplayer2]

Hello
Maybe you can tell us the model of NVIDIA card ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Juanito]

Does anything show up in dmesg after graphics-KERNEL is loaded on the nvidia machine?

[curaga]

- no proprietary NVidia driver in the repositories because ... reasons ...
- nouveau is present, but ain't working because ... reasons ...

How does one generate a "Bob's your uncle" scenario for NVidia adapters on Core?

Extensions are user contributed. Nobody has yet contributed the proprietary nvidia drivers for 10.x x86, some previous versions have those. If you need that, why not make it yourself?

Nouveau is too unstable, just as staging drivers or many third-party drivers. As such it is not enabled by default. If someone builds it and sends a separate extension, it will be accepted; as a separate extension, it needs a separate action from the user to enable, and so is clear opt-in to whatever issues may happen.

xf86-video-nv should work, but it does not support the most recent nvidias.

[SeventhSin]

Hello
Maybe you can tell us the model of NVIDIA card ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tested on machines with NVIDIA GeForce GT 740 and NVIDIA Geforce GT 430. Pretty old cards.

Does anything show up in dmesg after graphics-KERNEL is loaded on the nvidia machine?

Nothing in dmesg.

If you need that, why not make it yourself?

I am here at the behest of my company. We wish to identify a suitable base for our custom platform. My job is to research and secure the component technologies. For the past 4 months or so I have been thoroughly testing various Linux distributions for suitability to purpose. I have chosen TinyCore Linux and now I'm in the process of mapping what works, what doesn't and what's missing. Our goal is to contribute to the upstream (TC) by contracting (short-medium term) and even hiring (medium-long term) from within the community as opposite to "in-house cooking".

xf86-video-nv should work, but it does not support the most recent nvidias.

Based on my observations none of the xf86-video-* packages works by itself. For example, on a laptop with ATI Trinity [Radeon HD 7640G] integrated graphics:

tce-load -wi firmware-radeon xf86-video-ati => doesn't do anything
tce-load -wi firmware-radeon graphics-KERNEL => Bob's your uncle

Right now I'm not sure if the issue I'm experiencing with NVIDIA cards is due to

a) me testing in console only without Xorg
b) me not doing something appropriately or
c) NVIDIA is not supposed to work anyway due to missing proprietary drivers.

[Juanito]

Here's what I get with intel hardware when booting to the console prompt and then loading graphics-KERNEL.

Note that the console is already in uefi gfx fb mode.

Code: [Select]

$ tce-load -i graphics-KERNEL
$ dmesg
...
Linux agpgart interface v0.103
[drm] VT-d active for gfx access
checking generic (e0000000 410000) vs hw (e0000000 10000000)
fb: switching to inteldrmfb from EFI VGA
Console: switching to colour dummy device 80x25
[drm] Replacing VGA console driver
[drm] DMAR active, disabling use of stolen memory
[drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
[drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
i915 0000:00:02.0: vgaarb: changed VGA decodes: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=io+mem:owns=io+mem
[drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20180719 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
ACPI: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes  rom: no  post: no)
input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input16
fbcon: inteldrmfb (fb0) is primary device
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 170x48
i915 0000:00:02.0: fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device
I would have thought you would see something analgous with nvidia hardware with perhaps an error message?

[Juanito]

..and if that doesn't come up with anything, I would suggest loading Xorg-7.7, "startx" and checking the xorg log for something analagous to:

Code: [Select]

[   241.729] (==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 0
[   241.729] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 1
[   241.729] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 2
[   241.729] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 3

[SeventhSin]

Here's what I get with intel hardware when booting to the console prompt and then loading graphics-KERNEL.

Note that the console is already in uefi gfx fb mode.

Code: [Select]

$ tce-load -i graphics-KERNEL
$ dmesg
...
Linux agpgart interface v0.103
[drm] VT-d active for gfx access
checking generic (e0000000 410000) vs hw (e0000000 10000000)
fb: switching to inteldrmfb from EFI VGA
Console: switching to colour dummy device 80x25
[drm] Replacing VGA console driver
[drm] DMAR active, disabling use of stolen memory
[drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
[drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
i915 0000:00:02.0: vgaarb: changed VGA decodes: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=io+mem:owns=io+mem
[drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20180719 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
ACPI: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes  rom: no  post: no)
input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input16
fbcon: inteldrmfb (fb0) is primary device
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 170x48
i915 0000:00:02.0: fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device
I would have thought you would see something analgous with nvidia hardware with perhaps an error message?

I too have copious dmesg messages on the Intel and Radeon machines. Just tested again on the NVIDIA Geforce GT 430 PC and I get the line with "Linux agpgart interface v0.103", but there is no more output after that.

[SeventhSin]

..and if that doesn't come up with anything, I would suggest loading Xorg-7.7, "startx" and checking the xorg log for something analagous to:

Code: [Select]

[   241.729] (==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 0
[   241.729] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 1
[   241.729] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 2
[   241.729] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 3

Tested with

tce-load -wi graphics-KERNEL Xorg-7.7

startx => screen flickers a couple of times, I can see the TinyCore desktop background 2-3 times for about 300 ms in between flickers, then screen goes dark and stays that way, end of party, must reboot. Same behavior on both NVIDIA machines.

I get the sense that the graphics-KERNEL extension should setup the appropriate driver for the NVIDIA cards, however for some obscure reason it doesn't. Maybe there is an issue with the extension itself ?

[coreplayer2]

...

Code: [Select]

[drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
i915 0000:00:02.0: vgaarb: changed VGA decodes: olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=io+mem:owns=io+mem
[drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20180719 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0
ACPI: Video Device [GFX0] (multi-head: yes  rom: no  post: no)
input: Video Bus as /devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0A08:00/LNXVIDEO:00/input/input16
fbcon: inteldrmfb (fb0) is primary device
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 170x48
i915 0000:00:02.0: fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device[/code]
...
NVIDIA Geforce GT 430

BTW, It looks like your PC has an On-Chip Intel graphics?  you might have to disable this to force the Nvidia hardware.

There is no Nvidia driver in the current TC-10 repo which supports your hardware.

Meanwhile, you might be in luck, since a resent driver 390.87 supports both your GT 430 and my GTX 1060 machines.    I say this because Nvidia only allow compiling their proprietary driver on PC's with supporting hardware and TC-9x was the last Version with Nvidia support using nvidia-390.77 driver  http://tinycorelinux.net/9.x/x86/tcz/nvidia-390.77-4.14.10-tinycore.tcz.info and since no one has requested latest Nvifia driver I haven't submitted an extension for TC-10.x yet, standby I'll try to built the extension today

Code: [Select]

NVIDIA TITAN Series
NVIDIA TITAN V, NVIDIA TITAN Xp, NVIDIA TITAN X (Pascal), GeForce GTX TITAN, GeForce GTX TITAN X, GeForce GTX TITAN Black, GeForce GTX TITAN Z
GeForce MX100 Series (Notebook)
GeForce MX150, GeForce MX130, GeForce MX110
GeForce 10 Series
GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, GeForce GTX 1080, GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, GeForce GTX 1070, GeForce GTX 1060, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, GeForce GTX 1050, GeForce GT 1030
GeForce 10 Series (Notebooks)
GeForce GTX 1080, GeForce GTX 1070, GeForce GTX 1060, GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, GeForce GTX 1050
GeForce 900 Series
GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GeForce GTX 980, GeForce GTX 970, GeForce GTX 960, GeForce GTX 950
GeForce 900M Series (Notebooks)
GeForce GTX 980, GeForce GTX 980M, GeForce GTX 970M, GeForce GTX 965M, GeForce GTX 960M, GeForce GTX 950M, GeForce 945M, GeForce 940MX, GeForce 930MX, GeForce 920MX, GeForce 940M, GeForce 930M, GeForce 920M, GeForce 910M
GeForce 800M Series (Notebooks)
GeForce GTX 880M, GeForce GTX 870M, GeForce GTX 860M, GeForce GTX 850M, GeForce 845M, GeForce 840M, GeForce 830M, GeForce 825M, GeForce 820M, GeForce 810M, GeForce 800M
GeForce 700 Series
GeForce GTX 780 Ti, GeForce GTX 780, GeForce GTX 770, GeForce GTX 760, GeForce GTX 760 Ti (OEM), GeForce GTX 750 Ti, GeForce GTX 750, GeForce GTX 745, GeForce GT 740, GeForce GT 730, GeForce GT 720, GeForce GT 710, GeForce GT 705
GeForce 700M Series (Notebooks)
GeForce GTX 780M, GeForce GTX 770M, GeForce GTX 765M, GeForce GTX 760M, GeForce GT 755M, GeForce GT 750M, GeForce GT 745M, GeForce GT 740M, GeForce GT 735M, GeForce GT 730M, GeForce GT 720M, GeForce GT 710M, GeForce 720M, GeForce 710M, GeForce 705M
GeForce 600 Series
GeForce GTX 690, GeForce GTX 680, GeForce GTX 670, GeForce GTX 660 Ti, GeForce GTX 660, GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST, GeForce GTX 650 Ti, GeForce GTX 650, GeForce GTX 645, GeForce GT 645, GeForce GT 640, GeForce GT 635, GeForce GT 630, GeForce GT 620, GeForce GT 610, GeForce 605
GeForce 600M Series (Notebooks)
GeForce GTX 680MX, GeForce GTX 680M, GeForce GTX 675MX, GeForce GTX 675M, GeForce GTX 670MX, GeForce GTX 670M, GeForce GTX 660M, GeForce GT 650M, GeForce GT 645M, GeForce GT 640M, GeForce GT 640M LE, GeForce GT 635M, GeForce GT 630M, GeForce GT 625M, GeForce GT 620M, GeForce 610M
GeForce 500 Series
GeForce GTX 590, GeForce GTX 580, GeForce GTX 570, GeForce GTX 560 Ti, GeForce GTX 560 SE, GeForce GTX 560, GeForce GTX 555, GeForce GTX 550 Ti, GeForce GT 545, GeForce GT 530, GeForce GT 520, GeForce 510
GeForce 500M Series (Notebooks)
GeForce GTX 580M, GeForce GTX 570M, GeForce GTX 560M, GeForce GT 555M, GeForce GT 550M, GeForce GT 540M, GeForce GT 525M, GeForce GT 520M, GeForce GT 520MX
GeForce 400 Series
GeForce GTX 480, GeForce GTX 470, GeForce GTX 465, GeForce GTX 460 SE v2, GeForce GTX 460 SE, GeForce GTX 460, GeForce GTS 450, GeForce GT 440, GeForce GT 430, GeForce GT 420
GeForce 400M Series (Notebooks)
GeForce GTX 485M, GeForce GTX 480M, GeForce GTX 470M, GeForce GTX 460M, GeForce GT 445M, GeForce GT 435M, GeForce GT 425M, GeForce GT 420M, GeForce GT 415M, GeForce 410M


[SeventhSin]

BTW, It looks like your PC has an On-Chip Intel graphics?  you might have to disable this to force the Nvidia hardware.

That is a quote from Juanito's message, it's not my output.

I do have a testing device with both Intel HD Graphics 530 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M and installing graphics-KERNEL results in the extension setting up the Intel adapter (as I would expect). I haven't tested it yet, but turning off the Intel Video would probably result in the same behavior as on my other 2 NVIDIA only machines: nothing will happen.

[Juanito]

end of party, must reboot. Same behavior on both NVIDIA machines.

<ctl-alt-f1> and then "sudo killall Xorg" doesn't work (this would allow you to access the xorg log)?

[Rich]

Hi SeventhSin

... startx => screen flickers a couple of times, I can see the TinyCore desktop background 2-3 times for about 300 ms in between flickers, then screen goes dark and stays that way, end of party, must reboot. Same behavior on both NVIDIA machines. ...

After the screen goes dark, you could try hitting  Ctrl-Alt-F1  to see if it kicks you back into the console.