[plug] reset nVidia card to factory defaults??

[W.Kenworthy]

Something I just noticed when rebuilding a kernel yesterday - there are
some display settings that may be active before the nvidia driver takes
over.  This is in  2.6.22/23.

In 2.6.13 where I am now, in graphics, there is a "low level switch
control", and the in the console display driver support (another level
down) there is a "map the console to primary display device"

Have fun,
BillK


On Sun, 2007-11-25 at 22:47 -0800, WolfBite wrote:
> lov nvidia cards
> 
> 
> except when 
> linux says a=screeno b=screen1
> and then
> windows says a=screen1 b=screen0
> 
> no matter what you SHOULD always get post on a or b
> if its not one its the other (tv port will only give headaches with
> windows)
> 
> windows gives the biggest headache with swapped screens
> 
> only way to stuff them is a firmware flash
> 
> could be a monitor issue (make sure you testing with a multisync
> monitor, higher the better)
> Sometimes the nvidia detects toooooo high and the monitor syncs out
> 
> 
> Denis Brown <dsbrown at cyllene.uwa.edu.au> wrote:
>         Hello PLUG list members.
>         
>         Sorry in advance for the length of this post but I figure the
>         more info 
>         up-front the better in such cases.
>         
>         While setting up Xgl on openSuSE 10.3 with nVidia 8500GT card
>         today I 
>         appear to have put the card into a state where only the Linux
>         OS can 
>         communicate with it. At power on for example, there is no
>         evidence of 
>         video being generated hence the POST screen and BIOS setup are
>         invisible :-(
>         
>         I would like to reset the card back to factory defaults (apart
>         from knowing 
>         what caused it to get so distressed!)
>         
>         System:
>         ASUS P5K motherboard
>         Sata drives (1 by 73GB system, 3 by 320GB in software RAID5)
>         4 GB memory
>         Intel 6600 Core 2 Duo CPU
>         openSUSE 10.3 for x86_64
>         nVidia GeForce 8500GT video card
>         
>         The initial OS used was Ubuntu but for various reasons I
>         wanted to use 
>         openSuSE on this system. Installed 10.3 yesterday - sweet
>         sailing. It 
>         even passed across the three user accounts and their
>         passwords, and 
>         preserved the software RAID5 array. Colour me impressed.
>         
>         Started tweaking the video -- this is a medical imaging
>         workstation which 
>         will run some fairly top-end software. GLUT dependant, some of
>         it, so had 
>         to get Xgl on there. Followed some HOWTOs for
>         installing/running Compix 
>         on openSuSE and all went well until the configuration of the
>         nVidia drivers.
>         
>         At that point it overwrote the xorg.conf file (this was
>         expected) but from 
>         that point on things started to go pear shaped.
>         
>         First hint of problems was the fact that after logging off one
>         user and 
>         preparing to log on again, there was just a black screen - no
>         evidence of 
>         video coming out of the video card. SSH'd into the box and
>         replaced the 
>         xorg.conf with a previous known-good copy. Restart X and we're
>         happy 
>         again. But no glxinfo, no glxgears, etc.
>         
>         Then decided to do a power down and restart. It was then I
>         noticed the 
>         absence of video output during POST and OS startup. The first
>         evidence of 
>         video is the openSuSE signon screen. Cannot even get to an
>         Alt-Fx 
>         terminal. Yikes!
>         
>         Several nvidia-xconfig and other xorg-related tweaks later,
>         still having 
>         the same problems.
>         
>         Latest nVidia driver from website (installed using YAST as per
>         nVidia 
>         instructions.) Have also located documents suggesting that
>         YAST is *not* 
>         the installation method of choice and I will explore that
>         tomorrow.
>         
>         But in the meantime I have an apparently "invisible" POST and
>         BIOS setup 
>         which is not comforting. Either the BIOS settings got changed
>         during the 
>         xorg tweaking (highly unlikely) or the nVidia card got itself
>         reprogrammed 
>         into a state that it does not function in any way unless
>         driven by the 
>         nVidia drivers and the Linux OS. Great, but not good for BIOS
>         tweaks, 
>         etc! And it still does not respond to glxinfo - claims it
>         cannot see 
>         display 0:0
>         
>         So to return to the prime question, how to reset the card back
>         to factory 
>         defaults? Pref. using Linux :-) Or is there some other
>         explanation - 
>         and fix?
>         
>         TIA,.
>         Denis
>         
>         
>         _______________________________________________
>         PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
>         http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
>         Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au
> 
> 
> 
> 
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