Re: XFree Problems with SuSE 8.2, GeForce, DVI and 1GB ram. No SuSE support help...

From: Chris Cox (ccox_nopenotthis_at_airmail.net)
Date: 09/15/03 

Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 10:17:13 -0500

Matt wrote:
> I've looked at SuSE's help documents to no avail. SuSE's installation
> support seems to be worthless ("only covers monitors correctly
> detected by sax"), so hopefully someone here has a suggestion.
>
> The problem:
>
> I am installing SuSE 8.2 on an Athlon XP 2400 with 1GB ram and a
> GeForce 4200, connected via DVI to a Sharp LL-T1620 LCD monitor with a
> native resolution of 1280x1024@60.
>
> SuSE installs fine (with graphics even), but will not start X. No
> matter what I do, with the built-in "nv" drivers, I get a "Frequency
> out of Range" error from my monitor. I've tried:
>
> 1) boot with vga=normal
> 2) start sax2 with O=nv 0:1280x1024@60
> 3) explicitly entered in the Modeline into XF86Config given by xmode
> for 1280x1024@60:
> Modeline "1280x1024" 102.24 1280 1296 1552 1726 1024 1024 1033 1070
>
> Nothing did any good. Same "frequency out of range" error.
>
> I borrowed a non-DVI LCD monitor (different brand too) from someone
> and everything worked fine without doing anything.
>
> I then installed the NVidia drivers. Unfortunately, these require the
> framebuffer. The only way I could get these drivers to work was to
> boot with the parameters:
>
> mem=768 vga=0x031a [I removed splash=silent and showopts]
>
> This does not allow me to use all 1GB of my memory. Increasing mem
> above 768 results in no monitor output at all.
>
> I've had quite a lot of trouble with this issue every time I
> upgrade/install SuSE on this computer. Prior to 8.2 I was able to get
> things working.
>

(apologize for leaving the post in tact)

There is definitely an issue with the nvidia vesa frame buffer support
when you have 1G or more of ram (at least with some AMD chipsets). I usually
just get rid of the cute framebuffer stuff on boot up. This doesn't answer
your question about sync rates though. I have several AMD/Nvidia boxes...
getting rid of the framebuffer stuff on boot worked for me. I didn't have
any problem with sync rates. You may have to manually tweak your vertical
and horizontal sync rates for your monitor in your X11/XF86Config file.

I use the Nvidia drivers from Nvidia on my boxes.

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