On , George Spelvin <linux@horizon.com> wrote: > I have an NV18 (GeForce4 MX) connected via DVI to a 1920x1080 LCD, > > and when I try to use the nouveau kernel driver, I get a crappy display. > > > > Thanks in advance to anyone who can help. > > > > I'm running a recent nouveau git (fa17f241 drm/nv50: fix thinko in vm fault) > > merged with 2.6.38-rc8. > > > > When the driver loads (it's compiled as a module, so this is after init > > starts), the console shrinks to a 36x90 character box in the upper-left > > corner of the display. > > > > When the system is busy, the screen "flashes" to the right. > > The console text appears half a screen to the right for a moment. > > It's particularly annoying right after boot, but settles down once the > > system goes quescent. > > > > The problem is NOT associated with screen updates. I can run "yes" > > and see the problem very little. hdparm -tT, however, makes the screen > > almost unusable during *both* phases. > > > > Watching during heavy activity, there's a "standard position" to the > > right where the text tends to appear, but there's also lots of "tearing" > > and it appears in multiple positions. Still pretty recognizable as text, > > though; it doesn't seem to change every scanline. > > > > X is also screwed up; it fails to start with the messages: > > [ 214.714] (II) NOUVEAU(0): Opened GPU channel 1 > > [ 214.715] (II) NOUVEAU(0): [DRI2] Setup complete > > [ 214.715] (II) NOUVEAU(0): [DRI2] DRI driver: nouveau_vieux > > [ 214.716] (EE) NOUVEAU(0): Error allocating scanout buffer: 0 > > [ 214.716] > > Fatal server error: > > [ 214.716] AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0 > > > > ... but I figure that's a more advanced problem. > > > > I've tried and been unhappy with the nouveau driver on this system in > > the past (I remember it coming up but having lots of horizontal lines of > > "snow" on the display), but Debian recently removed the nv driver that > > worked fine for me from its X distribution, so I'm trying again a bit > > harder this time. > > > > It's a 2 GB Athlon system, small form factor with onboard video. > > lspci -nn gives: Is there anything at all connected to the other output (referred to as TV-1 in your log)? You can try disabling TV detection with the tv_disable nouveau.ko module parameter if a non-existent TV is somehow being detected.