On , Marcin Slusarz <marcin.slusarz@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Jul 01, 2011 at 01:16:49AM -0400, George Spelvin wrote: > > > I mentioned these problems back in March, but went back to the nv driver > > > and ignored it. Since I need to reboot for another reason, I gave nouveau a try again, > > > > > > This time, I'm using the kernel git tip, off of 3.0-rc5: > > > 181888bfeea73b2ec756b83fd590fd3a62d4171d: drm/nv50/dp: fix hack to work for macbooks booted via EFI > > > > > > The X server is Debian's xserver-xorg-video-nouveau, version > > > 1:0.0.16+git20110411+8378443-1+b1 > > > > > > The good news is that my screen "tearing" problem during system activity > > > appears to be fixed! > > > Hooray. But I still have two other problems I mentioned at the time: > > > > > > 1) The text console, although connected via DVI, appears to be about > > > half a line of text low. Tall characters (^ and $) on the top line > > > have their top row of pixels "stretched" upward, apparently replicated > > > quite a few times. > > > The bottom row of characters is only partially visible. > > > > Screenshot might be useful. > > > > > > > > 2) I can't start X. The X server fails to initialize with: > > > [ 6151.976] (II) NOUVEAU(0): Opened GPU channel 1 > > > [ 6151.976] (II) NOUVEAU(0): [DRI2] Setup complete > > > [ 6151.976] (II) NOUVEAU(0): [DRI2] DRI driver: nouveau_vieux > > > > Can you uninstall 3d driver and check how will it behave? > > > > > [ 6151.977] (EE) NOUVEAU(0): Error allocating scanout buffer: 0 > > > [ 6151.977] > > > Fatal server error: > > > [ 6151.977] AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0 > > > [ 6151.977] > > > > > > If I can get problem 2 fixed, problem 1 will become less important. > > > > > > As mentioned in my old email, it's a uniprocessor Athlon XP system, with a > > > Geforce 4 MX video adapter: > > > 04:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX - nForce GPU] [10de:01f0] (rev a3) > > > > FYI, nouveau finds it as NV1F. > > > > > The display is a 1920x1080 LCD, connected via DVI. No other outputs are connected. > > > > 1920x1080x4 is almost 8MB and you have only 32MB of VRAM. It might be a problem with memory allocation. > > You could verify it by applying this patch to xf86-video-nouveau and checking xorg.log: > > > > diff --git a/src/nv_accel_common.c b/src/nv_accel_common.c > > index 735f47f..1eac357 100644 > > --- a/src/nv_accel_common.c > > +++ b/src/nv_accel_common.c > > @@ -116,8 +116,10 @@ nouveau_allocate_surface(ScrnInfoPtr scrn, int width, int height, int bpp, > > > > ret = nouveau_bo_new_tile(pNv->dev, flags, 0, *pitch * height, > > tile_mode, tile_flags, bo); > > - if (ret) > > + if (ret) { > > + xf86DrvMsg(scrn->scrnIndex, X_ERROR, "nouveau_bo_new_tile returned: %d, %s\n", ret, strerror(ret)); > > return FALSE; > > + } > > > > return TRUE; > > } > > > > - > > > > Lowering bpp/resolution for framebuffer and/or X might help. At least temporarily. Likely low on VRAM. I don't see why it would be able to create the 1st frame buffer for fbcon but not a 2nd for X unless it was tight on memory.