[Nouveau] GV98 adapter, experience with nouveau

[poma]

On 01.06.2016 13:48, Yury Tarasievich wrote:
> I'm trying to put to work the nouveau driver on 
> slackware 64 bits current, kernel 4.4.*.
> 
> I've thought the hardware to be some obscure OEM 
> variant of GT610. However, kind soul on IRC 
> pointed out that it's a G98 really, 'GeForce 
> 9300 GS or 8400 GS'.
> 
> Proprietary NVIDIA drivers:
> * 340.96 installs okay, console works, but X 
> doesn't start, with unspecified error occuring 
> when trying to initialise hardware (-19);
> * 304.131 works, with no undue surprises.
> 
> I've experienced a lot of problems with nouveau 
> driver (as packaged for Slackware on Dec 16, 
> 2015; build date in logs: '19 November 2015 
> 12:46:02AM'):
> 
> 1) Console does not initialise the output 
> correctly if video mode is not restricted to 
> 640x480 by kernel command line with '... 
> video=640x480'. Any other (bigger) resolution 
> there, or no restriction, and the screen blanks; 
> also, for either 800x600 or 1024x768 upper 
> limits the monitor outputs the warning about 
> unusable mode, 26.8KHz/43Hz for 800x600, and 
> 21.6KHz/27Hz for 1024x768.
> 
> The input works. I can log in and start X, which 
> starts (!) and works, but produces no output either.
> 
> No such problem with NVIDIA drivers.
> 
> 2) The working mode restriction 640x480 gives 
> the console set to 68Hz vertical refresh (as 
> monitor reports).
> 
> 3) The X started from console (having 640x480 
> restriction) allows only 640x480 mode in config. 
> Any other mode produces working X with blank 
> screen, excepting console started restrictred to 
> 800x600 or 1024x768, which retains the monitor's 
> floating message about 'unusable mode'. Either 
> way, input in X works.
> 
> 4) The X in 640x480 has actual vertical refresh 
> of 68Hz, which xrandr reports as 75Hz. Attempt 
> to change vert. refresh rate to 60Hz produces 
> screen 'stroboscoping'. Any other resolution set 
> via xrandr produces blank screen.
> 
> Any advice? NVIDIA driver files removed, full 
> dmesg and xorg available. Cut of dmesg with 
> nouveau lines is in postscriptum.
> 
> -Yury
> 
> PS [    7.137052] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: NVIDIA 
> G98 (298500a2)
> [    7.256163] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: bios: 
> version 70.18.36.00.00
> [    7.258447] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: disp: conn 
> 02:0261: func 08 lookup failed, -2
> [    7.279208] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: bios: 
> M0203T not found
> [    7.279327] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: bios: 
> M0203E not matched!
> [    7.279442] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: fb: 1024 
> MiB DDR2
> [    7.328218] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: VRAM: 
> 1024 MiB
> [    7.328332] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: GART: 
> 1048576 MiB
> [    7.328448] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: TMDS 
> table version 2.0
> [    7.328563] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: DCB 
> version 4.0
> [    7.328677] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: DCB 
> outp 00: 02000300 00000028
> [    7.328793] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: DCB 
> outp 01: 01000302 00020030
> [    7.328908] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: DCB 
> outp 02: 04011310 00000028
> [    7.329035] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: DCB 
> outp 03: 02022322 00c20090
> [    7.329150] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: DCB 
> conn 00: 00001030
> [    7.329264] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: DCB 
> conn 01: 00000100
> [    7.329378] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: DCB 
> conn 02: 00002261
> [    7.339193] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: MM: 
> using M2MF for buffer copies
> [    7.408036] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DRM: 
> allocated 640x480 fb: 0x50000, bo ffff8800bf77c000
> [    7.408442] fbcon: nouveaufb (fb0) is primary 
> device
> [    7.410533] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: devinit: 
> unable to compute acceptable pll values
> [    7.410535] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: devinit: 
> failed pll calculation
> [    7.470351] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: fb0: 
> nouveaufb frame buffer device
> [    7.477047] [drm] Initialized nouveau 1.3.1 
> 20120801 for 0000:02:00.0 on minor 0
> 


You can display basic video device info via:
$ lspci -knn -d ::0300

Compare output with the
https://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/CodeNames/

Also you can try to test with newer software,
e.g.
https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Spins/x86_64/iso/
Fedora-KDE-Live-x86_64-Rawhide-20160601.n.0.iso

If the machine reaches Desktop in the first place,
put SELinux in permissive mode:
$ su -c "setenforce 0"

otherwise config changes will not apply

re-log ...

Test various Compositor Settings:
$ kcmshell5 kwincompositing

Observe config file:
$ cat ~/.config/kwinrc

Check OpenGL info:
$ kcmshell5 opengl

Check X-Server info
$ kcmshell5 xserver

Start Terminal emulator to exec commands:
ALT+F2: konsole