nVidia drivers on 10.3

[ASX]

OK, re-installed, then installed nvidia driver packages again. I found something that didn't make sense. The instructions posted here says to do this 'echo 'nvidia_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf', but what the terminal instructions say is to put it in /etc/rc.conf. Are the instructions possibly wrong, or am I reading something wrong?

You read it correctly, both methods are valid, with little differences, in short using loader.conf the module is loaded by the boot loader along wth the kernel, using rc.conf first the kernel is boot and then the module is loaded.

Considering the module is related to a graphics adapter, loading the corresponding module using loader.conf is preferable, i.e. the adapter initialization will be performed at kernel boot time.

Terminal print out:

root@webby:/usr/home/webby # pkg search nvidia
nvidia-driver-346.96 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-304-304.128 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-340-340.93 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-settings-355.11_3 Display Control Panel for X NVidia driver
nvidia-texture-tools-2.0.8.1_7 Texture Tools with support for DirectX 10 texture formats
nvidia-xconfig-355.11 Tool to manipulate X configuration files for the NVidia driver

Above the list of available packages, the driver that will work for you is: 340-340.93

root@webby:/usr/home/webby # pkg install nvidia-driver-340.96
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
FreeBSD repository is up-to-date.
All repositories are up-to-date.
pkg: No packages available to install matching 'nvidia-driver-340.96' have been found in the repositories

My apologies, this is a typo mistake I made in a previous post, it was meant to be 340.93

edit:
in my defence, I was fooled from your previous post were you mentioned:

EDIT: Downloaded nVidia -FreeBSD-x86_64-340.96. This appears to be the latest driver for the 8400 GS card.

and indeed I knew that the 340 series is the latest that will work with the 8400 GS, but I didn't checked it;
moreover, linux does provide 340.96 version, so it looked like a plausible version.

root@webby:/usr/home/webby # pkg install nvidia-driver-340-340.93
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
FreeBSD repository is up-to-date.
All repositories are up-to-date.
The following 3 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked):

New packages to be INSTALLED:
nvidia-driver-340: 340.93
linux_base-c6: 6.7_1
gstreamer1-plugins-ugly: 1.8.0

The process will require 379 MiB more space.
59 MiB to be downloaded.

Proceed with this action? [y/N]: n

Here you should have answered 'y'

root@webby:/usr/home/webby # pkg search nvidia
nvidia-driver-346.96 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-304-304.128 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-340-340.93 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-settings-355.11_3 Display Control Panel for X NVidia driver
nvidia-texture-tools-2.0.8.1_7 Texture Tools with support for DirectX 10 texture formats
nvidia-xconfig-355.11 Tool to manipulate X configuration files for the NVidia driver
root@webby:/usr/home/webby # pkg install nvidia-driver-346.96
Updating FreeBSD repository catalogue...
FreeBSD repository is up-to-date.
All repositories are up-to-date.
The following 3 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked):

New packages to be INSTALLED:
nvidia-driver: 346.96
linux_base-c6: 6.7_1
gstreamer1-plugins-ugly: 1.8.0

The process will require 377 MiB more space.
59 MiB to be downloaded.

Proceed with this action? [y/N]: y

nope, 346.96 doesn't support and doesn't work with your 8400 adapter.

... dropped

To correct the situation you can use:

Code: Select all

pkg remove nvidia-driver-346.96
pkg install nvidia-driver-340-340.93
nvidia-xconfig
init 6                  # will reboot the system

Hopefully your system should work as expected, let us knows.

[webwalker]

SWEET SUCCESS!!!!

OK, not sure 'WHY' it worked this time, and not the times before, but the only differences this time was a different set of drivers. (i assume) Before I was trying to use the 340.96, this time the 340-340.93 as was suggested by ASX. The other thing I did that I didn't do last time was I went ahead and added echo kld_list="nvidia"' >> /etc/rc.conf. I'm leaning more toward the driver though.

Is 'GhostBSD grub' and 'no loader' during installation the same thing? Since I was only using this as a single OS, that's why I chose 'no loader'

Thanks ericbsd and ASX for your help. I would like to be more proficient at the terminal for both Linux and BSD, but I have time constraints and just don't have the time to sit and try to learn them all, and how they're to be used. Back in the early days when Windows was pretty much all there was, at least that was all I knew about at the time, (1989) I was VERY proficient with DOS, but even now I've forgotten pretty much all that. I guess that's what I get for being lazy!

Do I need to mark this solved?

Thanks again ericbsd and ASX for all your help. I really appreciate it!

PS: this probably won't be the only help I ask for.

[ASX]

SWEET SUCCESS!!!!

OK, not sure 'WHY' it worked this time, and not the times before, but the only differences this time was a different set of drivers. (i assume) Before I was trying to use the 340.96, this time the 340-340.93 as was suggested by ASX. The other thing I did that I didn't do last time was I went ahead and added echo kld_list="nvidia"' >> /etc/rc.conf. I'm leaning more toward the driver though.

Yes, the reason why it worked this time is exactly selecting the correct driver version.

Is 'GhostBSD grub' and 'no loader' during installation the same thing? Since I was only using this as a single OS, that's why I chose 'no loader'

No it is not the same, grub support was introduced in GhostBSD with version 10.x, mainly to allow the use of hybrid ISO images, so to make them bootable from CD/DVD and/or USB sticks, and btw, using grub will not evaluate loader.conf, in such case use of rc.conf is the way to go

Thanks ericbsd and ASX for your help. I would like to be more proficient at the terminal for both Linux and BSD, but I have time constraints and just don't have the time to sit and try to learn them all, and how they're to be used. Back in the early days when Windows was pretty much all there was, at least that was all I knew about at the time, (1989) I was VERY proficient with DOS, but even now I've forgotten pretty much all that. I guess that's what I get for being lazy!

You are welcome!
I disagree with "when Windows was pretty much all there was", actually Unix predates Windows by at least a decade

Do I need to mark this solved?

Yes, but I did it for you.

Thanks again ericbsd and ASX for all your help. I really appreciate it!

PS: this probably won't be the only help I ask for.

Of course, questions are welcome any time, please take a look at http://issues.ghostbsd.org for already known bugs and feel free to report the new ones you might find.