[mythtv-users] Unable to load Nvidia Kernal Module - Geforce 4 MX - issues upgrading video cards

[Michael T. Dean]

Mike Jones wrote:

>...
>Card works fine, except when trying to upgrade the Nvidia drivers to
>7174, then after copying the Xorg.conf.nvidia to Xorg.conf, X cannot
>start.  I'm also unable to get TV-out to work.  I can simply copy the
>previous Xorg.conf file back and can get the display working - but no
>TV.
>...
>(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module!
>(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
>(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
>(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
>
>Fatal server error:
>no screens found
>  
>
modprobe nvidia
startx

From: ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-7174/README.txt

Q: My X server fails to start, and my X log file contains the error:

   "(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module!"

A: The X driver will abort with this error message if the NVIDIA kernel
   module fails to load or the device files aren't present.

   If you receive this error, you should check the output of `dmesg`
   for kernel error messages and/or attempt to load the kernel module
   explicitly with `modprobe nvidia`.  If unresolved symbols are
   reported, then the kernel module was most likely built against a
   Linux kernel source tree (or kernel headers) for a kernel revision
   or configuration that doesn't match the running kernel.

   You can specify the location of the kernel source tree (or headers)
   when you install the NVIDIA driver using the --kernel-source-path
   command line option (see `sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7174-pkg1.run
   --advanced-options` for details).

   If 'lsmod' reports that the "nvidia" kernel module is loaded, the
   device files (/dev/nvidiactl, /dev/nvidia0..7) may be missing.


So, basically, you are trying to load X, when X tries to access the 
devices, the kernel notices that the module is not yet loaded, so it 
loads the nvidia module, by this time, X has already noticed that the 
device files are not connected to a card, so it has already failed.  If 
you try starting X again immediately, it will work.  So, just make sure 
you explicitly load the nvidia kernel module (i.e. in your start 
scripts) and early enough that the devices are available (i.e. created 
by udev) by the time X needs them (so, long before starting gdm or 
whatever).

Mike