[mythtv-users] Any Debian / Mythtv / Nvidia users here?

[stuart]

On 02/23/2011 08:30 AM, stuart wrote:
>
>
> On 02/22/2011 05:30 PM, Kevin Ross wrote:
>> On 2/20/2011 12:53 PM, stuart wrote:
>>> Hi...
>>>
>>> I've done a bad thing.  I updated my Debian Mythtv boxes with out
>>> checking if there were any Nvidia drivers available.  Now both mythtv
>>> boxes are broke.
>>>
>>> I'm not sure where the hold up is (maybe someone can say), but from
>>> mining the internet it appears this problem started about the 11th of
>>> February (2011) and is centred around not having proprietary Nvidia
>>> drivers available (yet).
>>>
>>> So, I'm asking here what people running Debian Mythtv boxes do.  (Other
>>> then avoid updates like the plague.)
>>>
>>> It's been suggested to wait until new Nvidia drivers float into the
>>> repositories (hum, been days w/o any TV in the house), try the
>>> experimental Debian repositories or load up the *real* Nvidia Linux Drivers.
>>>
>>> Well, that is what I used to do.  Load up the *real* Nvidia Linux
>>> drivers. Every time my Fedora box got a new kernel I just recompiled my
>>> already downloaded Nvidia drivers and off I went.  Simple as that.  But
>>> then I moved to Debian for more stability (ha, I mean humm).  Now, I
>>> understand, I am not suppose to install the *real* Nvidia drivers
>>> because Debian's package manager will have a fit (maybe I should say
>>> there is the possibility of the Debian packaging manager not working for
>>> future packaged Nvidia drivers).
>>>
>>> So, I'm just asking, what do people here usually do in such a case.
>>>
>>> -thanks
>>
>> Do NOT install the nvidia drivers from the nvidia website.  There are
>> nvidia drivers in the Debian repositories, but they are in non-free, not
>> main.  You don't need anything from experimential.
>>
>> Make sure your sources.list looks something like:
>>
>> deb     http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
>>
>> Then just:
>>
>> # apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-glx
>>
>> and that will install the nvidia driver, version 195.36.31, which is
>> perfectly fine for MythTV.  The newer 260 version isn't needed.
>>
>> It works fine for me.  Hope this helps!
>>
>> -- Kevin
>>
>
> Thanks everyone for following up on this thread.  Instead of answering
> everyone I'll just say this for now...
>
> I've spent about an hour a day for the past half dozen trying to fix
> this problem.  Looking around the web I think it has been a serious
> Debian / Unstable / Nvidia problem since the 11th of February (2011).
>
> This is probably an over simplification (at worst a
> miss-representation), but I think the dependencies are not working out
> right:
>
>> The following packages have unmet dependencies:
>>   nvidia-glx : Depends: xorg-video-abi-8.0 but it is not installable or
>>                         xorg-video-abi-6.0 but it is not installable or
>>                         xserver-xorg-core (<  2:1.7.7) but 2:1.9.4-3 is to be installed
>> E: Broken packages
>
> I have tried Debian / Experimental as well as some private copies of a
> Debian / Nvidia build.  So far I have not found anything that will work.
>
> I will be sure to post a fully dated follow-up should I come across a
> solution or if the Debian / Unstable repositories start working again.
>
> -thanks
>

As promised, I'm posting follow ups as I get my Debian / Mythtv / Nvidia 
boxes back up and running...

Timing is everything!

That said, I did get one of my Mythtv boxes up and running.  I ended up 
purging both the xserver and nvidia packages.  Lots of keyboard typing, 
but I believe I followed advice here and other places to use the nvidia 
drivers in Debian / Experimental.  However, in the final step, I did 
need to force the "nvidia-glx" package install.  So...
1) Purge xserver and nvidia package.  It's questionable if you really 
need to re-load the xserver packages - but that's what I did.
2) Reload the xserver packages.  There are so many that I used "dselect" 
and loaded up "xserver-common" which looks like it picks up everything 
you need.
3) Then pick up the nvidia stuff from Experimental:
apt-get -t experimental install nvidia-kernel-source nvidia-kernel-dkms
4) Then I had to down load a local copy and force-load nvidia-glx:
dpkg --force-depends -i nvidia-glx_260.19.21-1_i386.deb

I believed that worked for my first box.  It is running mythtv back and 
front ends now.  Out of my first "Debian Dependency Snag".  Into my 
second "Debian Dependency Snag".  (I told you timing is everything.)

I essentially repeated everything on the 2nd box.  However, somewhere 
down the line I must have done a system wide update.  I picked up the 
next version of the xserver on my 2nd box and am now trapped in another 
Debian dependency war.

What's going on:
The broken box's "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" file:
> [    31.400] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
> [    31.400]    compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
> [    31.400]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
> [    31.400] ================ WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING ================
> [    31.401] This server has a video driver ABI version of 9.0 that is not
> supported by this NVIDIA driver.  Please check
> http://www.nvidia.com/ for driver updates or downgrade to an X
> server with a supported driver ABI.

The broken box's xserver package version number:
> ii  xserver-common       2:1.9.99.902-3       common files used by various X servers

The working box's xserver package version number:
> ii  xserver-common       2:1.9.99.902-2       common files used by various X servers

And this is me trying to load the older "xserver-common" package on the 
broken box in hopes of getting my 2nd mythtv box back up and running:
> # apt-get install xserver-common=2:1.9.99.902-2
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> E: Version '2:1.9.99.902-2' for 'xserver-common' was not found

-darn :(