GeForce 7900GS GPU - nvidia driver install

[dcung]

Summary

[wiak]

Mainstream repositories, and mainstream 'package managers', I have always found to be a complete & utter PITA to work with. You have absolutely no option BUT to slavishly follow the format laid out by the maintainers.....which to my mind, has always seemed to be as convoluted & awkward as they know how to make it

Sorry Mike, but I am certain you are talking absolute rubbish on this occasion. Puppy uses the same repos but via Package Managers that try to accommodate different repo formats via conversion format mechanisms, which is far from ever ideal or perfect. Kind of works for a lot of packages but 'depends'... Debian official dpkg/apt package management, on the other hand, is precisely designed for that repo format so works pretty much flawlessly for apps/utilities/whatever that have been officially packaged. Furthermore, if you really want to compile drivers or apps yourself and assemble sfs modules out of these, there is nothing to stop you. Hate to say it, but DebianDogs are a better system than the corresponding Pups - just compare the facilities/specs/overall-flexibility. If there is an exception to that, it would be the effort put in by Puppy to provide a user-friendly first-use frontend to new users - that side of Puppy is very impressive indeed so Puppy is probably a lot easier for first time users to get it basically working - more hand-holding, but once someone is a little bit at ease with Linux more generally, the pain of inferior package management and constant need to bolt on specially prepared sfs modules becomes annoying (to me at least).

Worst of all, from my own perspective, is lack of true multiuser capability (EDIT: actually the Puppy fudged package management is worst of all, really, when I think of it) - for most people that probably wasn't a big issue (unless trying to learn Linux admin, for which multiuser capability is essential), but in recent years larger apps simply are not designed to work as root user and the fudges used to get around that another waste of time. As for security, whilst DebianDogs default to logging in as root user for convenience (which I used to prefer) they also allow logging in as non-root user, which actually has advantages once you become comfortable with setting up your system to work from that standpoint (but you don't have to - you can stick with root in DD). Puppy is certainly no faster or more efficient running than a Debian/Ubuntu Dog. Oh, and you can use systemd with DD if you wish! (but don't have to - can use SysVinit or runit via dpkg/apt and so on) and even Puppy is moving towards using pulseaudio now albeit late, since pipewire going to replace that. Pipewire seems like an interesting 'alternative', and will replace Jack and pulseaudio sooner rather than later (and GStreamer and suchlike since for audio AND video...), and pipewire is no doubt available via DD official Debian/Ubuntu repos, and will likely work out of the box in DD whereas Puppy probably needing lots of under-the-hood tweaks to make anything like that work... sigh: watch out for issues needing multiuser, non-root user... pipewire, like Wayland is designed with security in mind... not that pulseaudio loves being run as user root either.

Puppy appears to be in trying hard to catch up mode. There are plenty of other fine wee Linux distros out there that make Puppy look unfriendly and tricky overall. You don't need me to list some popular ones. Puppy is a hobby, and a nice tradition, which is fun and fine, but pretending it is the best is a lot of rubbish. The best use I see still being made with Puppy is in fact by rockedge, who uses it for small efficient special purpose Zoneminder creations - could probably do just as well, in that sort of usage, with suitable DebianDog though. Reason I think that works so well for rockedge though is that official repo Zoneminder isn't crafted so well as the specially compiled and configured variants he makes (which fits in well with your own sfs modules type of system), but could be done on DD system if rockedge was familiar with that - but I think Puppy is fine for that kind of use anyway. I wouldn't myself use Puppy as a main desktop system (depends on your needs) but I would (and have) used DebianDog, which works perfectly well in all scenarios I know of.

So I guess I am saying that Puppy is a good first introduction to getting into Linux quickly, but sooner or later a move to a full multiuser system is better, and a DebianDog is one of these (but similar in so many ways to Puppy from sfs module handling capability/flexibility) - so I see Dogs as next step up: FatDog being an interesting and impressive alternative since it does many things very well indeed and remains very independent in terms of its underlying design (but non-techy types probably better with the likes of DebianDogs, which give full upstream package manager desktop experience). FatDog great for those who love experimenting with system under-the-hood innovations.

Anyway, this a long response to your 'remark' but this thread is about GeForce blah blah blah so moving on...

[fredx181]

I found 'cosmetic problem'. Reproduceable on StretchDog and Bullseye (any of my PC and laptop).
If you have a directory ending with '1' and subdirectory under that starting with '2', it will display as '½'.
eq. 2021/2031...today's date 06/01/2021.

It's the "Oxygen" font that has this bug, changing to another font will fix it.
EDIT: Should be fixed now for when making new build (with mklive-buster or mklive-bullseye) default font now set to "FreeSans".
Thanks btw for all your Nvidia test reports.

Fred

[dcung]

Update:
Dell D630 - BusterDog - nvidia v340 - Method A works. Method B does not.

[dcung]

On this laptop, while tinkering I have FossaDog, StretchDog, BusterDog, Bullseye installed. I'll post my questions/observations here rather than jumping around different threads.

BusterDog.
Starting from fresh (ie. new change dir), I copy (overwrite) /etc/inittab-auto to /etc/inittab so it login automatically as root.
But as soon as I installed nVidia driver (Method-A), rebooted. The autologin stop working. nVidia driver works though.
I checked that /etc/inittab lines still got the root autologin unchanged. Experimenting commenting/un-commenting those lines made no difference.
I can't auto-login again (with nVidia driver installed). Is there some other x-config file need changing?

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# Note that on most Debian systems tty7 is used by the X Window System,
# so if you want to add more getty's go ahead but skip tty7 if you run X.
1:2345:respawn:/bin/login -f root tty6 </dev/tty1 >/dev/tty1 2>&1
#1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
#3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3

[fredx181]

I can't auto-login again (with nVidia driver installed). Is there some other x-config file need changing?

Can you check if the package "xserver-xorg-legacy" is still installed ?
It may be that it's automatically uninstalled when installing nVidia driver. If I remember well (vaguely), it's needed for to allow "startx" autologin.
A fix could be to install a login-manager, e.g. slim and configure it to autologin as root (in /etc/slim.conf).

Fred

[dcung]

Both "xserver-xorg-legacy" and "slim" are already installed.
I re-installed them with synaptic. Came up with lots of warnings.
I rebooted, still no autologin.
I then edited /etc/slim.conf as below, and rebooted. It autologin.....yay...Thanks Fred.

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(dpkg-preconfigure:3430): dbind-WARNING **: 17:48:30.421: Error retrieving accessibility bus address: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.a11y.Bus was not provided by any .service files

(dpkg-preconfigure:3430): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:48:30.428: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:233:56: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3430): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:48:30.428: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:239:56: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3430): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:48:30.428: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:246:56: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3430): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:48:30.428: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:291:67: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3430): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:48:30.428: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:300:69: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3430): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:48:30.429: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:309:69: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

... lots more

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(dpkg-preconfigure:3274): dbind-WARNING **: 17:52:24.055: Error retrieving accessibility bus address: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.a11y.Bus was not provided by any .service files

(dpkg-preconfigure:3274): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:52:24.062: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:233:56: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3274): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:52:24.063: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:239:56: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3274): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:52:24.063: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:246:56: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3274): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:52:24.063: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:291:67: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3274): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:52:24.063: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:300:69: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

(dpkg-preconfigure:3274): Gtk-WARNING **: 17:52:24.063: Theme parsing error: gtk-contained.css:309:69: Using one color stop with linear-gradient() is deprecated.

...lots more

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# Path, X server and arguments (if needed)
# Note: -xauth $authfile is automatically appended
#
default_path        /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games
default_xserver     /usr/bin/X11/X
xserver_arguments   -nolisten tcp

# Commands for halt, login, etc.
halt_cmd            /sbin/shutdown -h now
reboot_cmd          /sbin/shutdown -r now
console_cmd         /usr/bin/xterm -C -fg white -bg black +sb -T "Console login" -e /bin/sh -c "/bin/cat /etc/issue.net; exec /bin/login"
#suspend_cmd        /usr/sbin/suspend

# Full path to the xauth binary
xauth_path         /usr/bin/X11/xauth

# Xauth file for server
authfile           /var/run/slim.auth


# Activate numlock when slim starts. Valid values: on|off
# numlock             on

# Hide the mouse cursor (note: does not work with some WMs).
# Valid values: true|false
# hidecursor          false

# This command is executed after a succesful login.
# you can place the %session and %theme variables
# to handle launching of specific commands in .xinitrc
# depending of chosen session and slim theme
#
# NOTE: if your system does not have bash you need
# to adjust the command according to your preferred shell,
# i.e. for freebsd use:
# login_cmd           exec /bin/sh - ~/.xinitrc %session
login_cmd           exec /bin/bash -login /etc/X11/Xsession %session

# Commands executed when starting and exiting a session.
# They can be used for registering a X11 session with
# sessreg. You can use the %user variable
#
# sessionstart_cmd	some command
# sessionstop_cmd	some command

# Start in daemon mode. Valid values: yes | no
# Note that this can be overriden by the command line
# options "-d" and "-nodaemon"
# daemon	yes

# Set directory that contains the xsessions.
# slim reads xsesion from this directory, and be able to select.
sessiondir            /usr/share/xsessions/

# Executed when pressing F11 (requires scrot)
screenshot_cmd      scrot /root/slim.png

# welcome message. Available variables: %host, %domain
welcome_msg         Welcome to %host

# Session message. Prepended to the session name when pressing F1
# session_msg         Session: 

# shutdown / reboot messages
shutdown_msg       The system is halting...
reboot_msg         The system is rebooting...

# default user, leave blank or remove this line
# for avoid pre-loading the username.
default_user        root

# Focus the password field on start when default_user is set
# Set to "yes" to enable this feature
#focus_password      no

# Automatically login the default user (without entering
# the password. Set to "yes" to enable this feature
auto_login          yes


# current theme, use comma separated list to specify a set to 
# randomly choose from
current_theme       debian-softwaves

# Lock file
lockfile            /var/run/slim.lock

# Log file
logfile             /var/log/slim.log

[dcung]

Quick update.

I had the 'old' change dir saved, one before I started fresh. It turned out, no need to to re-install "xserver-xorg-legacy" and "slim" that are already installed.
The fix above was like Fred said, to use slim. Which was already installed but not enabled (configured). You just need to enable/configure slim.
So, using slim is a work-around that solved my need.

I can see that, since nvidia driver was installed, during booting, just before the login splash screen appears, it spat out 3 lines (too fast to read) which I guess spitting out the real reason why the autologin didn't work (ie without enabling slim). In due time, if I figure out what that is, I'll post it here.

[dcung]

I saw this thread by chance.
viewtopic.php?t=3903&start=12

gumanzoy Bullseye custom build shows that the table I made needs correcting/updating.
i.e. it is possible to get nvidia v340 driver working in Bullseye.
viewtopic.php?t=3062&hilit=nvidia&start=39

After testing gumanzoy custom build, I also found postings that some people managed to use sid repo to install legacy nvidia driver v340 for Bullseye.
https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comment ... debian_11/
https://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comment ... th_nvidia/

I tried to follow the steps (by adding/using sid repo). It didn't give errors. For a moment I was hopeful that I can have n340 driver in Bullseye.
It didn't work for me. Just gave a blank screen when finished booting.

[dcung]

After tinkering a little and reading those reddit posts, I got it working.
Bullseye with legacy nvidia 340 driver.