Nvidia drivers and Core [previously Debian Testing repos?]

spaceman · posted: 2014-09-30 15:23

Did they explode? Somefink is badly amiss...

I've been installing / reinstalling antiX (core, ofc) again and again over the last two days trying to pin down what I'm doing wrong. Now I think it's not me. (Probably first mistake.) I've noticed in the past that ia32-libs have been deprecated so I've simply been adding the i386 arch: dpkg --add-architecture i386 updating apt and carrying on with mah install. I was having all kinds of issues installing nvidia drivers (shocker, I know!) so I tried apt-get install ia32-libs then things got weird as this works again. Couple of fresh installs later (facepalm) and I'm crawling all over my process with a magnifying glass like a dememted Sherlock Holmes looking at everything.

Installing ia32-libs now removes ceni and wpasupplicant. WTF? OK, just reinstall them again after...no install candidate for ceni! Noes! Not take CENI off me. I got to use ifup and down and dhclient for bashing IP addresses about? Really? Geif GUI tool! OK ceni gone, but wpasupplicant removed while installing ia32-libs...brain turns to sludge.

Anyway...er, xorg and nvidia drivers install so I can start an X session and load a gui...not xfce4 ofc that's borked too. However, I cannot get a freaking IP address across the wifi for love nor money. I kept questioning my laptop and the network...until I remembered I haz three other OS on the laptop that all work fine. Hah, problem is clear spaceman and Debian.

While I'm whining like a little girl is daveserver having issues again? 'Cause I get apt update failures for
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.daveserver/antiX/release/main"
linktext was:"http://www.daveserver/antiX/release/main"
====================================
testing i386 and amd64 (those paths are unlikely to be correct as I only have limited space in brain for details).

What am I asking? Not sure myself...er, should I just avoid Debian Testing repos for a couple of days or am I an idiot and doing something obviously stupid (again)?

anticapitalista · posted: 2014-09-30 15:54

Why do you need ia32-libs?

Try installing what you want without it and use smxi/sgfxi to install nvidia drivers

spaceman · posted: 2014-09-30 16:33

Do I need ia32-libs? Perfectly good question...I want to run 32-bit wine apps..? May not need ia32-libs at all...

I have been using smxi for all my nvidia driver needs. I wouldn't be completely lost without it anti, but I would have to relearn so cli commands I haven't used in some years. __{{emoticon}}__

I'll try again since the whatever yesterday of not being able to get any screens in X (using multiple kernel version and all the smxi nvidia options!). I'll come back with ther correct daveserver errors too so I can fix that finally.

Strange shiz going on last two days (which poked me into experimenting with installing ia32-libs again, prolly not best idea I ever had).

spaceman · posted: 2014-09-30 17:02

Apt update error:

Code: Select all

W: Failed to fetch http://www.daveserver.info/antiX/debs/testing/main/binary-amd64/Packages 404 not found
...binary-i386 404 not found

Thinking I should really fix error.

Er...on Dave Server:

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*NOTE all packages are also available for manual download from Here

Here points to
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.daveserver.info/antiX"
linktext was:"http://www.daveserver.info/antiX"
====================================
which returns a 404?

Dave · posted: 2014-09-30 17:53

repo path changed to:
deb
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://antix.daveserver.info/stable"
linktext was:"http://antix.daveserver.info/stable"
====================================
stable main

change stable to testing for testing.
should have been done in automatically in an update but I guess you went without update for a while

spaceman · posted: 2014-09-30 18:00

Thank you sir!

spaceman · posted: 2014-10-10 14:38

Right been away and played with proper antiX repos and everything plays nice now.

X.org, Slim, Xfce4.10.1 all configured and working. Only problem is nouveau is all I can get to work, nvidia drivers (surprise, surprise) are still problematical. Oh and I used the smxi script of course since it makes everything so simples.

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...
Fatal server error
(EE) No screens found(EE)
...
xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: server error

Code: Select all

NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine was not called for one device(s
NVRM: This can occur when a driver such as nouveau, rivafb,
NVRM: nvidiafb, or rivatv was loaded and obtained ownership of
NVRM: the NVIDIA device(s).
NVRM: Try unloading the conflicting kernal module (and/or
NVRM: reconfigure your kernel without the conflicting
NVRM: driver(s)), then try loading the NVIDIA kernel module
NVRM: again.
NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter probed!

/sigh
So I tried removing the kernal I installed for the test (the liquorix 3.16...amd64) and retried installing it and then the Nvidia driver. Same result. I tried the Debian apt kernel too...nah. So I deleted the etc/X11/xorg.conf file and logged into Xfce4 to upload this...which kinda suggests the nouveau driver is stilled loaded despite the smxi script trying to unload it, having me shutdown (and wait) then startup again and run the sgfxi script which"seemed" to run OK...

Suggestions? More info required? Logs to post? Dummies guides to read?

Cheers guys.

spaceman · posted: 2014-10-10 15:37

I could weep, I broke another install. All I was doing was installing the nvidia driver again...and I broke DHCP. The wireless adapter could see my network but would give me an IP address which pretty much left me fuc...destroyed. Happy days. __{{emoticon}}__

spaceman · posted: 2014-10-11 16:47

OK...so I tried all over again.

I installed M13.1 Core (the networking weirdness recurred then went away, I don't know) then I changed my process and only ammended the antiX repo. I did not enable Testing, Sid or Liquorix repos.

I installed Xorg and the 173 nvidia drivers. Rebooted and all was well so I installed Xfce4 and Slim. Of course, this is great but if I want to install Wine1.7 I need to enable Testing repos (libc6 is out-of-date). So I enabled the Testing repos in |etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list and the Liquroix repos in ...various.list...

I ran a dist-upgrade this is where everything turns to shit. Xorg gets updated and is not compatible with nvidia's 173 drivers. That's OK as I use the 304s in Mint (and previously with my antiX install). So I upgraded to 304 and X won't start. So I guess I was right when I started this thread something new in the Testing repos breaks my Xorg/nvida driver setup. I might be able to kludge something 'working' together limiting the components I upgrade...but I'm guessing I might a) end up in dependency hell trying to upgrade components for Wine piecemeal or b) simply bork the system later than sooner.

I don't know where to go with this now? Ideas?

anticapitalista · posted: 2014-10-11 20:24

If you can wait a few days, I'll upload a new core iso based on Testing (64 and 32 bit)

spaceman · posted: 2014-10-11 20:47

Anti, I can wait a few weeks for your work sir!

If I haven't expressed how much I love antiX for that I am sorry. I love antiX (Core), not just for mah under powered little Acer Aspire One netbook or this starting to tire Alienware Aurora M9700...on my workhorse PC antiX Core, fully loaded with a heavy duty Xfce deploy is my OS of choice. I test other distros regularly, on other partitions and have a Windows 7 install for those bleeding edge games without a Linux port.

I do like to fiddle and I do it without concern because none of my machines is what I would call a"production environment" - they're all"test environments". So I break them all the time and have to fix/reinstall frequently. This laptop barely runs Windows with a full set of OEM drivers. So the fact that GNU/Linux run at all is testament to it's power!

I take from what you've said that you think the problems I've encountered are not solely"user error", which frankly surprises me, so wait? Of course I will wait. When it works I will shout it from the roof tops and tell everyone (and not just sneak around the forum and ask what I am doing wrong).

btw: a dist-upgrade delivered a new antix.list with the new antix.daveserver.info repo, but I have to ask if you don't have the antix.daveserver.info repo how would you receive this update? __{{emoticon}}__ OK, I fixed this by hand but another half-witt like myself might not work out what to do. I'm sure you'll include an update sources list in the new iso __{{emoticon}}__