[SOLVED] Showstopper nvidiafb error

spaceman · posted: 2016-07-01 18:04

When this first occurred early today I thought"That looks like a simple one to resolve, need to do some [Googling]" (other search engines are available). So I apologise for turning up here looking sheepish having failed to hit on the correct search criteria.

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Waiting for /dev to be fully populated...

I'm sure I'm not alone in having started at that message for a few seconds every time the PC boots. I got several result searching for related errors none of them linked to problem:

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Waiting for /dev to be fully populated...[   20.625204 nvidafb: unknown NV_ARCH

At this point the distro hangs and goes no further. The installer ran fine and I encountered no errors. This occurs on the first, and all subsequent boots. I have reinstalled three times so far.

Thanks again for your excellent work on antiX, Anti and team, not least the naming convention which always takes to me to interesting places and individuals.

anticapitalista · posted: 2016-07-01 18:56

What hardware are you running?

Dave · posted: 2016-07-01 19:05

inxi -F or inxi -G from running live.
My guess from the little extra in the second error block is that the video driver trying to be loaded is failing and somehow on live you are using a different one? ( nouveau vs vesa maybe?) I do not know if there is / what a grub boot cheat code might be to use a different video driver when installed. Maybe when running live you could install the nvidia driver via sgfxi and then install checking off preserve live changes in the installer?

spaceman · posted: 2016-07-01 20:30

inxi -F or inxi -G from running live.
My guess from the little extra in the second error block is that the video driver trying to be loaded is failing and somehow on live you are using a different one? ( nouveau vs vesa maybe?) I do not know if there is / what a grub boot cheat code might be to use a different video driver when installed. Maybe when running live you could install the nvidia driver via sgfxi and then install checking off preserve live changes in the installer?

I'm sorry I was unclear. The error occurs very early in the boot process and is a showstopper (the OS halts and does not continue again).

What hardware are you running?

AMD FX 8350 Black Edition
Asus Sabertooth FX990 rev. 1.0
MSI Geforce GTX 760
Asus Geforce GTX 750 Ti
16 GB RAM...

anticapitalista · posted: 2016-07-01 20:57

Try this since booting live works (doesn't it)?

Boot live and choose Safe Video Mode.
Copy etc/X11/xorg.conf on the live system to the installed system

On installed system, does it boot to desktop? If it does, than use smxi/sgfxi to install nvidia.

Alternatively, boot installed system without any external devices connected, just to see if it gets past lay udev message

spaceman · posted: 2016-07-01 21:06

Yes Live works...so does this Debian install. __{{emoticon}}__ And the MX-15 install so copying am xorg.conf in will be piece of cake. Installed system does not boot to a graphical environment or the CLI. It halts about eight lines into the beginning of the boot process with Waiting for /dev to be fully populated, then dies on that same line with ...nvidiadfb etc...

does not boot to a graphical environment

Dammit! Forget to tell you I was using Core!

Testing...

anticapitalista · posted: 2016-07-01 21:10

Other options to try

1) wait a full one minute to see if it continues to boot after that waiting message
2) try vga=795 or others
3) try"blacklist=nvidiafb"

When you boot live, post the output of inxi -Fxxx

anticapitalista · posted: 2016-07-01 21:12

Well core uses a libre kernel and your hardware may need non-free drivers enabled in the kernel

spaceman · posted: 2016-07-01 21:39

Sorry for submitting a photo...but, er...this is how far into the boot we are. __{{emoticon}}__

Copying xorg.conf.in (even ranaming it xorg.conf) didn't make antiX Core boot any better.

Appending vga=795 to the grub line ending ro quiet got antiX booted. I could install xorg and a grpahic environment now...not sure what nvidiafb is up too why that is called when I don't even have X.org istalled yet...as for being a libre kernel Anti, aren't all Core's libre kernels? I ask as I've not encounter this before and (as you may recall) I've used a few Core's...15, 13.1...few others...

I can marked this solved as I have a workaround.

anticapitalista · posted: 2016-07-01 22:17

All core versions are libre - yes.

Glad that it now boots with the vga= cheat.

Now it boots, please post the output of inxi -Fxx

spaceman · posted: 2016-07-01 23:28

Sorry for the slow response Anti! I've driven at speed into a cluster of unrelated problems that make this problem even more fiddly to fix. So I'm leaving it, tomorrow is another day... __{{emoticon}}__

The issues are with my motherboard / IR keyboard. It won't respond after a reboot after post and before an OS loads...which makes pressing 'e' and editing grub entries difficult. It also makes selecting a distro other than the default equally difficult. I've been shutting down and cold booting all day but now that's not working! I have batteries charging (and a backup ps/2 keyboard) ready for tomorrow (fingers crossed). That and the issue I've had with antiX for some time that it won't update my MBR which makes kernel upgrades or simply installing proprietary graphics drivers more painful than it used to be in 2001...(look forward to me opening that thread later.) __{{emoticon}}__

I will get you the inxi -Fxx output first chance I get tomorrow...assuming I can boot into something working that at least lets me kick the crap outta grub. __{{emoticon}}__ My right hand is twitching for a hammer.

spaceman · posted: 2016-07-02 11:48

Good"morning"!

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$ inxi -Fxx
Resuming in non X mode: glxinfo not found. For package install advice run: inxi --recommends
System:    Host: moonbase Kernel: 4.4.10-gnu-antix.1-amd64-smp x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.9.3)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.10.2 (Gtk 2.24.18) dm: (startx)
           Distro: antiX-16_x64-core-libre Berta Cáceres 26 June 2016
Machine:   Mobo: ASUSTeK model: SABERTOOTH 990FX v: Rev 1.xx Bios: American Megatrends v: 1604 date: 10/16/2012
CPU:       Octa core AMD FX-8350 Eight-Core (-MCP-) cache: 16384 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 64218
           clock speeds: max: 4013 MHz 1: 4013 MHz 2: 4013 MHz 3: 4013 MHz 4: 4013 MHz 5: 4013 MHz 6: 4013 MHz
           7: 4013 MHz 8: 4013 MHz
Graphics:  Card-1: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1380
           Card-2: NVIDIA GK104 [GeForce GTX 760] bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1187
           Display Server: X.org 1.16.4 driver: nvidia Resolution: 127x49
Audio:     Card-1 NVIDIA Device 0fbc driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0fbc
           Card-2 NVIDIA GK104 HDMI Audio Controller driver: pci-stub bus-ID: 06:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0e0a
           Card-3 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1002:4383
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.10-gnu-antix.1-amd64-smp
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 9000 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: c8:60:00:79:fb:5d
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 2500.5GB (0.7% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: SAMSUNG_SP2504C size: 250.1GB serial: S09QJ1FL703799
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: SAMSUNG_SP2504C size: 250.1GB serial: S09QJ1OL704622
           ID-3: /dev/sdc model: TOSHIBA_DT01ACA2 size: 2000.4GB serial: 745VUELKS
Partition: ID-1: / size: 30G used: 2.0G (7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda8
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 17.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 211 Uptime: 8 min Memory: 487.0/16062.6MB
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.88 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301 running in xfce4-terminal) inxi: 2.3.0

Once I got in I re-ran smxi and installed the current Nvidia drivers. The installation was flagged failed: unable to remove the nvidia module...reboot failed as before. So I dived in and blacklisted Graphics Card-2, update-initramfs -u, reboot. This time the same message was appended to the /dev populating line...but the boot continued to a login prompt, I could login and start and X session...

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dmesg | grep nvidiafb
[   17.299766] nvidiafb: Device ID: 10de1380 
[   17.299768] nvidiafb: unknown NV_ARCH
NVRM: nouveau, rivafb, nvidiafb or rivatv

Dunno, nvidia driver is working as nvidia-settings configured the screen geometry...odd."Working" (so far) but odd.

spaceman · posted: 2016-07-15 22:03

I'm still having issues with Core x64. This time on my HP AMD A4-5000 / Radeon notebook. I'm not sure if it is a graphical issue, the installed system halt and fails to boot just a populating /dev and, this time, loading bluetooth drivers. Screen flashes once and remains black and boots no further, it won't switch t another terminal either. I tried several grub switches: vga=795, 792, 1 and blacklist=radeon. I can't get an installed system to boot to the command line.

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System:    Kernel: 3.19.0-64-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.4) 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.11.8 (Gtk 2.24.23) dm: lightdm Distro: Ubuntu 14.04 trusty
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP 255 G3 Notebook PC version: 096B100000405F00051660181 Chassis: type: 10
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 21F7 version: 52.2F Bios: Insyde version: F.23 date: 09/04/2014
CPU:       Quad core AMD A4-5000 APU with Radeon HD Graphics (-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm) bmips: 11976.2 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 800.00 MHz 2: 1500.00 MHz 3: 1500.00 MHz 4: 800.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Kabini [Radeon HD 8330] bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:9832 
           X.Org: 1.17.1 drivers: ati,fglrx (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,radeon) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: AMD Radeon HD 8330 GLX Version: 4.5.13399 - CPC 15.20.1013 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia Controller 
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1022:780d 
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Kabini HDMI/DP Audio 
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9840 
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.19.0-64-generic
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter 
           driver: ath9k bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 168c:0036
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: ac:b5:7d:1b:9b:72
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller 
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 2000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 38:63:bb:df:15:dd
           Card-3: Atheros usb-ID: 005-003 chip-ID: 0cf3:3121
           IF: N/A state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (11.8% used)
           1: id: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD5000LPVX size: 500.1GB serial: WD-WXT1E64MTJ8D 
Partition: ID: / size: 15G used: 7.8G (57%) fs: ext4 ID: /home size: 9.8G used: 3.4G (36%) fs: ext4 
           ID: swap-1 size: 4.29GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
RAID:      System: supported: N/A
           No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
           Unused Devices: none
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 52.2C mobo: 20.0C 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 216 Uptime: 2:00 Memory: 1093.1/3337.8MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4 
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11 running in xfce4-terminal) inxi: 1.9.17

Troubleshooting tips, as ever, greatly appreciated.

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2016-07-15 23:49

That inxi output shows a Ubuntu system. What kernel are.you using with your core sysyem?

BitJam · posted: 2016-07-16 06:43

spaceman wrote:the installed system halt and fails to boot just a populating /dev and, this time, loading bluetooth drivers. Screen flashes once and remains black and boots no further, it won't switch t another terminal either.

It is odd for an installed system to fail when the live system boots. But the cli installer has a small bug; it neglects to copy over the non-live boot parameters to /etc/default/grub. This hadn't been a issue before. The symptoms from your previous problem indicated the missing boot parameter was vga=xxx. This time I suggest you try adding the"nomodeset" boot parameter. It should fix the problem with the screen going blank while"populating /dev".

If"nomodeset" doesn't help then I suggest you try base or full since those kernels have been more thoroughly tested. If you want to boot directly to the command line and not start X, use these two boot parameters"fdb+ 3". The"3" will keep you at the command line (use"telinit 5" as root to start X from there) and"fdb+" will log you in as root on vt2, vt3, and vt4 (I think) and switch to vt2.

On the live system, the command /live/bin/non-live-cmdline will show you the non-live boot parameters that should get copied to /etc/default/grub on the installed system.