HOWTO: Install and configure NVIDIA drivers

tangram · #1 March 26th, 2009, 15:04

FreeBSD's Ports collection contains the official NVIDIA binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering in X, using the GLX extensions.The x11/nvidia-driver points to NVIDIA's latest stable driver set.

If you are using a legacy card check NVIDIA's site to see which driver set supports your card and browse the Ports tree for the suitable driver version and install that instead. Do notice that there aren't any 64bit NVIDIA drivers for FreeBSD.

Bellow are the steps needed to install NVIDIA drivers on i386 FreeBSD:

Code:

% su
# portsnap fetch update
# cd /usr/ports/x11/nvidia-drivers
# make config
# make install clean
# echo 'nvidia_load="YES"' >> /boot/loader.conf
# echo 'linux_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
# echo 'hint.agp.0.disabled="1"' >> /boot/device.hints

Basically start by updating your ports tree, installing the driver and preparing FreeBSD to load the NVIDIA kernel module it at boot time. Consider selecting ACPI (enable support for ACPI Power Management) and LINUX (build with support for Linux compatibility) port options.

Now let's proceed by editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf to have it use the NVIDIA driver and add some options to increase performance.

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the driver value from "nv" to "nvidia":

Code:

Driver "nvidia"

If your graphics card is AGP, additional performance options can be enabled, however these might affect stability. To enable Side Band Addressing and Fast Writes add the following sysctls to /etc/sysctl.conf:

Code:

# echo "hw.nvidia.registry.EnableAGPSBA=1" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
# echo "hw.nvidia.registry.EnableAGPFW=1" >> /etc/sysctl.conf

Finally:

Code:

# reboot

Additional ports of interest when configuring X with NVIDIA:

Code:

x11/nvidia-settings
x11/nvidia-xconfig

Possible workaround for crashes and blank screen problems:

Code:

# echo 'machdep.disable_mtrrs="1"' >> /boot/loader.conf

Further reading material can be found under:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/x11.html
/usr/local/share/doc/NVDIA_GLX-1.0/

**SirDice** · #2 March 26th, 2009, 15:08

If you don't use any linux programs you can compile the driver without linux support. Then you also don't need to add the linuxilator.

tangram · #3 March 26th, 2009, 15:13

Yup.

The port's default option is off to LINUX. However gamers running stuff like Enemy Territory, RTCW and UT will appreciate the option and should enable it.

**SirDice** · #4 March 26th, 2009, 15:17

Absolutely.. Also the linux-flashplugin needs it (which is currently the only reason why I have linux enabled).

**DutchDaemon** · #5 March 26th, 2009, 15:23

Don't forget these very helpful ports:

Code:

x11/nvidia-settings       Display Control Panel for X NVidia driver
x11/nvidia-xconfig        Tool to manipulate X configuration files for the NVidia driver

tangram · #6 March 26th, 2009, 15:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by DutchDaemon

Don't forget these very helpful ports:

Code:

x11/nvidia-settings       Display Control Panel for X NVidia driver
x11/nvidia-xconfig        Tool to manipulate X configuration files for the NVidia driver

Added them to the post

jb_fvwm2 · #7 March 27th, 2009, 06:49

well, using NVIDIA I always got "agp detected, aborting setup!"
...........
Unfortunately,
using the guide above (I think), a blank screen, sometimes with a cursor.
one cntl-alt-del and other numerous keys-- to reboot and copy the old
xorg.conf back and comment device.hints, another cntl-alt-del to reboot
after the latter caused the blank screen to recur. Now back the
way it was. (3 ideas of what is wrong here but I can only guess)
...........
4 permutations of ways to install nvidia-drivers and 100 permutations
of ways to tweak xorg.conf, maybe in a decade there will be a way to
set it up in 20 minutes or so. Happy as long as I have the browser,
cursor, and window manager running...

**SirDice** · #8 March 27th, 2009, 08:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by jb_fvwm2

well, using NVIDIA I always got "agp detected, aborting setup!"

You can try removing device agp from your kernel config or add hint.agp.0.disabled="1" to /boot/device.hints.

jb_fvwm2 · #9 March 27th, 2009, 13:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirDice

You can try removing device agp from your kernel config or add hint.agp.0.disabled="1" to /boot/device.hints.

The latter is one of the six or so modifications listed earlier
than my post, which when all are implemented, crash X on this
setup. Even if it is not nvidia-driver, the xorg.conf, or
the .hints, (guessing!) it may be an unknown overclock of the video
card, or CRT rather than LCD, or...

**SirDice** · #10 March 27th, 2009, 14:03

To be honest, I can't make heads or tails of your posts.

tangram · #11 March 27th, 2009, 14:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by jb_fvwm2

The latter is one of the six or so modifications listed earlier
than my post, which when all are implemented, crash X on this
setup. Even if it is not nvidia-driver, the xorg.conf, or
the .hints, (guessing!) it may be an unknown overclock of the video
card, or CRT rather than LCD, or...

The purpose of this corner of the forum is presenting HowTos and FAQs. I think you'd more easily solve your problems/issues in the appropriate forum support section, in this case Desktop -> X.Org.

You need to be more verbose on what is the problem, the steps you've taken so far and post helpful stuff like error messages, logs and configuration files.

jb_fvwm2 · #12 March 27th, 2009, 20:25

Sorry. If you reread my post earlier, you can read
that I *maybe* could solve it, but am happy the way things are...
lack of time as always.

Carpetsmoker · #13 March 28th, 2009, 22:11

Copy of my post at DF:

I checked what your configuration tweaks do, and they don't seem to be very useful:

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangram

Option "RenderAccel" "True"

According to the nVidia documentation:

Code:

Option "RenderAccel" "boolean"

    Enable or disable hardware acceleration of the RENDER extension. Default:
    hardware acceleration of the RENDER extension is enabled.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangram

Option "NoRenderExtension" "boolean"

As I understand it, this option is not needed, and is useful mostly for disableing the RENDER extension, not for explicitly enabling it (It is always enabled if the X server supports it), from the nVidia documentation:

Code:

Option "NoRenderExtension" "boolean"
    Disable the RENDER extension. Other than recompiling it, the X server does
    not seem to have another way of disabling this. Fortunately, we can
    control this from the driver so we export this option. This is useful in
    depth 8 where RENDER would normally steal most of the default colormap.
    Default: RENDER is offered when possible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangram

Option "NoFlip" "False"

Again, as I understand it this option is always enabled if supported, from the nVidia documentation:

Code:

Option "NoFlip" "boolean"

    Disable OpenGL flipping; see Chapter 17 for a description. Default: OpenGL
    will swap by flipping when possible.

[...]

   o Flipping: When OpenGL flipping is enabled, OpenGL can perform buffer
     swaps by changing which buffer the DAC scans out rather than copying the
     back buffer contents to the front buffer; this is generally a much higher
     performance mechanism and allows tearless swapping during the vertical
     retrace (when __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK is set). The conditions under which
     OpenGL can flip are slightly complicated, but in general: on GeForce or
     newer hardware, OpenGL can flip when a single full screen unobscured
     OpenGL application is running, and __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK is enabled.
     Additionally, OpenGL can flip on Quadro hardware even when an OpenGL
     window is partially obscured or not full screen or __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK is
     not enabled.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangram

Option "UseEdid" "True"

Enabled by default, no reason to set it, from the nVidia documentation:

Code:

Option "UseEDID" "boolean"

    By default, the NVIDIA X driver makes use of a display device's EDID, when
    available, during construction of its mode pool. The EDID is used as a
    source for possible modes, for valid frequency ranges, and for collecting
    data on the physical dimensions of the display device for computing the
    DPI (see Appendix I). However, if you wish to disable the driver's use of
    the EDID, you can set this option to False:
    
        Option "UseEDID" "FALSE"
    
    Note that, rather than globally disable all uses of the EDID, you can
    individually disable each particular use of the EDID; e.g.,
    
        Option "UseEDIDFreqs" "FALSE"
        Option "UseEDIDDpi" "FALSE"
        Option "ModeValidation" "NoEdidModes"
    
    Default: True (use EDID).

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangram

Option "NvAGP" "1"

Again, this is the default, nVidia documentation:

Code:

When built with support for the FreeBSD AGP driver, 'nvidia.ko' will fall back
to using NvAGP when it doesn't detect 'agp.ko' (this will be the case when
'agp.ko' does not support your AGP chipset or was explicitly disabled with
device hints).

lillis · #14 March 29th, 2009, 10:16

If anyone is having problems with a blank screen and computer hanging on startup, check this thread.
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=3065

tangram · #15 March 30th, 2009, 13:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by lillis

If anyone is having problems with a blank screen and computer hanging on startup, check this thread.
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=3065

Glad you've solved your problem

tangram · #16 March 30th, 2009, 13:34

@ Carpetsmoker, thanks for the input.

Yeah those are default settings. I just figured they were important enough to have on xorg.conf as remainder not to change them.

gr1ml0ck · #17 June 30th, 2009, 05:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangram

Possible workaround for crashes and blank screen problems:

Code:

# echo 'machdep.disable_mtrrs="1"' >> /etc/boot/loader.conf

Should this not be:

Code:

# echo 'machdep.disable_mtrrs=1' >> /etc/boot/loader.conf

without the quotes?

Didn't work for me until I removed them.

Just in case anyone else is still getting those mtrr errors

tangram · #18 June 30th, 2009, 09:40

If you want your loader.conf to contain

Code:

machdep.disable_mtrrx="1"

either edit the file and add it or use # echo 'machdep.disable_mtrrs="1"' >> /boot/loader.conf.

If you # echo 'machdep.disable_mtrrs=1' >> /boot/loader.conf then your /boot/loader.conf will contain:

Code:

machdep.disable_mtrrs=1

In the how to I suggested the quotes for consistency sake.

dennylin93 · #19 July 4th, 2009, 03:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by tangram

Possible workaround for crashes and blank screen problems:

Code:

# echo 'machdep.disable_mtrrs="1"' >> /etc/boot/loader.conf

Shouldn't it be /boot/loader.conf?

tangram · #20 July 6th, 2009, 09:20

Yup. Fixed it.

ale · #21 July 6th, 2009, 10:34

For nvidia-driver users who want to play linux-games with a linux_base > fc4, the solution is in this post.
The solution should be temporary as nvidia is aware of the problem and it should be fixed in future releases of the driver.

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