14.1, plasma5-plasma: 1 Resolution Option, Time Change, Sleep Issues

F

FreeWay

Having a few issues with KDE plasma5 (desktop) installed on updated FBSD 14.1.

1) - Resolution: the screen is stuck on 800 x 600 (no other options available) and only recognizes one of 2 ext. monitors (1920 x 1200), and can only mirror on it, not extend. Reading the Handbook and posts, will try the suggestion of adding / configuring the NVIDIA driver file in /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf.
If the 20-nvidia.conf file doesn't exist, do I just create it and add the 4 lines of text?
(This is for an older GeForce 425 card . Have already installed the nvidia-driver-340, and added both nvida and then also nvidia-modeset to kld_list in the rc.conf file)

Note - on the Monitor/Display options page it says:
"800 x 600 is the only resolution supported by this display. Using unsupported resolutions was possible in the Plasma X11 session, but they were never guaranteed to work and are not available in this Plasma Wayland session."
Wayland? This confuses me as I've logged in with the X11 Plasma option. In fact, Wayland wasn't even listed as an option to choose from, just: X11 Plasma or User Session.

2) - Time: the time is wrong and can't be fixed. The region, as selected, is correct though. And yet the time is running +7 hrs ahead. When I adjust the time and click on Apply, an error pops up:
- Error - System Settings
- Unable to authenticate / execute this action: 4,
I'm logged in with Admin rights, the user has been set with groups: wheel, operator and video. Why won't it accept the change I make to the time when I hit the Apply button?

3) - Sleep/Suspend: Logging out and then selecting the Sleep option leaves the desktop login page, fades to black CLI with a bunch of text ... and then hangs. Had to do a hard shutdown.

Hopefully these are easy fixes. Any suggestions?
 
FreeWay said:
1) - Resolution: the screen is stuck on 800 x 600 (no other options available) and only recognizes one of 2 ext. monitors (1920 x 1200), and can only mirror on it, not extend. Reading the Handbook and posts, will try the suggestion of adding / configuring the NVIDIA driver file in /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf.
If the 20-nvidia.conf file doesn't exist, do I just create it and add the 4 lines of text?
Click to expand...

This is probably an Xorg fallback because there's a problem running the nvidia driver. Check /var/log/Xorg.0.log for error ("EE") messages. You may need the following in your /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf because nvidia-driver-340 isn't fully compatible with current Xorg:
Code: 
Section "ServerFlags"
   Option "IgnoreABI" "On"
EndSection
At least a single monitor should be detected properly when the nvidia driver runs correctly. For multi-monitor support you may have to configure them manually. Please note that 340 support is going extinct everywhere.

FreeWay said:
(This is for an older GeForce 425 card . Have already installed the nvidia-driver-340, and added both nvida and then also nvidia-modeset to kld_list in the rc.conf file)
Click to expand...

There's no modesetting with the 340 driver, AFAIK, so only kld_list="nvidia".

FreeWay said:
3) - Sleep/Suspend: Logging out and then selecting the Sleep option leaves the desktop login page, fades to black CLI with a bunch of text ... and then hangs. Had to do a hard shutdown.
Click to expand...

I remember having suspend / resume problems with the nvidia 340 driver. Another thing to check is whether sound / sound servers are still running.
 
Thanks guys. So at this point, aside from the hair pulling trying to learn what does what to accomplish what with a new system, here's where things stand.

Time Issue - actually traced this back to the BIOS and have corrected it in there. A bit concerning is I've had to do this twice now. Odd.

Sleep / Suspend - think I read somewhere else that this is an ongoing issue that may (or not) be fixed, so better to just poweroff instead. Fine, no biggie.

Screen Resolutions - after figuring out the commands for creating a new directory (mkdir) and a new file (touch ... what? not mkfile? mmm-k, heh), I added the 4 lines suggested in the Handbook (5.4.3, pg. 160) for nvidia to the file /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf. And I added the Code above suggested by noise. Added the first, didn't work, added the one from noise, didn't work. Both dbus and sddm are enabled in rc.conf. I also did this on a fresh install of plasma5.

So with both ext. monitors disconnected., the head scratcher is, not only have these not worked, but now I can't even get into the KDE login screen and desktop anymore. It just loads to the main CLI login command line and the screen seems to blink 3 times and then waits for the usual user login codes.

EE messages - (in /var/log/Xorg.0.log) The only EE's found are noted below:
37.128
(==) - No device specified for screen “Default Screen Section”. Using the first device screen section listed.
(**) - No monitor specified for screen “Default Screen Section”. Using a default monitor configuration.
(**) - Option “Ignore ABI” “On”
37.144 - Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDiA Corp" compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0. Module class: X.org Video Driver
===WARNING===
This server has a video driver ABI version of 25.2 that this driver does not officially support. Please check www.nvidia.com for driver updates or downgrade to an X server with a supported driver ABI.
(WW) NVIDIA: The driver will continue to load, but may beahave strangely. This driver was compiled against the X.org server DK from commit e6ef2b (blah, blah, blah) and may not be compatible with the final version of this SDK.
37,180 (EE) - No devices detected. Fatal server error
37,180 (EE) - no screens found (EE) Please consult the X.org Foundation support wiki for help. Please also check the log file at “/var/log/Xorg.0.log” for additional information.
37,213 (EE) - Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

When booting up, I've also noticed something new during the text that scrolls by just before it gets to the login part; there are a bunch of lines (a screen or two of them) that say:
hid_get_item: Main bTag=0
No idea what those are or what it means.

Re/ modesetting, I did remove that and it's just kld_list="nvidia" now.

Re/ the older card, the 340 driver and “support going extinct everywhere”. Yeah, I've seen a few notes about that in various places.
Alas, until I can get a new system, it's what I have to work with. Make it work until you make it. As opposed to fake it til you make it, which doesn't work. ;)

At this point, I'm thinking of just wiping the drive and starting from scratch.

A philosophical aside - it's interesting watching the stubborn (his words, not mine) ongoing grief that ziomario (et al) are going through trying to get Plasma6 working on Wayland (which was the first install I was thinking of trying) for a few new features, when it's a struggle to get a base system working on plasma5 that's been around for so long. While I like do like green, am not a fan of this newbie phase! :)
 
FreeWay said:
37,180 (EE) - No devices detected. Fatal server error
Click to expand...

Cath O'Deray said:
NVIDIA's page for legacy drivers:
  • lists GeForce GT 425M under 390.xx
  • does not list 425 (without the M).
Click to expand...

Yeah, looks like you need the 390 driver (also no modesetting). I still have two 340 generation nvidias running on FreeBSD. Chances are Xorg won't break compatibility in the near future, as Xorg development is in maintenance mode now. Video acceleration may become an issue, but is currently working for older formats.

Last time I tried to install some Linux distros on them, the proprietary nvidia driver was unavailable or broken. As an alternative, the nouveau driver does work for my cards, but advanced features like multi-monitor are not supported.

FreeWay said:
Time Issue - actually traced this back to the BIOS and have corrected it in there. A bit concerning is I've had to do this twice now. Odd.
Click to expand...

Check the battery, or maybe a dual-booted OS sets it?
Also consider using tzsetup() and the ntpd() service, enable at boot time with
sysrc ntpd_enable="YES"; sysrc ntpd_sync_on_start="YES".
Not all KDE settings are well-adapted to FreeBSD.
 
Hi Cath, Noise,

Thanks for the additional tips - and the find with the corrected driver.

Cath - re/ the 390 modeset vs no modeset, that's how I interpreted it as well. “nvidia” for 340 and older drivers, “nvidia-modeset” for 390 and newer drivers.
I find the manual a great help (and thankful for it!), but often vague and confusing at times.
Would probably help to add another column in the table above with the appropriate rc.conf entry for each.

That being said, I've tried with one, then the other, and then both.
(I even went through the 30+ chapters of the installation guide on Nvidia's site - copied and started reviewing it all. Okay, maybe not All of it.
Yet another rabbit hole of information letting one know how much one doesn't know - and probably didn't want to, lol)

Then I ran the pciconf check and realized there's also an integrated Intel graphics controller to factor in.
So installed the “drm-kmod” and added “i915kms” to the kld_list in rc.conf file.
And then added all these entries:

vi /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-drivers.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "intel"
BusID "pci0:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "pci0:1:0:0"
EndSection

That actually seemed to help. When rebooting, both the laptop screen and one ext. monitor are now active (mirrored), and the text reduced drastically in size, so the resolution was affected. Perfect on the laptop screen, only using about a quarter of the monitor.

Per a video (9:32 min mark) by Sheridan (How to FreeBSD: Setup AMD, Intel and Nvidia Graphics Cards), not sure if it's necessary or not, but I also updated /etc/fstab with a “proc” line / entry.

vi /etc/fstab
# tabs=4
# Device__________Mountpoint___FStype_____Options____Dump____Pass#
/dev/gpt/efiboot0___ /boot/efi______msdosfs____rw________2________2
/dev/nda0p3_______none_________swap______sw________0________0
proc_____________/proc_________procfs____rw_________0________0

doas mount /proc

Still not getting back to the KDE login screen yet though.
I'm wondering if something was affected when I've done a hard reset a few times, eg. - when the KDE desktop was initially working, and then borked when it went into Sleep mode after logging out.
Still considering starting from scratch, but until that point ... here's the latest log readout.

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log

35.090 (!!) More than one possible primary device found
35.090 (--) PCI: (0@0:2:0) etc
35.090 (--) PCI: (1@0:0:0) etc
35.090 (II) LoadModule: "glx"
35.090 (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/ligglx.so
35.095 (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
35.095 compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
35.095 Module class: X.org Server Extension
35.095 (II) NVIDIA GLX Module 390.154 <date>
35.095 (II) LoadModule: "intel"
35.096 (ww) Warning, couldn't open module intel
35.096 (EE) Failed to load module "intel" (module does not exist, 0)
35.096 (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
35.096 (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so
35.096 (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
35.096 compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
35.096 Module class: X.Org Video Driver
35.096 (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver 390.154 <date>
35.096 (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
35.096 (--) Using syscons driver with X support (version 2.0)
35.096 (**) using VT number 9
35.122 (EE) No devices detected
35.122 (EE)
Fatal server error:
35.122 (EE) no screens found(EE)
35.122 (EE)
Please consult the X.org Foundation support at for help.
35.151 (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

Looks like the Nvidia module is hunky-dorey now, but for some reason, the Intel module isn't loading.
If that can be fixed, maybe that will also address the “no screens found” error.
On that note, tried entering:

$ xrandr (to detect monitors) Result:
Can't open display

...

noise - Side note re/ the time issue ... not using dual-boot, and not a battery issue. Something weirder. H/D reboots are fine, no changes, but I've noticed that the BIOS time changes by 7 hrs when I use a Linux Live session on a USB. I just need to check it afterward before booting with the H/D again.

Speaking of Linux, all screens work with the current (Faye) and previous version of Mint. So the graphics card does support it if I can just get the driver issue resolved.
The quest continues ...
 
FreeWay said:
… the laptop screen and one ext. monitor are now active (mirrored), …
Click to expand...

I guess, you want an extended desktop (not limited to a mirror). True?

Maybe relevant:
  • x11/nvidia-secondary-driver is present in the ports tree, but was described as "completely obsolete" in January 2024
  • "… x11/nvidia-secondary-driver x11/nvidia-hybrid-graphics should be deleted …"
  • at the same time, x11/nvidia-secondary-driver-390 was described as not obsolete.
 
HI Cath,

Re/ mirroring vs extended ... yes, extended is what I work with.
Re/ the nvidia secondary driver, thanks, I'll give that a go next and then provide an update.

Just to clarify/confirm ... testing that without the installed Intel drm-kmod driver, it's not necessary to actually uninstall the Intel driver, right? Just remove reference to it in the rc.conf file and "comment out" the Intel section / lines in the xorg.conf.d/20-drivers.conf file, and then reboot?

By the way, I've noticed sometimes that after a period of inactivity, a message is displayed that says:
Code: 
- user@hostname ~$ Date-Time Hostname dhclient [44854] send_packet: Host is down
- Date-Time Hostname syslogd: last message repeated 1 (or n+) times
Do you know what this means or refers to?
 
A few months ago, I might have been told that in my case, an extended desktop was impossible with nvidia-driver-470 plus i915kms for hybrid graphics (HP ZBook 17 G2). I can't find the point of reference, if I find it I'll send you a private message.

For my extended desktop, I use the NVIDIA hardware alone (hybrid graphics disabled).
 
Update

Thanks to a tip from tennea9 which reminded me of something I saw the other day, I installed xf86-video-intel (but also keeping the intel one: drm-kmod). Then addied a config file: ~/xorg.conf.d/00-intel.conf with the following:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
Option "TearFree" "true"
Option "DRI" "3"
Option "Backlight" "intel_backlight"
EndSection

And, still with the nvidia-driver-390, saved and rebooted and ...
... launches ... normal login screen ... fade to black with a cursor in the middle (seen that before and it froze, waited 15 seconds, holding breath) and ...
the KDE login screen appeared. Gasp.

Switched session to X11 plasma at the bottom, entered pwd, hold breath again and ...
And it works!

Houston ... We Have Desktop! :)

Even the resolutions are correct and have all the other option settings. Yes!
Explored around at a bunch of the customizable awesomeness.
At this point, it's now up and running. Finally.

Other issues now to contend with include:
1 - the second monitor still isn't recognized or activated. Not sure what to try next for this one.
(I did install the nvidia-secondary-driver-390. It kicked out the regular nvidia-driver-390 and replaced it ... but had no effect that I can see. Even when replacing "nvidia" with the required "nvidia-modeset" in rc.conf)
2 - no audio. In KDE's System Settings > Audio > clicking "Test" produced: "Error trying to play a test sound. The system said "No such driver"".
Ran # beep and it did produce a sound, so probably just need to find and install a driver for Realtek ALC269.
3. - Sleep. Tested Logout and Sleep again. It works ... but too well. It goes into sleep mode, turns off the screen, fades to "Riddick" pitch black, and then when I try to resume ... nada. Nothing will revive it, not the touchpad, the mouse, any key or combination of key presses, not even pressing the power button once. The only option at that point is a hard shutdown. It's "sleep" mode is like a deep Snow White or Sleeping Beauty mode that not even a kiss would fix - and in case you're wondering, no, just no.

So the desktop now works, the resolution issue is fixed, still need to address the 2nd screen and audio ... and not too concerned with the sleep thing. Would be happy to just have the screen turn off after 5, but - oh yeah - that doesn't work either yet.
 
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