NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set README and Installation Guide NVIDIA Corporation Last Updated: 2006/08/23 Most Recent Driver Version: 96.43.05 ______________________________________________________________________________ Preface ______________________________________________________________________________ The NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set brings accelerated 2D functionality and high-performance OpenGL support to Linux x86_64 with the use of NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs). These drivers provide optimized hardware acceleration for OpenGL and X applications and support nearly all recent NVIDIA graphics chips (please see Appendix A for a complete list of supported chips). TwinView, TV-Out and flat panel displays are also supported. This README describes how to install, configure, and use the NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set. Answers to frequently asked questions and problem diagnoses for common issues are also provided. These pages are posted on NVIDIA's web site (http://www.nvidia.com), and are installed in '/usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/'. ______________________________________________________________________________ Introduction ______________________________________________________________________________ This document provides instructions for the installation and use of the NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set. Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 walk the user through the process of downloading, installing and configuring the driver. Chapter 4 addresses frequently asked questions about the installation process, and Chapter 5 provides solutions to common problems. In case additional information is required, Chapter 6 provides contact information for NVIDIA Linux driver resources, and Chapter 7 provides a brief listing of external resources. It is assumed that the user has at least a basic understanding of Linux techniques and terminology. However, Chapter 8 provides details on parts of the installation process that new users may find helpful. Additional information is presented in several Appendices. These include supported hardware and system requirements, comprehensive lists of options for various utilities associated with the driver, setup details for specific configurations, and advanced topics and features. CONTENTS: Preface Introduction I. Installation Instructions 1. Selecting and Downloading the NVIDIA Packages for Your System 2. Installing the NVIDIA Driver 3. Configuring X for the NVIDIA Driver II. Additional Information 4. Frequently Asked Questions 5. Common Problems 6. NVIDIA Contact Info 7. Additional Resources 8. Tips for New Linux Users 9. Acknowledgements III. Appendices A. Supported NVIDIA Graphics Chips B. Minimum Software Requirements C. Installed Components D. X Config Options E. OpenGL Environment Variable Settings F. Configuring AGP G. Configuring TwinView H. Configuring TV-Out I. Configuring a Laptop J. Programming Modes K. Flipping and UBB L. Known Issues M. Proc Interface N. XvMC Support O. GLX Support P. Configuring Multiple X Screens on One Card Q. Power Management Support R. Display Device Names S. The X Composite Extension T. The nvidia-settings Utility U. The XRandR Extension V. Support for GLX in Xinerama W. SLI and MultiGPU FrameRendering X. Frame Lock and Genlock Y. Dots Per Inch Z. i2c Bus Support AA. Allocating DMA Buffers on 64-bit Platforms ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 1. Selecting and Downloading the NVIDIA Packages for Your System ______________________________________________________________________________ NVIDIA drivers can be downloaded from the NVIDIA website (http://www.nvidia.com). The NVIDIA driver follows a Unified Architecture Model in which a single driver set is used for all supported NVIDIA graphics chips (please see Appendix A for a list of supported chips). The burden of selecting the correct driver is removed from the user, and the driver set is downloaded as a single file named 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg1.run' The package suffix ('-pkg#') is used to distinguish between packages containing the same driver, but with different precompiled kernel interfaces. The file with the highest package number is suitable for most installations. Support for "legacy" GPUs has been removed from the unified driver. These legacy GPUs will continue to be maintained through special legacy GPU driver releases. Please see Appendix A for a list of legacy GPUs. The downloaded file is a self-extracting installer, and you may place it anywhere on your system. ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 2. Installing the NVIDIA Driver ______________________________________________________________________________ This chapter provides instructions for installing the NVIDIA driver. Note that after installation, but prior to using the driver, you must complete the steps described in Chapter 3. Additional details that may be helpful for the new Linux user are provided in Chapter 8. BEFORE YOU BEGIN Prior to beginning the installation, you should exit the X server and kill all OpenGL applications (note that it is possible that some OpenGL applications persist even after the X server has stopped). You should also set the default run level on your system such that it will boot to a VGA console, and not directly to X. Doing so will make it easier to recover if there is a problem during the installation process. Please see Chapter 8 for details. STARTING THE INSTALLER After you have downloaded the file 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg#.run', change to the directory containing the downloaded file, and as the 'root' user run the executable: # cd yourdirectory # sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg#.run The '.run' file is a self-extracting archive. When executed, it extracts the contents of the archive and runs the contained 'nvidia-installer' utility, which provides an interactive interface to walk you through the installation. 'nvidia-installer' will also install itself to '/usr/bin/nvidia-installer', which may be used at some later time to uninstall drivers, auto-download updated drivers, etc. The use of this utility is detailed later in this chapter. You may also supply command line options to the '.run' file. Some of the more common options are listed below. Common '.run' Options --info Print embedded info about the '.run' file and exit. --check Check integrity of the archive and exit. --extract-only Extract the contents of './NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05.run', but do not run 'nvidia-installer'. --help Print usage information for the common commandline options and exit. --advanced-options Print usage information for common command line options as well as the advanced options, and then exit. INSTALLING THE KERNEL INTERFACE The NVIDIA kernel module has a kernel interface layer that must be compiled specifically for each kernel. NVIDIA distributes the source code to this kernel interface layer, as well as precompiled versions for many of the kernels provided by popular Linux distributions. When the installer is run, it will determine if it has a precompiled kernel interface for the kernel you are running. If it does not have one, it will check if there is one on the NVIDIA FTP site (assuming you have an Internet connection), and download it. If one cannot be downloaded, either because the FTP site cannot be reached or because one is not provided, the installer will check your system for the required kernel sources and compile the interface for you. You must have the source code for your kernel installed for compilation to work. On most systems, this means that you will need to locate and install the correct kernel-source, kernel-headers, or kernel-devel package; on some newer distributions, no additional packages are required (e.g. Fedora Core 3, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4). Note that linking of the kernel interface (in the case that the interface was downloaded or compiled at installation) requires you to have a linker installed on your system. The linker, usually '/usr/bin/ld', is part of the binutils package. If a precompiled kernel interface is not found, you must install a linker prior to installing the NVIDIA driver. FEATURES OF THE INSTALLER Without options, the '.run' file executes the installer after unpacking it. The installer can be run as a separate step in the process, or can be run at a later time to get updates, etc. Some of the more important commandline options of 'nvidia-installer' are: 'nvidia-installer' options --uninstall During installation, the installer will make backups of any conflicting files and record the installation of new files. The uninstall option undoes an install, restoring the system to its pre-install state. --latest Connect to NVIDIA's FTP site, and report the latest driver version and the url to the latest driver file. --update Connect to NVIDIA's FTP site, download the most recent driver file, and install it. --ui=none The installer uses an ncurses-based user interface if it is able to locate the correct ncurses library. Otherwise, it will fall back to a simple commandline user interface. This option disables the use of the ncurses library. Note that, as suggested by the options, the installer has the ability to download updated precompiled kernel interfaces from the NVIDIA FTP site (for kernels that were released after the NVIDIA driver release). ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 3. Configuring X for the NVIDIA Driver ______________________________________________________________________________ The X configuration file provides a means to configure the X server. This section describes the settings necessary to enable the NVIDIA driver. A comprehensive list of parameters is provided in Appendix D. The NVIDIA Driver includes a utility called nvidia-xconfig, which is designed to make editing the X configuration file easy. You can also edit it by hand. USING NVIDIA-XCONFIG TO CONFIGURE THE X SERVER nvidia-xconfig will find the X configuration file and modify it to use the NVIDIA X driver. In most cases, you can simply answer "Yes" when the installer asks if it should run it. If you need to reconfigure your X server later, you can run nvidia-xconfig again from a terminal. nvidia-xconfig will make a backup copy of your configuration file before modifying it. Note that the X server must be restarted for any changes to its configuration file to take effect. More information about nvidia-xconfig can be found in the nvidia-xconfig manual page by running. % man nvidia-xconfig EDITING THE CONFIGURATION FILE BY HAND In April 2004 the X.Org Foundation released an X server based on the XFree86 server. While your release may use the X.Org X server, rather than XFree86, the differences between the two should have no impact on NVIDIA Linux users with two exceptions: o The X.Org configuration file is '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' while the XFree86 configuration file is '/etc/X11/XF86Config'. The files use the same syntax. This document refers to both files as "the X config file". o The X.Org log file is '/var/log/Xorg.#.log' while the XFree86 log file is '/var/log/XFree86.#.log' (where '#' is the server number -- usually 0). The format of the log files is nearly identical. This document refers to both files as "the X log file". In order for any changes to be read into the X server, you must edit the file used by the server. While it is not unreasonable to simply edit both files, it is easy to determine the correct file by searching for the line (==) Using config file: in the X log file. This line indicates the name of the X config file in use. If you do not have a working X config file, there are a few different ways to obtain one. A sample config file is included both with the XFree86 distribution and with the NVIDIA driver package (at '/usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/'). Tools for generating a config file (such as 'xf86config') are generally included with Linux. Additional information on the X config syntax can be found in the XF86Config manual page (`man XF86Config` or `man xorg.conf`). If you have a working X config file for a different driver (such as the "nv" or "vesa" driver), then simply edit the file as follows. Remove the line: Driver "nv" (or Driver "vesa") (or Driver "fbdev") and replace it with the line: Driver "nvidia" Remove the following lines: Load "dri" Load "GLCore" In the "Module" section of the file, add the line (if it does not already exist): Load "glx" There are numerous options that may be added to the X config file to tune the NVIDIA X driver. Please see Appendix D for a complete list of these options. Once you have completed these edits to the X config file, you may restart X and begin using the accelerated OpenGL libraries. After restarting X, any OpenGL application should automatically use the new NVIDIA libraries. If you encounter any problems, please see Chapter 5 for common problem diagnoses. ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4. Frequently Asked Questions ______________________________________________________________________________ This section provides answers to frequently asked questions associated with the NVIDIA Linux x86_64 Driver and its installation. Common problem diagnoses can be found in Chapter 5 and tips for new users can be found in Chapter 8. Also, detailed information for specific setups is provided in the Appendices. NVIDIA-INSTALLER Q. How do I extract the contents of the '.run' without actually installing the driver? A. Run the installer as follows: # sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg1.run --extract-only This will create the directory NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg1, containing the uncompressed contents of the '.run' file. Q. How can I see the source code to the kernel interface layer? A. The source files to the kernel interface layer are in the usr/src/nv directory of the extracted .run file. To get to these sources, run: # sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run --extract-only # cd NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1/usr/src/nv/ Q. How and when are the the NVIDIA device files created? A. Depending on the target system's configuration, the NVIDIA device files used to be created in one of three different ways: o at installation time, using mknod o at module load time, via devfs (Linux device file system) o at module load time, via hotplug/udev With current NVIDIA driver releases, device files are created or modified by the X driver when the X server is started. By default, the NVIDIA driver will attempt to create device files with the following attributes: UID: 0 - 'root' GID: 0 - 'root' Mode: 0666 - 'rw-rw-rw-' Existing device files are changed if their attributes don't match these defaults. If you want the NVIDIA driver to create the device files with different attributes, you can specify them with the "NVreg_DeviceFileUID" (user), "NVreg_DeviceFileGID" (group) and "NVreg_DeviceFileMode" NVIDIA Linux kernel module parameters. For example, the NVIDIA driver can be instructed to create device files with UID=0 (root), GID=44 (video) and Mode=0660 by passing the following module parameters to the NVIDIA Linux kernel module: NVreg_DeviceFileUID=0 NVreg_DeviceFileGID=44 NVreg_DeviceFileMode=0660 The "NVreg_ModifyDeviceFiles" NVIDIA kernel module parameter will disable dynamic device file management, if set to 0. Q. I just upgraded my kernel, and now the NVIDIA kernel module will not load. What is wrong? A. The kernel interface layer of the NVIDIA kernel module must be compiled specifically for the configuration and version of your kernel. If you upgrade your kernel, then the simplest solution is to reinstall the driver. ADVANCED: You can install the NVIDIA kernel module for a non running kernel (for example: in the situation where you just built and installed a new kernel, but have not rebooted yet) with a command line such as this: # sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg1.run --kernel-name='KERNEL_NAME' Where 'KERNEL_NAME' is what 'uname -r' would report if the target kernel were running. Q. Why does NVIDIA not provide RPMs anymore? A. Not every Linux distribution uses RPM, and NVIDIA wanted a single solution that would work across all Linux distributions. As indicated in the NVIDIA Software License, Linux distributions are welcome to repackage and redistribute the NVIDIA Linux driver in whatever package format they wish. Q. Can the nvidia-installer use a proxy server? A. Yes, because the FTP support in nvidia-installer is based on snarf, it will honor the 'FTP_PROXY', 'SNARF_PROXY', and 'PROXY' environment variables. Q. What is the significance of the 'pkg#' suffix on the '.run' file? A. The 'pkg#' suffix is used to distinguish between '.run' files containing the same driver, but different sets of precompiled kernel interfaces. If a distribution releases a new kernel after an NVIDIA driver is released, the current NVIDIA driver can be repackaged to include a precompiled kernel interface for that newer kernel (in addition to all the precompiled kernel interfaces that were included in the previous package of the driver). '.run' files with the same version number, but different pkg numbers, only differ in what precompiled kernel interfaces are included. Additionally, '.run' files with higher pkg numbers will contain everything the '.run' files with lower pkg numbers contain. Q. I have already installed NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg1.run, but I see that NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg2.run was just posted on the NVIDIA Linux driver download page. Should I download and install NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg2.run? A. This is not necessary. The driver contained within all 96.43.05 '.run' files will be identical. There is no need to reinstall. Q. Can I add my own precompiled kernel interfaces to a '.run' file? A. Yes, the --add-this-kernel '.run' file option will unpack the '.run' file, build a precompiled kernel interface for the currently running kernel, and repackage the '.run' file, appending '-custom' to the filename. This may be useful, for example. if you administer multiple Linux machines, each running the same kernel. Q. Where can I find the source code for the 'nvidia-installer' utility? A. The 'nvidia-installer' utility is released under the GPL. The latest source code for it is available at: ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/nvidia-installer NVIDIA DRIVER Q. Where should I start when diagnosing display problems? A. One of the most useful tools for diagnosing problems is the X log file in '/var/log'. Lines that begin with "(II)" are information, "(WW)" are warnings, and "(EE)" are errors. You should make sure that the correct config file (i.e. the config file you are editing) is being used; look for the line that begins with: (==) Using config file: Also make sure that the NVIDIA driver is being used, rather than the "nv" or "vesa" driver. Search for (II) LoadModule: "nvidia" Lines from the driver should begin with: (II) NVIDIA(0) Q. How can I increase the amount of data printed in the X log file? A. By default, the NVIDIA X driver prints relatively few messages to stderr and the X log file. If you need to troubleshoot, then it may be helpful to enable more verbose output by using the X command line options -verbose and -logverbose, which can be used to set the verbosity level for the 'stderr' and log file messages, respectively. The NVIDIA X driver will output more messages when the verbosity level is at or above 5 (X defaults to verbosity level 1 for 'stderr' and level 3 for the log file). So, to enable verbose messaging from the NVIDIA X driver to both the log file and 'stderr', you could start X with the verbosity level set to 5, by doing the following % startx -- -verbose 5 -logverbose 5 Q. Where can I get 'gl.h' or 'glx.h' so I can compile OpenGL programs? A. Most systems come with these header files preinstalled. However, NVIDIA provides its own 'gl.h' and 'glx.h' files, which get installed by default as part of driver installation. If you prefer that the NVIDIA-distributed OpenGL header files not be installed, you can pass the --no-opengl-headers option to the 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg1.run' file during installation. Q. Can I receive email notification of new NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set releases? A. Yes. Fill out the form at: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?FO=driver_update Q. What is NVIDIA's policy towards development series Linux kernels? A. NVIDIA does not officially support development series kernels. However, all the kernel module source code that interfaces with the Linux kernel is available in the 'usr/src/nv/' directory of the '.run' file. NVIDIA encourages members of the Linux community to develop patches to these source files to support development series kernels. A web search will most likely yield several community supported patches. Q. Why does X use so much memory? A. When measuring any application's memory usage, you must be careful to distinguish between physical system RAM used and virtual mappings of shared resources. For example, most shared libraries exist only once in physical memory but are mapped into multiple processes. This memory should only be counted once when computing total memory usage. In the same way, the video memory on a graphics card or register memory on any device can be mapped into multiple processes. These mappings do not consume normal system RAM. This has been a frequently discussed topic on XFree86 mailing lists; see, for example: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=xfree-xpert&m=96835767116567&w=2 The 'pmap' utility described in the above thread is available here: http://web.hexapodia.org/~adi/pmap.c and is a useful tool in distinguishing between types of memory mappings. For example, while 'top' may indicate that X is using several hundred MB of memory, the last line of output from pmap: mapped: 287020 KB writable/private: 9932 KB shared: 264656 KB reveals that X is really only using roughly 10MB of system RAM (the "writable/private" value). Note, also, that X must allocate resources on behalf of X clients (the window manager, your web browser, etc); X's memory usage will increase as more clients request resources such as pixmaps, and decrease as you close X applications. Q. Where can I find the tarballs? A. Plain tarballs are no longer available. The '.run' file is a tarball with a shell script prepended. You can execute the '.run' file with the --extract-only option to unpack the tarball. Q. Where can I find older driver versions? A. Please visit ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/ Q. What is SELinux and how does it interact with the NVIDIA driver ? A. Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a set of modifications applied to the Linux kernel and utilities that implement a security policy architecture. When in use it requires that the security type on all shared libraries be set to 'shlib_t'. The installer detects when to set the security type, and sets it on all shared libraries it installs. The option --force-selinux passed to the '.run' file overrides the detection of when to set the security type. Q. Using GNOME configuration utilities, I am unable to get a resolution above 800x600. What is wrong? A. The installation of GNOME provided in distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 contain several competing interfaces for specifying resolution: 'System Settings' -> 'Display' which will update the X configuration file, and 'Applications' -> 'Preferences' -> 'Screen Resolution' which will update the per-user screen resolution using the XRandR extension. Your desktop resolution will be limited to the smaller of the two settings. Please be sure to check the setting of each. Q. Why do applications that use DGA graphics fail? A. The NVIDIA driver does not support the graphics component of the XFree86-DGA (Direct Graphics Access) extension. Applications can use the XDGASelectInput() function to acquire relative pointer motion, but graphics-related functions such as XDGASetMode() and XDGAOpenFramebuffer() will fail. The graphics component of XFree86-DGA is not supported because it requires a CPU mapping of framebuffer memory. As graphics boards ship with increasing quantities of video memory, the NVIDIA X driver has had to switch to a more dynamic memory mapping scheme that is incompatible with DGA. Furthermore, DGA does not cooperate with other graphics rendering libraries such as Xlib and OpenGL because it accesses GPU resources directly. It is recommended that applications use OpenGL or Xlib, rather than DGA, for graphics rendering. Using rendering libraries other than DGA will yield better performance and improve interoperability with other X applications. Q. My kernel log contains messages that are prefixed with "Xid"; what do these messages mean? A. "Xid" messages indicate that a general GPU error occurred, most often due to the driver misprogramming the GPU or to corruption of the commands sent to the GPU. These messages provide diagnostic information that can be used by NVIDIA to aid in debugging reported problems. Q. On what NVIDIA hardware is the EXT_framebuffer_object OpenGL extension supported? A. EXT_framebuffer_object is supported on GeForce FX, Quadro FX, and newer GPUs. Q. I use the Coolbits overclocking interface to adjust my graphics card's clock frequencies, but the defaults are reset whenever X is restarted. How do I make my changes persistent? A. Clock frequency settings are not saved/restored automatically by default to avoid potential stability and other problems that may be encountered if the chosen frequency settings differ from the defaults qualified by the manufacturer. You can use the command line below in '~/.xinitrc' to automatically apply custom clock frequency settings when the X server is started: # nvidia-settings -a GPUOverclockingState=1 -a GPU2DClockFreqs=, -a GPU3DClockFreqs=, Here '' and '' are the desired GPU and video memory frequencies (in MHz), respectively. Q. Why is the refresh rate not reported correctly by utilities that use the XRandR X extension (e.g., the GNOME "Screen Resolution Preferences" panel, `xrandr -q`, etc)? A. The XRandR X extension is not presently aware of multiple display devices on a single X screen; it only sees the MetaMode bounding box, which may contain one or more actual modes. This means that if multiple MetaModes have the same bounding box, XRandR will not be able to distinguish between them. In order to support DynamicTwinView, the NVIDIA X driver must make each MetaMode appear to be unique to XRandR. Presently, the NVIDIA X driver accomplishes this by using the refresh rate as a unique identifier. You can use `nvidia-settings -q RefreshRate` to query the actual refresh rate on each display device. This behavior can be disabled by setting the X configuration option "DynamicTwinView" to FALSE. For details, see Appendix G. ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 5. Common Problems ______________________________________________________________________________ This section provides solutions to common problems associated with the NVIDIA Linux x86_64 Driver. Q. My X server fails to start, and my X log file contains the error: (EE) NVIDIA(0): The NVIDIA kernel module does not appear to (EE) NVIDIA(0): be receiving interrupts generated by the NVIDIA graphics (EE) NVIDIA(0): device PCI:x:x:x. Please see the COMMON PROBLEMS (EE) NVIDIA(0): section in the README for additional information. A. This can be caused by a variety of problems, such as PCI IRQ routing errors, I/O APIC problems or conflicts with other devices sharing the IRQ (or their drivers). If possible, configure your system such that your graphics card does not share its IRQ with other devices (try moving the graphics card to another slot if applicable, unload/disable the driver(s) for the device(s) sharing the card's IRQ, or remove/disable the device(s)). Depending on the nature of the problem, one of (or a combination of) these kernel parameters might also help: Parameter Behavior -------------- --------------------------------------------------- pci=noacpi don't use ACPI for PCI IRQ routing pci=biosirq use PCI BIOS calls to retrieve the IRQ routing table noapic don't use I/O APICs present in the system acpi=off disable ACPI Q. My X server fails to start, and my X log file contains the error: (EE) NVIDIA(0): The interrupt for NVIDIA graphics device PCI:x:x:x (EE) NVIDIA(0): appears to be edge-triggered. Please see the COMMON (EE) NVIDIA(0): PROBLEMS section in the README for additional information. A. An edge-triggered interrupt means that the kernel has programmed the interrupt as edge-triggered rather than level-triggered in the Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC). Edge-triggered interrupts are not intended to be used for sharing an interrupt line between multiple devices; level-triggered interrupts are the intended trigger for such usage. When using edge-triggered interrupts, it is common for device drivers using that interrupt line to stop receiving interrupts. This would appear to the end user as those devices no longer working, and potentially as a full system hang. These problems tend to be more common when multiple devices are sharing that interrupt line. This occurs when ACPI is not used to program interrupt routing in the APIC. This often occurs on 2.4 Linux kernels, which do not fully support ACPI, or 2.6 kernels when ACPI is disabled or fails to initialize. In these cases, the Linux kernel falls back to tables provided by the system BIOS. In some cases the system BIOS assumes ACPI will be used for routing interrupts and configures these tables to incorrectly label all interrupts as edge-triggered. The current interrupt configuration can be found in /proc/interrupts. Available workarounds include: updating to a newer system BIOS, trying a 2.6 kernel with ACPI enabled, or passing the 'noapic' option to the kernel to force interrupt routing through the traditional Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC). Newer kernels also provide an interrupt polling mechanism to attempt to work around this problem. This mechanism can be enabled by passing the 'irqpoll' option to the kernel. Currently, the NVIDIA driver will attempt to detect edge triggered interrupts and X will purposely fail to start (to avoid stability issues). This behavior can be overridden by setting the "NVreg_RMEdgeIntrCheck" NVIDIA Linux kernel module parameter. This parameter defaults to "1", which enables the edge triggered interrupt detection. Set this parameter to "0" to disable this detection. Q. X starts for me, but OpenGL applications terminate immediately. A. If X starts but you have trouble with OpenGL, you most likely have a problem with other libraries in the way, or there are stale symlinks. See Appendix C for details. Sometimes, all it takes is to rerun 'ldconfig'. You should also check that the correct extensions are present; % xdpyinfo should show the "GLX" and "NV-GLX" extensions present. If these two extensions are not present, then there is most likely a problem loading the glx module, or it is unable to implicitly load GLcore. Check your X config file and make sure that you are loading glx (see Chapter 3). If your X config file is correct, then check the X log file for warnings/errors pertaining to GLX. Also check that all of the necessary symlinks are in place (refer to Appendix C). Q. When Xinerama is enabled, my stereo glasses are shuttering only when the stereo application is displayed on one specific X screen. When the application is displayed on the other X screens, the stereo glasses stop shuttering. A. This problem occurs with DDC and "blue line" stereo glasses, that get the stereo signal from one video port of the graphics card. When a X screen does not display any stereo drawable the stereo signal is disabled on the associated video port. Forcing stereo flipping allows the stereo glasses to shutter continuously. This can be done by enabling the OpenGL control "Force Stereo Flipping" in nvidia-settings, or by setting the X configuration option "ForceStereoFlipping" to "1". Q. Stereo is not in sync across multiple displays. A. There are two cases where this may occur. If the displays are attached to the same GPU, and one of them is out of sync with the stereo glasses, you will need to reconfigure your monitors to drive identical mode timings; please see Appendix J for details. If the displays are attached to different GPUs, the only way to synchronize stereo across the displays is with a G-Sync device, which is only supported by certain Quadro cards. Please see Appendix X for details. This applies to seperate GPUs on seperate cards as well as seperate GPUs on the same card, such as Quadro FX 4500 X2. Note that the Quadro FX 4500 X2 only provides a single DIN connector for stereo, tied to the bottommost GPU. In order to synchronize onboard stereo on the other GPU you must use a G-Sync device. Q. My X server fails to start, and my X log file contains the error: (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module! A. The X driver will abort with this error message if the NVIDIA kernel module fails to load. If you receive this error, you should check the output of `dmesg` for kernel error messages and/or attempt to load the kernel module explicitly with `modprobe nvidia`. If unresolved symbols are reported, then the kernel module was most likely built against a Linux kernel source tree (or kernel headers) for a kernel revision or configuration that doesn't match the running kernel. You can specify the location of the kernel source tree (or headers) when you install the NVIDIA driver using the --kernel-source-path command line option (see `sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-96.43.05-pkg1.run --advanced-options` for details). Old versions of the module-init-tools include `modprobe` binaries that report an error when instructed to load a module that's already loaded into the kernel. Please upgrade your module-init-tools if you receive an error message to this effect. The X server reads '/proc/sys/kernel/modprobe' to determine the path to the `modprobe` utility and falls back to '/sbin/modprobe' if the file doesn't exist. Please make sure that this path is valid and refers to a `modprobe` binary compatible with the Linux kernel running on your system. The "LoadKernelModule" X driver option can be used to change the default behavior and disable kernel module auto-loading. Q. Installing the NVIDIA kernel module gives an error message like: #error Modules should never use kernel-headers system headers #error but headers from an appropriate kernel-source A. You need to install the source for the Linux kernel. In most situations you can fix this problem by installing the kernel-source or kernel-devel package for your distribution Q. OpenGL applications crash and print out the following warning: WARNING: Your system is running with a buggy dynamic loader. This may cause crashes in certain applications. If you experience crashes you can try setting the environment variable __GL_SINGLE_THREADED to 1. For more information please consult the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS section in the file /usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/README.txt. A. The dynamic loader on your system has a bug which will cause applications linked with pthreads, and that dlopen() libGL multiple times, to crash. This bug is present in older versions of the dynamic loader. Distributions that shipped with this loader include but are not limited to Red Hat Linux 6.2 and Mandrake Linux 7.1. Version 2.2 and later of the dynamic loader are known to work properly. If the crashing application is single threaded then setting the environment variable '__GL_SINGLE_THREADED' to "1" will prevent the crash. In the bash shell you would enter: % export __GL_SINGLE_THREADED=1 and in csh and derivatives use: % setenv __GL_SINGLE_THREADED 1 Previous releases of the NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set attempted to work around this problem. Unfortunately, the workaround caused problems with other applications and was removed after version 1.0-1541. Q. Quake3 crashes when changing video modes. A. You are probably experiencing a problem described above. Please check the text output for the "WARNING" message described in the previous hint. Setting '__GL_SINGLE_THREADED' to "1" as will fix the problem. Q. I cannot build the NVIDIA kernel module, or, I can build the NVIDIA kernel module, but modprobe/insmod fails to load the module into my kernel. What is wrong? A. These problems are generally caused by the build using the wrong kernel header files (i.e. header files for a different kernel version than the one you are running). The convention used to be that kernel header files should be stored in '/usr/include/linux/', but that is deprecated in favor of '/lib/modules/RELEASE/build/include' (where RELEASE is the result of 'uname -r'. The 'nvidia-installer' should be able to determine the location on your system; however, if you encounter a problem you can force the build to use certain header files by using the --kernel-include-dir option. For this to work you will of course need the appropriate kernel header files installed on your system. Consult the documentation that came with your distribution; some distributions do not install the kernel header files by default, or they install headers that do not coincide properly with the kernel you are running. Q. There are problems running Heretic II. A. Heretic II installs, by default, a symlink called 'libGL.so' in the application directory. You can remove or rename this symlink, since the system will then find the default 'libGL.so' (which our drivers install in '/usr/lib'). From within Heretic II you can then set your render mode to OpenGL in the video menu. There is also a patch available to Heretic II from lokigames at: http://www.lokigames.com/products/heretic2/updates.php3/ Q. My system hangs when switching to a virtual terminal if I have rivafb enabled. A. Using both rivafb and the NVIDIA kernel module at the same time is currently broken. In general, using two independent software drivers to drive the same piece of hardware is a bad idea. Q. Compiling the NVIDIA kernel module gives this error: You appear to be compiling the NVIDIA kernel module with a compiler different from the one that was used to compile the running kernel. This may be perfectly fine, but there are cases where this can lead to unexpected behavior and system crashes. If you know what you are doing and want to override this check, you can do so by setting IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH. In any other case, set the CC environment variable to the name of the compiler that was used to compile the kernel. A. You should compile the NVIDIA kernel module with the same compiler version that was used to compile your kernel. Some Linux kernel data structures are dependent on the version of gcc used to compile it; for example, in 'include/linux/spinlock.h': ... * Most gcc versions have a nasty bug with empty initializers. */ #if (__GNUC__ > 2) typedef struct { } rwlock_t; #define RW_LOCK_UNLOCKED (rwlock_t) { } #else typedef struct { int gcc_is_buggy; } rwlock_t; #define RW_LOCK_UNLOCKED (rwlock_t) { 0 } #endif If the kernel is compiled with gcc 2.x, but gcc 3.x is used when the kernel interface is compiled (or vice versa), the size of rwlock_t will vary, and things like ioremap will fail. To check what version of gcc was used to compile your kernel, you can examine the output of: % cat /proc/version To check what version of gcc is currently in your '$PATH', you can examine the output of: % gcc -v Q. X fails with error Failed to allocate LUT context DMA A. This is one of the possible consequences of compiling the NVIDIA kernel interface with a different gcc version than used to compile the Linux kernel (see above). Q. I recently updated various libraries on my system using my Linux distributor's update utility, and the NVIDIA graphics driver no longer works. A. Conflicting libraries may have been installed by your distribution's update utility; please see Appendix C for details on how to diagnose this. Q. I have rebuilt the NVIDIA kernel module, but when I try to insert it, I get a message telling me I have unresolved symbols. A. Unresolved symbols are most often caused by a mismatch between your kernel sources and your running kernel. They must match for the NVIDIA kernel module to build correctly. Please make sure your kernel sources are installed and configured to match your running kernel. Q. How do I tell if I have my kernel sources installed? A. If you are running on a distro that uses RPM (Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, etc), then you can use 'rpm' to tell you. At a shell prompt, type: % rpm -qa | grep kernel and look at the output. You should see a package that corresponds to your kernel (often named something like kernel-2.6.15-7) and a kernel source package with the same version (often named something like kernel-devel-2.6.15-7 or kernel-source-2.4.18-3). If none of the lines seem to correspond to a source package, then you will probably need to install it. If the versions listed mismatch (e.g., kernel-2.6.15-7 vs. kernel-devel-2.6.15-10), then you will need to update the kernel-devel package to match the installed kernel. If you have multiple kernels installed, you need to install the kernel-devel package that corresponds to your RUNNING kernel (or make sure your installed source package matches the running kernel). You can do this by looking at the output of 'uname -r' and matching versions. Q. I am unable to load the NVIDIA kernel module that I compiled for the Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.4.18-3bigmem kernel. A. The kernel header files Red Hat Linux distributes for Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.4.18-3bigmem kernel are misconfigured. NVIDIA's precompiled kernel module for this kernel can be loaded, but if you want to compile the NVIDIA kernel interface files yourself for this kernel, then you will need to perform the following: # cd /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/ # make mrproper # cp configs/kernel-2.4.18-i686-bigmem.config .config # make oldconfig dep Note: Red Hat Linux ships kernel header files that are simultaneously configured for ALL of their kernels for a particular distribution version. A header file generated at boot time sets up a few parameters that select the correct configuration. Rebuilding the kernel headers with the above commands will create header files suitable for the Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.4.18-3bigmem kernel configuration only, thus making the header files for the other configurations unusable. Q. OpenGL applications leak significant amounts of memory on my system! A. If your kernel is making use of the -rmap VM, the system may be leaking memory due to a memory management optimization introduced in -rmap14a. The -rmap VM has been adopted by several popular distributions, the memory leak is known to be present in some of the distribution kernels; it has been fixed in -rmap15e. If you suspect that your system is affected, please try upgrading your kernel or contact your distribution's vendor for assistance. Q. Some OpenGL applications (like Quake3 Arena) crash when I start them on Red Hat Linux 9.0. A. Some versions of the glibc package shipped by Red Hat that support TLS do not properly handle using dlopen() to access shared libraries which use some TLS models. This problem is exhibited, for example, when Quake3 Area dlopen() 's NVIDIA's libGL library. Please obtain at least glibc-2.3.2-11.9 which is available as an update from Red Hat. Q. I have installed the driver, but my Enable 3D Acceleration checkbox is still grayed out. A. Most distribution-provided configuration applets are not aware of the NVIDIA accelerated driver, and consequently will not update themselves when you install the driver. Your driver, if it has been installed properly, should function fine. Q. X does not restore the VGA console when run on a TV. I get this error message in my X log file: Unable to initialize the X int10 module; the console may not be restored correctly on your TV. A. The NVIDIA X driver uses the X Int10 module to save and restore console state on TV out, and will not be able to restore the console correctly if it cannot use the Int10 module. If you have built the X server yourself, please be sure you have built the Int10 module. If you are using a build of the X server provided by a Linux distribution, and are missing the Int10 module, please contact your distributor. Q. When changing settings in games like Quake 3 Arena, or Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, the game crashes and I see this error: ...loading libGL.so.1: QGL_Init: dlopen libGL.so.1 failed: /usr/lib/tls/libGL.so.1: shared object cannot be dlopen()ed: static TLS memory too small A. These games close and reopen the NVIDIA OpenGL driver (via dlopen() / dlclose()) when settings are changed. On some versions of glibc (such as the one shipped with Red Hat Linux 9), there is a bug that leaks static TLS entries. This glibc bug causes subsequent re-loadings of the OpenGL driver to fail. This is fixed in more recent versions of glibc; please see Red Hat bug #89692: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=89692 Q. X crashes during 'startx', and my X log file contains this error message: (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to obtain a shared memory identifier. A. The NVIDIA OpenGL driver and the NVIDIA X driver require shared memory to communicate; you must have 'CONFIG_SYSVIPC' enabled in your kernel. Q. When I try to install the driver, the installer claims that X is running, even though I have exited X. A. The installer detects the presence of an X server by checking for X's lock files: '/tmp/.Xn-lock', where 'n' is the number of the X Display (the installer checks for X Displays 0-7). If you have exited X, but one of these files has been left behind, then you will need to manually delete the lock file. DO NOT remove this file if X is still running! Q. My system runs, but seems unstable. What is wrong? A. Your stability problems may be AGP-related. See Appendix F for details. Q. OpenGL applications are running slowly A. The application is probably using a different library still on your system, rather than the NVIDIA supplied OpenGL library. Please see Appendix C for details. Q. There are problems running Quake2. A. Quake2 requires some minor setup to get it going. First, in the Quake2 directory, the install creates a symlink called 'libGL.so' that points at 'libMesaGL.so'. This symlink should be removed or renamed. Second, in order to run Quake2 in OpenGL mode, you must type % quake2 +set vid_ref glx +set gl_driver libGL.so Quake2 does not seem to support any kind of full-screen mode, but you can run your X server at the same resolution as Quake2 to emulate full-screen mode. Q. I am using either nForce of nForce2 internal graphics, and I see warnings like this in my X log file: Not using mode "1600x1200" (exceeds valid memory bandwidth usage) A. Integrated graphics have more strict memory bandwidth limitations that limit the resolution and refresh rate of the modes you request. To work around this, you can reduce the maximum refresh rate by lowering the upper value of the VertRefresh range in the 'Monitor' section of your X config file. Though not recommended, you can disable the memory bandwidth test with the NoBandWidthTest X config file option. Q. X takes a long time to start (possibly several minutes). A. Most of the X startup delay problems we have found are caused by incorrect data in video BIOSes about what display devices are possibly connected or what i2c port should be used for detection. You can work around these problems with the X config option IgnoreDisplayDevices (please see the description in Appendix D). Q. Fonts are incorrectly sized after installing the NVIDIA driver. A. Incorrectly sized fonts are generally caused by incorrect DPI (Dots Per Inch) information. You can check what X thinks the physical size of your monitor is, by running: % xdpyinfo | grep dimensions This will report the size in pixels, and in millimeters. If these numbers are wrong, you can correct them by modifying the X server's DPI setting. See Appendix Y for details. Q. General problems with ALi chipsets A. There are some known timing and signal integrity issues on ALi chipsets. The following tips may help stabilize problematic ALI systems: o Disable TURBO AGP MODE in the BIOS. o When using a P5A upgrade to BIOS Revision 1002 BETA 2. o When using 1007, 1007A or 1009 adjust the IO Recovery Time to 4 cycles. o AGP is disabled by default on some ALi chipsets (ALi1541, ALi1647) to work around severe system stability problems with these chipsets. See the comments for NVreg_EnableALiAGP in 'os-registry.c' to force AGP on anyway. ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 6. NVIDIA Contact Info ______________________________________________________________________________ There is an NVIDIA Linux Driver web forum. You can access it by going to http://www.nvnews.net and following the "Forum" and "Linux Discussion Area" links. This is the preferable tool for seeking help; users can post questions, answer other users' questions, and search the archives of previous postings. If all else fails, you can contact NVIDIA for support at: linux-bugs@nvidia.com. But please, only send email to this address after you have explored the Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 chapters of this document, and asked for help on the nvnews.net web forum. When emailing linux-bugs@nvidia.com, please include the 'nvidia-bug-report.log' file generated by the 'nvidia-bug-report.sh' script (which is installed as part of driver installation). ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 7. Additional Resources ______________________________________________________________________________ Resources Linux OpenGL ABI http://oss.sgi.com/projects/ogl-sample/ABI/ The XFree86 Project http://www.xfree86.org/ XFree86 Video Timings HOWTO http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWTO/index.html The X.Org Foundation http://www.x.org/ OpenGL http://www.opengl.org/ ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 8. Tips for New Linux Users ______________________________________________________________________________ This installation guide assumes that the user has at least a basic understanding of Linux techniques and terminology. In this section we provide tips that the new user may find helpful. While the these tips are meant to clarify and assist users in installing and configuring the NVIDIA Linux Driver, it is by no means a tutorial on the use or administration of the Linux operating system. Unlike many desktop operating systems, it is relatively easy to cause irreparable damage to your Linux system. If you are unfamiliar with the use of Linux, we strongly recommend that you seek a tutorial through your distributor before proceeding. THE COMMAND PROMPT While newer releases of Linux bring new desktop interfaces to the user, much of the work in Linux takes place at the command prompt. If you are familiar with the Windows operating system, the Linux command prompt is analogous to the Windows[1] command prompt, although the syntax and use varies somewhat. All of the commands in this section are performed at the command prompt. Some systems are configured to boot into console mode, in which case the user is presented with a prompt at login. Other systems are configured to start the X window system, in which case the user must open a terminal or console window in order to get a command prompt. This can usually be done by searching the desktop menus for a terminal or console program. While it is customizable, the basic prompt usually consists of a short string of information, one of the characters '#', '$', or '%', and a cursor (possibly flashing) that indicates where the user's input will be displayed. NAVIGATING THE DIRECTORY STRUCTURE Linux has a hierarchical directory structure. From anywhere in the directory structure, the 'ls' command will list the contents of that directory. The 'file' command will print the type of files in a directory. For example, % file filename will print the type of the file 'filename'. Changing directories is done with the 'cd' command. % cd dirname will change the current directory to 'dirname'. From anywhere in the directory structure, the command 'pwd' will print the name of the current directory. There are two special directories, '.' and '..', which refer to the current directory and the next directory up the hierarchy, respectively. For any commands that require a file name or directory name as an argument, you may specify the absolute or the relative paths to those elements. An absolute path begins with the "/" character, referring to the top or root of the directory structure. A relative path begins with a directory in the current working directory. The relative path may begin with '.' or '..'. Elements of a path are separated with the "/" character. As an example, if the current directory is '/home/jesse' and the user wants to change to the '/usr/local' directory, he can use either of the following commands to do so: % cd /usr/local or % cd ../../usr/local FILE PERMISSIONS AND OWNERSHIP All files and directories have permissions and ownership associated with them. This is useful for preventing non-administrative users from accidentally (or maliciously) corrupting the system. The permissions and ownership for a file or directory can be determined by passing the -l option to the 'ls' command. For example: % ls -l drwxr-xr-x 2 jesse users 4096 Feb 8 09:32 bin drwxrwxrwx 10 jesse users 4096 Feb 10 12:04 pub -rw-r--r-- 1 jesse users 45 Feb 4 03:55 testfile -rwx------ 1 jesse users 93 Feb 5 06:20 myprogram -rw-rw-rw- 1 jesse users 112 Feb 5 06:20 README % The first character column in the first output field states the file type, where 'd' is a directory and '-' is a regular file. The next nine columns specify the permissions (see paragraph below) of the element. The second field indicates the number of files associated with the element, the third field indicates the owner, the fourth field indicates the group that the file is associated with, the fifth field indicates the size of the element in bytes, the sixth, seventh and eighth fields indicate the time at which the file was last modified and the ninth field is the name of the element. As stated, the last nine columns in the first field indicate the permissions of the element. These columns are grouped into threes, the first grouping indicating the permissions for the owner of the element ('jesse' in this case), the second grouping indicating the permissions for the group associated with the element, and the third grouping indicating the permissions associated with the rest of the world. The 'r', 'w', and 'x' indicate read, write and execute permissions, respectively, for each of these associations. For example, user 'jesse' has read and write permissions for 'testfile', users in the group 'users' have read permission only, and the rest of the world also has read permissions only. However, for the file 'myprogram', user 'jesse' has read, write and execute permissions (suggesting that 'myprogram' is a program that can be executed), while the group 'users' and the rest of the world have no permissions (suggesting that the owner doesn't want anyone else to run his program). The permissions, ownership and group associated with an element can be changed with the commands 'chmod', 'chown' and 'chgrp', respectively. If a user with the appropriate permissions wanted to change the user/group ownership of 'README' from jesse/users to joe/admin, he would do the following: # chown joe README # chgrp admin README The syntax for chmod is slightly more complicated and has several variations. The most concise way of setting the permissions for a single element uses a triplet of numbers, one for each of user, group and world. The value for each number in the triplet corresponds to a combination of read, write and execute permissions. Execute only is represented as 1, write only is represented as 2, and read only is represented as 4. Combinations of these permissions are represented as sums of the individual permissions. Read and execute is represented as 5, where as read, write and execute is represented as 7. No permissions is represented as 0. Thus, to give the owner read, write and execute permissions, the group read and execute permissions and the world no permissions, a user would do as follows: % chmod 750 myprogram THE SHELL The shell provides an interface between the user and the operating system. It is the job of the shell to interpret the input that the user gives at the command prompt and call upon the system to do something in response. There are several different shells available, each with somewhat different syntax and capabilities. The two most common flavors of shells used on Linux stem from the Bourne shell ('sh') and the C-shell ('csh') Different users have preferences and biases towards one shell or the other, and some certainly make it easier (or at least more intuitive) to do some things than others. You can determine your current shell by printing the value of the 'SHELL' environment variable from the command prompt with % echo $SHELL You can start a new shell simply by entering the name of the shell from the command prompt: % csh or % sh and you can run a program from within a specific shell by preceding the name of the executable with the name of the shell in which it will be run: % sh myprogram The user's default shell at login is determined by whoever set up his account. While there are many syntactic differences between shells, perhaps the one that is encountered most frequently is the way in which environment variables are set. SETTING ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES Every session has associated with it environment variables, which consist of name/value pairs and control the way in which the shell and programs run from the shell behave. An example of an environment variable is the 'PATH' variable, which tells the shell which directories to search when trying to locate an executable file that the user has entered at the command line. If you are certain that a command exists, but the shell complains that it cannot be found when you try to execute it, there is likely a problem with the 'PATH' variable. Environment variables are set differently depending on the shell being used. For the Bourne shell ('sh'), it is done as: % export MYVARIABLE="avalue" for the C-shell, it is done as: % setenv MYVARIABLE "avalue" In both cases the quotation marks are only necessary if the value contains spaces. The 'echo' command can be used to examine the value of an environment variable: % echo $MYVARIABLE Commands to set environment variables can also include references to other environment variables (prepended with the "$" character), including themselves. In order to add the path '/usr/local/bin' to the beginning of the search path, and the current directory '.' to the end of the search path, a user would enter % export PATH=/usr/local/bin:$PATH:. in the Bourne shell, and % setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:${PATH}:. in C-shell. Note the curly braces are required to protect the variable name in C-shell. EDITING TEXT FILES There are several text editors available for the Linux operating system. Some of these editors require the X window system, while others are designed to operate in a console or terminal. It is generally a good thing to be competent with a terminal-based text editor, as there are times when the files necessary for X to run are the ones that must be edited. Three popular editors are 'vi', 'pico' and 'emacs', each of which can be started from the command line, optionally supplying the name of a file to be edited. 'vi' is arguably the most ubiquitous as well as the least intuitive of the three. 'pico' is relatively straightforward for a new user, though not as often installed on systems. If you don't have 'pico', you may have a similar editor called 'nano'. 'emacs' is highly extensible and fairly widely available, but can be somewhat unwieldy in a non-X environment. The newer versions each come with online help, and offline help can be found in the manual and info pages for each (please see the section on Linux Manual and Info pages). Many programs use the 'EDITOR' environment variable to determine which text editor to start when editing is required. ROOT USER Upon installation, almost all distributions set up the default administrative user with the username 'root'. There are many things on the system that only 'root' (or a similarly privileged user) can do, one of which is installing the NVIDIA Linux Driver. WE MUST EMPHASIZE THAT ASSUMING THE IDENTITY OF 'root' IS INHERENTLY RISKY AND AS 'root' IT IS RELATIVELY EASY TO CORRUPT YOUR SYSTEM OR OTHERWISE RENDER IT UNUSABLE. There are three ways to become 'root'. You may log in as 'root' as you would any other user, you may use the switch user command ('su') at the command prompt, or, on some systems, use the 'sudo' utility, which allows users to run programs as 'root' while keeping a log of their actions. This last method is useful in case a user inadvertently causes damage to the system and cannot remember what he has done (or prefers not to admit what he has done). It is generally a good practice to remain 'root' only as long as is necessary to accomplish the task requiring 'root' privileges (another useful feature of the 'sudo' utility). BOOTING TO A DIFFERENT RUNLEVEL Runlevels in Linux dictate which services are started and stopped automatically when the system boots or shuts down. The runlevels typically range from 0 to 6, with runlevel 5 typically starting the X window system as part of the services (runlevel 0 is actually a system halt, and 6 is a system reboot). It is good practice to install the NVIDIA Linux Driver while X is not running, and it is a good idea to prevent X from starting on reboot in case there are problems with the installation (otherwise you may find yourself with a broken system that automatically tries to start X, but then hangs during the startup, preventing you from doing the repairs necessary to fix X). Depending on your network setup, runlevels 1, 2 or 3 should be sufficient for installing the Driver. Level 3 typically includes networking services, so if utilities used by the system during installation depend on a remote filesystem, Levels 1 and 2 will be insufficient. If your system typically boots to a console with a command prompt, you should not need to change anything. If your system typically boots to the X window system with a graphical login and desktop, you must both exit X and change your default runlevel. On most distributions, the default runlevel is stored in the file '/etc/inittab', although you may have to consult the guide for your own distribution. The line that indicates the default runlevel appears as id:n:initdefault: or similar, where "n" indicates the number of the runlevel. '/etc/inittab' must be edited as root. Please read the sections on editing files and root user if you are unfamiliar with this concept. Also, it is recommended that you create a copy of the file prior to editing it, particularly if you are new to Linux text editors, in case you accidentally corrupt the file: # cp /etc/inittab /etc/inittab.original The line should be edited such that an appropriate runlevel is the default (1, 2, or 3 on most systems): id:3:initdefault: After saving the changes, exit X. After the Driver installation is complete, you may revert the default runlevel to its original state, either by editing the '/etc/inittab' again or by moving your backup copy back to its original name. Different distributions provide different ways to exit X. On many systems, the 'init' utility will change the current runlevel. This can be used to change to a runlevel in which X is not running. # init 3 There are other methods by which to exit X. Please consult your distribution. LINUX MANUAL AND INFO PAGES System manual or info pages are usually installed during installation. These pages are typically up-to-date and generally contain a comprehensive listing of the use of programs and utilities on the system. Also, many programs include the --help option, which usually prints a list of common options for that program. To view the manual page for a command, enter % man commandname at the command prompt, where commandname refers to the command in which you are interested. Similarly, entering % info commandname will bring up the info page for the command. Depending on the application, one or the other may be more up-to-date. The interface for the info system is interactive and navigable. If you are unable to locate the man page for the command you are interested in, you may need to add additional elements to your 'MANPATH' environment variable. Please see the section on environment variables. - FOOTNOTES - [1] Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. ______________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 9. Acknowledgements ______________________________________________________________________________ 'nvidia-installer' was inspired by the 'loki_update' tool: http://www.lokigames.com/development/loki_update.php3/ The FTP and HTTP support in 'nvidia-installer' is based upon 'snarf 7.0': http://www.xach.com/snarf/ The self-extracting archive (aka '.run' file) is generated using 'makeself.sh': http://www.megastep.org/makeself/ ______________________________________________________________________________ Appendix A. Supported NVIDIA Graphics Chips ______________________________________________________________________________ For the most complete and accurate listing of supported GPUs, please see the Supported Products List, available from the NVIDIA Linux x86_64 Graphics Driver download page. Please go to http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html, follow the Archive link under the Linux x86_64 heading, follow the link for the 96.43.05 driver, and then go to the Supported Products List. NVIDIA chip name Device PCI ID ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- GeForce 6800 Ultra 0x0040 GeForce 6800 0x0041 GeForce 6800 XE 0x0043 GeForce 6800 XT 0x0044 GeForce 6800 GT 0x0045 GeForce 6800 GT 0x0046 GeForce 6800 GS 0x0047 GeForce 6800 XT 0x0048 Quadro FX 4000 0x004E GeForce 7800 GTX 0x0090 GeForce 7800 GTX 0x0091 GeForce 7800 GT 0x0092 GeForce 7800 GS 0x0093 GeForce Go 7800 0x0098 GeForce Go 7800 GTX 0x0099 Quadro FX 4500 0x009D GeForce 6800 GS 0x00C0 GeForce 6800 0x00C1 GeForce 6800 LE 0x00C2 GeForce 6800 XT 0x00C3 GeForce Go 6800 0x00C8 GeForce Go 6800 Ultra 0x00C9 Quadro FX Go1400 0x00CC Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI 0x00CD Quadro FX 1400 0x00CE GeForce 6800/GeForce 6800 Ultra 0x00F0 GeForce 6600/GeForce 6600 GT 0x00F1 GeForce 6600 0x00F2 GeForce 6200 0x00F3 GeForce 6600 LE 0x00F4 GeForce 7800 GS 0x00F5 GeForce 6800 GS 0x00F6 Quadro FX 3400/4400 0x00F8 GeForce 6800 Ultra 0x00F9 GeForce PCX 5750 0x00FA GeForce PCX 5900 0x00FB Quadro FX 330/GeForce PCX 5300 0x00FC Quadro NVS 280 PCI-E/Quadro FX 330 0x00FD Quadro FX 1300 0x00FE GeForce PCX 4300 0x00FF GeForce2 MX/MX 400 0x0110 GeForce2 MX 100/200 0x0111 GeForce2 Go 0x0112 Quadro2 MXR/EX/Go 0x0113 GeForce 6600 GT 0x0140 GeForce 6600 0x0141 GeForce 6600 LE 0x0142 GeForce 6600 VE 0x0143 GeForce Go 6600 0x0144 GeForce 6610 XL 0x0145 GeForce Go 6600 TE/6200 TE 0x0146 GeForce Go 6600 0x0148 GeForce Go 6600 GT 0x0149 Quadro NVS 440 0x014A Quadro FX 550 0x014C Quadro FX 540 0x014E GeForce 6200 0x014F GeForce 6500 0x0160 GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM) 0x0161 GeForce Go 6200 0x0164 Quadro NVS 285 0x0165 GeForce Go 6400 0x0166 GeForce Go 6200 0x0167 GeForce Go 6400 0x0168 GeForce4 MX 460 0x0170 GeForce4 MX 440 0x0171 GeForce4 MX 420 0x0172 GeForce4 MX 440-SE 0x0173 GeForce4 440 Go 0x0174 GeForce4 420 Go 0x0175 GeForce4 420 Go 32M 0x0176 GeForce4 460 Go 0x0177 Quadro4 550 XGL 0x0178 GeForce4 440 Go 64M 0x0179 Quadro NVS 0x017A Quadro4 500 GoGL 0x017C GeForce4 410 Go 16M 0x017D GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X 0x0181 GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X 0x0182 GeForce4 MX 420 with AGP8X 0x0183 GeForce4 MX 4000 0x0185 Quadro4 580 XGL 0x0188 Quadro NVS with AGP8X 0x018A Quadro4 380 XGL 0x018B Quadro NVS 50 PCI 0x018C GeForce2 Integrated GPU 0x01A0 GeForce 7300 LE 0x01D1 Quadro NVS 110M 0x01D7 GeForce Go 7300 0x01D7 GeForce Go 7400 0x01D8 Quadro NVS 110M 0x01DA Quadro NVS 120M 0x01DB Quadro FX 350M 0x01DC Quadro FX 350 0x01DE GeForce 7300 GS 0x01DF GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU 0x01F0 GeForce3 0x0200 GeForce3 Ti 200 0x0201 GeForce3 Ti 500 0x0202 Quadro DCC 0x0203 GeForce 6800 0x0211 GeForce 6800 LE 0x0212 GeForce 6800 GT 0x0215 GeForce 6800 XT 0x0218 GeForce 6150 0x0240 GeForce 6150 LE 0x0241 GeForce 6100 0x0242 GeForce4 Ti 4600 0x0250 GeForce4 Ti 4400 0x0251 GeForce4 Ti 4200 0x0253 Quadro4 900 XGL 0x0258 Quadro4 750 XGL 0x0259 Quadro4 700 XGL 0x025B GeForce4 Ti 4800 0x0280 GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X 0x0281 GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE 0x0282 GeForce4 4200 Go 0x0286 Quadro4 980 XGL 0x0288 Quadro4 780 XGL 0x0289 Quadro4 700 GoGL 0x028C GeForce 7900 GTX 0x0290 GeForce 7900 GT 0x0291 GeForce Go 7900 GS 0x0298 GeForce Go 7900 GTX 0x0299 Quadro FX 2500M 0x029A Quadro FX 1500M 0x029B Quadro FX 5500 0x029C Quadro FX 3500 0x029D Quadro FX 1500 0x029E Quadro FX 4500 X2 0x029F GeForce 7600 GS 0x02E1 GeForce FX 5800 Ultra 0x0301 GeForce FX 5800 0x0302 Quadro FX 2000 0x0308 Quadro FX 1000 0x0309 GeForce FX 5600 Ultra 0x0311 GeForce FX 5600 0x0312 GeForce FX 5600XT 0x0314 GeForce FX Go5600 0x031A GeForce FX Go5650 0x031B Quadro FX Go700 0x031C GeForce FX 5200 0x0320 GeForce FX 5200 Ultra 0x0321 GeForce FX 5200 0x0322 GeForce FX 5200LE 0x0323 GeForce FX Go5200 0x0324 GeForce FX Go5250 0x0325 GeForce FX 5500 0x0326 GeForce FX 5100 0x0327 GeForce FX Go5200 32M/64M 0x0328 Quadro NVS 280 PCI 0x032A Quadro FX 500/600 PCI 0x032B GeForce FX Go53xx 0x032C GeForce FX Go5100 0x032D GeForce FX 5900 Ultra 0x0330 GeForce FX 5900 0x0331 GeForce FX 5900XT 0x0332 GeForce FX 5950 Ultra 0x0333 GeForce FX 5900ZT 0x0334 Quadro FX 3000 0x0338 Quadro FX 700 0x033F GeForce FX 5700 Ultra 0x0341 GeForce FX 5700 0x0342 GeForce FX 5700LE 0x0343 GeForce FX 5700VE 0x0344 GeForce FX Go5700 0x0347 GeForce FX Go5700 0x0348 Quadro FX Go1000 0x034C Quadro FX 1100 0x034E GeForce 7600 GT 0x0391 GeForce 7600 GS 0x0392 GeForce Go 7600 0x0398 Quadro FX 560 0x039E Below are the legacy GPUs that are no longer supported in the unified driver. These GPUs will continue to be maintained through the special legacy NVIDIA GPU driver releases. NVIDIA chip name Device PCI ID ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- RIVA TNT 0x0020 RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro 0x0028 RIVA TNT2 Ultra 0x0029 Vanta/Vanta LT 0x002C RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro 0x002D Aladdin TNT2 0x00A0 GeForce 256 0x0100 GeForce DDR 0x0101 Quadro 0x0103 GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro 0x0150 GeForce2 Ti 0x0151 GeForce2 Ultra 0x0152 Quadro2 Pro 0x0153 ______________________________________________________________________________ Appendix B. Minimum Software Requirements ______________________________________________________________________________ Software Element Min Requirement Check With... --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- Linux kernel 2.4.7 `cat /proc/version` XFree86/X.Org 4.0.1/6.7 `XFree86 -version/Xorg -version` Kernel modutils 2.1.121 `insmod -v` If you need to build the NVIDIA kernel module: Software Element Min Requirement Check With... --------------------- --------------------- --------------------- binutils 2.9.5 `size --version` GNU make 3.77 `make --version` gcc 2.91.66 `gcc --version` glibc 2.0 `ls /lib/libc.so.* > 6` If you build from source RPMs: Required Software Element Check With... ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- spec-helper rpm `rpm -qi spec-helper` All official stable kernel releases from 2.4.0 and up are supported; "prerelease" versions such as "2.4.3-pre2" are not supported, nor are development series kernels such as 2.3.x or 2.5.x. The Linux kernel can be downloaded from http://www.kernel.org or one of its mirrors. binutils and gcc can be retrieved from http://www.gnu.org or one of its mirrors. If you are using XFree86, but do not have a file '/var/log/XFree86.0.log', then you probably have a 3.x version of XFree86 and must upgrade. If you are setting up XFree86 4.x for the first time, it is often easier to begin with one of the open source drivers that ships with XFree86 (either "nv", "vga" or "vesa"). Once XFree86 is operating properly with the open source driver, you may then switch to the NVIDIA driver. Note that newer NVIDIA GPUs may not work with older versions of the "nv" driver shipped with XFree86. For example, the "nv" driver that shipped with XFree86 version 4.0.1 did not recognize the GeForce2 family and the Quadro2 MXR GPUs. This was fixed in XFree86 version 4.0.2. XFree86 can be retrieved from http://www.xfree86.org. These software packages may also be available through your Linux distributor. ______________________________________________________________________________ Appendix C. Installed Components ______________________________________________________________________________ The NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set consists of the following components (filenames in parenthesis are the full names of the components after installation; "x.y.z" denotes the current version. In these cases appropriate symlinks are created during installation): o An X driver (/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so); this driver is needed by the X server to use your NVIDIA hardware. o A GLX extension module for X (/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.so.x.y.z); this module is used by the X server to provide server-side GLX support. o An OpenGL library (/usr/lib/libGL.so.x.y.z); this library provides the API entry points for all OpenGL and GLX function calls. It is linked to at run-time by OpenGL applications. o An OpenGL core library (/usr/lib/libGLcore.so.x.y.z); this library is implicitly used by libGL and by libglx. It contains the core accelerated 3D functionality. You should not explicitly load it in your X config file -- that is taken care of by libglx. o Two XvMC (X-Video Motion Compensation) libraries: a static library and a shared library (/usr/X11R6/lib/libXvMCNVIDIA.a, /usr/X11R6/lib/libXvMCNVIDIA.so.x.y.z); please see Appendix N for details. o A kernel module (/lib/modules/`uname -r`/video/nvidia.o or /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.o); this kernel module provides low-level access to your NVIDIA hardware for all of the above components. It is generally loaded into the kernel when the X server is started, and is used by the X driver and OpenGL. nvidia.o consists of two pieces: the binary-only core, and a kernel interface that must be compiled specifically for your kernel version. Note that the Linux kernel does not have a consistent binary interface like the X server, so it is important that this kernel interface be matched with the version of the kernel that you are using. This can either be accomplished by compiling yourself, or using precompiled binaries provided for the kernels shipped with some of the more common Linux distributions. o OpenGL and GLX header files (/usr/include/GL/gl.h, /usr/include/GL/glext.h, /usr/include/GL/glx.h, and /usr/include/GL/glext.h); these are also installed in /usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/include/GL/. You can request that these files not be included in /usr/include/GL/ by passing the "--no-opengl-headers" option to the .run file during installation. o The nvidia-tls libraries (/usr/lib/libnvidia-tls.so.x.y.z and /usr/lib/tls/libnvidia-tls.so.x.y.z); these files provide thread local storage support for the NVIDIA OpenGL libraries (libGL, libGLcore, and libglx). Each nvidia-tls library provides support for a particular thread local storage model (such as ELF TLS), and the one appropriate for your system will be loaded at run time. o The application nvidia-installer (/usr/bin/nvidia-installer) is NVIDIA's tool for installing and updating NVIDIA drivers. Please see Chapter 2 for a more thorough description. Problems will arise if applications use the wrong version of a library. This can be the case if there are either old libGL libraries or stale symlinks left lying around. If you think there may be something awry in your installation, check that the following files are in place (these are all the files of the NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Driver Set, as well as their symlinks): /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.so.x.y.z /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.so -> libglx.so.x.y.z (may also be in /usr/lib/modules or /usr/lib/xorg/modules) /usr/lib/libGL.so.x.y.z /usr/lib/libGL.so.x -> libGL.so.x.y.z /usr/lib/libGL.so -> libGL.so.x /usr/lib/libGLcore.so.x.y.z /usr/lib/libGLcore.so.x -> libGLcore.so.x.y.z /lib/modules/`uname -r`/video/nvidia.o, or /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.o If there are other libraries whose "soname" conflicts with that of the NVIDIA libraries, ldconfig may create the wrong symlinks. It is recommended that you manually remove or rename conflicting libraries (be sure to rename clashing libraries to something that ldconfig will not look at -- we have found that prepending "XXX" to a library name generally does the trick), rerun 'ldconfig', and check that the correct symlinks were made. Some libraries that often create conflicts are "/usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so*" and "/usr/X11R6/lib/libGLcore.so*". If the libraries appear to be correct, then verify that the application is using the correct libraries. For example, to check that the application /usr/X11R6/bin/glxgears is using the NVIDIA libraries, run: % ldd /usr/X11R6/bin/glxgears linux-gate.so.1 => (0xffffe000) libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 (0xb7ed3000) libXp.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXp.so.6 (0xb7eca000) libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXext.so.6 (0xb7eb9000) libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 (0xb7dd4000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0xb7d82000) libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0xb7d5f000) libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0xb7c47000) libGLcore.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGLcore.so.1 (0xb6c2f000) libnvidia-tls.so.1 => /usr/lib/tls/libnvidia-tls.so.1 (0xb6c2d000) libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0xb6c29000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7fb2000) Check the files being used for libGL and libGLcore -- if they are something other than the NVIDIA libraries, then you will need to either remove the libraries that are getting in the way, or adjust your ld search path using the 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH' environment variable. You may wish to consult the man pages for 'ldconfig' and 'ldd'. ______________________________________________________________________________ Appendix D. X Config Options ______________________________________________________________________________ The following driver options are supported by the NVIDIA X driver. They may be specified either in the Screen or Device sections of the X config file. X Config Options Option "NvAGP" "integer" Configure AGP support. Integer argument can be one of: Value Behavior -------------- --------------------------------------------------- 0 disable AGP 1 use NVIDIA's internal AGP support, if possible 2 use AGPGART, if possible 3 use any AGP support (try AGPGART, then NVIDIA's AGP) Please note that NVIDIA's internal AGP support cannot work if AGPGART is either statically compiled into your kernel or is built as a module and loaded into your kernel. Please see Appendix F for details. Default: 3. Option "NoLogo" "boolean" Disable drawing of the NVIDIA logo splash screen at X startup. Default: the logo is drawn. Option "LogoPath" "string" Sets the path to the PNG file to be used as the logo splash screen at X startup. If the PNG file specified has a bKGD (background color) chunk, then the screen is cleared to the color it specifies. Otherwise, the screen is cleared to black. The logo file must be owned by root and must not be writable by a non-root group. Default: The built-in NVIDIA logo is used. Option "RenderAccel" "boolean" Enable or disable hardware acceleration of the RENDER extension. Default: hardware acceleration of the RENDER extension is enabled. 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. Option "UBB" "boolean" Enable or disable the Unified Back Buffer on Quadro-based GPUs (Quadro4 NVS excluded); please see Appendix K for a description of UBB. This option has no effect on non-Quadro chipsets. Default: UBB is on for Quadro chipsets. Option "NoFlip" "boolean" Disable OpenGL flipping; please see Appendix K for a description. Default: OpenGL will swap by flipping when possible. Option "Dac8Bit" "boolean" Most Quadro products by default use a 10-bit color look-up table (LUT); setting this option to TRUE forces these graphics chips to use an 8-bit (LUT). Default: a 10-bit LUT is used, when available. Option "Overlay" "boolean" Enables RGB workstation overlay visuals. This is only supported on Quadro4 and Quadro FX chips (Quadro4 NVS excluded) in depth 24. This option causes the server to advertise the SERVER_OVERLAY_VISUALS root window property and GLX will report single- and double-buffered, Z-buffered 16-bit overlay visuals. The transparency key is pixel 0x0000 (hex). There is no gamma correction support in the overlay plane. This feature requires XFree86 version 4.1.0 or newer, or the X.Org X server. Quadros 500 and 550 XGL have additional restrictions, namely, overlays are not supported in TwinView mode or with virtual desktops wider than 2046 pixels or taller than 2047. Quadro 7xx/9xx and Quadro FX will offer overlay visuals in these modes (TwinView, or virtual desktops larger than 2046x2047), but the overlay will be emulated with a substantial performance penalty. RGB workstation overlays are not supported when the Composite extension is enabled. Dynamic TwinView is disabled when Overlays are enabled. Default: off. UBB must be enabled when overlays are enabled (this is the default behavior). Option "CIOverlay" "boolean" Enables Color Index workstation overlay visuals with identical restrictions to Option "Overlay" above. The server will offer visuals both with and without a transparency key. These are depth 8 PseudoColor visuals. Enabling Color Index overlays on X servers older than XFree86 4.3 will force the RENDER extension to be disabled due to bugs in the RENDER extension in older X servers. Color Index workstation overlays are not supported when the Composite extension is enabled. Default: off. UBB must be enabled when overlays are enabled (this is the default behavior). Option "TransparentIndex" "integer" When color index overlays are enabled, use this option to choose which pixel is used for the transparent pixel in visuals featuring transparent pixels. This value is clamped between 0 and 255 (Note: some applications such as Alias's Maya require this to be zero in order to work correctly). Default: 0. Option "OverlayDefaultVisual" "boolean" When overlays are used, this option sets the default visual to an overlay visual thereby putting the root window in the overlay. This option is not recommended for RGB overlays. Default: off. Option "RandRRotation" "boolean" Enable rotation support for the XRandR extension. This allows use of the XRandR X server extension for configuring the screen orientation through rotation. This feature is supported on GeForce2 or better hardware using depth 24. This requires an X.Org X 6.8.1 or newer X server. This feature does not work with hardware overlays, and emulated overlays will be used instead at a substantial performance penalty. See Appendix U for details. Default: off. Option "Rotate" "string" Enable static rotation support. Unlike the RandRRotation option above, this option takes effect as soon as the X server is started and will work with older versions of X. This feature is supported on GeForce2 or better hardware using depth 24. This feature does not work with hardware overlays, and emulated overlays will be used instead at a substantial performance penalty. This option is not compatible with the RandR extension. Valid rotations are "normal", "left", "inverted", and "right". Default: off. Option "AllowDDCCI" "boolean" Enables DDC/CI support in the NV-CONTROL X extension. DDC/CI is a mechanism for communication between your computer and your display device. This can be used to set the values normally controlled through your display device's On Screen Display. Please see the DDC/CI NV-CONTROL attributes in 'NVCtrl.h' and functions in 'NVCtrlLib.h' in the 'nvidia-settings' source code. Default: off (DDC/CI is disabled). Option "SWCursor" "boolean" Enable or disable software rendering of the X cursor. Default: off. Option "HWCursor" "boolean" Enable or disable hardware rendering of the X cursor. Default: on. Option "CursorShadow" "boolean" Enable or disable use of a shadow with the hardware accelerated cursor; this is a black translucent replica of your cursor shape at a given offset from the real cursor. Default: off (no cursor shadow). Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "integer" The alpha value to use for the cursor shadow; only applicable if CursorShadow is enabled. This value must be in the range [0, 255] -- 0 is completely transparent; 255 is completely opaque. Default: 64. Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "integer" The offset, in pixels, that the shadow image will be shifted to the right from the real cursor image; only applicable if CursorShadow is enabled. This value must be in the range [0, 32]. Default: 4. Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "integer" The offset, in pixels, that the shadow image will be shifted down from the real cursor image; only applicable if CursorShadow is enabled. This value must be in the range [0, 32]. Default: 2. Option "ConnectedMonitor" "string" Allows you to override what the NVIDIA kernel module detects is connected to your video card. This may be useful, for example, if you use a KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch and you are switched away when X is started. In such a situation, the NVIDIA kernel module cannot detect what display devices are connected, and the NVIDIA X driver assumes you have a single CRT. Valid values for this option are "CRT" (cathode ray tube), "DFP" (digital flat panel), or "TV" (television); if using TwinView, this option may be a comma-separated list of display devices; e.g.: "CRT, CRT" or "CRT, DFP". It is generally recommended to not use this option, but instead use the "UseDisplayDevice" option. NOTE: anything attached to a 15 pin VGA connector is regarded by the driver as a CRT. "DFP" should only be used to refer to digital flat panels connected via a DVI port. Default: string is NULL (the NVIDIA driver will detect the connected display devices). Option "UseDisplayDevice" "string" When assigning display devices to X screens, the NVIDIA X driver by default assigns display devices in the order they are found (looking first at CRTs, then at DFPs, and finally at TVs). This option can be used to override this assignment. For example, if both a CRT and a DFP are connected, you could specify: Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP" to make the X screen use the DFP, even though it would have used a CRT by default. Note the subtle difference between this option and the "ConnectedMonitor" option: the "ConnectedMonitor" option overrides what display devices are actually detected, while the "UseDisplayDevice" option controls which of the detected display devices will be used on this X screen. Option "UseEdidFreqs" "boolean" This option controls whether the NVIDIA X driver will use the HorizSync and VertRefresh ranges given in a display device's EDID, if any. When UseEdidFreqs is set to True, EDID-provided range information will override the HorizSync and VertRefresh ranges specified in the Monitor section. If a display device does not provide an EDID, or the EDID does not specify an hsync or vrefresh range, then the X server will default to the HorizSync and VertRefresh ranges specified in the Monitor section of your X config file. These frequency ranges are used when validating modes for your display device. Default: True (EDID frequencies will be used) 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 Y). 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). Option "IgnoreEDID" "boolean" This option is deprecated, and no longer affects behavior of the X driver. See the "UseEDID" option for details. Option "NoDDC" "boolean" Synonym for "IgnoreEDID". This option is deprecated, and no longer affects behavior of the X driver. See the "UseEDID" option for details. Option "UseInt10Module" "boolean" Enable use of the X Int10 module to soft-boot all secondary cards, rather than POSTing the cards through the NVIDIA kernel module. Default: off (POSTing is done through the NVIDIA kernel module). Option "TwinView" "boolean" Enable or disable TwinView. Please see Appendix G for details. Default: off (TwinView is disabled). Option "TwinViewOrientation" "string" Controls the relationship between the two display devices when using TwinView. Takes one of the following values: "RightOf" "LeftOf" "Above" "Below" "Clone". Please see Appendix G for details. Default: string is NULL. Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "range(s)" This option is like the HorizSync entry in the Monitor section, but is for the second monitor when using TwinView. Please see Appendix G for details. Default: none. Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "range(s)" This option is like the VertRefresh entry in the Monitor section, but is for the second monitor when using TwinView. Please see Appendix G for details. Default: none. Option "MetaModes" "string" This option describes the combination of modes to use on each monitor when using TwinView. Please see Appendix G for details. Default: string is NULL. Option "NoTwinViewXineramaInfo" "boolean" When in TwinView, the NVIDIA X driver normally provides a Xinerama extension that X clients (such as window managers) can use to discover the current TwinView configuration, such as where each display device is positioned within the X screen. Some window mangers get confused by this information, so this option is provided to disable this behavior. Default: false (TwinView Xinerama information is provided). Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "string" When the NVIDIA X driver provides TwinViewXineramaInfo (see the NoTwinViewXineramaInfo X config option), it by default reports the currently enabled display devices in the order "CRT, DFP, TV". The TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder X config option can be used to override this order. The option string is a comma-separated list of display device names. The display device names can either be general (e.g, "CRT", which identifies all CRTs), or specific (e.g., "CRT-1", which identifies a particular CRT). Not all display devices need to be identified in the option string; display devices that are not listed will be implicitly appended to the end of the list, in their default order. Note that TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder tracks all display devices that could possibly be connected to the GPU, not just the ones that are currently enabled. When reporting the Xinerama information, the NVIDIA X driver walks through the display devices in the order specified, only reporting enabled display devices. Examples: "DFP" "TV, DFP" "DFP-1, DFP-0, TV, CRT" In the first example, any enabled DFPs would be reported first (any enabled CRTs or TVs would be reported afterwards). In the second example, any enabled TVs would be reported first, then any enabled DFPs (any enabled CRTs would be reported last). In the last example, if DFP-1 were enabled, it would be reported first, then DFP-0, then any enabled TVs, and then any enabled CRTs; finally, any other enabled DFPs would be reported. Default: "CRT, DFP, TV" Option "TVStandard" "string" Please see Appendix H for details on configuring TV-out. Option "TVOutFormat" "string" Please see Appendix H for details on configuring TV-out. Option "TVOverScan" "Decimal value in the range 0.0 to 1.0" Valid values are in the range 0.0 through 1.0; Please see Appendix H for details on configuring TV-out. Option "Stereo" "integer" Enable offering of quad-buffered stereo visuals on Quadro. Integer indicates the type of stereo equipment being used: Value Equipment -------------- --------------------------------------------------- 1 DDC glasses. The sync signal is sent to the glasses via the DDC signal to the monitor. These usually involve a passthrough cable between the monitor and video card. 2 "Blueline" glasses. These usually involve a passthrough cable between the monitor and video card. The glasses know which eye to display based on the length of a blue line visible at the bottom of the screen. When in this mode, the root window dimensions are one pixel shorter in the Y dimension than requested. This mode does not work with virtual root window sizes larger than the visible root window size (desktop panning). 3 Onboard stereo support. This is usually only found on professional cards. The glasses connect via a DIN connector on the back of the video card. 4 TwinView clone mode stereo (aka "passive" stereo). On video cards that support TwinView, the left eye is displayed on the first display, and the right eye is displayed on the second display. This is normally used in conjunction with special projectors to produce 2 polarized images which are then viewed with polarized glasses. To use this stereo mode, you must also configure TwinView in clone mode with the same resolution, panning offset, and panning domains on each display. 5 Vertical interlaced stereo mode, for use with SeeReal Stereo Digital Flat Panels. 6 Color interleaved stereo mode, for use with Sharp3D Stereo Digital Flat Panels. Stereo is only available on Quadro cards. Stereo options 1, 2, and 3 (aka "active" stereo) may be used with TwinView if all modes within each MetaMode have identical timing values. Please see Appendix J for suggestions on making sure the modes within your MetaModes are identical. The identical ModeLine requirement is not necessary for Stereo option 4 ("passive" stereo). Currently, stereo operation may be "quirky" on the original Quadro (NV10) chip and left-right flipping may be erratic. We are trying to resolve this issue for a future release. Default: 0 (Stereo is not enabled). UBB must be enabled when stereo is enabled (this is the default behavior). Stereo options 1, 2, and 3 (aka "active" stereo) are not supported on digital flat panels. Multi-GPU cards (such as the Quadro FX 4500 X2) provide a single connector for onboard stereo support (option 3), which is tied to the bottommost GPU. In order to synchronize onboard stereo with the other GPU, you must use a G-Sync device (see Appendix X for details). Option "AllowDFPStereo" "boolean" By default, the NVIDIA X driver performs a check which disables active stereo (stereo options 1, 2, and 3) if the X screen is driving a DFP. The "AllowDFPStereo" option bypasses this check. Option "ForceStereoFlipping" "boolean" Stereo flipping is the process by which left and right eyes are displayed on alternating vertical refreshes. Normally, stereo flipping is only performed when a stereo drawable is visible. This option forces stereo flipping even when no stereo drawables are visible. This is to be used in conjunction with the "Stereo" option. If "Stereo" is 0, the "ForceStereoFlipping" option has no effect. If otherwise, the "ForceStereoFlipping" option will force the behavior indicated by the "Stereo" option, even if no stereo drawables are visible. This option is useful in a multiple-screen environment in which a stereo application is run on a different screen than the stereo master. Possible values: Value Behavior -------------- --------------------------------------------------- 0 Stereo flipping is not forced. The default behavior as indicated by the "Stereo" option is used. 1 Stereo flipping is forced. Stereo is running even if no stereo drawables are visible. The stereo mode depends on the value of the "Stereo" option. Default: 0 (Stereo flipping is not forced). Note that active stereo is not supported on digital flat panels. Option "XineramaStereoFlipping" "boolean" By default, when using Stereo with Xinerama, all physical X screens having a visible stereo drawable will stereo flip. Use this option to allow only one physical X screen to stereo flip at a time. This is to be used in conjunction with the "Stereo" and "Xinerama" options. If "Stereo" is 0 or "Xinerama" is 0, the "XineramaStereoFlipping" option has no effect. If you wish to have all X screens stereo flip all the time, please see the "ForceStereoFlipping" option. Possible values: Value Behavior -------------- --------------------------------------------------- 0 Stereo flipping is enabled on one X screen at a time. Stereo is enabled on the first X screen having the stereo drawable. 1 Stereo flipping in enabled on all X screens. Default: 1 (Stereo flipping is enabled on all X screens). Option "NoBandWidthTest" "boolean" As part of mode validation, the X driver tests if a given mode fits within the hardware's memory bandwidth constraints. This option disables this test. Default: false (the memory bandwidth test is performed). Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "string" This option tells the NVIDIA kernel module to completely ignore the indicated classes of display devices when checking what display devices are connected. You may specify a comma-separated list containing any of "CRT", "DFP", and "TV". For example: Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "DFP, TV" will cause the NVIDIA driver to not attempt to detect if any digital flat panels or TVs are connected. This option is not normally necessary; however, some video BIOSes contain incorrect information about what display devices may be connected, or what i2c port should be used for detection. These errors can cause long delays in starting X. If you are experiencing such delays, you may be able to avoid this by telling the NVIDIA driver to ignore display devices which you know are not connected. NOTE: anything attached to a 15 pin VGA connector is regarded by the driver as a CRT. "DFP" should only be used to refer to digital flat panels connected via a DVI port. Option "MultisampleCompatibility" "boolean" Enable or disable the use of separate front and back multisample buffers. Enabling this will consume more memory but is necessary for correct output when rendering to both the front and back buffers of a multisample or FSAA drawable. This option is necessary for correct operation of SoftImage XSI. Default: false (a single multisample buffer is shared between the front and back buffers). Option "NoPowerConnectorCheck" "boolean" The NVIDIA X driver will abort X server initialization if it detects that a GPU that requires an external power connector does not have an external power connector plugged in. This option can be used to bypass this test. Default: false (the power connector test is performed). Option "XvmcUsesTextures" "boolean" Forces XvMC to use the 3D engine for XvMCPutSurface requests rather than the video overlay. Default: false (video overlay is used when available). Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "boolean" Enables GLX even when the Composite X extension is loaded. ENABLE AT YOUR OWN RISK. OpenGL applications will not display correctly in many circumstances with this setting enabled. This option is intended for use on X.Org X servers older than X11R6.9.0. On X11R6.9.0 or newer X servers, NVIDIA's OpenGL implementation interacts properly by default with the Composite X extension and this option should not be needed. However, on X11R6.9.0 or newer X servers, support for GLX with Composite can be disabled by setting this option to False. Default: false (GLX is disabled when Composite is enabled on X servers older than X11R6.9.0). Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "boolean" Adds a 32-bit ARGB visual for each supported OpenGL configuration. This allows applications to use OpenGL to render with alpha transparency into 32-bit windows and pixmaps. This option requires the Composite extension. ENABLE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Some OpenGL applications may display incorrectly when this setting is enabled. Default: No visuals are added. Option "DisableGLXRootClipping" "boolean" If enabled, no clipping will be performed on rendering done by OpenGL in the root window. This is needed by some OpenGL-based composite managers to function correctly, as they draw the contents of redirected windows directly into the root window using OpenGL. Option "DamageEvents" "boolean" Use OS-level events to efficiently notify X when a client has performed direct rendering to a window that needs to be composited. This will significantly improve performance and interactivity when using GLX applications with a composite manager running. It will also affect applications using GLX when rotation is enabled. This option is currently incompatible with SLI and MultiGPU modes and will be disabled if either are used. Enabled by default. Option "ExactModeTimingsDVI" "boolean" Forces the initialization of the X server with the exact timings specified in the ModeLine. Default: false (for DVI devices, the X server initializes with the closest mode in the EDID list). Option "Coolbits" "integer" Enables support in the NV-CONTROL X extension for manipulating GPU clock settings. When this option is set to "1" the nvidia-settings utility will contain a page labeled "Clock Frequencies" through which clock settings can be manipulated. Coolbits is only available on GeForce FX, Quadro FX, and newer GPUs. Default 0 (support is disabled). WARNING: this may cause system damage and void warranties. This utility can run your computer system out of the manufacturer's design specifications, including, but not limited to: higher system voltages, above normal temperatures, excessive frequencies, and changes to BIOS that may corrupt the BIOS. Your computer's operating system may hang and result in data loss or corrupted images. Depending on the manufacturer of your computer system, the computer system, hardware and software warranties may be voided, and you may not receive any further manufacturer support. NVIDIA does not provide customer service support for the Coolbits option. It is for these reasons that absolutely no warranty or guarantee is either express or implied. Before enabling and using, you should determine the suitability of the utility for your intended use, and you shall assume all responsibility in connection therewith. Option "MultiGPU" "string" This option controls the configuration of MultiGPU rendering in supported configurations. Value Behavior -------------------------------- -------------------------------- 0, no, off, false, Single Use only a single GPU when rendering 1, yes, on, true, Auto Enable MultiGPU and allow the driver to automatically select the appropriate rendering mode. AFR Enable MultiGPU and use the Alternate Frame Rendering mode. SFR Enable MultiGPU and use the Split Frame Rendering mode. AA Enable MultiGPU and use antialiasing. Use this in conjunction with full scene antialiasing to improve visual quality. Option "SLI" "string" This option controls the configuration of SLI rendering in supported configurations. Value Behavior -------------------------------- -------------------------------- 0, no, off, false, Single Use only a single GPU when rendering 1, yes, on, true, Auto Enable SLI and allow the driver to automatically select the appropriate rendering mode. AFR Enable SLI and use the Alternate Frame Rendering mode. SFR Enable SLI and use the Split Frame Rendering mode. AA Enable SLI and use SLI Antialiasing. Use this in conjunction with full scene antialiasing to improve visual quality. AFRofAA Enable SLI and use SLI Alternate Frame Rendering of Antialiasing mode. Use this in conjunction with full scene antialiasing to improve visual quality. This option is only valid for SLI configurations with 4 GPUs. Option "TripleBuffer" "boolean" Enable or disable the use of triple buffering. If this option is enabled, OpenGL windows that sync to vblank and are double-buffered will be given a third buffer. This decreases the time an application stalls while waiting for vblank events, but increases latency slightly (delay between user input and displayed result). Option "DPI" "string" This option specifies the Dots Per Inch for the X screen; for example: Option "DPI" "75 x 85" will set the horizontal DPI to 75 and the vertical DPI to 85. By default, the X driver will compute the DPI of the X screen from the EDID of any connected display devices. See Appendix Y for details. Default: string is NULL (disabled). Option "UseEdidDpi" "string" By default, the NVIDIA X driver computes the DPI of an X screen based on the physical size of the display device, as reported in the EDID, and the size in pixels of the first mode to be used on the display device. If multiple display devices are used by the X screen, then the NVIDIA X screen will choose which display device to use. This option can be used to specify which display device to use. The string argument can be a display device name, such as: Option "UseEdidDpi" "DFP-0" or the argument can be "FALSE" to disable use of EDID-based DPI calculations: Option "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE" See Appendix Y for details. Default: string is NULL (the driver computes the DPI from the EDID of a display device and selects the display device). Option "ConstantDPI" "boolean" By default on X.Org 6.9 or newer X servers, the NVIDIA X driver recomputes the size in millimeters of the X screen whenever the size in pixels of the X screen is changed using XRandR, such that the DPI remains constant. This behavior can be disabled (which means that the size in millimeters will not change when the size in pixels of the X screen changes) by setting the "ConstantDPI" option to "FALSE"; e.g., Option "ConstantDPI" "FALSE" ConstantDPI defaults to True. On X servers older than X.Org 6.9, the NVIDIA X driver cannot change the size in millimeters of the X screen. Therefore the DPI of the X screen will change when XRandR changes the size in pixels of the X screen. The driver will behave as if ConstantDPI was forced to FALSE. Option "CustomEDID" "string" This option forces the X driver to use the EDID specified in a file rather than the display's EDID. You may specify a semicolon separated list of display names and filename pairs. The display name is any of "CRT-0", "CRT-1", "DFP-0", "DFP-1", "TV-0", "TV-1". The file contains a raw EDID (e.g., a file generated by nvidia-settings). For example: Option "CustomEDID" "CRT-0:/tmp/edid1.bin; DFP-0:/tmp/edid2.bin" will assign the EDID from the file /tmp/edid1.bin to the display device CRT-0, and the EDID from the file /tmp/edid2.bin to the display device DFP-0. Option "ModeValidation" "string" This option provides fine-grained control over each stage of the mode validation pipeline, disabling individual mode validation checks. This option should only very rarely be used. The option string is a semicolon-separated list of comma-separated lists of mode validation arguments. Each list of mode validation arguments can optionally be prepended with a display device name. ": , ; : , , ; ..." Possible arguments: o "AllowNon60HzDFPModes": some lower quality TMDS encoders are only rated to drive DFPs at 60Hz; the driver will determine when only 60Hz DFP modes are allowed. This argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoMaxPClkCheck": each mode has a pixel clock; this pixel clock is validated against the maximum pixel clock of the hardware (for a DFP, this is the maximum pixel clock of the TMDS encoder, for a CRT, this is the maximum pixel clock of the DAC). This argument disables the maximum pixel clock checking stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoEdidMaxPClkCheck": a display device's EDID can specify the maximum pixel clock that the display device supports; a mode's pixel clock is validated against this pixel clock maximum. This argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "AllowInterlacedModes": interlaced modes are not supported on all NVIDIA GPUs; the driver will discard interlaced modes on GPUs where interlaced modes are not supported; this argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoMaxSizeCheck": each NVIDIA GPU has a maximum resolution that it can drive; this argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoHorizSyncCheck": a mode's horizontal sync is validated against the range of valid horizontal sync values; this argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoVertRefreshCheck": a mode's vertical refresh rate is validated against the range of valid vertical refresh rate values; this argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoWidthAlignmentCheck": the alignment of a mode's visible width is validated against the capabilities of the GPU; normally, a mode's visible width must be a multiple of 8. This argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck": when validating for a DFP, a mode's size is validated against the native resolution of the DFP; this argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoVirtualSizeCheck": if the X configuration file requests a specific virtual screen size, a mode cannot be larger than that virtual size; this argument disables this stage of the mode validation pipeline. o "NoVesaModes": when constructing the mode pool for a display device, the X driver uses a built-in list of VESA modes as one of the mode sources; this argument disables use of these built-in VESA modes. o "NoEdidModes": when constructing the mode pool for a display device, the X driver uses any modes listed in the display device's EDID as one of the mode sources; this argument disables use of EDID-specified modes. o "NoXServerModes": when constructing the mode pool for a display device, the X driver uses the built-in modes provided by the core XFree86/Xorg X server as one of the mode sources; this argument disables use of these modes. Note that this argument does not disable custom ModeLines specified in the X config file; see the "NoCustomModes" argument for that. o "NoCustomModes": when constructing the mode pool for a display device, the X driver uses custom ModeLines specified in the X config file (through the "Mode" or "ModeLine" entries in the Monitor Section) as one of the mode sources; this argument disables use of these modes. o "NoPredefinedModes": when constructing the mode pool for a display device, the X driver uses additional modes predefined by the NVIDIA X driver; this argument disables use of these modes. o "NoUserModes": additional modes can be added to the mode pool dynamically, using the NV-CONTROL X extension; this argument prohibits user-specified modes via the NV-CONTROL X extension. Examples: Option "ModeValidation" "NoMaxPClkCheck" disable the maximum pixel clock check when validating modes on all display devices. Option "ModeValidation" "CRT-0: NoEdidModes, NoMaxPClkCheck; DFP-0: NoVesaModes" do not use EDID modes and do not perform the maximum pixel clock check on CRT-0, and do not use VESA modes on DFP-0. Option "UseEvents" "boolean" Enables the use of system events in some cases when the X driver is waiting for the hardware. The X driver can briefly spin through a tight loop when waiting for the hardware. With this option the X driver instead sets an event handler and waits for the hardware through the 'poll()' system call. Default: the use of the events is disabled. Option "FlatPanelProperties" "string" This option requests particular properties for all or a subset of the connected flat panels. The option string is a semicolon-separated list of comma-separated property=value pairs. Each list of property=value pairs can optionally be prepended with a flat panel name. ": , ; : ; ..." Recognized properties: o "Scaling": controls the flat panel scaling mode; possible values are: 'Default' (the driver will use whichever scaling state is current), 'Native' (the driver will use the flat panel's scaler, if possible), 'Scaled' (the driver will use the NVIDIA GPU's scaler, if possible), 'Centered' (the driver will center the image, if possible), and 'aspect-scaled' (the X driver will scale with the NVIDIA GPU's scaler, but keep the aspect ratio correct). o "Dithering": controls the flat panel dithering mode; possible values are: 'Default' (the driver will decide when to dither), 'Enabled' (the driver will always dither, if possible), and 'Disabled' (the driver will never dither). Examples: Option "FlatPanelProperties" "Scaling = Centered" set the flat panel scaling mode to centered on all flat panels. Option "FlatPanelProperties" "DFP-0: Scaling = Centered; DFP-1: Scaling = Scaled, Dithering = Enabled" set DFP-0's scaling mode to centered, set DFP-1's scaling mode to scaled and its dithering mode to enabled. Option "ProbeAllGpus" "boolean" When the NVIDIA X driver initializes, it probes all GPUs in the system, even if no X screens are configured on them. This is done so that the X driver can report information about all the system's GPUs through the NV-CONTROL X extension. This option can be set to FALSE to disable this behavior, such that only GPUs with X screens configured on them will be probed. Default: all GPUs in the system are probed. Option "DynamicTwinView" "boolean" Enable or disable support for dynamically configuring TwinView on this X screen. When DynamicTwinView is enabled (the default), the refresh rate of a mode (reported through XF86VidMode or XRandR) does not correctly report the refresh rate, but instead is a unique number such that each MetaMode has a different value. This is to guarantee that MetaModes can be uniquely identified by XRandR. When DynamicTwinView is disabled, the refresh rate reported through XRandR will be accurate, but NV-CONTROL clients such as nvidia-settings will not be able to dynamically manipulate the X screen's MetaModes. TwinView can still be configured from the X config file when DynamicTwinView is disabled. Default: DynamicTwinView is enabled. Option "IncludeImplicitMetaModes" "boolean" When the X server starts, a mode pool is created per display device, containing all the mode timings that the NVIDIA X driver determined to be valid for the display device. However, the only MetaModes that are made available to the X server are the ones explicitly requested in the X configuration file. It is convenient for fullscreen applications to be able to change between the modes in the mode pool, even if a given target mode was not explicitly requested in the X configuration file. To facilitate this, the NVIDIA X driver will, if only one display device is in use when the X server starts, implicitly add Meta