[OpenIndiana-discuss] Problems after updating to latest Hipster - /var/log/Xorg0.log

[Andreas Wacknitz]

Am 07.03.21 um 20:18 schrieb Apostolos Syropoulos via openindiana-discuss:
> On Sunday, March 7, 2021, 8:58:54 PM GMT+2, Andreas Wacknitz <a.wacknitz at gmx.de> wrote:
>
>> No, that's definitely the wrong conclusion, because
>> - he is the only one seeing this problem at the moment
>> - and it is most likely a selfmade problem because he installed a
>> graphics card driver that is not officially distributed by OI
> No I have seen exactly the same problem on a freshly installed system.
> For some reason, I cannot install the system from the GUI media so I
> installed the system using the text installation media. Then I created
> a new BE and installed a newer version of the NVIDIA driver (the one that
> comes with the media does not work). Then I installed the package install_mate
> and then I tried to boot this new BE. But each time I try to boot the system,
> it reboots after trying to start mate-session/lightdm. So practically I have
> an unusable system.
>
>> How can we prevent from these kind of problems in the future?
>> He has installed a driver that is provided by NVIDIA for Solaris. It was
>> necessary because our official driver (from the same NVIDIA source)
>> is old and not suitable for modern NVIDIA graphics cards. Alas we don't
>> have a newer one. And that is mostly because we have too few
>> people involved in testing and maintaining packages. The majority
>> prefers to fiddle themselves or wait that somebody else will do what
>> they need.
> I understand that this a complex problem. Mainly because the driver works
> just fine on older machines. However in my case the problem was the following:
>
> [  1231.908] (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the GLX module; please check in your X
> [  1231.908] (EE) NVIDIA(0):     log file that the GLX module has been loaded in your X
> [  1231.908] (EE) NVIDIA(0):     server, and that the module is the NVIDIA GLX module.  If
> [  1231.908] (EE) NVIDIA(0):     you continue to encounter problems, Please try
> [  1231.908] (EE) NVIDIA(0):     reinstalling the NVIDIA driver.
> [  1231.908] (EE) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA graphics device!
>
> Perhaps something went wrong with the packaging of files. Can you check that
> indeed everything is OK?
>
>
>> We have at least one PR with a newer driver that nobody seem to care to
>> test. It is derived from older PR's that have been discussed and
>> stalled for quite some time. So, the provided alternative driver is also
>> already outdated. But that could be the base for more NVIDIA drivers
>> in the future if it will be tested and merged. But if nobody cares
>> enough to do that (or even work on a more sophisticated one) then the
>> situation won't change.
> Look I as using a GeForce GT 1030 and I am using NVIDIA Driver Version 415.18
> with no problem. In general, I think you could "upgrade" to the 390 series.
> I can try to upgrade the driver in one of my old systems and see if the
> driver works.
>
If your system works with a newer driver then this is good for you.
But it is not guaranteed that it will continue to work if the driver is not
part of the distribution. Because there are rules to obey: the system has
control over all "official" file system paths and it not
allowed/supported to
install files there that are not from the OS. That is the reason folders
like
/opt exist. Alternative package managers have to use different locations
outside of what the official package manager (IPS in our case) uses.

When you install an NVIDIA driver that is not provided by OI then it will
copy files to locations that are reserved by the OS and IPS will replace
them
when it thinks it needs to (eg. when installing a "newer" version or you
request a repair).
This way there might be a mixture of files from different drivers
versions and that will
most probably result in problems and crashes.

So, the best way to enhance the experience is to help us to provide
newer drivers.
This will help you and others in the future. The best would be to be
able to offer
various versions so a user can install the one most appropriate one.
In the past there have been discussions to automate many aspects of
this. But in the
end nothing has been achieved because there was no agreement how and
what to provide.
In order to break this starvation I prepared a simple PR which continues
to install our
NVIDIA driver by default but also provided a newer one that could be
manually installed
if the old one isn't suitable. The idea was to have something to start
with and enhance it in the future.