The Problem:
I am installing R5A16 on a system which freezes when running the intstall-nvidia-xxxx scripts. when I say freezes, I mean it completely freezes. no resonse from the keyboard, mouse, network, etc. The screen just goes blank. When running the script, it appears that the driver is compiled, and the crash occurs when attempting to start gnome. If I restart the computer, it will freeze everytime it tries to start gnome.

Solutions I've tried:
I've reinstalled several times and it happens everytime. I have found that if I skip the script and just use the "nv" driver, It will run fine (but only to my vga monitor, no TV out). I've already tried changing setting in the XFree86-4 setting and I'm fairly confident that that isn't the problem. It may be a hardware conflict but I had a running install of gentoo on it last week that didn't apear to have any problems. It may be a driver problem, but it happens with both the default 5xxx driver and the default 7xxx driver. I checked the installation disk to make sure that it wasn't currupt but it checked out to be fine.

What I can use:
I can use some suggestions of where to look to track down the problem. are there any log files that I should look at? should I even worry about trying to install the latest driver from nvidia? Anyone else have a similar problem?

My hardware:
GPU: GeForce FX 5200 (nv34)
Mobo chipset: SIS5513
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (2210MHz)
hda: WD2000JD
Net: SIS900
WinTV-PVR 250
512 MB RAM

Thank you in advance for any help.

well when you say no response from the keyboard it may appear that way if X is running but not dispaying on the screen, which is the most common "freeze" when installing nvidia drivers. If you hit the numlock key does the light go on and off? if so it's not "frozen" hit ctrl+alt+f1 and login edit the XF86Config-4 file make sure that the vertical refresh is 60.

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No, the computer is completely frozen. No numlock, no cntl+alt+F1, no cntl+alt+Bakspace, no cntl+alt+Del, no cntr+c. I get no response from the network interface from another computer (I can ping the interface after it is initialized during bootup but then it goes dead when it freezes). The monitor goes blank. If it weren't for the chasis lights and the CPU fan, I would think the computer is off.

These are my settings for XFree86-4. like I said, I'm fairly certain that they are OK.

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 30-50
VertRefresh 60
DisplaySize 100 100
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NV34 [GeForce FX 5200]"
Option "NvAGP" "1"
Option "NoLogo" "true"
Option "HWCursor" "true"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option "TVOverScan" "0.8"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "640x480" "400x300" "320x240"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubSection
EndSection

Those output resolutions for video out sure don't look right. I think the lowest you can go is 640x480 and then go UP from there, not down.

you may want to change the modes as the other person said at least for testing, and maybe play with the nvagp setting some chipsets have problems with one setting or another.

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I really appreciate the help. I tried changing the modes and the nvagp setting in XFree86-4. I've tried several other settings too and it doesn't seem to help. But I had a thought: if it were a problem with theXFree86-4 settings, would it only fail to load Gnone, error out, and return to the command console? Why does the computer crash to the point of freezing without response or error. I tried changing the XFree86-4 settings to something I knew would fail ( I set DefaultDepth to 17) and it didn't freeze my system, it just gave me an error that it couldn't start the X server and took me to the command console.

I installed Gentoo on the exact same maching last week and I had no probelms getting X to load. I used KDE instead of Gnome, but I don't think that should make a difference. I didn't have any hardware conflicts then, and the nvidia driver worked just fine (both the default gentoo driver and the most recent driver from nvidia).

Just to be safe, I redownloaded the install CD ISO from a different location to a different computer and burned the CD with another Burner. That didn't help either.

I tried to downlad and install the latest nvidia driver but I don't have the kernel sources on the computer so that errored out. I'm going to continue down that path to see if I can get that to work. I can still use advice from anyone if there are log files I could look at to get a better idea of whats going on. Thanks

the kernel sources are there on default install they just have to be unpacked. the install-nvidia scripts does that automatically. knoppmyth doesn't actually use gnome. it only uses gdm.

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Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets