From Bugzilla Helper: User-Agent: Mozilla/4.78 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.2-2smp i686) Description of problem: system hangs hard periodically when starting X from the command prompt. As usual in X startup, the screen flashes, blanks, but then instead of continuing to nVidia splash screen, hangs with a blue @ sign in the upper left of a black screen. And that's all....no keyboard response, or network access. A hard reboot is required. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): How reproducible: Sometimes Steps to Reproduce: 1.at command prompt, startx 2. 3. Actual Results: see description above Additional info: somewhat random in occurrence. I have the vague impression that it is more likely to lock up just after login; and less likely to lock up if the "startx" command is preceded by 2 or 3 "sync" commands. I have tried specifying VideoRam 65536 in the XF86Config "device" section for the nvidia driver, in hopes that might prevent a lockup due to some auto-probing problem; it still locks up however. Hardware is Dell Precision 530 workstation with dual 1.7 gHz Xeons, 1 GB RAM, and nVidia Quadro2 Pro 64MB
Red Hat provides support for the drivers that ship with the OS, however we do not support using the Nvidia binary only driver. Please contact Nvidia directly for support for their driver. The "nv" driver shipped with the OS, supports the following hardware http://www.xfree86.org/4.1.0/Status22.html#22
so, do you recommend trying the 'nv' driver? I didn't realize there were 2 different drivers for this card. Or am I better off with some video card other than the nVidia as shipped by Dell?? Which card??
The "nv" driver is limited to 2D only, and is not very good at all. You can try it, but I do not think the Pro version of your card is supported. I would have to check the sources to be sure. It is best just trying it. There are actually 3 drivers for Nvidia hardware. The XFree86 4.x "nv" driver, and the 3.3.6 server, both of which which ship with Red Hat Linux, with 2D only support. For those needing 3D acceleration support, you are better off replacing the card with an "ATI Radeon 64DDR" card, as it is currently the best supported 3D accelerator in Red Hat Linux. Hope this helps.