# nvidia-driver failing on FreeBSD 9.0 (amd 64)



## mu (Jan 15, 2012)

I have installed nvidia-driver, nvidia-xconfig and nvidia-settings following the advice on in this thread:

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=28851

Installation worked:


```
$ pkg_info | grep nvidia
nvidia-driver-290.10 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL ren
nvidia-settings-290.10 Display Control Panel for X NVidia driver
nvidia-xconfig-290.10 Tool to manipulate X configuration files for the NVidia dri
```

nvidia-xconfig was able to generate an xorg.conf. I don't know if the small amount of complaining it gave means anything:


```
# nvidia-xconfig
WARNING: Unable to locate/open X configuration file.
ps: Process environment requires procfs(5)
New X configuration file written to '/etc/X11/xorg.con
```

X fails to start giving:


```
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sun Jan 15 14:24:45 2012
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
NVIDIA: could not open the device file /dev/nvidiactl (No such file or 
directory
).
(EE) Jan 15 14:24:47 NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel 
module. P
lease see the
(EE) Jan 15 14:24:47 NVIDIA(0):     system's kernel log for additional 
error mes
sages and
(EE) Jan 15 14:24:47 NVIDIA(0):     consult the NVIDIA README for 
details.
(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
         at http://wiki.x.org
 for help.
Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional 
informati
on.

xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: server error
```

I hope there is a suggestion out there.  Thanks.


----------



## SirDice (Jan 16, 2012)

It's complaining the kernel module isn't loaded.

`# kldload nvidia`

To automatically load it when the system boots, add to /boot/loader.conf:

```
nvidia_load="YES"
```


----------



## mu (Jan 16, 2012)

Perfect. Thank you.


----------



## xibo (Jan 16, 2012)

loading the nvidia module on boot time has _side_effects_ though... at least over here (9.0-STABLE doesn't boot with it, and 9.0-PRERELEASE wasn't able to unload the module at runtime)


----------



## SirDice (Jan 16, 2012)

Works fine here. Make sure you use a custom kernel _without_ *device agp*.


```
dice@williscorto:~>uname -a
FreeBSD williscorto.dicelan.home 9.0-STABLE FreeBSD 9.0-STABLE #1: Sat Jan 14 00:21:42 CET 2012     root@molly.dicelan.home:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/CORTO  amd64
dice@williscorto:~>dmesg | grep nvidia
nvidia0: <GeForce 7600 GT> on vgapci0
vgapci0: child nvidia0 requested pci_enable_io
vgapci0: child nvidia0 requested pci_enable_io
dice@williscorto:~>
```


----------

