wrong nvidia-glx driver loads (1.0-9755 vs. 1.0-9631) when nvidia-glx is installed and enabled

[Michael R. Head]

Just got a brand new Thinkpad T61P today, and because it's so new, the drivers with feisty have been having some trouble on it (as is expected). This bug is about the video hardware, which is nvidia-based.

The laptop graphics hardware is indeed nvidia-based. lspci says this:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 040c (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Lenovo Unknown device 20d9
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at d6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
        Region 1: Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Region 3: Memory at d4000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
        Region 5: I/O ports at 2000 [size=128]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

The installer (and sudo dpkg-reconfigure xorg-xserver) detects this hardware and attempts to use the "nv" driver, which doesn't work. I figured I could install the nvidia-glx package to get X up with the "nvidia" driver. Unfortunately, this fails. Somehow, the nvidia_new module is getting loaded, even when "modprobe nvidia" is manually called.

From syslog:
Aug 17 03:40:28 phoenix kernel: [ 323.196000] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Aug 17 03:40:28 phoenix kernel: [ 323.448000] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Aug 17 03:40:28 phoenix kernel: [ 323.448000] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:01:00.0 to 64
Aug 17 03:40:28 phoenix kernel: [ 323.448000] NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module 1.0-9631 Thu Nov 9 17:
38:10 PST 2006
Aug 17 03:40:58 phoenix kernel: [ 353.840000] NVRM: API mismatch: the client has the version 1.0-9755, but
Aug 17 03:40:58 phoenix kernel: [ 353.840000] NVRM: this kernel module has the version 1.0-9631. Please
Aug 17 03:40:58 phoenix kernel: [ 353.840000] NVRM: make sure that this kernel module and all NVIDIA driver
Aug 17 03:40:58 phoenix kernel: [ 353.840000] NVRM: components have the same version.
Aug 17 03:40:59 phoenix gdm[6470]: gdm_slave_xioerror_handler: Fatal X error - Restarting :0

Also, if I install the nvidia-glx-new package, starting X hangs the computer, requiring a full power off (holding the power button).

And for anyone with this laptop trying to get X up, the "vesa" driver works very well enough for most 2D work. I'm using it at 1920x1200. Xv and 3D are of course off limits, but most desktop apps function just fine.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

(This sounds a lot like the "hidden file problem" as mentioned in Bug #106217 and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia ...)

[Michael R. Head (burner)]

Ah, yeah, that solves this particular problem. However, even using the older driver, the binary drivers aren't working. I'll report another bug about that.