Video is slow

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Sun, 25 Aug 2013 17:09:39 -0700
Joe Zeff <joe at zeff.us> wrote:
> On 08/25/2013 04:48 PM, Roger wrote:
> > Took the plunge and following the above installed kmod-nvidia now
> > Fedora boot hangs at  Started Accounts Service
> > I also note that it fails to start ISDN service?
> > Pretty much dead and can't access anything.

How long did you wait to establish that it hanged?

The following scenario can happen --- you install kmod-nvidia while
running under an older kernel; the kmod installs correctly, but builds
the initrd for the currently-running (ie. old) kernel. Then you reboot
into the latest, *new* kernel --- for that kernel initrd has not been
built by the kmod, and therefore the build kicks in automatically
during the boot process. As the building of initrd takes a while, it
appears to you that the system hung during boot. This thing happened to
me on one occasion --- I was very pissed off that the kmod broke the
machine, and kept restarting it in the hope to get it back somehow.
Needless to say, all those attempts failed, until it dawned on me...

The solution is to boot the machine, and just wait it out. :-)

Give it 10-15 minutes, the initrd is a large file. ;-) You will need to
wait for it only on this first boot --- once it is updated, subsequent
boots should be as fast as they used to be.

Of course, I might be wrong, but give it a shot before you start
digging in runlevel 1... ;-)

> Second, just installing kmod-nvidia isn't quite enough; you also need
> to install xorg-drv-nvidia.lib.

This shouldn't be necessary, kmod-nvidia should have pulled in all
dependencies needed. I never needed to install anything extra. Not
since F14 at least (I don't remember further back, wasn't using nVidia
regularly back in the days...).

> Note that it also gives instructions for installing akmod-nvidia,
> which will rebuild the kmod whenever there's a kernel update.
> Personally, I have both installed.  That way, if the new kernel and
> kmod are both ready together, it gets done that way; if there's a
> delay on the kmod, akmod-nvidia will pick up the slack and build you
> one when you reboot into the new kernel.

This is good advice if you are fanatically waiting for the new kernel
to appear and install it within the first 5 minutes after hitting the
repositories... In that case it is unlikely that the corresponding
kmod-nvidia will be available, and akmod can kick in to save the day.
But if you are updating Fedora once a week or so, chances that you get
into that "gray area" where kernel is available while kmod still isn't,
are very small. It hasn't happened to me in years.

But if you want to be on the safe side, feel free to install also the
akmod-nvidia.

HTH, :-)
Marko