[64studio-devel] How to turn off NVIDIA onboard graphics and using USB SoundSticks

[Frans van Dunne]

Since my first installation I have had some weird issues with the NVIDIA 
Graphics driver.

Motherboard: M2NPV-VM
Memory on board: 2x 512 MB
Graphics card: NVIDIA EN 8500 GT

1. It is not possible to install 64Studio unless you assign the maximum 
possible memory to the onboard graphics
 It does not matter if you have another Graphics card installed. If you 
try without the onboard graphics turned on an error reading the DVD will 
be given.

There is no combination of setttings in the BIOS I have found to 
circumvent this problem (and it has cost me many hours, especially in 
the beginning to figure out that this was the way it worked).

2. For some strange reason it is not possible to turn the onboard 
graphics off, even if you are not using it. I have changed the xorg.conf 
file so that the monitor is assigned to the PCI-E graphics card. Even 
though there is no mention now of the onboard graphics in the xorg.conf 
file, it will not boot if I change the BIOS to use only the PCI-E graphics.

This means that I loose 264 MB of RAM, so a solution to this would be 
very welcome.

3. I have not figured out how to use sound other than the output of my 
sound card (which works well to output recordings). I would love to have 
direct out sound through my USB SoundSticks. Can someone give me a 
pointer in the right direction?

All in all moving from OSX to 64Studio has been great when it works. 
When it does not it is a complete nightmare. 4 months onwards I do have 
a much better feel of what it means to be in a Linux environment, but 
all in all I've found the learning curve to be pretty steep.

But then again: when it works, it is absolutely great.

Frans

Annex: Copy of xorg.conf file.

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister at builder26)  Wed Jun 13 
16:54:14 PDT 2007

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen         "Default Screen" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Generic Keyboard"
    InputDevice    "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "Files"

    # path to defoma fonts
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
    FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
    FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
    FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
    FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
    FontPath        "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
    FontPath        "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "i2c"
    Load           "bitmap"
    Load           "ddc"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
    Load           "int10"
    Load           "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Generic Keyboard"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "CoreKeyboard"
    Option         "XkbRules" "xorg"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Configured Mouse"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "CorePointer"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option         "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Generic Monitor"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 96.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 60.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT"
    Driver         "nvidia"
EndSection

# Check to see if the board can be directly accessed
#Section "Device"
#    Identifier     "Videocard0"
#    Driver         "nvidia"
#    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
#    BoardName      "GeForce 8500 GT"
#EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Default Screen"
    Device         "NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT"
    Monitor        "Generic Monitor"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       1
        Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1856x1392" "1792x1344" 
"1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1024x768" "800x600" 
"640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       4
        Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1856x1392" "1792x1344" 
"1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1024x768" "800x600" 
"640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1856x1392" "1792x1344" 
"1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1024x768" "800x600" 
"640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       15
        Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1856x1392" "1792x1344" 
"1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1024x768" "800x600" 
"640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1856x1392" "1792x1344" 
"1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1024x768" "800x600" 
"640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "1920x1440" "1920x1200" "1856x1392" "1792x1344" 
"1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1024x768" "800x600" 
"640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection