Bug 182744 – >=x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers1.0.9742 - consolefont: vt 'too long', prompt outside of screen

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED INVALID

[Description Volker Hemmann 2007-06-21 00:27:14 UTC]

Since the nvidia 9742 driver release there is a bug with consolefont:
as long as the driver is not loaded, the prompt always appear on screen. But with any nvidia driver since then - as soon as X is started, everything that is longer than the screen (like an ls on a full directory) puts the prompt several lines below the visible screen. Reset brings it back to the top, but clears the screen, /etc/init.d/consolefont helps, but only as long as I don't switch back to X - or that behaviour is back,

If consolefont is not started, the prompt will never be outside of the visible area. (but typing something like psä and removing the ä with backspace will result in a 'psä not found error).

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.emerge nvidia-drivers 9742 or later and configure them
2. /etc/init.d/consolefont start
3.start X, switch to any vt

Actual Results:  
At first, the prompt is in the visible area - but as soon as it is 'pushed' below, by a bigger output, it will stay below the visibile area.

Expected Results:  
the prompt should always be visible 

Portage 2.1.3_rc4 (default-linux/amd64/2007.0, gcc-4.1.2, glibc-2.5-r3, 2.6.21.5-cfs-v17cfsv17reiser4 x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.21.5-cfs-v17cfsv17reiser4 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
Gentoo Base System release 1.12.10
Timestamp of tree: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:30:01 +0000
ccache version 2.4 [enabled]
dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.0.33-r1
dev-lang/python:     2.4.4-r4
dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5
dev-util/ccache:     2.4-r7
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.18.1
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.61
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10
sys-devel/binutils:  2.17.50.0.16
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.16
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.23b
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.21
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -msse3 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-march=k8 -O2 -msse3 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig candy ccache distlocks metadata-transfer parallel-fetch sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/gentoo/"
LC_ALL="de_DE@euro"
LINGUAS="de"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --filter=H_**/files/digest-*"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage /usr/local/portage/gentoo-de"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="3dnow 3dnowext 7zip S3TC X Xaw3d a52 aac acpi addbookmarks aiglx aim aio akode alias alsa altenburgcards amarok amd64 aotuv aqua_theme asf athena audiofile autoreplace bash-completion berkdb binary-drivers bitmap-fonts bluetooth boost bzip2 cairo cdda cddb cdinstall cdparanoia cdr cdrom cdsound cegui cg clamav cli connectionstatus contactnotes cracklib crypt css cups curl dbus depth32 dhcp dio divx dnd double-precision dpms dri dts dv dvd dvdr dvdread emerald emul-linux-x86 encode exif expat exscalibar extra-cardsets fame fasttrack ffmpeg fftw filter_default filter_legacy filter_light flac foomaticdb fortran ftp gadu gdbm gif gimp gimpprint glitz glut glx gnokii gnutella gpgme gpm gtk gtk2 hddtemp highlight history iconv icq id3 imagemagick imlib inotify irc irmc isdnlog jabber java javascript jce jingle joystick jpeg jpeg2k kcal kde kdecards kdeenablefinal kdehiddenvisibility kdepim kdm kexi kipi kqemu lame lcms lesstif libg++ libwww lm_sensors logitech-mouse lzo lzw mad magic maps matroska midi mime mjpeg mmap mmx mmxext mng mp3 mp4 mpeg mpeg2 mplayer msn mudflap mule musepack ncurses neXt net newspr ngui nls no-old-linux nocd nosendmail nowin nowlistening nptl nptlonly nsplugin nvidia offensive ogg openexr opengl openmp oscar pam paste64 pch pcre pdf perl physfs player plugins png pnm posix ppds pppd python qt3 qt4 quicktime rar readline recode reflection reiser4 reiserfs remix resolvconf rogue rtc sametime scanner schedule scsi sdl sdl-sound sdlaudio sendfile server session sharedmem slp smp sms sndfile sockets sounds spell spl sqlite sqlite3 srt sse sse-filters sse2 sse3 ssl startup-notification statistics stats stencil-buffer stroke subp subtitles svg sysfs sysvipc szip tcpd texteffect textures tga theora threads tiff timidity tk toolbar tools transcode translator truetype truetype-fonts type1 type1-fonts unicode unzip usb userlocales utempter v4l v4l2 vcd videos visualization vorbis webdav webpresence wmf wmp wxwindows x264 xanim xcomposite xemacs xext xface xine xml xorg xosd xpm xrandr xscreensaver xskatcards xv xvid xvmc yiff yv12 zlib zvbi" ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="de" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia vesa vga v4l nv"
Unset:  CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LDFLAGS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS

[Comment 1 Doug Goldstein (RETIRED) 2007-07-16 17:52:40 UTC]

This is definitely a configuration issue with your ModeLines. You might need to specify ModeLines or you need to change where the EDID data is being read from and how it's being used.

Please read through the nVidia driver's README for configuration help.

[Comment 2 Volker Hemmann 2007-07-16 18:04:41 UTC]

I don't have any modelines. And edid is read from the monitor. For years now.

Also, why is only consolefont hit by this? Without it, everything is fine... only with consolefont the screen is 'too long'

[Comment 3 Doug Goldstein (RETIRED) 2007-07-16 18:19:25 UTC]

because the console uses a completely different mode then X does. It's based on your DPI. Your monitor could be reporting a bad DPI an as when it goes into a 80x40 text mode it would stretch off the edge of the screen. 

Also, 9742 is a considerably old release.

[Comment 4 Volker Hemmann 2007-07-16 19:09:37 UTC]

(--) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (101, 101); computed from "UseEdidDpi" X config

my monitor has a distance of 0,25mm betwen each dot, an inch are 25,4 mm and 25,4/0,25 is 101,6 I believe that the  driver is correct when it sets the DPI to 101x101.

Besides, yes 9742 is old. But the problem is there with ALL drivers since that release.

[Comment 5 Doug Goldstein (RETIRED) 2007-07-16 19:31:21 UTC]

Well it's still a binary closed source driver, so you're going to have to take the issue with upstream.

It's still going to be a configuration issue because I doubt that it works 100% correct for everyone out there except you.