no xOrg-Server in 7.95.1 and 7.95.2 (x86)

1st Official Post

    I updated acutal openELEC x86_64 to latest Beta.
    Now the xServer won't start anymore.
    dmesg:

    Hardware:

    lspci:

    df


    cpuinfo

    GPU: GeForce 7025/ nForce 630a
    nVidia (onBoard)

    Mainboard: asRock N68C-S

    RAM: 2GB DDR2

    With the position above in dmesg the system halts on error, last line in dmesg leaves same message after 30 seconds.

    Problem got in 7.90.010 (Alpha), 7.95.1 and 7.95.2. Set the system back to 7.0.3 stable did make the system work again.

    • Official Post

    LE 7.0 uses the older nVidia 304.xx driver whereas LE 8.0 moved up to the 340.xx driver. This change effectively drops support for GeForce 7xxx cards (8xxx is the minimum supported) hence the correct/expected message about your GPU not being supported.

    You have three options:

    a) Get a newer card (one with VDPAU or VAAPI support would be better).

    b) Self-compile an LE image that reverts the nvidia-legacy driver package to 304.latest, which is still possible to build/use as nVidia still maintains the older legacy driver against current mesa/xorg.

    c) Stick with LE 7.0.3.

    Sorry, the switch to the 340.xx driver had been requested by users who considered it to offer improved picture quality over the 304.xx driver. Unfortunately after switching to 340.xx this has inevitably meant some older GPUs such as yours, which launched 11 years ago now in Feb 2006, are no longer supported (and it's simply not feasible to support this increasingly small number of users by adding a third nvidia driver, as it would burden every x86_64 user with a much larger download for very little benefit).

    If you can find a cheap drop-in modern alternative, that would be your best option (nvidia or amd) and then disable your on-board GeForce 7025 GPU.

    Alternatively, you might be able to find someone willing to build LibreELEC 8.0 with the 304.xx driver in place of 340.xx (or try building it yourself) - I know someone asked for just that within the last couple of months (either here or on the Kodi forum). Found it, here you go. Maybe Goga777 would be willing to share if he has an up to date build.

    Edited once, last by milhouse (February 5, 2017 at 2:26 AM).

    Quote from ozolli

    I built one a few days ago with NVidia driver 304.134. It is between 7.95.1 and 7.95.2.
    Here: Dropbox - Link not found

    Thanks for sharing.

    I updated my machine to your version. Unfortunately my machine won't start with the same error.

    Sorry for opening this post again. Today my LibreELEC updated himself and now the same problem appears. I forgot to disable automatic updates and the old download link for rewind the update doesn't work anymore. I cleaned my DOwnloads-Folder in case of setting up a new Linux machine on my laptop.
    Please, could you help me?