Newbie question-black screen

[aclaunch]

I installed latest standalone version today but on running it I get sound but no graphics; the screen is black. None of the keys seem to work and I have to ssh in an kill the process. Where do I start to troubleshoot?

System: Pentium III 500MH, 768 M RAM, Nvidia card 32M RAM

Alan

[phaedrus]

What distro/OS are you using at what version?

Do you have the closed source nvidia drivers installed?  

This is the Quake3 engine, so your machine specs are well above suggested.  You should be getting great frame rates.

You can also try "Ctrl-Alt-Backspace", see if that kills it (this command takes down Xwindows, brutally.  Not suggested for anything besides normal use).  

Also, if you've installed the drivers, you can check to make sure that 3d acceleration is enabled by doing this:

First, fire up Xwindows and open a terminal emulator (rxvt or xterm), then run this command:

$ glxinfo | grep direct

You should see a line or two which says "direct rendering:", and then either "yes" or "no".  If it says "yes", your 3d acceleration is on and running.

Jeff

[aclaunch]

I'm using Ubuntu Dapper (updated today) and the nvidia-glx-legacy drivers and 3D accelleration is enabled. I have not had any problems with other Linux games (TuxRacer, pinball, etc).

Alan

[aclaunch]

I was able to start the game from a terminal and this is what I got:

 /usr/local/games/tremulous/tremulous.x86
tremulous 1.1.0 linux-x86 Feb 28 2006
----- FS_Startup -----
Current search path:
/home/aclaunch/.tremulous/base
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/vms-1.1.0.pk3 (4 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/map-uncreation-1.1.0.pk3 (110 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/map-tremor-1.1.0.pk3 (45 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/map-transit-1.1.0.pk3 (135 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/map-niveus-1.1.0.pk3 (134 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/map-nexus6-1.1.0.pk3 (151 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/map-karith-1.1.0.pk3 (118 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/map-atcs-1.1.0.pk3 (87 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/map-arachnid2-1.1.0.pk3 (67 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base/data-1.1.0.pk3 (1229 files)
/usr/local/games/tremulous/base

----------------------
2080 files in pk3 files
execing default.cfg
execing autogen.cfg
couldn't exec autoexec.cfg
Hunk_Clear: reset the hunk ok
----- Client Initialization -----
----- Initializing Renderer ----
-------------------------------
----- Client Initialization Complete -----
----- R_Init -----

------- Input Initialization -------
Joystick is not active.
------------------------------------
...loading libGL.so.1:
Calling SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO)...
SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO) failed: No I/O port permissions
failed
----- CL_Shutdown -----
RE_Shutdown( 1 )
-----------------------
----- CL_Shutdown -----
-----------------------
Sys_Error: GLimp_Init() - could not load OpenGL subsystem

Any thoughts as to where to start? It looks like an SDL or OpenGL problem (however OpenGL appears to be fine otherwise).

Alan

[phaedrus]

That's interesting.  What are the permissions on your /dev/nvidia* devices?  It should be 0666 (which will look like crw-rw-rw- when you run 'ls -l /dev/nvidia*').

Jeff

[aclaunch]

aclaunch@moria:~$ ls -l /dev/ | grep nv
crw-rw---- 1 root     video   195,   0 2006-05-15 08:04 nvidia0
crw-rw---- 1 root     video   195, 255 2006-05-15 08:04 nvidiactl

This is a stock setup (I didn't change anything)

Alan

[phaedrus]

Run this command:

Code: [Select]

sudo chmod 0666 /dev/nv*

It will change the permissions on your nvidia devices so any user can read and write to them.  This should work immediately.

You other option is to add yourself to the video group.  Under Slackware, I would just edit the /etc/groups file manually.  There might be an "easier" way under Ubuntu.  You would need to restart Xwindows completely after doing this.  (If you start X from the command line, you would also need to log out and log back in.)

Jeff

[stahlsau]

I'd suggest the second tip, because, depending on what devmanager you use, the permissions will be resettet after reboot. Adding to group video should work

[aclaunch]

I am already in the "video" group.

Alan