urgent nvidia problem

[Matt Price <matt.price@utoronto.ca>]

hey folks,

came into work today and the computer was crashed dead; don't
know what the problem was (I'll attach the last few lines of
/var/log/messages from yesterday; they don't tell me much, though).  

Rebooted and x wouldn't start because of a problem with nvidiactl (I
have to use the nonfree drivers to make X work at all...).  

I've tried variouS things -- modprobe nvidia, insmod NVdriver,
changing to an oder kernel, none of it matters.

Gdm gives slightly different errors from those recorded in
XFree86.log.  Here's the last bit of gdm's log: 
--------
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
NV: could not open control device /dev/nvidiactl (No such device)
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found
--------------
  Here's an edited version of the XFree86 log.  I've cut out most of
  the informational stuff and also a large number of repeats of:

Not loading .note.GNU-stack

which is new -- that is, doesn't appear in pre-crash logs.  


-------------------------------------------------------------------
---- snip
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
(II) Module pcidata: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
	compiled for 4.2.1.1, module version = 0.1.0
	ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.5
--snip

(--) PCI:*(1:0:0) NVidia GeForce4 MX 440 rev 163, Mem @ 0xe4000000/24, 0xd0000000/27, 0xd8000000/19
----snip

(II) LoadModule: "GLcore"
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module GLcore
(II) UnloadModule: "GLcore"
(EE) Failed to load module "GLcore" (module does not exist, 0)
(II) LoadModule: "bitmap"
(II) Reloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libbitmap.a
(II) Loading font Bitmap
(II) LoadModule: "dbe"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libdbe.a
---snip
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
(II) Module dri: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
	compiled for 4.2.1.1, module version = 1.0.0
	ABI class: XFree86 Server Extension, version 0.1
(II) Loading sub module "drm"
(II) LoadModule: "drm"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/linux/libdrm.a
---snip
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
Skipping "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/fonts/libspeedo.a:spencode.o":  No symbols found
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
Not loading .note.GNU-stack
(II) Module vgahw: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
	compiled for 4.2.1.1, module version = 0.1.0
	ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.5
(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(--) NVIDIA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xD0000000
(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xE4000000
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadModule: "vgahw"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

When reporting a problem related to a server crash, please send
the full server output, not just the last messages.
This can be found in the log file "/var/log/XFree86.0.log".
Please report problems to submit@bugs.debian.org.

-------------------------------------

if anyone can help.....  I really need it! thanks,
matt