NVidia driver on 6.1-PRERELEASE causes panic

[Stephen Montgomery-Smith]

Eric Anderson wrote:
> I'm trying to set up a new laptop (Dell Latitude 820), which has an 
> NVidia Quadro 110 video card.
> 
> I've built and installed the nvidia-driver port, and it loads the module 
> successfully.  However, I'm not getting any newly created devices in 
> /dev/, so Xorg won't start (complains about not having the kernel module 
> installed, although it is, I presume because the /dev/nvidiactl device 
> isn't being created).
> 
> Upon kldunloading the nvidia module, my machine panics and dumps, so I 
> have some cores lying around.

Just to reply to a less important aspect of your question - I find that 
kldunloading the nvidia module frequently causes panics on many 
different computers.

Also I have had trouble getting nvidia drivers to work on more modern 
hardware.  The solution that works for me is to wait until nvidia 
upgrade their software and/or to wait until the computer manufacturer 
updates their BIOS.  One of these always fixed the problem for me, but 
it did require waiting about 6 months to a year.

In the mean time, have you tried the nv driver?  It might not give cool 
3D acceleration, but it may well work.

Stephen