My old machine started getting a bit flaky, so I have kicked it off my desk, but still wanted to get some nouveau bugs fixed on it. (In fact it's easier now that I can reboot it more easily.) So I put a spare old hard drive on it and rebuilt it, but I'm having a heck of a time getting it working. Whenever it tries to load the nouveau module, it blows up. What's funny is that it *used* to work, but I re-downloaded all the sources and rebuilt, so something might have changed. The current kernel is 3.2.0-rc2-00097-g75b64de3, built from commit 75b64de35b70358b789bb8c8a3ec35b67734b725 "drm/nouveau/hwsq: remove some magic, give proper opcode names" I finally captured the kernel logs when loading the module, as follows: [ 955.834884] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK5] enabled at IRQ 10 [ 955.834938] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LNK5] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10 [ 955.838263] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Detected an NV10 generation card (0x01f000a5) [ 955.838567] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Attempting to load BIOS image from PRAMIN [ 955.883327] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: ... BIOS checksum invalid [ 955.883368] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Attempting to load BIOS image from PROM [ 955.883421] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: ... BIOS signature not found [ 955.883461] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Attempting to load BIOS image from PCIROM [ 955.883963] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: ... appears to be valid [ 955.884466] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: BMP BIOS found [ 955.884504] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: BMP version 5.21 [ 955.884543] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Bios version 04.1f.00.07 [ 955.884587] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: I2C0: type 3 index 0/0 unknown [ 955.884629] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: I2C1: type 3 index 0/0 unknown [ 955.887577] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: MXM: no VBIOS data, nothing to do [ 955.887628] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DCB version 2.0 [ 955.887669] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DCB outp 00: 01000100 000088b8 [ 955.887711] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DCB outp 01: 02010210 000088b8 [ 955.887752] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DCB outp 02: 01120132 00000000 [ 955.887793] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DCB outp 03: 01120232 00000000 [ 955.887833] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DCB outp 04: 02010121 00000003 [ 955.887874] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: DCB outp 05: 02010221 00000003 [ 955.887915] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Merging DCB entries 2 and 3 [ 955.887955] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Merging DCB entries 4 and 5 [ 955.888452] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 0 at offset 0xC284 [ 955.888531] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 1 at offset 0xC4E0 [ 955.888591] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 2 at offset 0xC2E7 [ 955.903691] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 3 at offset 0xC632 [ 955.903752] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Parsing VBIOS init table 4 at offset 0xC47B [ 955.903809] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Unknown memclock table version 0. [ 955.943188] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: 0 available performance level(s) [ 955.943299] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: c: core 199MHz memory 200454M [ 955.946816] [TTM] Zone kernel: Available graphics memory: 444156 kiB. [ 955.946865] [TTM] Zone highmem: Available graphics memory: 1005280 kiB. [ 955.946906] [TTM] Initializing pool allocator. [ 955.946962] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Detected 64MiB VRAM [ 955.947133] agpgart-nvidia 0000:00:00.0: AGP 2.0 bridge [ 955.947202] agpgart-nvidia 0000:00:00.0: putting AGP V2 device into 4x mode [ 955.947305] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: putting AGP V2 device into 4x mode [ 955.947341] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: 128 MiB GART (aperture) [ 955.947473] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Saving VGA fonts [ 955.997830] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Detected TMDS transmitter: sil164 [ 956.025750] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 1 (10.10.2010). [ 956.025794] [drm] No driver support for vblank timestamp query. [ 956.046127] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on vga encoder (output 0) [ 956.046181] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on vga encoder (output 1) [ 956.046226] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on tmds encoder (output 2) [ 956.046271] [drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Setting dpms mode 3 on TV encoder (output 3) [ 956.066346] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null) [ 956.066416] IP: [<c11bafc4>] i2c_transfer+0x17/0xab [ 956.066475] *pde = 00000000 [ 956.066521] Oops: 0000 [#1] [ 956.066567] Modules linked in: sil164 nouveau(+) ttm button i2c_algo_bit cfbcopyarea mxm_wmi video thermal_sys wmi cfbimgblt cfbfillrect fbcon font bitblit softcursor drm_kms_helper drm [last unloaded: button] [ 956.066579] [ 956.066579] Pid: 2946, comm: modprobe Tainted: G W 3.2.0-rc2-00097-g75b64de3 #4 /FN41 [ 956.066579] EIP: 0060:[<c11bafc4>] EFLAGS: 00010292 CPU: 0 [ 956.066579] EIP is at i2c_transfer+0x17/0xab [ 956.066579] EAX: 00000000 EBX: ffffffa1 ECX: 00000002 EDX: f5919c54 [ 956.066579] ESI: f5511250 EDI: f5511250 EBP: 00000002 ESP: f5919c38 [ 956.066579] DS: 007b ES: 007b FS: 0000 GS: 0033 SS: 0068 [ 956.066579] Process modprobe (pid: 2946, ti=f5918000 task=f59dfb00 task.ti=f5918000) [ 956.066579] Stack: [ 956.066579] 00000001 f5919c54 f5924400 f546000c f5511250 00000000 f88686af 00000050 [ 956.066579] f5920001 f5919c6f 00010050 f5460001 f5919c6f 00000000 f8869e3e 00001000 [ 956.066579] f59244ec c1104a96 f5924800 f5924800 01133348 f5924400 f88b22fc 00001000 [ 956.066579] Call Trace: [ 956.066579] [<f88686af>] ? nouveau_probe_i2c_addr+0x45/0x4f [nouveau] [ 956.066579] [<f8869e3e>] ? nouveau_connector_detect+0x8c/0x21f [nouveau] [ 956.066579] [<c1104a96>] ? snprintf+0x19/0x1b [ 956.066579] [<f81565da>] ? drm_helper_probe_single_connector_modes+0xae/0x2a0 [drm_kms_helper] [ 956.066579] [<f8154589>] ? drm_fb_helper_probe_connector_modes+0x2f/0x40 [drm_kms_helper] [ 956.066579] [<f8155a9b>] ? drm_fb_helper_initial_config+0x175/0x1a4 [drm_kms_helper] [ 956.066579] [<f889fec8>] ? NVWriteVgaCrtc+0x79/0x99 [nouveau] [ 956.066579] [<f885bd48>] ? NVWriteVgaSeq+0x22/0x38 [nouveau] [ 956.066579] [<f886af86>] ? nouveau_fbcon_init+0xda/0xe2 [nouveau] [ 956.066579] [<f88528ee>] ? nouveau_card_init+0x1247/0x1363 [nouveau] [ 956.066579] [<f8853049>] ? nouveau_load+0x577/0x5af [nouveau] [ 956.066579] [<f8120ef2>] ? drm_get_pci_dev+0x137/0x22e [drm] [ 956.066579] [<c1031a6d>] ? __blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x47/0x4f [ 956.066579] [<f88b158c>] ? nouveau_acpi_edid+0x80/0x80 [nouveau] [ 956.066579] [<c11105f9>] ? pci_device_probe+0x39/0x60 [ 956.066579] [<c1161d5f>] ? driver_probe_device+0x85/0x108 [ 956.066579] [<c1110549>] ? pci_match_id+0x15/0x34 [ 956.066579] [<c1161e22>] ? __driver_attach+0x40/0x5b [ 956.066579] [<c11612fc>] ? bus_for_each_dev+0x37/0x60 [ 956.066579] [<c1161b0a>] ? driver_attach+0x17/0x1a [ 956.066579] [<c1161de2>] ? driver_probe_device+0x108/0x108 [ 956.066579] [<c116183f>] ? bus_add_driver+0x92/0x1d1 [ 956.066579] [<c10fffe1>] ? kset_find_obj_hinted+0x42/0x72 [ 956.066579] [<f88d2000>] ? 0xf88d1fff [ 956.066579] [<c11621bc>] ? driver_register+0x7d/0xd4 [ 956.066579] [<f812101a>] ? drm_pci_init+0x31/0xd5 [drm] [ 956.066579] [<f88d2000>] ? 0xf88d1fff [ 956.066579] [<c1110c7c>] ? __pci_register_driver+0x2c/0x80 [ 956.066579] [<f88d2000>] ? 0xf88d1fff [ 956.066579] [<c1001164>] ? do_one_initcall+0x7c/0x128 [ 956.066579] [<c1031a6d>] ? __blocking_notifier_call_chain+0x47/0x4f [ 956.066579] [<c103ee6d>] ? sys_init_module+0x12d9/0x153f [ 956.066579] [<c1250f50>] ? sysenter_do_call+0x12/0x26 [ 956.066579] Code: 40 24 e8 5f ff ff ff 85 c0 75 f2 8d 43 10 5b e9 3d 59 09 00 55 89 cd 57 56 89 c6 53 bb a1 ff ff ff 83 ec 08 8b 40 08 89 54 24 04 [ 956.066579] 38 00 0f 84 81 00 00 00 89 e0 25 00 e0 ff ff f7 40 14 ff ff [ 956.066579] EIP: [<c11bafc4>] i2c_transfer+0x17/0xab SS:ESP 0068:f5919c38 [ 956.066579] CR2: 0000000000000000 [ 956.071543] ---[ end trace a71d16ddb4f45436 ]--- The hardware is an Athlon XP + nForce2 chipset. 00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IGP2 [10de:01e0] (rev a2) 00:00.1 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 1 [10de:01eb] (rev a2) 00:00.2 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 4 [10de:01ee] (rev a2) 00:00.3 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 3 [10de:01ed] (rev a2) 00:00.4 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 2 [10de:01ec] (rev a2) 00:00.5 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Memory Controller 5 [10de:01ef] (rev a2) 00:01.0 ISA bridge [0601]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 ISA Bridge [10de:0060] (rev a3) 00:01.1 SMBus [0c05]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 SMBus (MCP) [10de:0064] (rev a2) 00:02.0 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller [10de:0067] (rev a3) 00:02.1 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller [10de:0067] (rev a3) 00:02.2 USB Controller [0c03]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller [10de:0068] (rev a3) 00:04.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 Ethernet Controller [10de:0066] (rev a1) 00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: nVidia Corporation nForce Audio Processing Unit [10de:006b] (rev a2) 00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller [0401]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) [10de:006a] (rev a1) 00:08.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 External PCI Bridge [10de:006c] (rev a3) 00:09.0 IDE interface [0101]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE [10de:0065] (rev a2) 00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394) [0c00]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 FireWire (IEEE 1394) Controller [10de:006e] (rev a3) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge [0604]: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP [10de:01e8] (rev a2) 01:06.0 CardBus bridge [0607]: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II [1180:0476] (rev 80) 01:06.1 CardBus bridge [0607]: Ricoh Co Ltd RL5c476 II [1180:0476] (rev 80) 04:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation NV18 [GeForce4 MX - nForce GPU] [10de:01f0] (rev a3) I also have nvidiafb turned on; perhaps that conflicts?