ports/145016: x11/nvidia-driver-173 causes reboot when starting X.org

[RJ]

>Number:         145016
>Category:       ports
>Synopsis:       x11/nvidia-driver-173 causes reboot when starting X.org
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       critical
>Priority:       high
>Responsible:    freebsd-ports-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Mar 25 02:30:04 UTC 2010
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     RJ
>Release:        8.0-STABLE
>Organization:
>Environment:
FreeBSD x.y.z.comcast.net 8.0-STABLE FreeBSD 8.0-STABLE #0: Fri Mar  5 07:49:50 EST 2010     root at x.y.z.comcast.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/hppav_100305  i386

>Description:
x11/nvidia-driver-173 causes reboot when starting X.org with GeForce FX 5500. Card in use with FBSD since 6.0-RELEASE. Machine in use a desktop since 4.2-RELEASE. Machine is HP XL775 (http://search.hp.com/query.html?lang=en&search=++&qt=xl775&la=en&cc=us&charset=utf-8)

"Starting X.org"=GDM or startx or "X -config xorg.conf.nvxconfig -retro"

nv, nouveau and vesa drivers all work.

All ports up-to-date with ports tree csup'd on 4-March, 2010. All ports re-compiled after OS upgrade from 7-STABLE to 8-STABLE (upgrade from source).

Neither Xorg.0.log nor /var/log/messages are updated at time of reboot. Sometimes, /etc/X11/xorg.conf is truncated to 0 bytes.

In 7.x-STABLE, same behavior (reboot). However, a work-around was to boot in single user, "kldunload nvidia", "kldload nvidia", "exit". This does not work in 8.0-STABLE.

nvidia.ko loads and creates /dev/nvidia1 /dev/nvidiactl. nvidia1 is created instead of nvidia0 because there is an on-board NVidia Vanta. The 173 driver ignores this device.
NVRM: The NVIDIA Vanta/Vanta LT GPU installed in this system is
NVRM:  supported through the NVIDIA 71.86.xx Legacy drivers. Please
NVRM:  visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
NVRM:  information.  The 173.14.25 NVIDIA driver will ignore
NVRM:  this GPU.  Continuing probe...
nvidia1: <GeForce FX 5500> on vgapci1
vgapci1: child nvidia1 requested pci_enable_busmaster
vgapci1: child nvidia1 requested pci_enable_io
nvidia1: [GIANT-LOCKED]
nvidia1: [ITHREAD]

Also tried x11/nvidia-driver-96. nvidia.ko loads and creates /dev/nvidia1 /dev/nvidiactl. X.org fails to start.

"nvidia-xconfig --query-gpu-info" causes an immediate kernel panic with nvidia-driver-173 and -96
>How-To-Repeat:
Use x11/nvidia-driver-173 or -96
>Fix:
none

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted: