Trying to switch from nouveau to binary nvidia driver (solved w/procedure)

[ubersoft]

For the most part I'm finding alpha 3 usable, but the nouveau driver is not as complete as I would like (i.e., no 3d support) so I want to switch back to the nvidia binary drivers which have always worked for me in the past. Unfortunately, when I remove the nouveau drivers and try to install the nvidia ones I get a message saying that "x can't find any modes."

Not really sure what to do about that one.

Has anyone had any luck getting the nvidia proprietary drivers to run on Lucid? If so, how do you make the switch from nouveau to nvidia without breaking things.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Trying to switch from nouveau to binary nvidia driver

See this thread:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...9839#msg219839

I did get nouveau to work, though as you said, it is currently too lame for games, compositing, effects, etc. I did remove it and reinstall the NVIDIA proprietary driver, without any problems.

[ubersoft]

Re: Trying to switch from nouveau to binary nvidia driver

I've seen that thread, I actually tried that specific purge command but Lucid claims that file doesn't exist.

The trouble with switching seems to have three parts:

1. Making sure nouveau is completely removed from the system.

2. Making sure the system has everything you need to install the binary drivers.

3. getting the binary drivers to work.

Once you remove nouveau there's no longer a gui until you replace it with something else. So you need to make sure you have #2 and #3 covered before you try it.

The basic install of lucid doesn't have the files like make or gcc that the nvidia drivers need during the install, and it doesn't have the linux kernel source code that the binary drivers need to do whatever voodoo they need to do to compile. At least, that's the message I get. Which leads to #3: even when I get to the point where the install program appears to have worked, I can't get x to load.

I'm missing a step somewhere.

[skunk]

Re: Trying to switch from nouveau to binary nvidia driver

sudo apt-get install build-essential

will install the compiler / build tools

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

will install the headers that are required

[ubersoft]

Re: Trying to switch from nouveau to binary nvidia driver

Thank you skunk, that did it!

... except for one thing. The Nvidia 64-bit driver installed, and it works, but it didn't install the 32-bit compatibility portion of it. Can anyone think of what packages I'd need to install to enable that?

[ubersoft]

Re: Trying to switch from nouveau to binary nvidia driver

... oh. I think it's the ia-32 libs that I needed to install...

[ubersoft]

Re: Trying to switch from nouveau to binary nvidia driver

OK, so based on the good feedback above, here is the complete procedure for uninstalling nouveau and installing the binary drivers:

1. Install the compiler, build tools, and headers needed to successfully install the binary driver:

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-generic

2. Install the 32-bit compatibility files. To do this, I recommend installing the flash-nonfree package in the repositories because the dependencies it installs will cover what you need.

3. Exit the Kubuntu desktop and log in to the console.

4. From the console, remove nouveau:

sudo apt-get purge linux-backports-modules-nouveau*

Note that this will uninstall some non-nouveau packages as well.

5. Reboot:

sudo shutdown -r now

Kubuntu will reboot, try to load x, fail, and spit you out into a terminal prompt.

6. Login.

7. Install the nvidia binary file:

sudo sh [whatever the name of the nvidia file is]

You will get a message during the installation that the "install script" failed, but other than that it will work.

8. Reboot:

sudo shutdown -r now

Voila, you will see the nvidia splash screen just before the Kubuntu login screen displays.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Trying to switch from nouveau to binary nvidia driver (solved w/procedure)

Good procedure.

A couple of points:

If you install wine, it should pull in all of the 32-bit stuff as dependencies.

When I did this, I did get the "low" (meaning, vesa) graphics screen after removing nouveau. Even so, one should get to the console (CTRL-ALT-F1) if not already there, and do a 'sudo service kdm stop' to shut down x just in case. Once the driver is installed, you can issue a 'sudo service kdm start' to start x and kde without rebooting.