Help Installing NVIDIA driver/Logout failure

[bhamm77]

Hello fellow buntus,

I need help with installing my video driver via the console. Here is why:

I attempted to install the wrong driver because I was under the impression that It was ok for my card. The driver was the nvidia 185... I do beleive. The reason that I was trying to do that is something I will explain, but we can deal with that issue another time. I was getting a black screen when logging out, having to reboot at that point. I thought it was because my video driver needed to be updated. Mistake. Back to my original question, can any of you help me get my 173.14.25 driver reinstalled via the console.

When I attempted to install the 185 nvidia driver, I was using the software centre. It is my understading that I should have used jockey to even attempt this. Never the less, I am locked into my current situation, which is a console login. The GUI will not work, a reboot gives an error message that says there is no video driver installed, and allows me to login console only.

I can really make a mess of it sometimes, once again I need someone who knows more than I to help me out of it.

[dibl]

Re: Help Installing NVIDIA driver 173.14.25 from console

This should get you started:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107406.0

You can do "Official Nvidia Method" from the Recovery Console, if you have the downloaded driver package. If you hardware is new, might as well use ver. 256.25.

[bhamm77]

Re: Help Installing NVIDIA driver 173.14.25 from console

Just want to say thanks dibl for your help once again. The instructions worked perfectly. You have many times gotten me out of my jams. I really appreciate it!!!

I came about this mistake trying to update my nvidia driver because I was thinking that it was causing me to have the "Black Screen" when logging out. (Also losing mouse & keyboard control at this point)

There is another thread that has been started concerning this issue.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3112188.0

So probably no need for myself to start a new one.

If you or one of the other Pros know a solution for this, ds_shellback & myself would be most grateful...

[dibl]

Re: (solved) Help Installing NVIDIA driver 173.14.25 from console

I'm not sure, I haven't seen the "black screen on logout" problem, but maybe it is some kind of "framebuffer" issue. First, review the log at /var/log/Xorg.0.log and see if there are any "[EE]" error messages there.

If you don't learn anything from the log, I'm going to suggest that possibly a "framebuffer" issue is keeping it from transitioning from KDM to character mode. Not knowing about your screen or GPU, here are are some common boot options that might get you past it (try them, one at a time, at the end of the Grub menu kernel line):

vga=785
vga=788
xforcevesa

[bhamm77]

Re: (solved) Help Installing NVIDIA driver 173.14.25 from console

dibl,

There were no errors in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file.

the "framebuffer suggestion did not work. However, here is something interesting for you to look at. I replaced my etc/X11/xorg.conf file with the one used in Jaunty. I am now able to log out. But....The screen is offset slightly to the left. I can only see about half of my k-launcher button in the bottom left of the screen. This is the way it was with jaunty. I couldn't figure out how to fix, so I just lived with it. The lucid version was perfect, until now that I replaced my xorg.conf file. So it is a sacrifice, either I cant logout or I have the offset screen.

Here is a posting of the 2 xorg.conf files so you can maybe see what is causing a problem.

Jaunty

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder62) Thu Jun 25 18:44:11 PDT 2009

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout0"
  Screen   0 "Screen0"
  InputDevice  "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  # generated from default
  Identifier   "Mouse0"
  Driver     "mouse"
  Option     "Protocol" "auto"
  Option     "Device" "/dev/psaux"
  Option     "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
  Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  # generated from default
  Identifier   "Keyboard0"
  Driver     "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "Monitor0"
  VendorName   "Unknown"
  ModelName   "Unknown"
  HorizSync    30.0 - 110.0
  VertRefresh   50.0 - 150.0
  Option     "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "Device0"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier   "Screen0"
  Device     "Device0"
  Monitor    "Monitor0"
  DefaultDepth  24
  SubSection   "Display"
    Depth    24
  EndSubSection
EndSection

Lucid

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder62) Thu Jan 28 02:31:26 PST 2010


Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout0"
  Screen   0 "Screen0" 0 0
  InputDevice  "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

  # generated from default
  Identifier   "Mouse0"
  Driver     "mouse"
  Option     "Protocol" "auto"
  Option     "Device" "/dev/psaux"
  Option     "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
  Option     "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

  # generated from default
  Identifier   "Keyboard0"
  Driver     "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier   "Monitor0"
  VendorName   "Unknown"
  ModelName   "Unknown"
  HorizSync    30.0 - 110.0
  VertRefresh   50.0 - 150.0
  Option     "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "Device0"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier   "Screen0"
  Device     "Device0"
  Monitor    "Monitor0"
  DefaultDepth  24
  SubSection   "Display"
    Depth    24
  EndSubSection
EndSection

They seem almost identical, but you can seen a difference in the "screen" line...

Let me know what you think. I may be on the wrong path alltogether...

[dibl]

Re: Help Installing NVIDIA driver/Logout failure

I think the "screen" line in your second (Lucid) file is malformed, but I'm away from my own system and can't check it. I'm pretty sure the 3 zeros that are outside the quote marks are not needed or appropriate.

Here's an experiment for you: Do your normal exit where you end up at the black screen. Next, carefully type your user name, press "Enter", type your password, press "Enter", and then type "sudo shutdown now -r" with no quote marks, and press Enter. I'm guessing you'll observe a shutdown and restart. If so, that means when you're attempting to exit, it is dumping you to a tty terminal but the character mode is not displaying correctly, so even though you have the terminal, you can't see it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that your problem may be related to the display/monitor, rather than the GPU itself. If it were my situation, here are some things I would do to try to narrow the problem, or eliminate some possibilities, and after backing up your existing xorg.conf file:

- using Alt-F2 "kdesudo nvidia-settings" (with no quote marks), use the "detect display" button and then "save to X configuration" (restart X server to see if it helped)
- research the specs on the display (H and V refresh rates) of your display
- try adding a "modeline" option to the xorg.conf file, that uses the information you got from the prior step (google will help on this)
- google for any problems with the DPMS capability/performance of that display model
- if you have another compatible monitor, even lesser capability, connect that one and see if the problem exists -- I'm betting it will not

That's about all ideas I can think of at the moment. Hope this helps.