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**woodsmoke** · Sep 26, 2011, 10:17 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed.

Hi
I quite imagine that one of the many experts here at the forum, of which I am not one, lol, will pop along and recommend this or that,

And their recommendation is one that will work great, use it/them.

However I, personally, use Remastersys. The fellow who made it is a major player, behind the scenes, in Linux.

And, as an aside, if one goes to the forum one will see that there is a sub-forum for "AV Linux" which is worthy of consideration if one is into.... Audio Visual stuff! lol

http://www.geekconnection.org/remastersys/

woodsmoke

**dibl** · Sep 26, 2011, 10:52 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed.

@Jon I hate to see you struggling with 2-year old issues -- since you haven't invested a lot in configuring that system, why not try a 11.10 daily build CD? Just install it, and then before you do anything else, open the "Additional Drivers" dialog and take the Nvidia driver. Worst case outcome that I can think of is, you might not like it and we can then revert to 11.04 and fix the window decorations issue.

After 11.10 is installed, and you reboot, you may need to open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and twiddle the "Device" stanza to add the second card, if it isn't configured automatically. I don't run SLI, but somewhere on the forum (as well as many places on the 'net) are the instructions to run lspci, note the PCI bus assignment for the Nvidia card that is NOT already configured in xorg.conf, and then add that line to enable the second card.

The "missing window decorations" is a failure of the windows decorator part of kwin -- we used to see that when substituting compiz for kwin. I don't know why it should show up in 11.04, but like I said, why struggle with problems in prior versions when the upcoming 11.10 is already in its second beta release?

**oshunluvr** · Sep 26, 2011, 10:55 PM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed.

SLI should enable automatically if you have the nvidia driver installed and active.

Review the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and you will see SLI referenced if it's available.

**JontomXire** · Sep 27, 2011, 01:28 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed.

Well I think the reason I was getting no window decorations was because there was no xorg.conf file on the system. So now a little story, posted here in case it helps someone with the same problems in the future.

I had a play last night after reading a bunch of posts on the internet, none of which was desperately helpful or applicable in itself. But I figured examining the xorg.conf would be a good idea - except there wasn't one.

Searching around I discovered that doing "sudo Xorg --configure" would generate one, but trying it revealed that you can't run it when X windows is running. So I searched and discovered how to create a console option in grub and booted to console and then generated the xorg.conf file. I then started kdm by doing "/etc/init.d/kdm start" I mention this because all subsequent attempts to stop/start/restart KDM using this method failed.

Anyway, having got my xorg.conf file I then installed the same drivers as before. Only this time the desktop was fine. looking in xorg.conf I found that the graphics cards (both of which were detected) were not actually using the nVidia drivers. I read some more and discovered that using "nvidia-xconfig" regenerates the xorg.conf file (on first use I had to point it at /etc/xorg.conf because it kept trying to use /etc/X11/xorg.conf - after the first time it was fine).

Through all this I kept using "nvidia-settings" in the hope that an option would appear to turn on SLI. No such luck, that program appears to be thoroughly useless. Anyway I then discovered that doing something like "nvidia-xconfig --Sli=ON" (not sure that's exactly right) would turn SLI on.

So I reboot and when I did so I saw an error message in the Xorg log in /var/log. On looking closer I discover that the error is because Xorg is trying to use the default Xorg libglx.so and the drivers are wanting the nVidia one. Cue more Googling and I discover that I need to install nvidia-glx. Only there are several and one webpage says to use 185, and another says not to use 185 because it's broken - use 195 instead. Well I can't find 195 so I install 185. The problem is that even after I install it I still can't find any libglx.so on the system other than the stock Xorg one. I also read that you need to install nvidia-mod-something-or-other. Well I have no idea why (funny how all these guides and things you find say what to do but not why) but hey it's only a few more Kb of HD space on my 1/2 TB disk so why not.

One thing that irritates me is that, since nvidia-glx is pretty much absolutely required when using the nVidia proprietary drivers, why doesn't Kubuntu install it automatically when you ask to install the proprietary drivers. And configure it to work automatically. Or at least pop an informative dialog with a nice "do it now" button on it.

Anyway that's as far as I got last night.

@woodsmoke: I'll have a look at that remastersys thing.

@dibl: I've had lots of bad experiences with nVidia graphics cards on Linux in the past, usually while using the latest version of Linux. That's why I plumped for 10.04 - in the hope that all the bugs would have been ironed out.

Lastly, if anyone has any tips on getting the OpenGL working with nVidia, I'd love to hear them.

**JontomXire** · Sep 27, 2011, 05:05 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed.

Just found out about "nvidia-glx-config" and "envy". Actually I vaguely remember dealing with "envy" previously, with not much benefit.

Information on nvidia-glx-config is very limited, but everything I have read says that after installing nvidia-glx you need to run:

nvidia-glx-config enable

So I'll try that and cross my fingers.

I also found another website with some tips on improving performance, but it was talking about AGP and the "Breezy" version of Ubuntu, so it's a bit ancient (dated 2005) and probably not relevant any more.

**oshunluvr** · Sep 27, 2011, 06:47 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed.

Sorry, my mistake:

you need

Option "SLI"

or

Option "SLI" "AFR"

in xorg.conf to enable SLI. I just looked in mine...

**dibl** · Sep 27, 2011, 08:40 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed.

Originally posted by JontomXire

Well I think the reason I was getting no window decorations was because there was no xorg.conf file on the system.

No -- the contents of /etc/X11 has nothing to do with kwin, in a default installation.

Searching around I discovered that doing "sudo Xorg --configure" would generate one, but trying it revealed that you can't run it when X windows is running. So I searched and discovered how to create a console option in grub and booted to console and then generated the xorg.conf file. I then started kdm by doing "/etc/init.d/kdm start" I mention this because all subsequent attempts to stop/start/restart KDM using this method failed.

No -- you'll never get any graphics card to work with recent versions of *buntu or Debian doing that. The jockey-kde utility will take care of not only installing the Nvidia driver, but also running nvidia-xconfig which is needed to generate the correct /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, which I guess you eventually discovered. BTW, you should stop and start KDM with "sudo service kdm stop" and "sudo service kdm start".

I read some more and discovered that using "nvidia-xconfig" regenerates the xorg.conf file (on first use I had to point it at /etc/xorg.conf because it kept trying to use /etc/X11/xorg.conf - after the first time it was fine).

But NO, there is no such file as /etc/xorg.conf -- it is SUPPOSED to use /etc/X11/xorg.conf. >

Through all this I kept using "nvidia-settings" in the hope that an option would appear to turn on SLI. No such luck, that program appears to be thoroughly useless.

Wrong again. nvidia-settings does not generate an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file -- that is the job of nvidia-xconfig, which is done automatically via jockey-kde. After the Nvidia driver is installed and functioning correctly, nvidia-settings can be used, with "kdesudo" prefix, to change the default resolution, power management setting, and a few other tweaks, and save those changes in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

more Googling and I discover that I need to install nvidia-glx.

NO, you need to run jockey-kde, via "Additional Drivers", like you were previously advised to do. jockey-kde will install nvidia-glx, which includes the proprietary driver.

since nvidia-glx is pretty much absolutely required when using the nVidia proprietary drivers, why doesn't Kubuntu install it automatically when you ask to install the proprietary drivers. And configure it to work automatically. Or at least pop an informative dialog with a nice "do it now" button on it.

Why do you suppose you were advised to use the "Additional Drivers" utility to install the Nvidia driver -- what do you think Additional Drivers is for.

BTW, Envy has been unsupported for 2 years: http://www.albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

So, you have instantly disregarded the advice provided in response to your original post on this forum, and declined even to try the suggested solutions, in favor of experimenting with years-old, unsupported, and flat-out wrong methods found in Google searches. One could honestly wonder why you bothered to ask for help.

Lastly, if anyone has any tips on getting the OpenGL working with nVidia, I'd love to hear them.

I have no idea .....

**JontomXire** · Sep 28, 2011, 01:41 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed.

Actually, dibl, you are wrong on all your points.

The only difference between installing the nvidia drivers and it not working and installing the drivers and it working was thepresence of an xorg.conf file. My guess is that without one, Xorg is guessing values and getting it wrong, whereas with one which contains the correct values, it works fine.

You say "you'll never get any graphics card to work...". Wrong again. I did get it to work. It does work, and moreover it works fine. Moreover, I can confirm ABSOLUTELY, from personal experience, that the jockey-kde utility does NOT run nvidia-xconfig. I know this for a fact because after running jockey-kde to install the nvidia drivers, the xorg.conf file specified "nv" as the driver, but after running nvidia-xconfig, nvidia was specified as the driver. So clearly jockey-kde did not run nvidia-xconfig at all!

As to the file being /etc/X11/xorg.conf, wrong again. Gosh this is getting boring. I ran Xorg --configure with no arguments which lets Xorg decide where it wants to find the xorg.conf file. It was Xorg, not me, that picked /etx/xorg.conf as the location for the configuration. Which was as I expected having read a web page some where which stated quite explicitly that this was a change for this version of Xorg from previous versions.

Anyway I'm getting bored by all this. The rest of your post is pretty much all wrong too. Or at least, does not in any way match my experiences.

As for your comment about me ignoring the advice in the first few posts:

Answer 1 was to look at remastersys. Great advice, but nothing to do with installing nVidia drivers. In fact if you use remastersys on a system with nVidia drivers installed, when you then use it to re-install later, you will lose all config and everything for the nVidia drivers.

Answer 2 was to use a newer version. Actually I suspect I would have had exactly the same problems on the newer version.

Answer 3 has just been admitted as being wrong by the person who posted it.

**JontomXire** · Sep 28, 2011, 01:59 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

Ok, so here is the solution:

First off, check out http://ubuntuguide.net/install-nvidi...tu-lucid-10-04. This page describes really clearly a very reliable way to install the drives that avoids a lot of potential problems. In the end it got me where I already was by trial and error, more or less, but it's a good guide anyway.

Note that people saying to install nvidia-current instead of nvidia-glx-185 are wrong. Installing nvidia-glx-185 ALSO installs nvidia-current, but installing nvidia-current does not install (as far as I can tell) the nVidia GLX libraries.

Secondly, turn on SLI, if you have an SLI system, by running nvidia-xconfig with the appropriate arguments. See http://linux.die.net/man/1/nvidia-xconfig as a useful page.

I think I did:

nvidia-xconfig --sli=On

But according to the man page that's not a valid value. Maybe that's why WoW runs like a dog under Wine. "Auto" might be a better option. I know I saw a webpage somewhere that described all the options in more detail.

Lastly, fix the OpenGL usage. When you start X you may well see errors in the Xorg log (under /var/log) about not loading the OpenGL because it isn't nVidia's OpenGL library. This is what got me stuck for ages because I couldn't find any other libglx.so on the system apart from the Xorg default version. In the end I found there was one, but "locate" couldn't find it.

You need to move the Xorg copy aside and replace it with a symlink to the nVidia version. That this isn't automatically all sorted when you install nvidia-glx has been raised as a bug in this version of Kububntu I believe. There are other solutions, but this is the simplest, if not, perhaps, the safest:

cd /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/
mv libglx.so libglx.so.xorg
ln -s /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia/libglx.so .

I think my files may have been under /usr/lib/ rather than /usr/lib64 - need to check that when I get home.

Now I can run OpenGL applications using nVidia drivers for my nVidia graphics cards with SLI enabled.

**oshunluvr** · Sep 28, 2011, 07:49 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

Interesting final result. I had to go through none of this, with the exception of creating xorg.conf - which I always do manually since I use some added options that aren't automatically added be nvidia-settings.

All I've had to do since 10.04 is install, install dkms, install linux-headers, run Jockey, copy in my xorg.conf, reboot.

All the other stuff on that linked page is unnecessary IMO.

**JontomXire** · Sep 28, 2011, 09:40 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

I agree that all that blacklisting stuff looks unnecessary. I didn't do it the first time round and after following the instructions on the page ended up with exactly the same state as before. The difference is that the preliminary steps I followed were all a bit random and confused.

Oshunluvr, is OpenGL working for you? Can you check your Xorg log for errors and see if it is reporting that it is unable to find the nVidia OpenGL libraries. Also try running glxgears.

Also can you check if you even have nvidia-glx of any version installed because after I ran the Jockey/Hardware Drivers tool I didn't.

**SteveRiley** · Sep 28, 2011, 11:51 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

For my on-board nVidia graphics, I'm using the X Updates PPA. I installed only nvidia-current and nvidia-settings. I don't recall whether it was nvidia-settings or nvidia-xconfig that created my xorg.conf file, but I can confirm it resides in /etc/X11.

Also, it appears that nvidia-glx-185 actually isn't necessary. I never installed this and nVidia's GLX driver is loading successfully:

Code:

root@SRiley-T410:/var/log# grep -i gl /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[   7.887] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[   7.887] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/libglx.so
[   7.896] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[   7.896] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module 280.13 Wed Jul 27 17:12:07 PDT 2011
[   7.896] (II) Loading extension GLX
[  10.766] (II) Loading extension NV-GLX
[  10.809] (II) Initializing extension GLX

Finally, that nvidia-glx-185 package looks to be nothing more than a few documentation files, see the screenshot below.

glxgears works fine on my laptop.

**oshunluvr** · Sep 28, 2011, 03:43 PM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

Yes, I have full opengl and I'm also using the most current driver 280.13 from the same PPA as Steve, which does not require the separate glx package.

**JontomXire** · Sep 29, 2011, 02:34 AM

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

Hi, guys.

Thanks for that really useful info - I think that X Updates PPA is the missing link.

Just for clarification:

1) What is "dkms"?
2) Once I add the PPA to my package sources list, I just install nvidia-current and it will pick up the PPA current version, rather than the Kubuntu current version, right?
3) In the PPA webpage you linked, there is no "nvidia-current" package listed. Did you mean "nvidia-graphics-drivers"?

Also, for future reference, in the WineHQ website in a thread I started about WoW running really really slowly, one guy said he installed the raw drivers directly from the nVidia website. Hunting around I found a web page that said that the install script basically does everything for you. You need kernel source (or maybe just the headers?) and it builds the drivers to match the kernel. However that guy also said he always rebuilt his own kernel.

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