[Solved] Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

[luggw1]

I just installed Kubuntu 10.10 64-Bit on a machine that includes a nvidia 9800 GTX+ video card. Everything was fine except that the fonts displayed were quite small and in several cases the characters seemed to be writing on top of each other. I assumed that it was the video driver and went about installing the latest proprietary driver. When it was finished, I restarted. During the restart a strange startup screen appears that says "Kubuntu 10.10" in Monospace fontwith a bright blue background and it ends up at the login prompt in text mode.

What should I do at this point to correct the problem and get things back to normal? Is there a problem with the latest nvidia driver - I was offered a choice of two (version 173 was the other), so should I have chosen it instead?

Thanks for the help.
Bill Lugg

[dibl]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

I assumed that it was the video driver and went about installing the latest proprietary driver.

Tell more please -- how did you do that?

Also, you might want to give this a review (method #2 seems to work well for many): http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107406.0

[luggw1]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

Well, I followed method 1 in your HOW TO. However, there was also a kernel update in among the 173 that ran that I missed and I didn't restart prior to running method 1 for the video driver. According the the discussions that followed, I wonder if that may have bit me. So, if I understand the progression of things correctly now, I need to follow method 3 to get the beast working again?

The HOW TO looks really thorough, thanks for the pointer.
Bill Lugg

[dibl]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

If your kernel is updated, I would try using Method #1 again -- that's the simplest, for the inexperienced user. If it doesn't work for you, then I would advise trying #2. Save #3 for a rainy morning when you feel the need to do some character-building.

[luggw1]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

Yes, but how do I get back to the graphical interface? Right now, I'm stuck at the "Login:" prompt and appear to have no way to start KDE.

Thanks.
Bill

[dibl]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

Oh, bummer, I didn't understand.

Well, let's try #2 and see what happens. First, you need to stop KDM from trying to run when the driver is broken:

sudo service kdm stop

then Method #2 says:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-common nvidia-settings

Then try

sudo service kdm start

and let's see what happens. It might be that you need to have it write a new xorg.conf file -- if so, you can do that (after stopping kdm again) with

sudo nvidia-xconfig

and restart kdm.

[luggw1]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

OK, I tried that and I think I have more meaningful information to work with. First, during the installiation of the nvidia packages, apt indicated that the common package was already up to date, but that the settings package as not and it updated it.

I tried to start KDM, but it failed, so I ran the nvidia-xconfig command. Here is the part of output from it:

VALIDATION ERROR: Data incomplete in file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
                 Undefined device "(null)" referenced by Screen
                 "Default Screen".

sh: pkg-config: not found

The rest just said that the old file had been backed up.

Here's the xorg.conf file:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 260.19.06 (buildmeister@builder101) Mon Sep 13 04:59:45 PDT 2010

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    28.0 - 33.0
  VertRefresh   43.0 - 72.0
  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

Frankly, I don't see the problem referred to by the error.

So, given this information, is there some edit I should make in the xorg.conf file to get this beast back on its feet?

Thanks.
Bill

[oshunluvr]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

A more suitable device section:

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "Device0"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
  BoardName   "9800 GTX+"
  Option "TripleBuffer" "True"
#        + Enables triple buffering. "Decreases the time an application stalls while waiting for vblank events, but increases latency slightly" (NVIDIA Readme) 
  Option "UseCompositeWrapper" "True"
#        + Enables the X server's composite wrapper instead of the builtin one. 
  Option "BackingStore" "True"
#        + Cache overlayed areas in case they get redisplayed later 
  Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True"
#        + only fire VBlank interrupts in modes where they are needed 
EndSection

and screen:

Section "Screen"
  Identifier   "Screen0"
  Device     "Device0"
  Monitor    "Monitor0"
  DefaultDepth  24
  Option     "DPI" "100x100"
  SubSection   "Display"
    Depth    24
  EndSubSection
EndSection

This obviously assumes you want 100dpi fonts.

You might just try deleting or renaming your current xorg.conf file and restarting KDM without it. The GUI should come up if a driver is installed correctly.

Then you can edit or create another xorg.conf file when you're ready.

[luggw1]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

OK, that worked. I still get the strange boot screen that I described in my first post, but I don't think I care if I end up where I need to be.

So, I'm sitting here with no xorg.conf file at this point. Should I run the nvidia-xconfig command to generate a starter, or is there a better way to get started?

Thanks.
Bill

[oshunluvr]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

The boot screen is really just cosmetic, not a functional problem. If you want to research how to fix it, search for PLYMOUTH - that's the boot screen you're seeing.

I'd use nvidia-settings rather than the reconfigure. Then once you've saved a new file, add the options I posted eariler and also this section

Section "Extensions"
  Option "Composite" "Enable"
  Option "RENDER" "Enable"
EndSection

[dibl]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

In #2.d. in the FAQs in my signature is a link to fix the borked splash.

However, oshunluvr is right -- it's just cosmetic, and may not be worth your bother to change it.

[luggw1]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

Well, I tried nvidia-settings and it complains that I appear not to be using the nvidia driver. The message says that I should run nvidia-xconfig and restart the X Server. I checked the Additional Drivers tool in the System menu (the Method #1 approach) and it indicated that the latest nvidia driver was activated. I decided to go ahead and try running nvidia-xconfig, but the result was the same - it landed me back at the "Login:" prompt again. So I again renamed the xorg.conf file to another name and rebooted again to get back here and seek yet some more help.

Here's the latest xorg.conf file it generated.

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 260.19.29 (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-04.nvidia.com) Wed Dec 8 12:27:39 PST 2010

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    28.0 - 33.0
  VertRefresh   43.0 - 72.0
  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

Is there something obvious in there that is bad or is the latest nvidia driver just incompatible with my configuration and I should either follow method #3 or back up a driver version?

This is getting very frustrating.

Thanks for the help.
Bill

[dibl]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

Hmmmm. This is a little reminiscent of another case, which turned out to be a failure of the jockey-kde installer to update the init ramdisk after the nouveau driver was supposed to be removed. There's a "**" note under Method #3 about that situation.

I would say go back to the Method #1 (the System > Additional Drivers" dialog), and try removing the Nvidia driver -- follow the instructions, I would suppose it will require a shutdown and reboot. Then, when it is back up, do the Method #2 again. If it's still no go, then I'd say get a good night's sleep, and in the morning give Method #3 a shot. Take your time and review each step carefully, and you should end up with an installed proprietary driver. Latest released version from Nvidia is 260.19.29, get that one, either 32-bit or 64-bit as applicable for your OS.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

Yeah, sounds to me like the nvidia driver isn't getting installed correctly.

Do you have more than one kernel installed? If so, boot to the earlier ones while you have the xorg.conf file and see of one of them will boot.

[luggw1]

Re: Installed nvidia proprietary driver caused reboot to text mode

Well, church and a rodeo gave me a much needed break from this frustration.

I came back and took a slightly different tack. The Additional Software dialog listed the version 173 driver as well as the "current" driver that gave me so much trouble. So, I decided to install the version 173 driver just to see if it would work. Sure enough it did, however I heard a nasty clicking from the monitor (switching frequencies or something, I assume, at any rate, not good I'm sure). So I figured I'd try the "current" version from the Additional Software dialog again, now that I got on version to install correctly and I knew how to get back to a GUI if it went bad. But it didn't - it installed fine nvidia-settings reports the current version and I added the changes to xorg.conf that oshunluvr recommended and everything seems to work great!

Thanks to both of you for all the help you have provided. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Bill Lugg