NVidia and desktop effects

[underpope]

While trying to resolve an NVidia issue on my computer (it turned out that I was using the wrong kernel and the version of the NVidia driver I was using was not compatible with the kernel I was using), I must have messed up some configuration somewhere. When logging in to the system, I have the following problems:

* Keyboard won't work past the login screen
* Desktop effects are not enabled
* Window decorations are gone

I'm not sure what I'm missing. Anyone have any thoughts?

[GreyGeek]

What does lsmod show as your video driver.

My Acer has the nVIDIA GForce 650M and it is using

video 19596 2 nouveau,i915

My video is giving me excellent results. My kernel is

3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:03:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

which is default with my Kubuntu Precise install, following all upgrades.

[underpope]

lsmod doesn't give me a line for video. It only shows a line for nvidia.

I don't think the problem lies in my video card. Before the trainwreck of these past couple of days, everything was working just fine with no problems, including my keyboard and all desktop effects.

[GreyGeek]

lsmod | grep video

should show at least one line:

$ lsmod | grep video

uvcvideo               72627  0 
videodev               98259  1 uvcvideo
v4l2_compat_ioctl32    17128  1 videodev
video                  19596  2 nouveau,i915

Try rolling back your kernel back to the one I showed before, remove the nvidia driver, and install
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
and reboot.

That will at least get you back to the default for nVidia,and you can experiment from there.
BTW, I find that the nouveau works very well for my GForce 650M.

[underpope]

I'm still not seeing any lines when I do:

lsmod | grep video

...but I did everything else you suggested, and have the same problems. At this point I think it has nothing to do with the graphics card or drivers, but with X. However, when I check /var/log/Xorg.0.log, I see no errors at all.

[GreyGeek]

Since the nouveau driver is now installed on your machine you can issue

sudo modprobe nouveau

Then, log out to the login screen and log back in.

[underpope]

Since the nouveau driver is now installed on your machine you can issue

sudo modprobe nouveau

Then, log out to the login screen and log back in.

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear. I did try that, but even with the Nouveau driver running I had the same issues.

At this point I am reinstalling the KDE binaries. I'm hoping that does the trick.

[underpope]

Thanks for your suggestions, GG.

I ended up reinstalling kubuntu-desktop, and that took care of my problems.

[sartic]

i had problems with xrender so i choose opengl for effects (i have nvidia GT240)
of course i use new drivers.

[GreyGeek]

I, too, had problems with xrender and switched to opengl.