nVidia driver won't work

[NoWorries]

Thanks for all the information on this topic. I have a NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M and when I installed Utopic I experienced a lot of trouble with graphics which eventually "Fixed Itself". I have installed the Nvidia-304 packages and I do not get any output for the command lsmod | grep nouveau. However for the other suggested commands I get:

lsmod | grep nvidia
nvidia              11364148  0

:~$ dkms status
nvidia-304, 304.123, 3.16.0-12-generic, x86_64: installed

:~$ grep nouveau /etc/modprobe.d/*
/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-304_hybrid.conf:blacklist nouveau
/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-304_hybrid.conf:blacklist lbm-nouveau
/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-304_hybrid.conf:alias nouveau off
/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-304_hybrid.conf:alias lbm-nouveau off

From this, I would suspect that my Nvidia driver is operating. However, when I look at Kinfocentre, OpenGL, I get the following:


Which tells a different Story. Do I have the Nvidia driver working or not? I have two graphic cards and I am wondering how to switch between the Intel and the Nvidia cards without resorting to Bumblebee.

[doctordruidphd]

Easiest way to find out if your nvidia driver is working is to use the nvidia-settings program, that will tell you right away. Other thing is to look at /var/log/Sorg.0.log That will have multiple entires for NVIDIA if it is using the nvidia driver.

Mine still is not working; I have reinstalled both the kernel and the nvidia driver package. It shows it loading, and lsmod shows it is there, but it isn't running. Will have to find a way to debug this, as "fresh install", along with recompiling, reconfiguring and reinstalling everything every six months is not a rational path to follow. Especially since it was working fine until I guess about last Thursday or Friday. Not sure what exactly broke it.

[timber]

Easiest way to find out if your nvidia driver is working is to use the nvidia-settings program, that will tell you right away. Other thing is to look at /var/log/Sorg.0.log That will have multiple entires for NVIDIA if it is using the nvidia driver.

Mine still is not working; I have reinstalled both the kernel and the nvidia driver package. It shows it loading, and lsmod shows it is there, but it isn't running. Will have to find a way to debug this, as "fresh install", along with recompiling, reconfiguring and reinstalling everything every six months is not a rational path to follow. Especially since it was working fine until I guess about last Thursday or Friday. Not sure what exactly broke it.

No, it's definitely not rational to have to do a fresh install for what should be a simple update. But this is the first beta, and it looks like they need to work on the upgrade process. I got many errors during the update, the first of which was caused by having noip2 installed manually. This put a noip script in /etc/init.d, which caused the upgrade process to fail. I THOUGHT I had it straightened out, but I guess not. A fresh install was my solution to a broken update.

[doctordruidphd]

Yeah, I would think at beta stage, video drivers should not be breaking, but who knows? Next thing to try will be installing the driver downloaded from NVIDIA; if that doesn't work, then I guess redo the upgrade.

EDIT: FIXED

The problem was that the required nvidia*.ko files were not showing up in /lib/modules/kernel-version/updates/dkms.

Todays update to 3.16.0-12, and reinstalling all the nvidia-331-updates stuff fixed the problem.

[NoWorries]

Easiest way to find out if your nvidia driver is working is to use the nvidia-settings program, that will tell you right away. Other thing is to look at /var/log/Sorg.0.log That will have multiple entires for NVIDIA if it is using the nvidia driver.

I tried removing the nvidia-304 and installing the nvidia-331. This process made my system unusable as screen re-write was failing and I could only get it back by using an application to wipe it over the screen. I then removed the nvidia-331 and installed the nvidia-304. This did not restore my system as it still thought the 331 driver was installed. I ended up downloading the latest build and re-installing the system. With this fresh install, I still had the screen refresh problem which made it very difficult to use. I was able to install the nvidia-304 system and this fixed all problems and everything is now working very well. My KinfoCenter still shows the Intel in the OpenGL area. The NVIDIA X Server Settings are as shown below

I did check my /var/log/syslog file and the only nvidia entries were associated with the initial installation this morning

Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.737936] Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.760296] cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.770119] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 45 for MSI/MSI-X
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.774864] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.774867] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.778822] nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or required key missing - tainting kernel
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.790859] AVX version of gcm_enc/dec engaged.
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.793643] random: nonblocking pool is initialized
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.794304] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.794363] vgaarb: device changed decodes: PCI:0000:01:00.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=nonewns=none
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.794445] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 304.123 Wed Jul 2 10:59:22 PDT 2014
Sep 4 10:24:05 basil kernel: [ 3.796916] ath: phy0: Disable PLL PowerSave
S

All subsequent reboots show no mention of NVIDIA in any of the log files that I checked.

[doctordruidphd]

1. Try this:

ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/updates/dkms

and look for an nvidia .ko file. Well, I use the nvidia-331-updates, so I don't know where the regular nvidia_331 (or other version) would put the modules, maybe somewhere in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers .
Also try lsmod | grep nvidia , although as I discovered jst because it is loading doesn't mean it is working, or working properly. Have you also tried nvidia-settings to see if that gives you any information about what the driver is doing?

Also, do you have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file? I do have one, and notice that every time the system does anything to the video drivers, it overwrites or removes it.

/var/log/Xorg.0.log will show a bunch of NVIDIA entries if the nvidia driver is loading, although be sure you check this with X running; if X isn't running, it won't show anything useful.

[NoWorries]

1. Try this:

ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/updates/dkms

and look for an nvidia .ko file. Well, I use the nvidia-331-updates, so I don't know where the regular nvidia_331 (or other version) would put the modules, maybe somewhere in /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers .
Also try lsmod | grep nvidia , although as I discovered jst because it is loading doesn't mean it is working, or working properly. Have you also tried nvidia-settings to see if that gives you any information about what the driver is doing?

I have a nvidia_304.ko file:

:~$ ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/updates/dkms
bbswitch.ko  nvidia_304.ko
:~$

The lsmod command gives:

:~$ lsmod | grep nvidia
nvidia              11364148  0 
:~$

When I try the nvidia-settings from the command line I get a PRIME error, ie

:~$ nvidia-settings
** Message: PRIME: No offloading required. Abort
** Message: PRIME: is it supported? no
:~$

There is no information about the driver in it as shown in my previous post.

Also, do you have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file? I do have one, and notice that every time the system does anything to the video drivers, it overwrites or removes it.

/var/log/Xorg.0.log will show a bunch of NVIDIA entries if the nvidia driver is loading, although be sure you check this with X running; if X isn't running, it won't show anything useful.

My Xorg.log file has the following:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Default Card 0"
    BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0"
EndSection

This file was created when I started my system today. The files from yesterday contain the same information.

[doctordruidphd]

Well, my only suggestion at this point is to try deleting your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file (actually rename it to something else just in case). Looks like the same problem I had, but the new kernel fixed it. Sorry, I don't have any further bright ideas on this, maybe someone else?

[NoWorries]

Thanks for all your help. My xorg.conf file is recreated each time I boot up the system. I did remove it, but it made no difference.

I did insert my installation usb and waited to see what happened when I waited with the try Kubuntu option. It eventually came up with the recommendation that I install the nvidia-331. So what I plan to do is download the latest iso next week and install it. I will then try it with the nvidia-331 and see what happens. I will be using my system this weekend for a number of important events, and it is important that I do nothing to break the system.

One other issue is that I have the Intel video card as well, and I need to be able to switch between the Intel and the Nvidia. I will keep you posted on what happens next week.

[doctordruidphd]

One other issue is that I have the Intel video card as well, and I need to be able to switch between the Intel and the Nvidia. I will keep you posted on what happens next week.

Aha! My guess is that's the problem. As far as I know about it, you will need to set up in /etc/X11/xorg.conf , or somewhere else in the X11 stuff, how you want the system to handle those two cards. I don't really know how to do that, but a quick google search brought up a bunch of results, so hopefully it can be straightened out.

[NoWorries]

Second Display Not Working

I have done a fresh install and added the nvidia-331 but on reboot it gave a blank screen. I found that by unplugging my second monitor and rebooting it came up correctly. The nvidia-settings worked with the nvidia option selected. Both the nvidia settings and the system settings only show one monitor even after I plug-in the second monitor. The output from xrandr gives

:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 2838 x 784, maximum 16384 x 16384
HDMI-0 disconnected primary (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS1 connected 1366x768+1472+16 344mm x 193mm
   1366x768       60.0*+
   1360x768       59.8     60.0  
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3     56.2  
   640x480        59.9  
VGA1 connected
   1280x1024      60.0 +   75.0  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1280x800       74.9     59.8  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1280x768       74.9     59.9  
   1024x768       75.1     70.1     60.0  
   1024x576       60.0  
   832x624        74.6  
   800x600        72.2     75.0     60.3     56.2  
   848x480        60.0  
   640x480        75.0     72.8     66.7     60.0  
   720x400        70.1  
VIRTUAL1 disconnected
:~$

The xorg.conf is no longer re-written on re-boot and its contents are:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout"
    Screen 0 "nvidia"
    Inactive "intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "intel"
    Driver "intel"
    BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0"
    Option "AccelMethod" "SNA"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "intel"
    Device "intel"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Driver "nvidia"
    BusID "PCI:1@0:0:0"
    Option "ConstrainCursor" "off"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Device "nvidia"
    Option "AllowEmptyInitialConfiguration" "on"
    Option "IgnoreDisplayDevices" "CRT"
EndSection

I suspect that I need to add the second monitor to this file for it to be recognized. Help to get the second monitor working would be greatly appreciated as it is essential for presentations.

[oshunluvr]

Some laptops/video cards cannot display on two monitors at once. Verify yours can before continuing...

[NoWorries]

Some laptops/video cards cannot display on two monitors at once. Verify yours can before continuing...

When I had the nvidia-304 installed I had the second monitor working. In fact, I have always had the second monitor working on all versions of Kubuntu up till now and my Laptop has a VGA 15 pin socket on the left side.

[oshunluvr]

So you just need help with the xorg.conf? Here's mine - dual monitors - but my monitors are identical. You'll have to adjust the monitor section, mode lines, and server section to match yours. I'm currently using a single nv 8800GT.

[oshunluvr]

You'll have to add a second Monitor section and maybe a Screen section.