Proprietary Nvidia driver will not work.

[deathromantik]

I am trying to get the proprietary nvidia driver to work on my desktop PC with an AMD FX-9590 CPU with an Nvidia GTX 1080 GPU.
The additional drivers part of KDE settings refuses to apply the proprietary driver, favouring the nouvau driver. This is the same for any version I try to select both from the official ubuntu repo and the drivers ppa. I also notice in synaptic when I try to install the drivers it pulls in the dependancies for an optimus laptop.
This can't be right since I have only one GPU, the GTX 1080, I unmarked the nvidia-prime and bbs-dkms packages and installed.

I have tried with the latest kernel in the official repo, 4.15.0 and 4.15.1. I am not sure if it is important, but my KDE is updated from the kubuntu-backports ppa as well.

How do I fix?

[vinnywright]

when you say wont work ,,,,what dose that mean ,,,no display at all ?

which drivers have you tried nvidia-384 ,387 ,390 ?

that card looks to be very new ,,,,,did the nouvau driver work ?

you say your on the 4.15.x kernel ? I have a (and am on at the moment) Kubuntu-17.10 install with backports ,backports-PPA and beta-PPA and the kernel I get is 4.13.0-32

do you have the "dkms" package installed ,,,,you should but check anyway it takes care of building/rebuilding the driver/module for the running kernel.

since this is a real new card you may benefit form the newest driver nvidia-390 from hear https://launchpad.net/~graphics-driv...ive/ubuntu/ppa

VINNY

[mr_raider]

Don't trust the manager. Use the command line:

sudo apt install nvidia-xxx

Where xxx is your driver series. I'm not running 17.10 so you need to verify which driver comes in the repo.

apt search nvidia*

[vinnywright]

as I said in post #2 your card is relatively new and the newest Nvidia driver you will get in the standard repo will be nvidia-384

nvidia-367/artful 375.82-0ubuntu3 amd64
Transitional package for nvidia-375

nvidia-367-dev/artful 375.82-0ubuntu3 amd64
Transitional package for nvidia-375-dev

nvidia-375/artful-updates,artful-security,now 384.111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 amd64 [installed]
Transitional package for nvidia-384

nvidia-375-dev/artful-updates,artful-security 384.111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 amd64
Transitional package for nvidia-384-dev

nvidia-384/artful-updates,artful-security,now 384.111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
NVIDIA binary driver - version 384.111

nvidia-384-dev/artful-updates,artful-security 384.111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 amd64
NVIDIA binary Xorg driver development files

even with backports ,,,,,these drivers come from upstream Debian and do not get updated as frequently as one mite expect ,,,,so the PPA I gave a link to .

it offers an nvidia-387 and nvidia-390 for artful 17.10

I have not added it to this install yet so I will do so now so you can see how it mite go ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
[sudo] password for vinny:

bla bla bla <snip>
Press [ENTER] to continue or Ctrl-c to cancel adding it.

gpg: keybox '/tmp/tmpvgw_rn9g/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: /tmp/tmpvgw_rn9g/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key FCAE110B1118213C: public key "Launchpad PPA for Graphics Drivers Team" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1
OK

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo apt-get update
Hit:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful InRelease
Hit:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-updates InRelease                                                             
Hit:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-backports InRelease                                                           
Hit:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful-security InRelease        
Get:5 http://ppa.launchpad.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu artful InRelease [21.3 kB]
Hit:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports-landing/ubuntu artful InRelease
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu artful InRelease  
Hit:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/beta/ubuntu artful InRelease       
Get:9 http://ppa.launchpad.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu artful/main i386 Packages [10.4 kB]
Get:10 http://ppa.launchpad.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu artful/main amd64 Packages [10.4 kB]
Get:11 http://ppa.launchpad.net/graphics-drivers/ppa/ubuntu artful/main Translation-en [3,216 B]
Fetched 45.3 kB in 1s (29.1 kB/s)                   
Reading package lists... Done

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ apt search nvidia-3                             
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
<snip>
nvidia-375/artful-updates,artful-security,artful,now 384.111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 amd64 [installed]
Transitional package for nvidia-384

nvidia-375-dev/artful-updates,artful-security,artful 384.111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 amd64
Transitional package for nvidia-384-dev

nvidia-384/artful-updates,artful-security,artful,now 384.111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
NVIDIA binary driver - version 384.111

nvidia-384-dev/artful-updates,artful-security,artful 384.111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1 amd64
NVIDIA binary Xorg driver development files

nvidia-387/artful 387.34-0ubuntu0~gpu17.10.2 amd64
NVIDIA binary driver - version 387.34

nvidia-387-dev/artful 387.34-0ubuntu0~gpu17.10.2 amd64
NVIDIA binary Xorg driver development files

nvidia-390/artful 390.25-0ubuntu0~gpu17.10.1 amd64
NVIDIA binary driver - version 390.25

nvidia-390-dev/artful 390.25-0ubuntu0~gpu17.10.1 amd64
NVIDIA binary Xorg driver development files

now I have the option for the nvidia-387 and 390 ,,,,I'll go for the nvidia-390

vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-390
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
linux-headers-4.13.0-21 linux-headers-4.13.0-21-generic linux-image-4.13.0-21-generic linux-image-extra-4.13.0-21-generic
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
libcuda1-390 nvidia-opencl-icd-390
The following packages will be REMOVED:
libcuda1-384 nvidia-375 nvidia-384 nvidia-opencl-icd-384
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libcuda1-390 nvidia-390 nvidia-opencl-icd-390
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 4 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
Need to get 83.0 MB of archives.
After this operation, 2,131 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

I'll not post the hole install process ,,,but I must say as well that the nvidia-prime package is not a bad thing even if you only have 1 GPU I'm not qualified to go into the detales of why but it's only 67.6kb so what the heck ...and the bbswitch-dkms is only 36.9kb and their both installed at hear.

back to dkms ,,,you do want to see this during the install process ,,,,

update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
INFO:Enable nvidia-390
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here
Adding system user `nvidia-persistenced' (UID 120) ...
Adding new group `nvidia-persistenced' (GID 129) ...
Adding new user `nvidia-persistenced' (UID 120) with group `nvidia-persistenced' ...
Not creating home directory `/'.
Loading new nvidia-390-390.25 DKMS files...
Building for 4.13.0-32-generic
Building for architecture x86_64
Building initial module for 4.13.0-32-generic
Done.

nvidia_390:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/4.13.0-32-generic/updates/dkms/

nvidia_390_modeset.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/4.13.0-32-generic/updates/dkms/

nvidia_390_drm.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/4.13.0-32-generic/updates/dkms/

nvidia_390_uvm.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/4.13.0-32-generic/updates/dkms/

depmod...

DKMS: install completed.
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.125ubuntu12) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-32-generic
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.26-0ubuntu2.1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Setting up nvidia-opencl-icd-390 (390.25-0ubuntu0~gpu17.10.1) ...
Setting up libcuda1-390 (390.25-0ubuntu0~gpu17.10.1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.26-0ubuntu2.1) ...
vinny@vinny-Bonobo-Extreme:~$

I will reboot now to load the new driver and eddit this post when I get back

VINNY

EDIT:back

[woodsmoke]

well...what would one expect trying to run a "new" card...

If you did this on a Windblows machine...you would get a never ending for-next loop asking for...a PAID FOR WITH MONEY... cd with the PROPRIETARY drivers...or...sent on a NEVER ENDING QUEST on the net to find the drivers...

Matilda has had WAAAY TOO MANY of these dropped on her head.

woodjustahardwarekindaguyand just...is so tired of the same old thing...

and VINNEY...you are waay too kind...smoke

[deathromantik]

A bit of a nonsensical reply woodsmoke.

[deathromantik]

Hey Vinny, I rarely have internet so it took this long to reply.
I use UKUU to get new mainline kernels, on my optimus laptop it has been no problem.
By not working I mean the driver manager will not apply the driver on this install, I am using the drivers ppa by the way, dkms is installed. It keeps saying using nouveau driver.
I have the latest beta nvidia driver installed from the ppa. on the newer kernels I get a black screen, no display at all, even when I try switching tty. On the 4.13.0-32 I can get video but it is using the nouveau driver so my GPU performance is terrible.

[oshunluvr]

Seems using a non-standard kernel with a non-standard source and a beta-level driver results in non-standard behavior? Working here, like Vinny, using a slightly older but stable driver -387.84 - with an Ubuntu kernel - 4.13.0-35.

If the issue is just dkms not building the proper kernel module, don't use the driver manager. Build the kernel module in a terminal so you can see error output.

Scroll about half-way down -> http://xmodulo.com/build-kernel-module-dkms-linux.html

Honestly, if you want predictable behavior, stay within the boundaries of the distro. If you want to step outside those boundaries, have at it, but don't expect an easy path.

[sithlord48]

A bit of a nonsensical reply woodsmoke.

Have you met woodsmoke before?

In this case he is right you should not expect a card from a vendor that is know to be hostle towards Linux to work on your terms. Your system can only be held hostage by what kernels their driver supports. Try an older driver and / or kernel 4.15 maybe to new and Nvidia may not support it in their properitary driver.

but it is using the nouveau driver so my GPU performance is terrible.

the fact that nouveau works at all is amazing those guys have had to RE almost everything from those cards as nvidia provides no information on their cards (un like both amd and intel)

[deathromantik]

Mentioning windows is not relevant, as far as Nvidia being hostile to Linux, that is not exactly true - the whole "Nvidia, f$%k you!" thing was over Optimus laptops, not Nvidia support in general.
I like AMD, but the features I want in my GPU only come from Nvidia, and when I bought this card AMD GPU drivers were terrible.
On this install the effect is the same no matter what kernel I use, the ones in the repo or the mainline ones that are supposed to work (which are not non-standard, they are standard kernels, ubuntu makes very little if any modifications to the kernel beyond the naming scheme). It is also the same no matter what version of the driver I try to use, it simply will not use the nvidia driver.

As far as my card being too new, this model is over a year old and worked previously on older versions of Kubuntu.
Something is up with my system, I want help finding out exactly what is wrong and how to fix it not irrelevant information or preaching.

[deathromantik]

Thanks for your reply, it looks useful. I will give it a go looking at that and trying it on my system. I will post back what I get.

[deathromantik]

Seems using a non-standard kernel with a non-standard source and a beta-level driver results in non-standard behavior? Working here, like Vinny, using a slightly older but stable driver -387.84 - with an Ubuntu kernel - 4.13.0-35.

If the issue is just dkms not building the proper kernel module, don't use the driver manager. Build the kernel module in a terminal so you can see error output.

Scroll about half-way down -> http://xmodulo.com/build-kernel-module-dkms-linux.html

Honestly, if you want predictable behavior, stay within the boundaries of the distro. If you want to step outside those boundaries, have at it, but don't expect an easy path.

Thanks for your reply, it looks useful. I will give it a go looking at that and trying it on my system. I will post back what I get.

[deathromantik]

I have not tried the dkms build thing yet but I did find something out while installing from the command line:

Setting up nvidia-390 (390.25-0ubuntu0~gpu17.10.1) ...
dpkg: error: version '-' has bad syntax: revision number is empty
dpkg: error: version '-' has bad syntax: revision number is empty
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)

Googling that found this post: https://askubuntu.com/questions/9693...4-kills-colord

I edited this for my driver version (nvidia-390) and tried to reinstall using 4.13.0-32-generic and it built with no errors. It seams someone goofed with the script.
I will now reboot and test to see if it is applied then I will try the dkms thing to make it update automatically for new kernels.

[deathromantik]

It looks like the what I found won't work. I tried this on another install that was stock Kubuntu 17.10, previously had nvidia drivers working on it, but something about the drivers from the ppa breaks it so I can't even go back to the drivers in the official ubuntu repo.
So now I have 2 installs stuck on xorg-nouveau drivers.

So it narrows down a few things.
1. It is not the backported additional-drivers manager from the kubunu-backports ppa
2. It happens on all kernels so mainline kernels downloaded via UKUU are not the source of the problem as the other installs didn't have them.

as for that DKMS thing oshunluvr posted, I am stuck with that since I don't know what to put in the DKMS file and where to put it. The instructions are for a network driver and it is put in a path that does not exist, this is a GPU driver so what do I do?

Is there a way I can force this via the comand line since the GUI tool is not doing the job and neither is downloading via apt-get.

Edit:
I removed the drivers ppa from my sources on my second install, and managed to do a purge of all nvidia packages, then used ubuntu-drivers auto to install the 384.111 nvidia drivers on 4.13.0-32-generic and it shows up in driver manager as selected and benchmarks show it as being used. It still had the error about the version in dkms, but it works.

Which leads me to wonder if the problem is nvidia or the ppa packages. To try that out I am going to purge the other install of all nvidia packages and build the nvidia-390 driver direct from nvidia.
Will post back what I find out.

[jglen490]

AFAIK dkms is installed as a stock item with Kubuntu, at least I've never had to seek it out. One thing to try via command line is

sudo ubuntu-drivers list

it should recommend a driver - it will also list other drivers. If it shows an nvidia driver that you have already tried, then I'm at a loss. But, if it shows something else then either run

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

, or use apt-get.

One thing to remember is if you go outside the distro kernel stream, you run the risk of dependencies and modules that may not work with your total package. the bleeding edge is fun, but sometimes it hurts.