How to reset graphics driver in recovery mode?

[deus]

I'm probably the biggest n00b ever, and I tried to install the Nvidia drivers since my screen's resolution wasn't supported after installation of 6.06 (event though it was in 5.10). The nvidia installer kept giving me errors, so I just used apt-get install nvidia-glx, which I thought would be ok. I changed the driver in the control panel from nv to nvidia, and rebooted. And now, kde won't even start! After it's finished booting, the kubuntu-logo just remains there, and nothing more happens. When I start recovery-mode and try startkde it just says "can't open display", "can't connect to kdm", "can't connect to x", "$DISPLAY empty" etc.

I guess it's quite obvious that I did something I shouldn't have, so how do I reset this when I can't use the kde control panel

[Fenyx]

Re: How to reset graphics driver in recovery mode?

you don't need to do this in recovery mode.

1. Once you get to the stalled kubuntu logo, press Ctrl+Alt+F1. This will start a command line session
2. enter your username and password.
3. Stop KDM

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop

4. When you installed nvidia-glx, did you install the linux-restricted-modules that matches your kernel? If you haven't do this. If you have, skip to the next step

sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r)

4. configure nvidia

nvidia-xconfig

5. restart KDM

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm start

Hope that works for you.

[deus]

Re: How to reset graphics driver in recovery mode?

I got it up an running again using dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg, but I still need to get the nvidia drivers working. I tried using your code, but it can't find the restriced modules for the kernel. In Adept, the latest ones are for 2.6.15-23, but I'm using 2.6.15-25! What should I do? I have all the universe, multiverse and what-not enabled.

[deus]

Re: How to reset graphics driver in recovery mode?

I'm getting pretty desperate here. Anyone with 2.6.15-25-286 who's gotten nvidia-glx to work? Should I just use the restricted-modules for 2.6.15-23, or is there another way of getting nvidia drivers easily?

[Fenyx]

Re: How to reset graphics driver in recovery mode?

The linux-restricted-modules-2.6.15-25 is found in the security component of dapper-security repository. edit your sources.list (manually or through Adept's Manage Repositories) so that the dapper-security lines would look like this:

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted

[deus]

Re: How to reset graphics driver in recovery mode?

Thanks for all the help, but it's still not working. I now have nvidia-glx, linux-restricted-modules-2.6.12-25-386 (output from uname -r), and when I run nvidia-glx-config enable (or nvidia-xconfig - I've tried both), I can see that driver is changed from nv to nvidia in the control panel. It still stops with the logo screen on startup, and kde/xserver won't start.

I see that card is also listed as nv, could that be of significance? Shouldn't it be listed as Nvidia GeForce Go 6600? card:nv driver:nv works, card:nv driver:nvidia doesn't... If this is where the error lies, how do I fix it?

If not, is there another driver I could try, or a way to get a more automated driver installation? I've tried the installer from nvidia.com, but it keeps complaining about running xservers, not pre-compiled stuff for kernel, etc. - things to which I have no idea what to answer...

Appreciate all the help, guys!!!

[Lil_Eagle]

Re: How to reset graphics driver in recovery mode?

A working nvidia driver is in the repositories.

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx

To enable the driver, run

sudo nvidia-glx-config enable

xorg.conf should point to "nvidia" and not "nv"

If you ever need to reconfigure xorg, the command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

will walk you through the setup.