Booting problems after graphics driver update

[simondbarnes]

Please excuse the clueless ramblings of a Linux newbie but I could do with a bit of help if possible

Running Kubuntu 9.10, all has been fine until I decided to install an nvidia graphic card driver using KPackageKit for my geforce5200 (think that's what is there, haven't used this computer for years). I rebooted the system after installation as requested, now can't get past the kubuntu splash screen when booting - the system just locks up

Tried going into recovery mode to see if there were any easy options for removing the driver and reverting back to the default one but couldn't make anything work.

I'm sure it's something that is easy to do from the command line but I wouldn't have a clue where to start! Can anyone help?

Currently running from the live cd trying to find an answer!

[dibl]

Re: Booting problems after graphics driver update

With no information about your oldie hardware, all I can suggest is take a look at #2 in the FAQs in my signature. I think you're hitting a "power management" problem now that you have the Nvidia driver installed, and so you may need one of the boot options related to ACPI. (I'm not 100% certain, of course). Look at this page and the options at the bottom:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

You might try these, one at a time:

noacpi
acpi=force
pci=noacpi
noapic
nolapic

etc.

If it's not power management, then it could be the framebuffer issue, which can be fixed by using a vga=xxx code.

[simondbarnes]

Re: Booting problems after graphics driver update

Just to try and make things a little clearer...

I have no problem with the Live CD
Before installing a new driver for my graphics card, I had no problems with a full install of Kubuntu 9.10 (had been happily using it for a couple of weeks)

I need to find a way of reverting to the old driver that was installed with my initial Kubuntu 9.10 install as this worked fine. The only reason I tried changing the driver was to see what deskop effects were all about. I really wish I hadn't. I can't see anything in the links posted above that will help with this.

[skunk]

Re: Booting problems after graphics driver update

Make a backup before you start!!!

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf as root eg

kdesudo kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Search for Driver "nvidia"
Replace with Driver "nv"
Save file
Reboot

[simondbarnes]

Re: Booting problems after graphics driver update

Thanks skunk.

I'm not getting any recovery console options come up when I try and boot from the HD now. Is there a way of forcing it to go to a command line rather than trying to boot into KDE?

[simondbarnes]

Re: Booting problems after graphics driver update

Have solved the issue now

Running the live cd I opened a run box and typed 'kdesudo dolphin'. I then navigated to /etc/X11/xorg.conf on the root drive and renamed the file to xorg.conf.borked and then rebooted.

Thanks