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**nobaloney** · Aug 21, 2010, 10:43 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

@dibl,

Thanks, you were very helpful, though in my case it was just the opposite. I couldn't get it to work with XRender, which was what it was set for. It works fine with OpenGL.

To answer your question, I have a 10-way desktop icon; I'm what some people would call a heavy user. I manage lots of servers spread out all over the world; I keep lots of terminals open, running ssh, on lots of desktop.

Again, thanks.

@oshunluvr,

Thank you as well; you replied as I was working wthrough dibl's suggested fix.

Jeff

**dibl** · Aug 23, 2010, 07:10 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by nobaloney

To answer your question, I have a 10-way desktop icon; I'm what some people would call a heavy user. I manage lots of servers spread out all over the world; I keep lots of terminals open, running ssh, on lots of desktop.

I am impressed -- my hat is off!

**Fintan** · Sep 14, 2010, 10:47 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Okay, I know something is missing

I followed this great how-to, except for a few things:
I have nouveau purged and ran:

Code:

sudo update-initramfs -u

- NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.53.run from the cli (NO x-server) gave a message along the lines that it was not compatable with my dirtributuin / kernel or something.
- installing the ppa worked and I got the 185 driver (no 190)

Resolution is fine but no 3D. I tried putting:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
Option "RENDER" "Enable"
EndSection

in /ect/x11/xorg.conf to no effect.

Code:

glxgears

(I know not really relevant) give over 36000.

System settings->desktop-effects = cannot enable...da..da..da

What m I missing.

lspci:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV40 [GeForce 6800 GT] (rev a1)

I know it is old but better than my radeon 9250 pro (that at least had 3D

)

**dibl** · Sep 14, 2010, 02:05 PM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by Fintan

Resolution is fine but no 3D.

Well, so you say ... but

Code:

glxgears

(I know not really relevant) give over 36000.

glxgears is the demonstration of 3D functionality (or at least a demonstration of it). What makes you think you don't have 3D?

BTW, I just downloaded and installed the new 260.19.04 Beta driver -- it seems fine on my rig.

**Fintan** · Sep 15, 2010, 12:16 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Hi Dible

glxgears is the demonstration of 3D functionality (or at least a demonstration of it). What makes you think you don't have 3D?

Well that is what I figure, but system settings->desktop effects says it cannot enable desktop effects due to technical problems, but gives no details.

I can open the nvidia control center though

Edit: updated driver just now to 260.19.04 with:

ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

glxgears is way over 45000 but still no kwin effects.

**PhilT** · Sep 15, 2010, 04:38 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Hi Fintan,

I don't know if you have the same problem I had.

But recently I found out that my ATI Radeon card had become blacklisted so I installed a new Nvidia card. When I installed the drivers (in both Lucid and my Maverick test box) I had a bit of trouble with "Desktop effects are not enabled due to the following technical issues ....." But it didn't say what they were.

After digging around I found that the [Compositing] Section in the .kde/share/config/kwinrc file had the entry Enabled=false. I took a chance and changed it to Enabled=true, saved and restarted the XServer. Hey Presto! All the effects were there.

Now I have fully functional desktop in both systems.

I have no idea how or why that setting got there.

Maybe it was a setup problem resulting from having had the open source drivers installed previously, but even when I Purged them I still got No Effects with the new card - until I changed that setting. Perhaps somebody who knows about all this can explain? Anyway, it may be worth you taking a look at the kwinrc file. Hope it works

**dibl** · Sep 15, 2010, 06:50 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

@PhilT, I think that is exactly right.

Probably, it gets the same result as doing this.

**Fintan** · Sep 15, 2010, 11:25 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Thank you phil.

in fact your suggestion got me one step forward.

[Compositing]
AnimationSpeed=3
Backend=OpenGL
CheckIsSafe=true
DisableChecks=false
Enabled=true
GLDirect=true
GLMode=TFP
GLTextureFilter=1
GLVSync=true
HiddenPreviews=5
OpenGLIsUnsafe=true
XRenderSmoothScale=false

What do I have to edit further??

Now I get a message from system settings->desktop effects:
effects temporarily disabled. with a button to resume which tels me to do:

atl+shift+F12

this enables but when I go into effects the modules don't show up and effects are disabled again.

Thannk you dible:
/etc/x11/xorg.conf

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Default Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
Option "RENDER" "Enable"
EndSection

As I mentioned before this worked to an extent (speeding up glxgears)

The culprit is some where else but close

**dibl** · Sep 15, 2010, 11:45 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

@Fintan, in System Settings > Desktop Effects, on the "Advanced" tab, you have a "Compositing Type" drop-down menu. Try switching to XRender, and "apply" (probably it will still NOT work, and will disable compositing). Then re-enable compositing (and disregard the error), go back to the "Advanced" tab, and change the compositing type back to OpenGL. Now what do you have?

**Fintan** · Sep 15, 2010, 11:46 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

I am fooling with maverick now, have to go back to lucid. Thankx and in 10

**Fintan** · Sep 15, 2010, 11:58 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Okay, setting to xrender actually did work, sort of. screen very slow. Switching back to Opne GL did not. it told me this was not possible and will revert to the previous setting...blah
Please check you x-server (nvidia-setup?) settings, maybe you will have to adjust you advanced settings, especialy the composite type. Okay I am lost

Edit: Notifications also tell me that cube and the 3d window gallery have been turned off.

glxgears give 3400 (instead of 46000+)

**dibl** · Sep 15, 2010, 12:51 PM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

When you installed the Nvidia driver, did you let it write a new /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, or did you use one that you found elsewhere? If the latter, I suggest renaming the existing one for backup purposes, then get out of X with Ctrl-Alt-F1, login there, shut down the X server with

Code:

sudo service kdm stop

and run

Code:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

Then start the X server again with

Code:

sudo service kdm start

and see if there's any improvement.

**Fintan** · Sep 15, 2010, 12:58 PM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

When you installed the Nvidia driver, did you let it write a new /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, or did you use one that you found elsewhere?

I never had a xorg.conf file (at least I never found one on 9.10 upwards) because I was alwas using the default driver with my old radeon 9250 card.

But I will try

Code:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

and see what happens

**Fintan** · Sep 15, 2010, 01:25 PM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Okay, we are getting some where:

xorg.config:
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 260.19.04 (buildmeister@builder103.nvidia.com) Thu Sep 2 19:16:01 PDT 2010

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

set:
Enabled=true

in

kwinrc-> [composite]

at reboot I had kwin 3D but very slow.

still didn't like Open GL in system settings-> desktop effects->advanced (see above)

Set:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
Option "RENDER" "Enable"
EndSection

in xorg.conf.

Reboot. same effect.

glxgears gives 3600

**dibl** · Sep 16, 2010, 06:33 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

I'm comparing your xorg.conf file with mine which is posted at the beginning of this thread. Why don't you add

Code:

Option     "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"

to the "Screen" stanza, and restart X, and see whether that makes any difference. Then, if it's not yet broken, I see that mine does not need the

Code:

Option "RENDER" "Enable"

option, so you might try commenting that out, and restarting again.

But, depending on the GPU clock and memory of your card, we may be approaching its performance limits.

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Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

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