DEbian etch, problem with new nvidia driver
 

I installed nvidia drivers using apt-get and they were working just fine, but when in check the nvidia site I found a newer one with an installer. I decided to give a try and install it. It worked perfectly, the new driver was faster and rendered much better. Then problem was when I reboot my computer, my nvidia driver didn't work anymore and got a black screen instead, I re-installed it and worked again, until i reboot my laptop again. Can anyone help me to solve this problem? I don't really know what could be wrong, I don't see any errors in the xconf logs. But I saw many errors in the log file from the nvidia-installer. Any help would be appreciated. TIA.

did you remove the nvidia drivers installed with apt-get?

I had a bunch of issues with the nVidia driver and xorg until I installed and used Envy - I'm running Etch and another nVidia box on Lenny.
It really made the whole process painless- as well as kernel upgrades fairly easy.

i removed nvidia-glx and kernel-common and nvidia-settings, anything else that i should remove? I'll check that envy thing. thanks

does anyone know how to debug this kind of things? I can't fix anything if i dont know what it is.

You could start with: grep "EE" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Do: /etc/init.d/gdm stop
and: /etc/init.d/gdm start
from terminal and see if it spits out errors to the console or the xorg log file.

you have to purge the old drivers when you uninstall with apt-get, otherwise the driver from nvidia will break every time you reboot.

I have had issues with the Nvidia installer and Debian.

Look in the nvidia installer log. Look to see if you see anything related to PARA_VIRT (spelling???, im at work) (the para virtualization support I am assuming). You cannot have that enabled when using the nvidia installer. It will not complete the linking of the driver file.

To get around this, I have just been taking the debian config, changing that option to no then compiling my own kernel from the debian sources.

Hope this helps

He won't have Kernel para-virtualization related problems while running Etch. It still has the 2.6.18 Kernels, which did not enable this.

Just to also relate: Para-virtualization modules enabled in the 2.6.21 Kernels weren't the real problem. The problem was that since it was a new feature being tested, they made it a requirement for any other Kernel modules being loaded along to have GNU certification, which NVidia does not do to their NVidia.Ko kernel module. It therefore could not be built.

A 3rd party site added a GNU certified makefile to the NVidia installer's NVidia.Ko module. Using those patched drivers makes para-virtualization stay supported in the Kernel and yet allows NVidia drivers to build their needed Kernel module as well. All this will be solved permanently when using 2.6.22 Kernels, which removed the GNU certification requirement.

All moot in this case. His problem is elsewhere. He likely just needs to ensure Restricted Driver Manager is disabled and has uninstalled all previous nvidia related installs so that the official Nvidia script can proceed properly.

Edit:

Since this is Debian Etch and not Ubuntu, there is not Restricted Drivers Manager to worry about, unless you have taken on installing it yourself from the Ubuntu repositories. You probably haven't done that!

If NVidia is gone as far as aptitude search nvidia is concerned, then simply following the instructions to install the official driver should work out for you. As stated before:

Ctrl-alt-F1

Login as root and put in your password.

/etc/init.d/gdm stop

OR:

/etc/init.d/kdm stop

cd /home/your-user-name

sh NVIDIA(hit tab so the rest fills out for you).run (Hit enter.)

Say no to having it search the net for a kernel. Say yes to letting it build a kernel module. Say no to having it run nvidia-xconfig.

When done run:

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Go through it, choosing appropriate responses and choose the NVIDIA driver and the correct monitor settings. I use Advanced for that and enter in the Vertical and Horizontal refresh ranges from my monitor's manual.

When done type:

reboot

And when the system reboot you should see the NVidia splash when X starts and you can run stuff like glxinfo and glxgears to test things out. You need to have mesa-utils (maybe its mesa-tools, I forget) to have those tests available. Install them with aptitude if you don't have them. Debian doesn't install them with xorg by default.

Try it. Report back if successful or not. If not, a more experienced guy or gal than myself will need to help further. That's how it worked well for me.

Edit -

IMPORTANT! Have build-essential, the matching linux-headers for your Kernel version, and the dev packages for xorg (I had those devs without installing any extras) installed as well. Don't see how you had things working without that anyway, but I'm just trying to cover all the bases I can think of. It's all in that quoted post from nvnews.

The OP had no trouble installing the drivers from nvidias site and gettting them to work, the problem rears it's head after a reboot.. I had this same problem it's related to not purging the nvidia-glx package. honest...

Thanks a lot to all of you guys for the help. I was able to install the new nvidia driver following your advice, I don't see the nvidia screen when first loading up X and beryl still doesn't work like before but it's a beginning. I wonder if the fact that I don't see the NVIDIA screen and the fact that beryl doesn't work as expected is related. Does anyone know?

Thanks a lot to all of you guys for the help. I was able to install the new nvidia driver following your advice, I don't see the nvidia screen when first loading up X and beryl still doesn't work like before but it's a beginning. I wonder if the fact that I don't see the NVIDIA screen and the fact that beryl doesn't work as expected is related. Does anyone know?

I don't know whether you've been reading the various installation and troubleshooting guides. If so, I'm sure you've run glxinfo, glxgears, glxinfo | grep direct, checked out your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to see that your running of dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg had placed the appropriate lines in there, etc, etc.

It's entirely possible that you have not even checked in aptitude whether all the nvidia related packages and kernel have been purged, and so the NVidia installer had been unsuccessful at completely installing all the various files so they work as designed.

Beryl not working is not really an indication as that might not be configured and installed correctly either. The checks noted above would be reliable indications of a successful NVidia driver install. The driver listed in xorg.conf would be NVIDIA (not nv or vesa), NVidia GLX would be the OpenGL driver (not mesa) and the line direct rendering yes would appear in glxinfo. And glxgears would show some nice frame rates.

Just to enlighten a bit more, you can remove the official NVidia driver by first doing that

ctrl-alt-F1
login:root
(your password)
/etc/init.d/kdm(or gdm) stop
nvidia-installer --uninstall

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Change the driver to nv (or vesa, but nv's better if your card is supported)

reboot

Check in aptitude (aptitude search nvidia) and aptitude purge whatever it found that had an i (for installed) in it.

Then you can try reinstalling, as long as you have build-essential, xserver-xorg-dev, linux-headers (for your kernel version), that pkg thing I can't remember now exactly the name, all installed. The mesa-utils give you that glx-info stuff but it's optional. A good way to check things though, as you've read here.

If everything except Beryl works, just purge all the beryl, emerald, etc stuff and start over. I'd recommend Compiz Fusion at this time as it's the wave of the now instead of the past. Shame's repo always worked well for me, and the snapshot repo (which is the more conservative of the two) might work on Etch. His unstable repo will not. Otherwise, there is an alternative repo available. Just check them out at the compiz fusion websites and forums. They even have a nice wiki started now.

If you have not tried Envy- I would really give it a go. I had similar problems on Etch until I used it.

i tired envy on a test box last night....it reported that is is not designed for my system....

however, the NVIDIA-INSTALLER work fine for me....NVIDIA MX440