[SOLVED] Trouble installing latest Nvidia driver on Debian Squeeze
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Yeah, nouveau is still there preventing the nvidia module to load. As I said before, to solve this, you can either purge the nouveau driver, or edit /etc/default/grub to prevent the module from loading at boot (if you follow this option, you probably must execute update-grub as root after editing the file). If things don't work after you follow one of these fixes, reinstall the proprietary driver like you did the last time.
BTW, with the method you're following (installing the latest driver directly from nvidia.com), anytime there are new kernel upgrades you will have to reinstall the driver (not hard, just a bit annoying). If you install the proprietary driver that is in the repositories, it will automatically be reinstalled each time a new kernel upgrade arrives (however, this driver version is a bit older than the one from nvidia.com). Just so you know
Greetings.
Last edited by Hungry ghost; 11-12-2010 at 01:08 PM.
Reason: a parenthesis was missing
I did purge nouveau as suggested by odiseo77 in post #9. The procedure did report it would be nesisary to remove the following " xserver-xorg-video-all and I let it do it.
No results.
Yes, I scratched my head a bit after kernel upgrade in Lenny.
Here is /etc/modules, nothing here but loop
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
# Parameters can be specified after the module name.
loop
Here is xorg.conf
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 260.19.12 (buildmeister@builder101) Fri Oct 8 13:54:10 PDT 2010
I did purge nouveau as suggested by odiseo77 in post #9. The procedure did report it would be nesisary to remove the following " xserver-xorg-video-all and I let it do it.
No results.
Yes, I scratched my head a bit after kernel upgrade in Lenny.
Here is /etc/modules, nothing here but loop
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
# Parameters can be specified after the module name.
loop
Here is xorg.conf
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 260.19.12 (buildmeister@builder101) Fri Oct 8 13:54:10 PDT 2010
I see no GLX stuff, rendering and monitor reselutions, probobly because I have not run Nvidia configuration program yet.
Thanks,
Jon
You ABSOLUTELY must run the autoconfiguration. Remove/rename the current xorg.conf. Let it generate from scratch again.
Anyway, the glx modules should be loaded automatically. Although i do have a modules section in my xorg.conf generated by 256.53 (i have the latest driver but i did not update xorg.conf):
So redo the steps (check if done if you previously did them):
- First MAKE SURE YOU DONT HAVE ANY NVIDIA related debian package installed. Remove them if any.
- Download the appropiate Linux driver from Nvidias site - you seem to have 7100, that is the latest driver, 260.x.
Preparation:
- Set a root password (sudo passwd root) because you will need it in the later steps and will help you anytime when you are asked for privilege elevation for certain tasks such as the graphical users/groups settings. Set the current users password if you want it simple, but anyway you must set a password.
- Install the kernel headers package (run the command just to make sure):
sudo aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r`
Installing:
All settings below have to be made as root (or with sudo)
1. link the needed gcc as detailed above
2. blacklist nouveau as detailed above
3. remove/rename xorg.conf
4. Disable kms:
for grub2:
4.1. disable kms - in the /etc/default/grub file modify the
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT line to look like this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet modeset=0"
4.2. run "update-grub" (this is important because otherwise you will not have this setting applied at boot).
4.3 Or if you have grub legacy installed modify the appropiate lines in /boot/grub/menu.lst
5. reboot in recovery (single-user) mode.
6. install the driver from the nvidia installer from their site, let it configure your xorg.conf, it will create one if doesnt exists. here make sure everything goes ok.
7. reboot again with the "reboot" command.
And please post here what you have done for each step and possible error messages.
Last edited by gradinaruvasile; 11-13-2010 at 03:30 AM.
Ok, I may have a problem dealing with this. I certainly do get my self in trouble.
"- First MAKE SURE YOU DONT HAVE ANY NVIDIA related debian package installed. Remove them if any."
Ater I installed Squeeze and before I installed the 260.xxx driver,I opened synaptic and it had a package "Nvidia support package", I may be incorect in the name as it was a few weeks ago. Problem is I installed it figuing it sounded like I needed it. I can not run Synaptic to find it's name as it runs in the GUI I can not start.
So, I did the folowing but it does not show up.
dpkg --get-selections | grep Nvidia which only reports the Nvidia kernell modual.
The current instalation procedure, reports it removes the old driver before it installes the new, or in this case the same one will be used (260.xxx). Do you feel I should ignore this installed package and follow your suggested procedure allong with the modification to grub2 boot menu?
If you feel it best to reinstall OS I can do in less than an hour, not a big dealas I have nothing insalled or configured yet. If you do suggest this, could you please suggest an instalation method for the 260.xx driver that will be not too dificult for myself as I am relitively new to linux. I used "The Trooper's" # 2 method to install nvidia drivers. Thanks so much, Jon
Not sure which is this nvidia package you installed, but it certainly could be causing problems (it's not a good idea to mix the nvidia related packages that are in the repositories, with the binary driver downloaded form nvidia.com). To clear the doubt about which package you installed, you can execute dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia (will show you all the nvidia related packages installed in your system). You can also execute this command, but with the term nouveau instead of "nvidia", to search for nouveau related packages installed.
Something that puzzles me a bit is that you say you purged the nouveau driver, but your xorg log still shows the "nouveau" module is being loaded. Are you sure you purged it?
As for the method to install the driver, when I've used the binary from nvidia.com, this is the procedure I've followed:
Code:
aptitude install module-assistant build-essential
aptitude purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
export CC=gcc-4.3
sh name_of_the_nvidia_installer #let it write your xorg.conf
BTW, I think you can still use the GUI if you edit your xorg.conf (from the CLI, with nano) and change "nvidia" for "nv" or "vesa" in the driver section (it will load a generic driver, just don't forget to change it back to "nvidia" after you install the driver and the problem is solved).
Greetings and good luck.
***
edit: I just installed the binary from nvidia.com to test, and this was my procedure:
Code:
aptitude install build-essential module-assistant
export CC=gcc-4.3
sh path_to_the_nvidia_installer
Then, edited /etc/default/grub (nano /etc/default/grub), located the following line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet" and added nomodeset, so it looks like this:
Code:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet nomodeset"
Then ran
Code:
update-grub
reboot
(Worked here).
Greetings.
Last edited by Hungry ghost; 11-14-2010 at 07:28 PM.
I will edit the how-to to reflect the above.
Good work odiseo77.
Feel free to have a look through the how-to, and let me know if you think anything else needs changing.
Last edited by the trooper; 11-15-2010 at 04:46 AM.
I just installed 64-bit Squeeze with an Nvidia 6200 and have the 195 drivers installed and compiz up and running. I just used this repo to install the drivers; http://frickelplatz.de/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
Hm. I just had to install Debian to another partition (my hdd seems to be failing) and the nvidia driver worked without problems. I used the installer from the site.
First i blacklisted nouveau, rebooted in single user mode, installed the driver, rebooted again and thats all. No problems whatsoever.
Hello folks,
I tried smxi according to The Troopers instructions. I first made sure grub was corect with the nomodeset deal and then did update grub for good measure. I assume from the directions it is suppse to run after the "cd /usr/local/bin && wget -Nc smxi.org/smxi. here is the results I get.
root@DebSid:/usr/local/bin# cd /usr/local/bin && wget -Nc smxi.org/smxi
--2010-11-19 22:41:09-- http://smxi.org/smxi
Resolving smxi.org... 209.197.72.47
Connecting to smxi.org|209.197.72.47|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: http://smxi.org/sm/smxi [following]
--2010-11-19 22:41:10-- http://smxi.org/sm/smxi
Reusing existing connection to smxi.org:80.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 128518 (126K) [text/plain]
Saving to: “smxi”
100%[======================================>] 128,518 279K/s in 0.5s
When there was no smxi running I figured I just need execute smxi by typing as follows, with the following results. I can't understand why I get a "Permission denied" error if I am running terminal as root.
When there was no smxi running I figured I just need execute smxi by typing as follows, with the following results. I can't understand why I get a "Permission denied" error if I am running terminal as root.
How embarrising, I printed out the directions and the printer cut off the rest of the syntax to start smxi.
smxi ran perfectly and everthing seems fine now. got the newest, not the beta driver installed perfectly. What an outstanding super service smxi is, so simple with a lot of other things there too. Thanks to all who helped, and especialy The person who twisted my arm to try smxi. This latest driver configured so easely with duel monitors with difret reselutions and contrats ratio. Screen bright and crisp and I haven't even tweeked it yet. Thanks, Jon
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