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NVidia driver installation creates a file /etc/X11/xorg.conf that almost certainly needs to be eradicated for Xorg automagic to work correctly with nouveau. Also, nouveau is not the only FOSS video driver for NVidia chips. Another option in Jessie and its derivatives is xorg-xserver-video-modesetting, which was obsoleted before Stretch release by its upstream incorporation into Xorg server 1.17.x. It's not unusual for NVidia chips to work better with the modesetting driver than with nouveau, particularly newer chips.
I think the main problem seems to be this error in the Xorg log:
[ 21.481] (EE) [drm] KMS not enabled
Whatever changes I try, that seems to be where the nouveau driver fails.
How can I enable KMS? I presume when I installed the nVidia driver it disabled it somewhere but I'm buggered if I can find where. The only information I can find after a week of searching seems to be enabling it in the kernel but no real information about how to do that. There's nothing referring to "nomodeset" anywhere I can find it.
I think the main problem seems to be this error in the Xorg log:
[ 21.481] (EE) [drm] KMS not enabled
Normally kernel code produces KMS. It's built-in. It's what the kernel wants to do. If you're not getting KMS, something WRT your GT730 is blocking it.
Quote:
Whatever changes I try, that seems to be where the nouveau driver fails.
How can I enable KMS? I presume when I installed the nVidia driver it disabled it somewhere but I'm buggered if I can find where. The only information I can find after a week of searching seems to be enabling it in the kernel but no real information about how to do that. There's nothing referring to "nomodeset" anywhere I can find it.
Can anyone help?
Everything NVidia driver installation did must be undone, so focusing on NVidia uninstallation instructions is probably key to identifying what hasn't been undone yet. If those are unfruitful, do
Code:
lsmod | sort | grep ouv
This is what that produces on my Stretch using a GeForce 210/GT218:
Code:
button 16384 1 nouveau
drm 360448 4 nouveau,ttm,drm_kms_helper
drm_kms_helper 155648 1 nouveau
i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 nouveau
mxm_wmi 16384 1 nouveau
nouveau 1544192 1
ttm 98304 1 nouveau
video 40960 1 nouveau
wmi 16384 2 mxm_wmi,nouveau
Yours should probably match. If it doesn't, either there's something still backlisted, or needed firmware is missing, or some component of Xorg has been disabled or uninstalled. In either of the first two cases, the initrd needs rebuilding. As you indicated early on that you attended modules configuration and blacklisting, I would not expect it to be the problem, but never say never. Purging xorg.conf and whatever may exist in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ that affects device, monitor or screen would be next. If those are clean, there remains only firmware or software that could be responsible. Look in journalctl and dmesg for clues where to look, such as
Debian (at least my minimal installs) seem to have a blinking cursor on tty1 at boot. Probably a systemd / reserved for X thing. You can control + alt + F2 to get a CLI login prompt. Perhaps the state that you're finding your system in. You could / should probably do an apt-get install --reinstall for the xorg components. Although a lot of times it's just simpler / faster to do a fresh install. #windowsmethodologies
Shadow_7 - Thanks. I have tried "apt-get install --reinstall" for lots of the Xorg components and also dkms. Hasn't made any changes.
mrmazda - Thanks for the detailed reply. I installed everything using "apt-get install" and removed everything using "apt-get remove". So I don't know about uninstallation instructions. Does that not undo everything?
My "lsmod" output is similar to yours:
Code:
lsmod | sort | grep ouv
button 12944 1 nouveau
drm 249998 3 ttm,drm_kms_helper,nouveau
drm_kms_helper 49210 1 nouveau
i2c_algo_bit 12751 1 nouveau
i2c_core 46012 5 drm,i2c_piix4,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,nouveau
mxm_wmi 12515 1 nouveau
nouveau 1122508 0
ttm 77862 1 nouveau
video 18096 1 nouveau
wmi 17339 2 mxm_wmi,nouveau
Would blacklisting just be done in files in "/etc/modprobe.d/"? There doesn't seem anything to that effect in there. These are the Xorg components that are installed:
The log file extracts mention something about nouveau:
Code:
dmesg | grep fail
[ 0.418836] acpi PNP0A03:00: _OSC failed (AE_NOT_FOUND); disabling ASPM
[ 7.522246] sp5100_tco: failed to find MMIO address, giving up.
[ 9.628509] nouveau E[ DRM] failed to create 0x80000080, -22
[ 9.629185] nouveau: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -22
I get the lines below in the CLI on startup, but then I always used to get at least the first two even when it was working before the "apt-get upgrade". Not sure about the last two but I think it used to show them very quickly before bringing up the login screen.
Code:
dmesg | grep nouveau
[ 9.628388] nouveau ![ DEVICE][0000:01:00.0] unknown Kepler chipset
[ 9.628452] nouveau E[ DEVICE][0000:01:00.0] unknown chipset, 0xb06070b1
[ 9.628509] nouveau E[ DRM] failed to create 0x80000080, -22
[ 9.629185] nouveau: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -22
Code:
journalctl | grep fail
No journal files were found.
I have no "xorg.conf" file. It won't load at all if I have one in place. There's nothing about "Monitor", "Screen" or "Device" in "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/".
I've searched for rebuilding initrd as I had no idea what that was. I've never knowingly messed with the kernel before. Is it a simple procedure or something I could easily cause further damage with?
mrmazda - Thanks for the detailed reply. I installed everything using "apt-get install" and removed everything using "apt-get remove". So I don't know about uninstallation instructions. Does that not undo everything?
I think not. https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers suggests apt remove is inadequate, that apt purge is needed, that apt purge would eliminate whatever module(s) the installation process built.
Quote:
My "lsmod" output is similar to yours:
Code:
lsmod | sort | grep ouv
button 12944 1 nouveau
drm 249998 3 ttm,drm_kms_helper,nouveau
drm_kms_helper 49210 1 nouveau
i2c_algo_bit 12751 1 nouveau
i2c_core 46012 5 drm,i2c_piix4,drm_kms_helper,i2c_algo_bit,nouveau
mxm_wmi 12515 1 nouveau
nouveau 1122508 0
ttm 77862 1 nouveau
video 18096 1 nouveau
wmi 17339 2 mxm_wmi,nouveau
You have i2c_core. I don't. Googling that term suggests to me that it is required for the NVidia driver, which in turn appears to be the possible cause of the fail messages.
Quote:
Would blacklisting just be done in files in "/etc/modprobe.d/"? There doesn't seem anything to that effect in there. These are the Xorg components that are installed:
Most of those drivers to not apply to your GT730 and thus can be purged.
Quote:
The log file extracts mention something about nouveau:
Code:
dmesg | grep fail
[ 0.418836] acpi PNP0A03:00: _OSC failed (AE_NOT_FOUND); disabling ASPM
[ 7.522246] sp5100_tco: failed to find MMIO address, giving up.
[ 9.628509] nouveau E[ DRM] failed to create 0x80000080, -22
[ 9.629185] nouveau: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -22
That suggests to me something specific to nvidia drivers remains to be purged.
Quote:
I get the lines below in the CLI on startup, but then I always used to get at least the first two even when it was working before the "apt-get upgrade". Not sure about the last two but I think it used to show them very quickly before bringing up the login screen.
Code:
dmesg | grep nouveau
[ 9.628388] nouveau ![ DEVICE][0000:01:00.0] unknown Kepler chipset
[ 9.628452] nouveau E[ DEVICE][0000:01:00.0] unknown chipset, 0xb06070b1
[ 9.628509] nouveau E[ DRM] failed to create 0x80000080, -22
[ 9.629185] nouveau: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -22
Something seems to be blocking implementation of the drivers you need.
Quote:
Code:
journalctl | grep fail
No journal files were found.
I have no "xorg.conf" file. It won't load at all if I have one in place. There's nothing about "Monitor", "Screen" or "Device" in "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/".
I've searched for rebuilding initrd as I had no idea what that was. I've never knowingly messed with the kernel before. Is it a simple procedure or something I could easily cause further damage with?
Thanks. I've done everything from https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphi...ase_of_failure. I thought I'd gotten rid of all the nvidia stuff already but there were still a few in there. No joy though and "i2c_core" is still there under "lsmod". I tried "rmmod i2c_core" but it couldn't remove it because of its dependencies. How can I safely get rid of that "i2c_core" module?
I'm the antithesis of an NVidia expert. I never install its proprietary driver. Nevertheless, I believe the instructions on that page are incomplete. AIUI, installing that driver either builds a new kernel module, rebuilds a kernel module, or installs a kernel module, and rebuilds the kernel's initrd. Thus one would expect that to need to be undone too, which simply apt removing the driver package would not be expected to do. You would need to recover the original module, or remove the extra module, and rebuild the kernel's initrd. So what I would try next is to force re-installation of your kernel, which should freshen /lib/modules/, and build a new clean initrd.
If that doesn't work, find a forum where NVidia drivers and their removal are discussed, as the topic here doesn't seem to be attracting the experts you apparently need. Also, search the Internet for NVidia driver removal is discussed. Surely you're not the first to have a problem eradicating it.
I've done "apt-get dist-upgrade" and also "update-initramfs -u". Do either of those fulfil forcing reinstallation of the kernel? Apologies for the noobish question.
Given that it has dependencies, would it be wise to "modprobe -rf i2c_core" or am I going to break something doing that?
NVidia driver installation creates a file /etc/X11/xorg.conf that almost certainly needs to be eradicated for Xorg automagic to work correctly with nouveau.
Check to see if there is a "nvidia-xconfig" program in your distro, there is in FreeBSD.
Installing that and running the command nvidia-xconfig will make an xorg.conf.nvidia.xconfig.original file in /etc/x11 that overwrites the xorg.conf file and sets up your screens for nvidia. Here's my /etc/X11/xorg.conf from where I set my nvidia card up the other day:
Thanks for your help everyone. After much wrestling with this I just can't get Nouveau/KMS to work, so I gave up and tried the Nvidia drivers again. This time they worked and my desktop is back at the proper resolution. Fingers crossed!
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