Ubuntu 8.04 + Nivdia geforce 8800 GTX drivers not working
 

Greetings everyone :).
I've ran into a problem. What I'm trying to do is set up my Nvidia drivers. I use Envy to download the proper drivers and then I enable them but when i reboot I get an error and I have to go back to vesa drivers.
any help would be very much appreciated!

Did you install/enable the restricted version of the nvidia driver from the repos before doing that?

I had the same problem, but I installed the drivers from nvidia's site after I had installed the ones from the restricted drivers.

I had to get rid of the restricted drivers version. Then do it. Also, there is a init.d entry for nvidia-kernel that you will need to disable in /etc/rc2.d. It appears to load the incorrect kernel driver (the restricted version) then when X starts it tries to load the version that you installed the other way. It causes X to go ballistic.

Hope this piece of information helps.

I uninstalled everything then I reinstalled everything with envy. I think thast not the restricted drivers right? And Here is my /etc/init.d/nvidia-kernel. can you show me what I need to change please?
[QUOTE]]#!/bin/sh

PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin

# How many cards?
[ -r /etc/default/nvidia-kernel ] && . /etc/default/nvidia-kernel

# test if anything is requested
if [ -z "$NVIDIA_CARDS" ] || [ "$NVIDIA_CARDS" -lt 1 ]; then
# Nothing to do but exit.
exit 0
fi

make_nodes () {
if ! [ -e /dev/nvidiactl ]; then
mknod -m 0660 /dev/nvidiactl c 195 255
chgrp video /dev/nvidiactl
fi
for i in $(seq 0 $(($NVIDIA_CARDS - 1))); do
if ! [ -e /dev/nvidia$i ]; then
mknod -m 0660 /dev/nvidia$i c 195 $i
chgrp video /dev/nvidia$i
fi
done
}

case "$1" in
start|restart|reload|force-reload)
make_nodes
;;

stop)
:
;;

*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/nvidia-kernel {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}"
exit 1
;;
esac

exit 0[/QUOTE

Is there a file named S??nvidia-kernel in the /etc/rc2.d directory? The ?? are numbers related to the order in which things are loaded. I think mine was 20.

If it is there, it is a link to the file in /etc/init.d so simply remove the S??nvidia-kernel file in the /etc/rc2.d directory. Make a note of the number in case you need to recreate that link if this doesn't work.

Hope this helps..

Ok, I see the file but when I try to delete it it says that I don't have permission :(.

You will not be able to do that as your standard user...

go to a terminal and use the sudo command.

sudo rm /etc/rc2.d/S??nvidia-kernel

it will prompt for your password to execute this.

Hope this helps.

Ok thanks I did that and then I ran sudo nvidia-xconfig and restarted the xorg. when it reloaded it like froze at this point Running local boot scripts (/etc/rc.local) Then it made me go back to vesa drivers. But thats what it's always done even before I deleted the /etc/rc2.d/S20nvidia-kernel.

I looked up the envy, I assume you loaded envyng and not the envy. envyng is the one for hardy heron. Anyway.

When that freeze happens and you have to use the vesa driver, does your /var/log/Xorg.log file have any errors. If so, post the log file and people can look to see if anything sticks out.

I am imagining you are getting an error regarding cannot load nvidia module, but look and see. If that error is occuring, as I said post the log.

This is kind of wierd.

Yea sorry for that I am using envyng. I don't have a chance to look at my log :/. When it happens it makes me change my drivers right away. I get this box that comes up on my screen before I even have a chance to log in.

Might I also add that this same problem was happening when I was using 7.10 but somehow (I can't even remember) I got it to work! but after a few months something happened and it started to act odd again and I went back to Vesa because I didn't want to fix it. So when I updated to 8.04 the problem is still here but hopefully it can be fixed :D.