[SOLVED] Gtk-warning: cannot open display:

Vkthor · 01-30-2011, 06:33 PM

Hi.

I was running Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick with no big problems till last 3 days ago.
The update manager checked some updates to install and after installing them, I had no graphic desktop any more. Only the command line.
:-(
I tried to recover it by starting the X again.

Code:

startx

but did not worked

So I've tried to install the nVidia driver again. I looked at nVidia Linux drivers site for how to do it and Ubuntu documentation and when I tried to

Code:

gksudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

i just could not use gedit. It cannot open display. I googled for three days but could not solve it. I found some similar answers here at LQ but none was similar to my situation or worked even when I tried.

Can someone please help me? Thanks.

JIT.
As this is my first post I should present myself. My name is Vkthor and I am a 50 years old man from Portugal. I worked with computers since my 18's (yes, before MS-DOS time) but I am just a newbie with Linux. I am a translator and yes, almost all my work is backed up on external drives. Not the small but still very important X and Tomboy notes GTD's and other stuff I don't know where in the HD they can be hidden :-)

PS. No fresh install please. My CD doesn't work since Karmic updates. :-( and my old machine does not want to boot from a live usb stick

stress_junkie · 01-30-2011, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vkthor

The update manager checked some updates to install and after installing them, I had no graphic desktop any more. Only the command line.
I tried to recover it by starting the X again.

Code:

startx

but did not worked
...
i just could not use gedit. It cannot open display.

gedit isn't going to work because it depends on the X software.

You could use vi or nano or pico to edit text files from the command line.

Code:

sudo vi /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

or

Code:

sudo nano /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

or

Code:

sudo pico /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Vkthor · 01-31-2011, 07:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stress_junkie

gedit isn't going to work because it depends on the X software.

You could use vi or nano or pico to edit text files from the command line.
(snip)

Hi.
Tank you for your answer.
Although I could not solve my problem because there was no /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common file, it worked. I should have checked it before but I really forgot.

BTW.
- the VI editor, opened but could not type anything, even the quiting 'q' :-( I had to reboot.
- the pico and nano are *the same* (GNU nano 2.2.4 in my system). It remembered me the "old" WordStar :-)

Best regards.

tommcd · 01-31-2011, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vkthor

I was running Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick with no big problems till last 3 days ago.
The update manager checked some updates to install and after installing them, I had no graphic desktop any more. Only the command line. ...
So I've tried to install the nVidia driver again. ...

There was yet another kernel update for Ubuntu 10.10 recently. The reason that X failed on you is because you installed the nvidia driver from nvidia.com. If you install the nvidia driver manually, as you did, then every time there is a kernel update for Ubuntu you will need to reinstall the nvidia driver.
If you had installed the nvidia driver from the Ubuntu repositories, then it would be automatically reinstalled when ever there is a kernel update for Ubuntu. This keeps things simple because Ubuntu's package manager keeps track of the driver.

If you have a nvidia GForce 6 series or newer card, you could just install the mvidia-current driver from the Ubuntu repos:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/nvidia-current
GForce 5 cards would use the nvidia-173 driver:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/nvidia-173
And older cards would use nvidia-96:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/nvidia-96
The only real reason to use the driver from nvidia.com is if you have a very new nvidia card that needs the latest driver, or if the driver in the Ubuntu repos will not work for you for some reason.

And welcome to the LQ forums!

Vkthor · 02-03-2011, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommcd

There was yet another kernel update for Ubuntu 10.10 recently.

Hi
Thank you for your answer. Yes, I've seen it in the update manager but I'm still "afraid" of installing all them right now. :-)
It was hard to bring back my desktop to live again since last update, but I'm going to be a command line expert and laugh a lot when remembering this small issues. But now I must go slowly and ask for help a lot :-D

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommcd

The reason that X failed on you is because you installed the nvidia driver from nvidia.com. If you install the nvidia driver manually, as you did, then every time there is a kernel update for Ubuntu you will need to reinstall the nvidia driver.
If you had installed the nvidia driver from the Ubuntu repositories, then it would be automatically reinstalled when ever there is a kernel update for Ubuntu. This keeps things simple because Ubuntu's package manager keeps track of the driver.

I usually don't like manual installs but I have no luck with upgrades. My old nVidia worked fine until Lucyd Lynx but after updating to Maverick my desktop disappeared. It was the first of many times. The only way I could have it back was manual installing the driver. I read somewhere that it was caused by a certain nouveau open source driver. I think I've completely removed it after searching for a solution in thousands (not really!) of sites. Then I've installed the nVidia driver and it worked (more or less). I've desktop, some effects but no normal or extra visual or Compiz effects.

The System > Administration > nVidia X server settings are working and I could get the 1440x900 screen display resolution saved but... System > Administration > Additional drivers tells me that "This system is *NOT* using proprietary drivers" :-(
With green dots I have nvidia_96 and nvidia_current. Both have the message "This driver was activated but is *NOT* being used." The only button option is [Deactivate]. of course the [Help] and [Close] buttons are also there. There is no "Activate" way.

I'm afraid that if I deactivated them I'll loose my desktop again... :-( I really don't know.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommcd

If you have ... And older cards would use nvidia-96:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/nvidia-96
The only real reason to use the driver from nvidia.com is if you have a very new nvidia card that needs the latest driver, or if the driver in the Ubuntu repos will not work for you for some reason.

My nVidia card was very good, but now is *VERY* old :-)
It is a GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X with 128MB RAM running@274MHz
and the driver is NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module 96.43.19 compiled Wed Oct 27 19:01:34 PDT 2010
I don't know what to do. I'd like to have some of the Compiz effects back, like previews but I can live without them :-( I think!

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommcd

And welcome to the LQ forums!

Tank you.
Best regards.

tommcd · 02-03-2011, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vkthor

I usually don't like manual installs but I have no luck with upgrades. My old nVidia worked fine until Lucyd Lynx but after updating to Maverick my desktop disappeared.

I always do clean installs of Ubuntu. It is the best way to avoid problems with upgrading. I never do dist-upgrades.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vkthor

The only way I could have it back was manual installing the driver. I read somewhere that it was caused by a certain nouveau open source driver. I think I've completely removed it ...

You should blacklist nouveau when you install the nvidia driver manually. When you install the nvidia driver from the Ubuntu repos then nouveau is blacklisted automatically for you. You need to blacklist nouveau yourself when you install the nvidia driver manually. See this: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/howto-inst...ucid-lynx.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vkthor

System > Administration > Additional drivers tells me that "This system is *NOT* using proprietary drivers" :-(

The: System > Administration > Additional Drivers app only keeps track of drivers installed from the Ubuntu repos. So if you install the nvidia driver manually it won't be listed there.
To see if you have direct rendering enabled run in the terminal: glxinfo | grep -i render

Code:

bash-4.1$ glxinfo | grep -i render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce 8400 GS/PCI/SSE2/3DNOW!
    GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_copy_depth_to_color, GL_NV_copy_image, 
    GL_NVX_conditional_render, GL_NVX_gpu_memory_info,

You should get an output similar to what I posted. The key info there is "direct rendering: yes", and it should list your video card on the "OpenGL renderer string" line.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vkthor

With green dots I have nvidia_96 and nvidia_current. Both have the message "This driver was activated but is *NOT* being used."

You should not have any nvidia drivers from the Ubuntu repos installed if you have installed the driver from nvidia.com. See the link I provided from Ubuntu-Geek's site on the nvidia driver.

Write back if you need more help.

Vkthor · 02-04-2011, 02:07 PM

Hi.
Thanks for your answer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommcd

I always do clean installs of Ubuntu. It is the best way to avoid problems with upgrading. I never do dist-upgrades.

I can't do that anymore :-(
Remember my first post?

Quote:

PS. No fresh install please. My CD doesn't work since Karmic updates. :-( and my old machine does not want to boot from a live usb stick

I did not know this when I first installed Ubuntu. Now I think it's late. :-(

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommcd

You should blacklist nouveau when you install the nvidia driver manually. ... See this: http://www.ubuntugeek.com/howto-inst...ucid-lynx.html

I've done that before. This is my blacklist last lines

Quote:

# to install nVIDIA drivers manually by Vkthor
blacklist vga16fb
blacklist nouveau
blacklist lbm-nouveau
blacklist nvidia-173
blacklist nvidia-256
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv

But I've just done this again:

Quote:

3) Uninstall any previously installed Nvidia drivers:

Code:

sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-*

(done)

4) Reboot your computer (done)

5) When an error message pops up saying that Ubuntu cannot load Nvidia drivers, choose Exit to terminal (Exit to console) (No pop up here. Just tty1) :-)

6) Login and cd to the directory where you saved your file (done)

7)Install drivers

Code:

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-195.36.24-pkg2.run

(not this one but mine NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.19-pkg1.run) (done)

8)Start GDM

Code:

sudo service gdm start

(done)

(ops!... the gdm was already running. What to do now? startx... yes! my *old* desktop appeared) :-)

but... nothing changed. Could not apply any visual effects. What does this mean? WAR I thought :-)
I went to Synaptic and searched for all nvidia listed there. I completely removed
- xserver-xorg-video-nv
- smartdimmer
- jockey-common
- jockey-gtk
and leaved only libvdpau1. It seemed too strange to me :-)

Apply, reboot... and my heart stopped. A black screen nothing more... Worst than the windows blue screen... no keyboard, no mouse, no monitor, no ideas... well unpower the pc tower and see what can happen. LOL

I now have a new strange thing. At startup there is a power on error. The BIOS setup has an error. Could not find anything strange, reverted to last saved options, but did not work. Maybe [F1] to bypass... and Yes! Everything is back. (No, not everything...)

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommcd

The: System > Administration > Additional Drivers app only keeps track of drivers installed from the Ubuntu repos. So if you install the nvidia driver manually it won't be listed there.

Well, now I don't have any proprietary drivers installed, nor the menu Additional drivers... it disappeared. And I still can't have visual effects.

New idea. Add the http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/nvidia-96 to repositories. No way. It does not beguin with deb. :-( Where does this link move me? Mmmm... a i386 download link. Try it... bla bla bla... read this:

Quote:

If you are running Ubuntu, it is strongly suggested to use a package manager like aptitude or synaptic to download and install packages, instead of doing so manually via this website.

You should be able to use any of the listed mirrors by adding a line to your /etc/apt/sources.list like this:

deb http://ubuntu.mirror.cambrium.nl/ubuntu/ maverick main restricted

changed the ubuntu.mirrorcambrium... to one server here in Portugal and updated again by the synaptic. Installed the jockey, the additional drivers menu returned, I'm happy, I thought. The nVidia proprietary driver is installed, activated and (it says) working but there is no way to have visual effects. None. :-)

In the meanwhile I checked the bios setup again and found that the a legacy 720Mb floppy driver was the first in the boot sequence. This needs a LOL :-D

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommcd

To see if you have direct rendering enabled run in the terminal: glxinfo | grep -i render
You should get an output similar to what I posted. The key info there is "direct rendering: yes", and it should list your video card on the "OpenGL renderer string" line.

This was what I've got:

Code:

vkthor@myPC:~$ glxinfo | grep -i render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X/AGP/SSE2
vkthor@myPC:~$

I think maybe the Compiz is not working now, or not something :-D I don't like to give up but I've rebooted this computer so many times today that I'm looking back to my laptop with Vista LOL

Tanks for your help again
Regards.
V.

tommcd · 02-04-2011, 08:06 PM

Your output from <glxinfo | grep -i render> indicates that your nvidia driver is working.
So what nvidia driver do you have installed now? Is it the one from nvidia.com? Or is it the one from the Ubuntu repos?
I just remembered that there have been problems with the nvidia 96 driver in the Ubuntu repos. See this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1590367
If you have the nvidia driver installed from nvidia.com I would just leave that alone, since it seems to be working.

I have no experience with compiz. I prefer a fast and light desktop to needless eye candy effects. Here is the nvidia wiki tutorial on compiz if it will help: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Co...r/CompizFusion
There is also compiz-check to help you evaluate compiz problems: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=799070 I have no experience with compiz-check either; but it may help you figure out why compiz is not working.