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SDL Initialization has Failed - Stopping many Games from Loading

I have a large number of games installed via the repositories on Ubuntu 8.10 how ever many of them throw an error similar to this upon trying to load them:

Code:

Error : SDL initialization failed

Reason : No available video device

I have a NVidia 9500M GS Graphics card and I am running the 180.xx drivers. Any one have ideas ideas how I can correct this error?

Thanks,
~Jeff

I found this thread which appears to be the same issue I am having... how ever I do not under stand the solution that was posted anyone mind explaining how I can apply this to Ubuntu 8.10

~Jeff

well, in the most layman terms i can come up with (because its all i know!) whatever points SDL to your video card, has gone amuck. and is no longer pointing to the correct (or any) thing. it suggests reading the documentation provided on the sdl website to determine what files those are, and how to point it back to the right thing.

Yea I understood thats what it was saying... how ever all the guides on the SDL site are about programing not about reconfiguring it on Linux/Ubuntu. Short of formatting is there any easy way to reconfigure this?

~Jeff

sounds like nvidia drivers either not installed or not configured. i wonder whats ur xorg.conf says?

sudo gedit etc/X11/xorg.conf

xorg.conf output:

Code:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings

# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder58)  Tue Jan 27 12:48:44 PST 2009



# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig

# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder58)  Tue Jan 27 12:47:59 PST 2009



Section "ServerLayout"

    Identifier    "Layout0"

    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0

    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"

    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"

EndSection



Section "Module"

    Load          "dbe"

    Load          "extmod"

    Load          "type1"

    Load          "freetype"

    Load          "glx"

EndSection



Section "ServerFlags"

    Option        "Xinerama" "0"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier    "Mouse0"

    Driver        "mouse"

    Option        "Protocol" "auto"

    Option        "Device" "/dev/psaux"

    Option        "Emulate3Buttons" "no"

    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection



Section "InputDevice"

    Identifier    "Keyboard0"

    Driver        "kbd"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "Monitor0"

    VendorName    "Unknown"

    ModelName      "Seiko"

    HorizSync      30.0 - 75.0

    VertRefresh    60.0

    Option        "DPMS"

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier    "Monitor1"

    VendorName    "Unknown"

    ModelName      "WDE WestinghouseSK-32H570D"

    HorizSync      30.0 - 61.0

    VertRefresh    50.0 - 75.0

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier    "Device0"

    Driver        "nvidia"

    VendorName    "NVIDIA Corporation"

    BoardName      "GeForce 9500M GS"

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier    "Device1"

    Driver        "nvidia"

    VendorName    "NVIDIA Corporation"

    BoardName      "GeForce 9500M GS"

    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"

    Screen          1

EndSection



Section "Screen"



# Removed Option "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

    Identifier    "Screen0"

    Device        "Device0"

    Monitor        "Monitor0"

    DefaultDepth    24

    Option        "TwinView" "0"

    Option        "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

    SubSection    "Display"

        Depth      24

    EndSubSection

EndSection



Section "Screen"



# Removed Option "metamodes" "CRT: 1366x768 +0+0"

    Identifier    "Screen1"

    Device        "Device1"

    Monitor        "Monitor1"

    DefaultDepth    24

    Option        "TwinView" "0"

    Option        "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

    SubSection    "Display"

        Depth      24

    EndSubSection

EndSection

See anything that looks out of place?

~Jeff

I guess SDL fails to pick one device out of two, maybe, back up xorg.conf and remove section Device1 - which will probably will be you video out, see if 3d acceleration comes back.

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 9500M GS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device1"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 9500M GS"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Screen 1
EndSection

Removing the second device does not change anything :( any other ideas?

~Jeff

Funny enough, just last nite i got the same problem - suddenly no 3D acceleration at all anywere. Fixed it by installing latest kernel - 2.6.27-13-generic. 'course had to reinstall nvidia drivers. Lost sound too, but reinstalled ALSA. Now everything's back up running. Doom3,Quake4, UT2004 have no probs. Even had a good 2 hour session playing Enemy territoy.
That got me thinking, the way Ubuntu updater handles new kernel versions, if choosing all default options while updating, some users might well end up booting updated kernel thus breaking thier nvidia module. As a relatively newbie myself nowhere did i see warnings for this.
Maybe that's the case for your system too?

The thing is my 3D acceleration is working just fine for all non-SDL apps. (Thusly why this thread is titled "SDL Initialization has Failed" not "3D not working" I'll try updating my Kernel later and see if that helps.

~Jeff