[SOLVED] Nvidia proprietary driver install fails in Linux Mint 17.3 cuz "dependencies cannot be resolved"
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About xfce: I'd rather have it run on startup as an default OS, but after a glance at the guide i don't think i can do it. they mentioned "compiling" and "knowledge about dependency trees" etc.
Hi...
I think for most Linux users, there's at least some level of compiling involved at some point but that may not be true for you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Randall Flagg
Isn't there an installer like for other OS's? Or do I HAVE to run it as a session?
Yes, you can either try Linux Xfce when the website comes back up or Xubuntu here.
As a personal opinion, I think that Xfce will still be too heavy for your system but you can give it a try anyway. For most of these distributions to work correctly, you will, at the very least, upgrade your your graphics card (to the newest possible for your system,) possibly your memory, too.
EDIT: If you have at least a 300 watt power supply, perhaps this card would fit the bill.
Regards...
Last edited by ardvark71; 02-22-2016 at 03:09 PM.
Reason: Added information.
Mint with the Cinnamon desktop uses 3D acceleration, so you are expecting a lot from the computer you have. Too much, I think.
The Mint xfce desktop or Mint Mate would be expected to perform on your machine better than Cinnamon.
You need to answer Habitual's questions:
Quote:
Have you verified the md5sum digest of the iso?
Looked for /var/lib/man.cy ?
Follow the instructions here to check the MD5SUM and /var/lib/man.cy - http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2994
If your download of Mint Cinnamon is clean, you can install the xfce desktop with the command:
Code:
sudo apt-get install mint-meta-xfce
Then you can switch to xfce by logging out and clicking on the gear icon on the login page.
Last edited by TxLonghorn; 02-22-2016 at 05:06 PM.
I tried yet another graphics card, exact same result. I noticed that I don't see any changes in performance regardless if I use a good or bad graphics card. I looked up info for the nouveau driver and it said on wikipedia what I -sort of- already expected:
Quote:
For technical reasons Nvidia GPUs all boot with a low frequency (called "clock"), the device driver has to set a higher frequency after booting. Due to lack of documentation of GPU, nouveau lacked this capability from the beginning on. The result was/is a major loss in performance, as proven by benchmarks which compared the performance of Nvidia proprietary device driver with nouveau's.
I also tried to install lubuntu, which failed because the DVD burn was bad, but since I know now what the problem is I'd to resolve that first.
I'd rather upgrade my performance instead of downgrading my OS. I believe that makes sense.
Let me repeat my initial question: Does anybody know how to install Nvidia drivers in LinuxMint 17.3?
Last edited by Randall Flagg; 02-23-2016 at 12:23 AM.
Yes, I know where to get the drivers. I am aware that the 173 is recommended. I never got that far to install them tho, since I only get graphical gibberish when I enter the console after the reboot (required after removing nouveau, used this tutorial this time). I tried to enter the commands blindly, but since the keyboard layout is set to US by default, that's too much of a hassle on a GE keyboard. Thanks for the input tho.
Last edited by Randall Flagg; 02-23-2016 at 12:27 AM.
A little breakthrough: I somehow managed to get into the maintenance console. I navigated to my downloads folder and executed the Nvidia installer, but failed again.
The installer showed a bunch of error messages
1.- utility "runlevel" failed to run
2.- pre-install script failed
3.- kernel header file [...] /linux/version.h does not exist
One step forward = three steps back!
Hold on guys, I think I got this... I'll post when I'm done. Need a clean install first.
Last edited by Randall Flagg; 02-23-2016 at 01:04 AM.
When booting a Linux Mint DVD:
As soon as you see the splash screen with the countdown from 10, hit F6. This will open a menu with other boot options.
Highlight the default boot option and press TAB to edit the boot parameters.
Where it says "quiet splash", add nomodeset to the end so it says "quiet splash nomodeset"
When booting an installed OS:
When you see the Grub menu, highlight the menuentry you want, and press "e" (for edit).
Where it says "quiet splash", at the end of the line that starts with "linux", add nomodeset to the end so it says "quiet splash nomodeset"
Other options to try (other than nomodeset):
nomodeset xforcevesa
i915.preliminary_hw_support=1
nouveau.modeset=0
acpi_osi=!
acpi_backlight=native
idle=nomwait"
Then after booting into Mint or Ubuntu, open a terminal and enter:
Code:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates
Last edited by TxLonghorn; 02-23-2016 at 06:12 AM.
Thanx a bunch! This is actually helping! I'm not quite there yet tho.
That's a useful hint because other tutorials focus on blacklisting or removing the nouveau driver, in which case I don't have a fallback point. I reinstalled like 5 times since Saturday.
I do have to install manually tho, my graphics driver is not in the apt-get repository anymore
- So I added the "quiet splash nomodeset" to the menueentry, stopped the mdm and ran the installer again, manually.
Distribution-provided pre-installation script failed again (I'm ignoring that for now)
It then said i'm missing the "libc" headers which i presume i get via the
"sudo apt-get install dkms build-essential linux-headers-generic" command, (yes, I am learning. Slowly, but still...)
ran installer again, this time it actually installed something (green progress bar), error message at the end: "Unable to build kernel module"
looking at the .log file, I noticed the following lines:
"ERROR: Kernel configuration is invalid" (could it be that there are still nouveau "residues" in the kernel, or is it just a plain incompatibility?)
...
"include/generated/autoconf.h or include/config/auto.$/auto.conf are missing"
(I tried another, older version of the driver. This time it said there are missing kernel header files?)
Is it progress that i get another error message each time i try? Well at least i'm not making the same mistakes twice...
But I'm happy in so far as I could still boot normally afterwards.
Last edited by Randall Flagg; 02-23-2016 at 09:53 AM.
Since LinuxMint.com is back up (forum still down), i could gather some more information. They admit on their homepage that LinuxMint does not work well with some NVIDIA graphics cards. I can't blame them because i read on wikipedia that this is mainly NVIDIAS fault for not providing sufficient information.
I think i will have to let this issue go. I just wanted to tinker around with my old PC's learn some Linux while testing the old hardware in order to sell it on eBay. I got way too invested in this problem. I will give it one last try with the kernel header update you mentioned until i most likely will screw up the install again. Then it's time to test lubuntu. I got to go and get some new DVD's tho.
Thanks for all of your feedback, guys!
(Is it sexist that I presume that there are'nt many girls here?)
1- I installed and tested Xcfe. The Desktop performance is much, much better. Seems to be exactly the right "weight" for my old PC. [solved]
2- The Youtube videos i used for benchmarking are still at unacceptable 0.6 fps, but this seems to be a known problem with Adobe Flash. Other browser media works fine. A workaround that i'd be okay with would be to just deinstall the Flash Plugin alltogether. It was never meant to be a media pc anyways. Unless somebody has a better idea [???]
3- i remember that on the install boot there was an error message:
Quote:
DDC responded, but no EDID for VGA-1
I believe that is not relevant? [???]
4- Since it's known that NVIDIA cards cause problems, I will just get another one some time and see if there is any improvement. [solved]
5- I was wondering if there was a way to tweak my GC performance by configuring the nouveau drivers settings manually. I installed the nvidia settings package, but i don't see any relevant settings other than resolution. [???]
6- I still don't understand the dependency error message i mentioned in the very first post.
Now that I know my way around on the DE i can say with certainty that that the mentioned packages ARE INSTALLED?
Quote:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
nvidia-173: Depends:x11-common (>=1:7.0.0) but 1:7.7+1ubuntu8.1 is to be installed
Depends: xorg-video-abi-15 but is a virtual package
I want to be clear that i gave up on fixing the driver issue, but i still don't get the error message. [???]
7- linuxmint.org is back up, the forums are still down tho. Rumor has it the hackers got all user accounts passwords. oh dear.
Last edited by Randall Flagg; 02-24-2016 at 11:05 PM.
Although I could be wrong, I think the issues mentioned in #3 and #6, at least in part, have to do with that you're trying to use a very old video card. I would have to disagree with #4, Nvidia is one of the best supported graphics chips in Linux, along with Intel.
I did find a couple threads concerning the error messages you mentioned but I'm not sure they will solve them, though...
I've carefully read the recommended script by starcannon. Obviously, it's for Ubuntu 14.04 and will have to be adapted to LinuxMint. But at least its written specifically written for the nvivia driver 173 i want to install (thx ardvark!). It does contain the configuration of the xorg.conf that i felt was missing in other tutorials. But does it address my earlier problems of the installer not being able to build the kernel, and the missing libc file headers? I'm past the point of just following tutorials blindly, i want to understand what i'm doing.
1) Download the driver for your Nvidia Card from http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
1.a) Make sure its in your home directory, this will make it so we don't have to change directories later when were in terminal.
2) Open a terminal: Applications--> Accessories--> Terminal
3) sudo apt-get install build-essential
4) gksudo gedit /etc/modules
4.a) Add "nvidia" without quotes to the list.
4.b) Save and Exit
5) gksudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
5.a) Add "nv" without quotes to the restricted list. It should look exactly like this: DISABLED_MODULES="nv"
5.b) Save and Exit
6) sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf ./xorg.conf.backup
7) sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
7.a) Were just deleting your old xorg.conf file, we backed it up in step 6 just in case we ever need it back again.
7.b) Getting rid of old drivers, use one or more of the sections that apply to you:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you used Envy to attempt a previous nvidia install please run this command now before you go on:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have some old Ubuntu repository/restricted driver manager attempts installed please run this command before you go on:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have a failed NVIDIA*.run (drivers from the nvidia.com site) run this command before you go on:
sudo nvidia-installer --uninstall
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
####################################################################################
##................................................................................##
## Alright Now Assuming That You are starting with a clean slate lets move forward##
##................................................................................##
####################################################################################
8) CTRL-ALT-F1
8.a) Okay were in Command Line only now, we have a little left to do in here.
8.b)login:
8.c)Password:
9) sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
9.a) This step shuts down the x-server and gnome desktop manager
10) sudo chmod a+x ./NVIDIA*.run
10.a) We made the nvidia installer executable.
11) sudo ./NVIDIA*.run
11.a) Answer to the affirmative for all questions.
11.b) Be sure to specifically say you DO WANT it to write a new xorg.conf
11.c) If you somehow answered incorrectly on the last question in the installer then:
c.I) sudo nvidia-xconfig #this will write a new or attempt repair of
an xorg.conf file for you.
12) sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start
12.a) You should see an Nvidia Logo, and then be put at your login screen,
you should also be able to enable desktop effects.
Optional But recommended:
13) To get the driver to update itself when a new kernel is installed from the update
manager be sure to follow the guide in this link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...04&postcount=1
EDIT: So i did try this tutorial after all.
At step 7). the "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" is not present in my build (still LinuxMint 17.3). "sudo X -configure" gave me a "/home/cujo/xorg.conf.new". I deleted that one instead. I got to the point again that when i run the installer it says "Kernel configuration is invalid"
Last edited by Randall Flagg; 02-26-2016 at 12:56 AM.
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