Failed to load NVIDIA kernel module
 

Hello everyone,

So I just recently got my proprietary driver working yesterday (and enjoyed too many hours of Starcraft 2 afterwards) but today after I downloaded an Update Package and rebooted, it's telling me that it "Filed to load NVIDIA kernel module".

So now I'm back to square one, I had to restart in the lower graphics mode or whatever it's called prior to logging in.

When I go to System - Admin - Hardware Drivers, nothing shows up and it says no proprietary drivers are in use on this system.

When I try to change the resolution under System - Preferences - Monitors (since everything is so big) I get "It appears that your graphics driver does not support the necessary extensions to use this tool. Do you want to use your graphics driver vendor's tool instead?" I select "Yes" and I get "You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver. Please edit your X configuration file (just run `nvidia-xconfig` as root), and restart the X server."

I'm a total loss here, I'm assuming something from the update package has caused everything to go haywire and I'm hoping that if/when I get this fixed I don't have to keep doing this fix every time I use the Update Manager.

I'm still fairly new to this whole Ubuntu thing, so any step-by-step instructions would be appreciated :)

I'm guessing here, but try this. In the terminal, run
then logout, and login again. See if that works by running:
That tells you what modules are loaded.

I rebooted and I'm still getting the same issue after :/

Hopefully somebody who knows more than me about how Ubuntu handles NVidia drivers will come along soon.

Thanks for the attempt Brian :)

well if you used the nvidia.run driver from the nvidia web site( not recommended in ubuntu)

then for EVERY AND ALL kernel,x11,and xorg updates you need to reinstall that .run driver

If you have your kernel source files installed you can download & install the Nvidia driver this way:

1.) Start your internet connection
2.) Open a terminal & type: "nvidia-installer --latest" ...displays the latest version of nvidia available
3.) Download the recommended driver package ...It will have a name like NVIDIA-Linux-x86-177-pkg1.run
4.) Boot to init 3 ...This is console mode with no gui X
5.) Change to your download directory
6.) Type: sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-177-pkg1.run ...Installer starts interactively

The installer asks the following questions:
license <accept>
Uninstall existing driver <yes>
no precompiled kernel...download a kernel interface ? <no>
compile a new kernel interface ? <yes>
Do you want to run Nvidia-Xconfig utility <no>

Note: It is best to manually edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf & not let the Nvidia-Xconfig do it.

(eg,) Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce FX - GeForce 8800"

#Driver "vesa"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Here are some facts I learned about Installing the Nvidia driver:

The nvidia driver is kernel specific so,if you install a new kernel, you will need to reinstall nvidia.

The nvidia driver must be built with the same gcc version that your kernel was built with. The kernel
will not recognize a driver module built with with a different gcc compiler.

Also, any new nvidia install will uninstall "ALL" previous nvidia installs & you will have to install the
new version of nvidia for each kernel being used on the system. You cannot have multiple versions of
nvidia on a system (see #3 below).