Linux Mint 17 NVIDIA Drivers problem + stuck in fallback mode

m00000nkey · 09-13-2014, 07:32 PM

Hello everyone,
I was running mint 17 on 'nouveau' until I changed to an NVIDIA driver from 'Drivers Manager'. I then installed an even newer version but I had to kill X to do it (service mdm stop).

I did a reboot and X failed to start. I did
sudo Xorg -configure
sudo cp /home/m00/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
startx

"You are running in fallback mode - do you want to restart?" kinda message popped up so I clicked 'yes' but it didn't work. So I'm stuck in fallback mode and when I reboot I find myself in the same exact situation... What should I do?

I also already tried "nvidia-xconfig" but same results. BTW my "inxi -Fx" output says
drivers: intel (unloaded: nvidia)
if that helps.
I would also appreciate it if someone could tell me how to run Drivers manager from the terminal - cause I can't find it in the menu. Maybe I'll be able to just switch to the previous driver that actually worked...

Thanks a lot for taking the time to read and any help would be greatly appreciated!

M

ondoho · 09-14-2014, 06:58 AM

please use code tags (go advanced => '#') for code.

looks like nvidia wasn't loaded succesfully and instead of using nouveau, your system falls back on intel driver?

please post output of

Code:

lspci -vk| grep -iA10 vga

and which drivers did you install (including version numbers)
and keep track of the extra files you put/modify in your /etc/X11/*
(you may have to remove them again; also those in your home directory)
/etc/X11/xorg.conf does not exist by default, so it's safe to remove it.

m00000nkey · 09-15-2014, 07:53 PM

OK nevermind I figured it out. Turns out the driver I downloaded from the nvidia website and installed wasn't working properly or something. I basically just switched back to the nvidia driver from the manager and X is running properly again. I think I'll just stick to this one right now and not try installing any newer versions.

Code:

lspci -vk| grep -iA10 vga

is now showing

Code:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3977
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 43
	Memory at d3000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
	Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
	Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: i915

00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK107M [GeForce GTX 660M] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3977
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 48
	Memory at d2000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
	Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
	I/O ports at 3000 [size=128]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia

02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 08)

so I think I'm all set. Thanks a lot for the help anyway - I really appreciate it.

M