8.10 nvidia doesnt work

darkhammer81 · 10-31-2008, 03:59 PM

im trying to get my nvidia 7900 gs to work on my desktop system. when i use the system->administration->hardware drivers and install either the 173 or the 177 driver the install works well enough. then i reboot or restart the gdm and i am told that it cannot find type1 if that is in the config or that a screen can be found but not used if i dont have type1 in the config. i have tried manually reinstalling drivers and such and i have tried to use nvidia-xconfig but nothing seems to work. whenever it fails it drops me into low resolution mode with a recovery window. as far as i can tell any xorg.conf that has the line Driver "nvidia" in it will fail to load.
does anyone know how to get this working?

arochester · 10-31-2008, 05:48 PM

Mine didn't "stick" either until I did: sudo nvidia-settings

darkhammer81 · 10-31-2008, 08:50 PM

i cant get it to load up the display with nvidia at all though. nvidia-settings will only allow for configurations if you are in an X session that is running the nvidia driver. how did you get into the X session using the nvidia driver. jockey-gtk(the hardware drivers program) loads an xorg.conf that loads up the low resolution recovery program. anything with the line Driver "nvidia" in it loads up this recovery program.

swalker23 · 11-06-2008, 01:15 PM

Do you have 2 graphic cards installed?

I had a similar problem when I installed intrepid. I got around this by adding my main graphics card BusID into the "Devices" section in my xorg.conf file. You can modify your xorg.conf from the command line interface(recovery mode I believe) by doing

Code:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

oxleyk · 11-06-2008, 08:13 PM

Did Ubuntu drop support for older Nvidia cards? I have a NV18GL and I can't get it to work.

Kent

darkhammer81 · 11-06-2008, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swalker23

Do you have 2 graphic cards installed?

I had a similar problem when I installed intrepid. I got around this by adding my main graphics card BusID into the "Devices" section in my xorg.conf file. You can modify your xorg.conf from the command line interface(recovery mode I believe) by doing

Code:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

what does the line to add the busid look like?

and yes kent, the older cards are no longer supported. you have to use the "nv" driver (no 3d support) or stay with the hardy release.

oxleyk · 11-07-2008, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkhammer81

yes kent, the older cards are no longer supported. you have to use the "nv" driver (no 3d support) or stay with the hardy release.

OK, that's what I figured. It didn't work very well in Hardy either so it's no great loss.

Thanks

lugoteehalt · 11-07-2008, 08:03 AM

Just installed Intrepid, complete newbie, and it was very dodgy untill I installed nVidia's own drivers and let it re-write xorg.conf.

You may have been doing this but if not. Go to nVidia's site, upload the installer, then $ sudo bash NVIDIA-installerThing.run and it should install the stuff.

You need the kernel headers installed for it to work, but this seems to be taken care of if kubuntu is installed from the live CD as I did it.

Incidentally I am able to get full wide screen 1360x768 or whatever it is.

swalker23 · 11-07-2008, 09:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkhammer81

what does the line to add the busid look like?

It should look something like this

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier       "Videocard0"
    Driver           "nvidia"
    VenderName       "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName        "GeForce 8800 GT"
    BusID            "3:0:0"

Your might look a lil different but the BusID concept is the same. If you modified and messed up somehow you might have to do a fresh install like I did. It was trial and error. To get your BusID type in the terminal

Code:

lspci

You should see something like this

Code:

03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GT (rev a2)
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GT (rev a2)

It is towards the bottom of the long list. From what I read you take the 0's from in front of the first and second number and change the .(period) to a : (colon) when adding the BusID, look at my example.

From a fresh install I install my drivers via a package manager but after the updates and a reboot. After you install the drivers run

Code:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

That will set up xorg.conf for your drivers but without the busid. After changing your xorg.conf with busid then restart

As for the guy with older card from what I read nvidia-glx-71 and/or 96 supports older cards(not sure which one, might be both) but I don't know if your card is supported. Just google it.

darkhammer81 · 11-08-2008, 12:42 AM

I just installed a fresh hardy installation and setup the nvidia driver fine. i then backed up the xorg config (which i checked and had all the proper setup information in it) and did an upgrade to intrepid. the xorg.conf stayed the same and the same issue happened it would error and put me in low graphics mode so i think this is a binary issue.

as for the .run file, iv been trying to avoid that because it used to be the case that when you upgrade your kernel you would have to manually redownload and reinstall this file (not that i mind this its just that i like standardization). i dont know if this will work either way though because im pretty sure these files are almost exactly the same (if not unchanged) from the ones in the driver download in the repos.

im not really sure what to do about intrepid at this point. i have reverted to hardy for the time being. does anyone know when the next nvidia update will be coming out? im hoping that the next update will fix this problem.

jay73 · 11-08-2008, 06:50 AM

I don't quite see what the problem could be. It works fine for my 9600GT, which is one of the more recent cards so the 7000 series should be supported. In fact, my backup-server has a 7600, no problems there either. Then again, I did a clean install - from the many bugreports that are out, it would appear that upgrades still aren't the best approach - especially now with the new xorg.

swalker23 · 11-08-2008, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay73

I don't quite see what the problem could be. It works fine for my 9600GT, which is one of the more recent cards so the 7000 series should be supported. In fact, my backup-server has a 7600, no problems there either. Then again, I did a clean install - from the many bugreports that are out, it would appear that upgrades still aren't the best approach - especially now with the new xorg.

Reason why I didn't upgrade and installed from a DVD.

darkhammer81 · 11-08-2008, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swalker23

Reason why I didn't upgrade and installed from a DVD.

iv tried both fresh installs and upgrades and really getting confused now. here is my xorg.conf that i made in a hardy installtion that works

Code:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildd@vernadsky)  Thu Jun  5 09:26:53 UTC 2008

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Generic Keyboard"
    Driver         "kbd"
    Option         "XkbRules" "xorg"
    Option         "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option         "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Configured Mouse"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "DELL 2007WFP"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "DELL 1905FP"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Configured Video Device"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    Option         "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 7900 GS"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 7900 GS"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Default Screen"
    Device         "Configured Video Device"
    Monitor        "Configured Monitor"
    DefaultDepth    24
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Videocard1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
EndSection

this same configuration should work in intrepid but it isnt. it works in both hardy and in opensuse. not really sure whats happening

Greatwolf · 11-09-2008, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkhammer81

iv tried both fresh installs and upgrades and really getting confused now. here is my xorg.conf that i made in a hardy installtion that works

Code:

...

this same configuration should work in intrepid but it isnt. it works in both hardy and in opensuse. not really sure whats happening

I guess this might be worth a try. Comment out the following sections with '#'.

Code:

#Section "Device"
#    Identifier     "Videocard0"
#    Driver         "nvidia"
#    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
#    BoardName      "GeForce 7900 GS"
#    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
#    Screen          0
#EndSection

#Section "Device"
#    Identifier     "Videocard1"
#    Driver         "nvidia"
#    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
#    BoardName      "GeForce 7900 GS"
#    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
#    Screen          1
#EndSection

And change the first top "Device" section to this:

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Configured Video Device"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
#    Option         "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Check that your nvidia driver is install with:

Code:

dkms status

If that is installed properly just restart your X server with Ctrl-Alt-backspace. Hopefully it will work properly and won't complain anymore about.

If your lucky enough to have it work at this point, you can verify the drivers are really working by using

Code:

glxgears -info

the fps should be reading several thousand if the drivers are kicking in.

Let me know how it goes.

lugoteehalt · 11-09-2008, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkhammer81

as for the .run file, iv been trying to avoid that because it used to be the case that when you upgrade your kernel you would have to manually redownload and reinstall this file (not that i mind this its just that i like standardization). i dont know if this will work either way though because im pretty sure these files are almost exactly the same (if not unchanged) from the ones in the driver download in the repos.

I've used same NVIDIA*.run file for kernels 2.6.18, 2.6.24, and 12.6.27 and it has worked allright (sic) except for sometimes complaining about compiler/kernel mismatch - which can usually be ignored.

It takes 5 seconds to uninstall if your hesitation is well founded. http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk