Problem with Nvidia drivers on Ubuntu 64-bit. (Blank screen)

[Bonkerz]

Ubuntu 64-bit is great. Everything else works flawlessly, but I am unable to get the nvidia driver to work.

Just for reference, I have:

AMD64 4000 processor
Nvidia Geforce 6800(with both analog and ditigal(DVI) port)
Samsung Syncmaster 710T
Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04
Linux Kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
Nvidia driver v100.14.11 for x86_64

After I install the driver and change xorg.conf to use it, when X starts, I get a blank screen. No mouse cursor, keyboard LEDs dont light up when I press caps lock, so I can't Alt+F1 or Alt+Ctrl+Backspace out, and I have to reboot into recovery mode and restore the original xorg.conf to use the 'nv' driver.

Anyone have an idea of what might be happening here?

[oldlucky]

Ubuntu 64-bit is great. Everything else works flawlessly, but I am unable to get the nvidia driver to work.

Just for reference, I have:

AMD64 4000 processor
Nvidia Geforce 6800(with both analog and ditigal(DVI) port)
Samsung Syncmaster 710T
Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04
Linux Kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
Nvidia driver v100.14.11 for x86_64

After I install the driver and change xorg.conf to use it, when X starts, I get a blank screen. No
mouse cursor, keyboard LEDs dont light up when I press caps lock, so I can't Alt+F1 or Alt+Ctrl+Backspace out, and I have to reboot into recovery mode and restore the original xorg.conf to use the 'nv' driver.

Anyone have an idea of what might be happening here?


First i would do an update as the kernel you are using should be 2.6.20-16-generic not 2.6.20-15-generic


sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

okay now try this to fix your problem

You will have to remove the restricted modules first by...

logging in at the command prompt when x doesn't start...or sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop if you have x running.

then ctrl alt F1 to get to a command prompt

sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-glx* nvidia-settings linux-restricted-modules

sudo rm /etc/init.d/nvidia-*

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.11-pkg2.run

just answer yes to all questions asked by the installer.

It should now let you log in to the desktop by typing startx and your nvidia driver
will be installed.

cheers

[Bonkerz]

Err yeah, I have the latest kernel with the 16 at the end there. Trying what you suggested now.

[Bonkerz]

Nope, that didn't do it.

[oldlucky]

Nope, that didn't do it.

Did you get any errors when trying to install the nvidia drivers .

you may not have the correct packages to build the nvidia driver.

Try installing these if you are getting errors from the nvidia installer

sudo apt-get install fakeroot build-essential linux-headers-amd64-generic linux-headers-generic gcc pkg-config xserver-xorg-dev linux-headers-`uname -r`

then try to install the nvidia driver again... once its finished, do ctrl alt delete to restart the computer

and hopefully it will boot into your desktop.

cheers

[Bonkerz]

Naw, it installed fine. No errors at all. I got frustrated and installed 32 bit Ubuntu on a fresh format, and I still get the blank screen when I use the nvidia driver, this one is older though, the one from the repository. I'm betting theres a setting in xorg.conf I need to use.

[avik]

Can you post your xorg.conf file?

[Bonkerz]

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg 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(5) 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 "Files"
Fontpath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
Fontpath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
Fontpath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
Fontpath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
Fontpath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
Fontpath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
Fontpath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
# path to defoma fonts
Fontpath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

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

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"# Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia Corporation NV40 [GeForce 6800]"
Driver "nv"
Busid "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "AddARGBVisuals" "True"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "SyncMaster"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia Corporation NV40 [GeForce 6800]"
Monitor "SyncMaster"
Defaultdepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen "Default Screen"
Inputdevice "Generic Keyboard"
Inputdevice "Configured Mouse"
Inputdevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
Inputdevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
Inputdevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

That's what it is right now. Of course, its on "nv", I'm aware.

[avik]

I believe it should be on "nvidia," not "nv."

[Bonkerz]

Yeah I changed it so I could see the desktop sir. I haven't figured out how to copy from the recovery console, change it, then telinit 3, and paste it into here.

But anyways, I fixed it. Apparently, I needed the "NvAGP" option in xorg.conf.

Took me 3 days to figure this out. Hurray for compiz-fusion.

[nowhere.elysium]

I'm having this same problem. where did you have to put the NvAGP option?

[dabl]

On my 64-bit Ubuntu system, I used Envy to do the Nvidia driver installation, and it worked perfectly.

[Bonkerz]

You put it int he Device section

Option "NvAGP" "1"

[rajeev1204]

Have u enabled the driver by typing ........

sudo nvidia-glx-config enable .

This is of course if u used the nvidia-glx from the repositories .

Also if still facing problems , can try this....... sudo dpkg-reconfigure --phigh xserver-xorg

Just select nvidia from options and thats it .

[caryb]

1st it should be "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg" not "sudo dpkg-reconfigure --phigh xserver-xorg"
That gave me some grief! but I still have no X. I have tried all of the above! & still no joy! at this rate I will have to blow it away & settle for vesa!


Cary

[nowhere.elysium]

The trouble that I've found, and I don't know if it's because of the exact model of card or not, is that X *will* start eventually, but it's a good 20-minute wait. This happens if i reboot, or if i startx from the console, regardless.
I've got a 7300LE - the standard 'nv' driver works fine, but I need 3D acceleration.
Weirdly enough, 3D acceleration works just fine, once X has decided to start. Admittedly, it doen's always start, but there we go.
I've got this card in a 64-bit system, and I've tried 7.04 64 bit, and debian testing 32 bit - both of which have the same problem. The fact that the standard driver works fine suggests that the card is OK, it's just suffering a conflict or it's unsupported.
The joke is that I specifically got hold of an nVidia card to *avoid* this level of silliness. Oh well.

EDIT:
Bonkerz - I just tried the NvAGP thing, and it didn't make any change. Thanks, though.

[caryb]

Well I just got my Nvidia working with full resolution & Nvidia splash screen! I don't get any video between selecting the grub menu & kdm starting but I can settle for this! I guess I will never know what the guys in Gutsy land are raving about while they are testing now upsplash etc.


Cary

[nowhere.elysium]

Dear Lordy me, this is getting really bloody annoying!
Basically, I've tried Envy, I've tried the nVidia pkg2.run, i've tried nVidia-glx, (all on seperate installations - i've flattened this machine *so* many times now), I've done all of the above on Debian, because it appears to have a slightly more amd64-specific kernel, as opposed to the nebulous-sounding 'generic' in ubuntu. I've used Gutsy and Feisty. I've tried Fedora. I'm even considering trying OpenSuse, Gentoo, and mad as it seems, BSD.
Every single bloody time, all I get is the same symptoms. Apart from Fedora, which just doesn't allow acelleration *at all*.

Sorry about that. As you can see, I'm slowly losing patience over this, now. Does anyone have any further suggestions? I will post my xorg.conf once i've finished building Feisty yet again.

[AnObfuscator]

nowhere, do you *need* 64bit? I've never, *ever*, in the past few years, gotten ATI or NVIDIA drivers to work in ANY 64bit distro I've used -- Ubuntu 5.04/5.10/6.06/6.10/7.04, Debian 3, Suse 10.1, Fedora (forget which core). Suse was the closest -- with an ATI card, the 3rd party drivers worked, but I never got 3d with them.

However, I got full 3D working, pretty painlessly, in 32bit for every single one of these distros (except 6.06, so I switched to Suse for a while).

Unfortunately, my new computer has 4 gigs of ram, and that means I either must deal with PAE or 64bit. I figure 64bit is the lesser of the two evils. ;)

BTW, I'm having very similar problems -- see this thread (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=486351) for my issues. :/

[nowhere.elysium]

To be fair, no, I don't. In honesty, 32-bit would probably make life easier for the livecoding/VJing software that I'm using. I just felt that it may be a good thing to try and take full advantage of the shiny new hardware that I had, in honesty. I imagine that it'll now work flawlessly, won't it :)

I'll shout back with an update on how it plays out.

[AnObfuscator]

Ok, a piece of advice. when you install ubuntu 7.04, before you try to do anything, update/upgrade everything, including your kernel. then remove the 2.6.20.15 kernel packages -- including linux restricted.

I had to do that before the restricted drivers manager would enable properly, on a couple computers... but another couple did not. I haven't been able to do enough tests to determine if it is a particular kernel version that is the issue (although I couldn't get nvidia to work with 7.04 beta), or the hardware, or what -- there just don't seem to be any common threads.

best of luck.

[nowhere.elysium]

Right. well, I did all that, but in my infinite wisdom, for some reason or other, decided to use Envy. And it's gone and done the same thing again. Joy.

I'm just wondering if there's some subset of processes that are easily tweakable that occur when X starts up: what is it likely to be stumbling on? I know that the card and the drivers do work, because I've had a 3d-acellerated desktop up before now: I just had to wait 20 minutes for it to start once the drums sound had happened.

NB - I've got an acellerated desktop *now*, but there's a really, really long waiting time between the drums sounds that normally signifies the login screen, and actually *seeing* the login screen.

I've just gone and run the software update again, and, rather interestingly, there was an update for the hardware abstraction layer. I'm wondering if that may be pertinent. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks so far, people :)


EDIT - the HAL update made no difference. I'm still waiting for ages before a screen appears. Just out of curiosity, I'm going to try using the VGA port, instead of the DVI. Purely on the off chance.

EDIT 2 - changing over to VGA had some interesting results, including completely messing up the resolution, but it didn't sort this problem out. I'm running out of ideas here. If anyone's got any suggestions, gimme a shout.

[AnObfuscator]

Hey, Nowhere --

What card is it? which driver versions are you using? are you on AGP or PCIe? What chipset are you using?

I don't think any of those questions are likely to be relevant, but I'm hoping that I can eventually see some sort of "failure pattern" and learn how to work around it.

Your xorg.conf is set up with your resolutions, etc under a device considered a "DFP" -- which only exists, IIRC, on a DVI port. The VGA port is a "CRT". So when you plugged in your monitor, Xorg couldn't find a config setting for a "CRT", so defaulted to a base resolution.

Does it do the long wait time *only* when using nvidia drivers?

And, just because, post your xorg.conf.

[nowhere.elysium]

Hey dude. Basically - it only happens when I've got the nVidia driver installed, regardless of the source of it: I've used envy, I've gotten it from nVidia's website, I've used the restricted-drivers manager.
As such, I've been using the latest drivers available through each of the sources. I decided to run with 32-bit Ubuntu, because I figured that I wouldn't be losing much performance, and if I could get stability, it'd be worth it.
The card is an Inneo3D 256MB nVidia 7300LE (PCIe), the board is an MSI K9AGM2 (which has got an ATi chipset on it - I've disabled the onboard graphics in the BIOS), the CPU is an AMDX2 4600+.
What kind of state would you like my xorg.conf in? Fresh Ubuntu, or with nVidia driver? both'll take me an hour or so to get to you: I'm on a non-accelerated Debian at the mo. Would rather get back to Ubuntu, though, because the repos are a bit fresher.
I'll get the xorg.conf to you ASAP.
Thanks again.

[nowhere.elysium]

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "gb"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia Corporation GeForce 7300 LE"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "HP w19"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "nVidia Corporation GeForce 7300 LE"
Monitor "HP w19"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1440x900" "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection


that's my xorg.conf. I altered the resolutions to work: they defaulted to 1440x1440 for some reason, and I got rid of the other bit rates - I didn't think that I'd need them.
Thoughts, anyone?


EDIT: Right - I'm convinced that it may be something to do with any pre-starting procedures that X does. I actually sat and watched the computer on startup this time (and it took sodding ages). The thing that I noticed was that between the ubuntu loading screen, and the login screen, there was the normal black screen session, which *was* a signal being given out by the card: the backlight for the TFT is on, and the power LED is green. After that, the screen did what it always does before the login screen: it blanked, went into standby for a second, and then the login screen came up. Where would I be able to diagnose what happens in the startup sequence for X?
Also, would the modules DRI and GLX be conflicting in any way? They technically do the same sort of thing, don't they? Just a thought.

EDIT AGAIN: - Just trawled through my Xorg.0.log - the only things that I could find with (EE) next to it were references to the wacom driver and a couple of fonts that I didn't have (Misc, Cyrillic and Type 1), so I pruned them out. my xorg.conf is starting to look distinctly slimmer than when it started... I did have a graphics tablet plugged in initially, so I've unplugged it, and, as I said, removed the wacom references from xorg.conf.

[nowhere.elysium]

Ok... **BUMP**
I've just done a bootchart to see what the problem is with booting, and Xorg is going mentalist for 6 minutes!
I've got no idea why it's doing this, but it's hitting the CPU *hard* throughout, if the colouration of the band is anything to go on...

EDIT - I'm going to try swapping out the card now. I've run out of patience with it, I'm afraid. Updates to follow...

[nowhere.elysium]

*Sigh*
I'm now runing with an ATI X600 256MB - it's not perfect yet, but it's a significant improvement. Compiz-Fusion ran straight off, as opposed to the nVidia.
I'm now running the envy installer, to try and get a more flawlessy workable 3D driver.

[mattthebaker]

After struggling with this issue for about 3 months, I've found a fix in my case. The linux kernel was unable to detect the AGP aperture settings of my motherboard (nforce3-250gb chipset). Dmesg was reporting a message as follows:

[ 23.950669] agpgart: Detected AGP bridge 0
[ 23.951159] agpgart: Aperture conflicts with PCI mapping.
[ 23.951226] agpgart: Aperture from AGP @ f0000000 size 4096 MB
[ 23.951289] agpgart: Aperture too small (0 MB)
[ 23.951349] agpgart: No usable aperture found.
[ 23.951409] agpgart: Consider rebooting with iommu=memaper=2 to get a good aperture.

Meh.. it had also reported this (which I failed to notice)
[ 23.344173] Checking aperture...
[ 23.344233] CPU 0: aperture @ f0000000 size 32 MB
[ 23.344294] Aperture too small (32 MB)
[ 23.344357] AGP bridge at 00:00:00
[ 23.344417] Aperture from AGP @ f0000000 size 4096 MB (APSIZE 0)
[ 23.344481] Aperture too small (0 MB)
[ 23.344540] Your BIOS doesn't leave a aperture memory hole
[ 23.344602] Please enable the IOMMU option in the BIOS setup
[ 23.344665] This costs you 64 MB of RAM
[ 23.384609] Mapping aperture over 65536 KB of RAM @ 4000000
[ 23.393308] Memory: 954892k/1048512k available (2218k kernel code, 93232k reserved, 1162k data, 304k init)

I attribute the hang times due to the fact that system ram was being used in place of the agp video ram.

After changing the AGP aperture size in my bios settings, the hang on loading the nvidia driver went away. The best part about the setting (as i would have figured it out a long time ago), was that it was in a special menu that wouldn't appear in my bios page until hitting CTRL+F1. Motherboard is a gigabyte with an nforce3-250gb chipset.

Hope this helps.

[daInvincibleGama]

Add a line to the file under "Device" section (where you put nv)
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"

Save it. Should fix the problem. Did it for me. Apparently it doesn't send a signal to the digital out (DFP = digital flat panel i think)