How to get Nvidia geforce 420M working?

[chris_gs]

Hi,

I've just got a new Acer Aspire 5742G, its a 64bit system with a Nvidia Geforce gt 420m with 1gb dedicated ram.
I'm trying to get ubuntu lucid, latest version (2.6.32-24) to work on it. I can only get it to use a maximum resolution of 800x600.
The nvidia driver was originally not availble, so I installed nvidia-current and the hardware drivers tool found and activated the driver. It didn't make any difference.
The NVIDIA X Server settings tool says I'm not using the nvidia driver and suggests nvidia-xconf
I ran nvidia-xconf and it created an xorg.conf - which produced a blank screen,
I've tried old solutions to that by modifying the xorg.conf and adding display options, all to no avail.

I was wondering if anyone was aware how to get this device working... is one of the older drivers compatible? I've also tried installing the lastest driver from NVIDIA, the closest of which is the 480m driver, it produces the same effects as nvidia-current.

Has anyone got any ideas out there?

Thanks,
Chris

[chris_gs]

Well, its the old thing... as soon as you ask for help somehow it works by itself? go figure?
Anyway, I managed to fix the problem minutes after I wrote the above post... for anyone else who's struggling... I'm not sure what change, but the process i followed was this:

Download the latest version of the nvidia driver from http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

go to terminal 1 [ctrl]-[alt]-1
log in
then

sudo service gdm stop
run the downloaded driver via
sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.53.run (256.53 was the version of the driver i'm using)

the installer complained on my machine that the distribution provided script failed, did i want to continue, yes.

it asked if i wanted to 32bit compatible opengl installed, yes
then to autoconfig x - yes
it then exits out
type
"sudo service gdm start"
and voila! the NVIDIA X Server config tool worked and i could get my max resolution!

strangely i'd done this once before and it didn't work... but it did this time....

Thanks for the help I know I would've got on this form... it's saved my life many times!!!
Chris

[z987k]

fwiw, I just bought the same laptop and 10.10 installs and everything thus far works perfectly. Nvidia chip is detected and drivers are offered for install.

[PhilEvans]

Out of interest, do either of your systems have a second card as well?
I have a Dell XPS L501x, which has the Nvidia Ge Force GT 420M, and an Intel i915, and I cannot for the life of me get the nvidia drivers to work.

The Ubuntu packaged nvidia modulate doesn't support this card, so like you I downloaded the file you mention, and ran the install as you did. And when I start X (kdm not gdm as I'm using Kubuntu) I just get a blank screen, or get returned to the console. Oddly, the Xorg log file doesn't seem to report errors, the server just doesn't start.

Any ideas?

(PS I can then get X to start by removing my xorg.conf file. In fact, that's just about the only way X will start! Of course, this does not use the nvidia drivers).

[jsonder]

fwiw, I just bought the same laptop and 10.10 installs and everything thus far works perfectly. Nvidia chip is detected and drivers are offered for install.

What happened when you installed? I've installed 10.10-64bit on a Dell XPS L501X and trying to get the nVidia driver to work dumps me to a terminal.

The default ubuntu video control driver is giving me 1366x768 so I can't complain about the resolution.

[esteban.feldman]

Same here with L401X

[losphiereth]

I've got the same problem of PhilEvans with the same laptop model, somebody have already make the graphic card works?

Thank's in advance

[tylerwagler]

I have the same problem on the L501X here... really frustrating. How about that two finger scroll too?

[efflandt]

If you need the most recent nvidia drivers for Lucid or Maverick (and have not messed around with trying to manually installing them from nvidia.com), you can get them by adding x-swat to your repositories http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/ppas/27

Basically do:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update

If you have not activated nvidia drivers yet, go to System > Administration > Additional Drivers (or Hardware Drivers in Lucid), "activate" nvidia, and reboot.

If you already activated nvidia earlier, just open Synaptic, type nvidia in Quick search, and reinstall nvidia-current, nvidia-settings, and nvidia-current-modaliases. Then reboot.

[tylerwagler]

After some reading on the nVidia linux support forums I have found that nvidia has no intention of ever supporting systems with optimus technology. Looks like I just spent $1500 on a laptop I can't use linux on. Yay!!
Post #2 is the winner: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...77#post2183477