Graphics card/Driver help needed (nVidia and Ubuntu Lucid)

[Kir_B]

So, it dawned on me that it may paint a better picture of what I'm talking about, when I say that my nvidia-settings is lacking options, so I've attached a picture of what it looks like.

Edit: I forgot to add that nvidia-settings doesn't show up in the administration menu, like it does on my old dinosaur, that is also running Ubuntu Lucid.

Thanks again
Kirby

[mastablasta]

I'm really reluctant to do it this way, as I've read that this may complicate things down the road, and at the same time, I have absolutely no need to be on the bleeding edge.

Me too, but here it is not so much about being on the beleding edge as having it works drivers and having drivers that work as they should in the first place. Things in linux are sometimes a bit different than in windows. newer drivers often means better general support not just extra features.

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so, where is the picture?

same goes for nvidia. if you have a card that came out after 10.04 (april 2010) or drivers for the card came after that you are better off using latest version of ubuntu or you woul have to porbably use soem PPA to install the correct newer drivers. someone with nvidia card will be able to give better info on that.

for example 10.04 sort of recognises my sound card. often it just stopped working and it took 40 minutes to fix things. i had two choices either use a PPA from newer drivers, compile them from the soruce or upgrade. i did an upgrade to 10.10. now things are much better though sound still goes out. when 12.04 come out i will upgrade to it. hopefully card will have full support (including digital audio output) in that version.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

another example of what mastablasta said would be using a ssd on lucid
lucid's default kernel does not support trim so i am using the back-ported kernel from 10.10
can you post the output of lspci -v


just got a idea blacklist the fglrx driver
gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
add this to the end on its own line
blacklist fglrx

[Kir_B]

Me too, but here it is not so much about being on the beleding edge as having it works drivers and having drivers that work as they should in the first place. Things in linux are sometimes a bit different than in windows. newer drivers often means better general support not just extra features.

same goes for nvidia. if you have a card that came out after 10.04 (april 2010) or drivers for the card came after that you are better off using latest version of ubuntu or you woul have to porbably use soem PPA to install the correct newer drivers. someone with nvidia card will be able to give better info on that.

for example 10.04 sort of recognizes my sound card. often it just stopped working and it took 40 minutes to fix things. i had two choices either use a PPA from newer drivers, compile them from the soruce or upgrade. i did an upgrade to 10.10. now things are much better though sound still goes out. when 12.04 come out i will upgrade to it. hopefully card will have full support (including digital audio output) in that version.

The card in question, is an MSI gts 450, which I'm pretty sure came out before Lucid. I'll try the Lucid live cd and see if it's recognized over there.

The one problem I have with installing the drivers from the nvidia site, is that, if I'm understanding this properly, I'll have to re-install the drivers every time I get a kernel upgrade (please correct me if I'm wrong) and that just sounds like a huge pain in the neck.

so, where is the picture?

It's there. At least it's there for me...???

Thanks again mastablasta.
Kirby

[Kir_B]

another example of what mastablasta said would be using a ssd on lucid
lucid's default kernel does not support trim so i am using the back-ported kernel from 10.10
can you post the output of lspci -v

jaun@jaun-desktop:~$ lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge Alternate
    Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge Alternate
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:02.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (ext gfx port 0)
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
    I/O behind bridge: 0000b000-0000bfff
    Memory behind bridge: fc000000-fe6fffff
    Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d4000000-00000000dfffffff
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: pcieport
    Kernel modules: shpchp

00:09.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 4)
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
    Memory behind bridge: fe700000-fe7fffff
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: pcieport
    Kernel modules: shpchp

00:0a.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI bridge (PCIE port 5)
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=03, sec-latency=0
    I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
    Memory behind bridge: fe800000-fe8fffff
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: pcieport
    Kernel modules: shpchp

00:11.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 40) (prog-if 01)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [IDE mode]
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 28
    I/O ports at a000 [size=8]
    I/O ports at 9000 [size=4]
    I/O ports at 8000 [size=8]
    I/O ports at 7000 [size=4]
    I/O ports at 6000 [size=16]
    Memory at fbfffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: ahci
    Kernel modules: ahci

00:12.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller (prog-if 10)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
    Memory at fbffe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
    Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:12.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller (prog-if 20)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    Memory at fbfff800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller (prog-if 10)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
    Memory at fbffd000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
    Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller (prog-if 20)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    Memory at fbfff400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 42)
    Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel
    Kernel modules: i2c-piix4

00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 IDE Controller (rev 40) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 IDE Controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
    I/O ports at 03f4 [size=1]
    I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
    I/O ports at 0374 [size=1]
    I/O ports at ff00 [size=16]
    Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp
    Kernel modules: pata_atiixp

00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) (rev 40)
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8410
    Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
    Memory at fbff8000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
    Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller (rev 40)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0

00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (rev 40) (prog-if 01)
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=04, subordinate=04, sec-latency=64
    I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
    Memory behind bridge: fe900000-fe9fffff

00:14.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI2 Controller (prog-if 10)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI2 Controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
    Memory at fbffc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
    Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:15.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 43a0
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
    Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=0
    I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
    Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000faf00000-00000000faffffff
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: pcieport
    Kernel modules: shpchp

00:16.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller (prog-if 10)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
    Memory at fbff7000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
    Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:16.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller (prog-if 20)
    Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller
    Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
    Memory at fbfff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] HyperTransport Configuration
    Flags: fast devsel
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Address Map
    Flags: fast devsel

00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] DRAM Controller
    Flags: fast devsel

00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Miscellaneous Control
    Flags: fast devsel
    Capabilities: <access denied>

00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K10 [Opteron, Athlon64, Sempron] Link Control
    Flags: fast devsel

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0dc4 (rev a1)
    Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 2360
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
    Memory at fc000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
    Memory at d8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
    Memory at d4000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
    I/O ports at bc00 [size=128]
    Expansion ROM at fe680000 [disabled] [size=512K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: nvidia
    Kernel modules: nvidia-current, nvidiafb, nouveau

01:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation Device 0be9 (rev a1)
    Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 2360
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 7
    Memory at fe67c000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>

02:00.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation Device 0194 (rev 03) (prog-if 30)
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8413
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
    Memory at fe7fe000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
    Kernel modules: xhci

03:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB361 AHCI/IDE (rev 10) (prog-if 01)
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 824f
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
    Memory at fe8ffc00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: ahci
    Kernel modules: ahci

03:00.1 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. Device 0368 (rev 10) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
    Subsystem: JMicron Technology Corp. Device 1368
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
    I/O ports at cc00 [size=8]
    I/O ports at c880 [size=4]
    I/O ports at c800 [size=8]
    I/O ports at c480 [size=4]
    I/O ports at c400 [size=16]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: pata_jmicron
    Kernel modules: pata_jmicron

04:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev c0) (prog-if 10)
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 81fe
    Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 22
    Memory at fe9fb800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
    I/O ports at dc00 [size=128]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
    Kernel modules: firewire-ohci, ohci1394

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
    Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 8432
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29
    I/O ports at e800 [size=256]
    Memory at fafff000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
    Memory at faff8000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: r8169
    Kernel modules: r8169

just got a idea blacklist the fglrx driver
gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
add this to the end on its own line
blacklist fglrx

Now that may be a great idea!!! I'm going to give it a go and get back to you guys.

Thanks again.
Kirby

[Shazaam]

You may also need to do this....

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

and add these to the end (bottom)...

blacklist amd76x_edac
blacklist vga16fb
blacklist nouveaub
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv

[Kir_B]

You may also need to do this....

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

and add these to the end (bottom)...

blacklist amd76x_edac
blacklist vga16fb
blacklist nouveaub
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv

I'm not sure that will help. I just tried the Ubuntu 10.04.1 live cd (the same cd I installed this system with) and the result is the same over there: "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system".

Is there a back-ported kernel out there that will solve my problem?

Or it looks like I'm doing a fresh install. The only question is what version to install.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate any ideas you all may have.

Thanks again.
Kirby

[Shazaam]

I am using the x-swat repo and their nvidia-current and nvidia-settings. Here is a screeshot. You will see that mine says the same "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system" as yours. It is a known bug. I am running Lucid at the moment.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

I'm not sure that will help. I just tried the Ubuntu 10.04.1 live cd (the same cd I installed this system with) and the result is the same over there: "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system".

Is there a back-ported kernel out there that will solve my problem?

Or it looks like I'm doing a fresh install. The only question is what version to install.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate any ideas you all may have.

Thanks again.
Kirby

i am using a backborted kernel but i got it for my ssd it is 2.6.35-25
but i was able to switch my moms system to a gt 430 from a integrated ati 3000 using ubuntu 10.04 with the default kernel fglrx was in use for the record
i purged the fglrx installed nvidia removed xorg.conf and blacklisted fglrx set the res in nivia settings (as root) and it has no issues
this is the xorg.conf on her system

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 290.10  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-07.nvidia.com)  Wed Nov 16 18:47:40 PST 2011

# Section "ServerLayout"
#     Identifier     "Layout0"
#     Screen      0  "Screen0"
#     InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
#     InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
# EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

# Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
#     Identifier     "Keyboard0"
#     Driver         "kbd"
# EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

and here are my mods to blacklist.conf

# ati drvier is blaclisted since we are uing a nvidia gpu
blacklist fglrx

# nvidia hdmi audio is disabled so apps will use the correct audio output
blacklist snd_hda_codec_nvhdmi

# dont need the open source nvidia driver have the nvidia one
blacklist nouveau

from grub.cfg

menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-37-generic" --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,1)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8497a121-ebea-42e5-af82-8b15ad546005
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-37-generic root=UUID=8497a121-ebea-42e5-af82-8b15ad546005 ro quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1280x800-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-37-generic
}

[Kir_B]

I am using the x-swat repo and their nvidia-current and nvidia-settings. Here is a screeshot. You will see that mine says the same "No proprietary drivers are in use on this system" as yours. It is a known bug. I am running Lucid at the moment.

Yeah, that's the repo that I'm using.

I just finished purging everything again, then blacklisted the following:

blacklist fglrx
blacklist amd76x_edac
blacklist vga16fb
blacklist nouveaub
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb

Rebooted, reinstalled nvidia-current and nvidia-settings, rebooted again (using nomodeset each time) and when I got back again, nvidia-settings still contains very limited options, of which a resolution option isn't one of them.

I've attached the pics of what happens when I start nvidia-settings.

Thanks again everyone.
Kirby