8600 GT and Nvidia driver problem

[nasevz]

After I upgraded from Gutsy to Hardy, I can't use nvidia's driver.
If I enable it, the last thing I can see is "login:" in the console screen. System is trying three times to open the graphic login screen (three times blank screen) and after that, I get low graphics mode with Vesa driver. If I choose to continue in that mode, the screen goes blank and I can't see anything.
After reset, in recovery mode if I choose to fix xorg and continue normal boot, the nvidia driver is disabled.

Please help.

[chewearn]

Do you do a dist-upgrade, or fresh hardy install?

If dist-upgrade, try purging all nvidia drivers. Let it come back as vesa, or nv. Then, enable nvidia restricted driver thru
System > Administration > Hardware Drivers

[nasevz]

Do you do a dist-upgrade, or fresh hardy install?

If dist-upgrade, try purging all nvidia drivers. Let it come back as vesa, or nv. Then, enable nvidia restricted driver thru
System > Administration > Hardware Drivers

I upgraded from Gutsy and I already tried to uninstall/ reinstall but the result is same. I even uninstalled linux-restricted-modules.
Is there a way to track what is happening? Where is the boot process logged? I can't see anything since the screen is blank when it should turn in graphics mode.

[darc]

I'm having the same issue with the same card (8600GT).

I did the fix in recovery mode to get a workable display, however, this does not use the proprietary driver (as you mentioned, and I need it) and since I'm using dual displays this just mirrors the image on both (need TwinView).

I've tried installing the driver with Envy, but no go (get the low graphics mode).

I also tried installing it manually from the nVIDIA supplied binary, no joy there either (same problem).

"Hardware Drivers" program shows no proprietary drivers (all empty) even after I've supposedly just installed them.

Note that I did a dist-upgrade from Gutsy, and I've purged all the old nVIDIA drivers (at least, I think I got em all).

I'm trying this guide now:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=596875

And, I'll let you know how it goes.

You have any luck nasevz?
-darc

Update : This is going to be awhile, the ubuntu servers are getting hit pretty hard with every one updating so downloading the kernel sources is taking forever (2kbps)

[darc]

Update:
I just checked the "Hardware Drivers" program again (jockey-gtk is the program name I believe) and the proprietary driver now shows there... but I haven't changed anything (that I know of).

Weird, time to restart X and see if it works.

-darc

[darc]

Update:
I just checked the "Hardware Drivers" program again (jockey-gtk is the program name I believe) and the proprietary driver now shows there... but I haven't changed anything (that I know of).

Weird, time to restart X and see if it works.

-darc

That didn't work either. I ran nvidia-xconfig on a whim, no joy there.

However, when I restarted X this time, I was able to select the 'nvidia' driver in the "low graphics mode" dialog box. However, when I tried to test it, it failed.

The nVIDIA proprietary driver does show up in the "Hardware Drivers" program as enabled and in use, but still running in low graphics mode and the nVIDIA config panel says that I'm still not running the nVIDIA X Driver.

Guess I'll try Envy again since I've made some headway.
-darc

[darc]

That didn't work either. I ran nvidia-xconfig on a whim, no joy there.

However, when I restarted X this time, I was able to select the 'nvidia' driver in the "low graphics mode" dialog box. However, when I tried to test it, it failed.

The nVIDIA proprietary driver does show up in the "Hardware Drivers" program as enabled and in use, but still running in low graphics mode and the nVIDIA config panel says that I'm still not running the nVIDIA X Driver.

Guess I'll try Envy again since I've made some headway.
-darc

Driver still shows as enabled and in use, but still not working.

I tried to install again with Envy, no joy, still low graphics mode.

So, I tried to install manually again from the nVIDIA binary, no joy there either, still low graphics.

Bugger!
I've got to head out, but I'll poke at it some more when I return,
-darc

[darc]

JOY!

After all that, I checked the nVIDIA settings manager and it didn't error saying the driver wasn't installed. So, I played with the settings and none really worked.

But, since it says the driver is there now, I switched back to my known good TwinView xorg.conf (from Gutsy), restarted X, and it started working.

So, SOMETHING that I did got the driver working, and then my customized xorg.conf got everything going the way I wanted it.

Afraid I can't offer too much reason why, but try everything I did and maybe you'll get some joy.

-darc
//goes off to party with his fully working Ubuntu 8.04 system : D


Update: glxgears get's just under 6,000FPS ... WOOT!!!

[darc]

JOY!

After all that, I checked the nVIDIA settings manager and it didn't error saying the driver wasn't installed. So, I played with the settings and none really worked.

But, since it says the driver is there now, I switched back to my known good TwinView xorg.conf (from Gutsy), restarted X, and it started working.

So, SOMETHING that I did got the driver working, and then my customized xorg.conf got everything going the way I wanted it.

Afraid I can't offer too much reason why, but try everything I did and maybe you'll get some joy.

-darc
//goes off to party with his fully working Ubuntu 8.04 system : D


Update: glxgears get's just under 6,000FPS ... WOOT!!!

I wooted too soon. The driver didn't survive a reboot.

I opened the nVIDIA Config program and got the "no nVIDIA driver" error again. However, the Ubuntu Hard Driver's program says that it's installed and working (*******).

My xorg.conf is correct so it seems the driver just didn't get loaded for some gay reason.

I dropped out of X (killed gdm) and installed the driver manually, then restarted gdm ~ Joy. The driver is working now.

I had this same problem in Gutsy where the driver had to be reinstalled after every reboot in this manner. However, I eventually fixed it... now to figure out how to do that again... I'll post when I figure it out.
-darc

[darc]

I wooted too soon. The driver didn't survive a reboot.

I opened the nVIDIA Config program and got the "no nVIDIA driver" error again. However, the Ubuntu Hard Driver's program says that it's installed and working (*******).

My xorg.conf is correct so it seems the driver just didn't get loaded for some gay reason.

I dropped out of X (killed gdm) and installed the driver manually, then restarted gdm ~ Joy. The driver is working now.

I had this same problem in Gutsy where the driver had to be reinstalled after every reboot in this manner. However, I eventually fixed it... now to figure out how to do that again... I'll post when I figure it out.
-darc

Here's what I did to fix the "reinstall nvidia drivers after every reboot" problem:


Stop GDM:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Remove all things nVIDIA:

sudo apt-get remove nvidia*

Reinstall the proprietary nVIDIA drivers (gotten from www.nvidia.com):

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-169.12-pkg2.run

Install nvidia_glx (though many people have been reporting using the nvidia-glx-new, that didn't work for me ~ give it a try tho):

sudo apt-get install nvidia_glx

Install these packages if you don't already have them:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-common linux-restricted-modules-'uname -r'

If you -DON'T- already have a configured xorg.conf, then we need to configure it. One way to figure this out is to open your xorg.conf and if you see "Driver "nv"" then you need to configure it (because it's using the open source driver). If you see "Driver "nvidia"" then you're probably alright (but it couldn't hurt to back it up and reconfigure it if you run out of ideas).
I already had one so I skipped this step, but if you need it, here you go:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

Restart GDM:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

It should be good, right? It was for me. Now, reboot and see if the drivers persist, they did for me.

wootlets!
-darc