Cannot activate NVIDIA driver on ubuntu 9.04

[yhan2000]

Hi Everyone,

I just upgraded my ubuntu to 9.04 from 8.10, and since then, my nvidia driver not working anymore, not even compiz, I've tried most of the solutions from the internet, like: purge the old drivers, and re-install, etc, none of them got my problem fixed.

everything i tried to activate the driver, i can see the options, and recommended driver, but after i click on "Activate", it looks like its downloading and installing something, but after few seconds, nothing really happened, and i can see the driver is not installed.

after i tried the above activation, and reboot, the system will go to some error message like "(EE)NVIDIA module is not installed, Screens found, but ..." then it will loop screen options until i reboot again, go to recovery mode, and repair the broken package & fix the graphic problems, then the next reboot would take me to the GUI, but still can't install the NVIDIA driver or enable compiz.

Could anyone help? or any information other details information required?

please let me know how to retrive the information you want to see, because i'm still quite new to linux.

thanks.

[sakisds]

Its have a similar problem too. When i install nvidia drivers i can't boot up...Please tell me if you find a solution.

[oldsoundguy]

I had all kinds of problems with the newer builds and the NVidia driver(s) (multiple computers)
So I went back to 8.04 and have NO issues with VIDEO
SOUND (digital), on the other hand, went away!

[yhan2000]

well, it's not quite wise to downgrade now, especially 8.04 doesn't support Mobile Broadband in network manager, and that's the main propose for me to do the upgrading. 8.10 is ok, but still, i prefer to fix the problem and stay with 9.04.

[prshah]

some error message like "(EE)NVIDIA module is not installed, Screens found, but ..."

Can you grab the entire error message?

Or, try to boot after installing the driver, and, when it fails, boot into recovery mode and post the /var/log/Xorg.[0,1].log files (suggestion: will help to compress them first).

If, for any reason, the above is inconvenient to do, just try to get the output of
cat /var/log/Xorg.[0,1].log | grep -A 1 -B 2 "(EE)"

[kvk]

Can you post the contents of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file?

[yhan2000]

Can you grab the entire error message?

Or, try to boot after installing the driver, and, when it fails, boot into recovery mode and post the /var/log/Xorg.[0,1].log files (suggestion: will help to compress them first).

If, for any reason, the above is inconvenient to do, just try to get the output of
cat /var/log/Xorg.[0,1].log | grep -A 1 -B 2 "(EE)"
cat /var/log/Xorg.[0,1].log | grep -A 1 -B 2 "(EE)"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Wed Jun 10 03:03:22 2009
--
(II) Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE
(II) Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE
(EE) Failed to initialize GLX extension (Compatible NVIDIA X driver not found)
(II) config/hal: Adding input device Sony Vaio Keys
--
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.1.log", Time: Tue Jun 9 20:31:01 2009
cat: A: No such file or directory
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[yhan2000]

Can you post the contents of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file?
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# 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.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# 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 "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[kvk]

Thanks, Yhan.

Now if I understand it correctly, you are able to boot into the gui, but the graphics are not correctly aligned, yes?

Try this- I had similar issues and this resolved the nVidia portion of them (I'm still dealing with the rest of them!)

During boot, enter the GRUB menu by pressing ESC when GRUB is loading (it should tell you this on screen). Select the recovery kernel. This will load a simple recovery options screen, one of which will be the option to boot into a root terminal- do so.

Enter:



sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-nv
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop


then enter



lspci


and note the specifics of your video card (i.e. GeForce 7000/nForce 630i or whatever).

Then:


sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf


to open the xorg.conf file.

Modify the existing DEVICE entry to read as follows:

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

and add the following:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "Your Card Specifics from the LSPCI command above"
EndSection

Save and close the xorg.conf file (CTL O, CTL X)

Then run



sudo telinit 3


which should take you to your log-in screen. See if you can log in and if everything is working correctly.I hope this works for you!!

[yhan2000]

Thanks, Yhan.

Now if I understand it correctly, you are able to boot into the gui, but the graphics are not correctly aligned, yes?

Try this- I had similar issues and this resolved the nVidia portion of them (I'm still dealing with the rest of them!)

During boot, enter the GRUB menu by pressing ESC when GRUB is loading (it should tell you this on screen). Select the recovery kernel. This will load a simple recovery options screen, one of which will be the option to boot into a root terminal- do so.

Enter:



sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-nv
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop


then enter



lspci


and note the specifics of your video card (i.e. GeForce 7000/nForce 630i or whatever).

Then:


sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf


to open the xorg.conf file.

Modify the existing DEVICE entry to read as follows:

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

and add the following:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "Your Card Specifics from the LSPCI command above"
EndSection

Save and close the xorg.conf file (CTL O, CTL X)

Then run



sudo telinit 3


which should take you to your log-in screen. See if you can log in and if everything is working correctly.I hope this works for you!!
Hi Kvk,

I tried the procedures above, but unfortunately, same thing, now I can't login to GUI, unless i "fix the broken package and graphic problems" through the recovery kernel.

not my lucky day :(

[kvk]

Argh!!

I'm sorry!!

I'm having that issue as well, but I didn't think it was connected at all with the nVidia driver. Did a normal reboot produce the same results as before??

I think I'm at the point of having to try and save some data which escaped my earlier backup prior to upgrading, and do a clean install.

[yhan2000]

Argh!!

I'm sorry!!

I'm having that issue as well, but I didn't think it was connected at all with the nVidia driver. Did a normal reboot produce the same results as before??

I think I'm at the point of having to try and save some data which escaped my earlier backup prior to upgrading, and do a clean install.
I believe that could be the issue, so how do i suppose to do a clean downgrade? or re-installation of 9.04?

[kvk]

Well, if you were upgrading from a previous version online, I don't think there's any way to perform a "downgrade" except by clean install.

If you have all your data backed up on a separate media (discs or jump drive or whatever), download the ISO image for 9.04 from Ubuntu, burn it to a disc, and then load that into your computer. It will reformat the drive so you'll lose any data on it (thus my need to remove the material I missed!) Since you're having problems on the one computer, you'll have to download using a different one, or else order a CD from Ubuntu, if you can afford to wait a while.

[yhan2000]

Well, if you were upgrading from a previous version online, I don't think there's any way to perform a "downgrade" except by clean install.

If you have all your data backed up on a separate media (discs or jump drive or whatever), download the ISO image for 9.04 from Ubuntu, burn it to a disc, and then load that into your computer. It will reformat the drive so you'll lose any data on it (thus my need to remove the material I missed!) Since you're having problems on the one computer, you'll have to download using a different one, or else order a CD from Ubuntu, if you can afford to wait a while.
A clean re-installation fix the problems, but then got lots of work to install the softwares :(

thanks for the help.

[kvk]

You might try simply running



sudo apt-get -f update
sudo apt-get -f upgrade


in the command line to see if that fixes any corrupted files or missing dependencies that are maybe skulking around.

[presence1960]

Instead of using the recommended 180 Nvidia driver have you tried the next one down on the list and see how that works?

P.S. another tally added to the growing list of those who chose to upgrade having major problems. It is a shame, for whatever reason the upgrade process seems to be missing the mark. If you scour the forum you will see that most who complain about Jaunty upgraded rather than doing a clean install. It shouldn't be that way. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.

[Mr_Fixit_]

Dunno if anyone solved this. I did a fresh server install for a media center. I did a vanilla install and added only things I have needed. jockey, wicd, vlc, samba, compiz, nvidia-glx-173/177/180. Same as the original posting, the option to activate the drivers is available, it loads, then does nothing. A reboot shows the safe low graphics mode options, I reset to default, reboot and still not available to activate. Is this a nvidia bug or a ubuntu bug??

I will try to mess around with the xorg.conf first then do a fresh downgrade. 8.04 was the last time I had the gfx working properly so might go back.

*** I was originally trying to get my s-video output to play on the big screen.

[Mr_Fixit_]

**Update**

I managed to do a fresh 9.04 Desktop install and after a bit of updating and apt-gets, I managed not to have any problems activating the 180 driver. Not sure what happens with the 8.10 > 9.04 upgrade or the 9.04 fresh server install but I did get what I wanted after more messing around.