8.10 to 9.04, nvidia packages error, no Gnome anymore!

[couzin2000]

I've been using Ubuntu 8.10 on my desktop for awhile now, and I since have upgraded my laptop to 9.04, all this was done without a hitch. Now, after having thoroughly tested it out, I decided to install on the desktop. here's what happened:

-had 8.10, with (I believe) Nvidia 1.80 proprietary driver. I simply clicked on "upgrade" and it started.
-As I was installing the upgrade, several packages were found faulty, so they weren't installed properly -- all of them were named nvidia-xxx. I pressed on with the upgrade.
-Once the upgrade was done, the bootup happened automatically, and the system rebooted. I was taken to the command-line interface -- NO MORE GDM!

I've tried
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg but I was told that xserver is broken or not fully installed. So from there I tried
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg but there I'm told there are problems with dependencies being unmet, and was suggested to try
sudo apt-get -f install to fix dependencies. Tried it, but there I'm told that
conflicting packages - not installing xserver-xorg-core
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/nvidia-glx-180-dev_180.44-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/nvidia-glx-180_180.44-0ubuntu1_i386.deb
/var/cache/apt/archives/xserver-xorg-core_2%3a1.6.0-0ubuntu14_i386.deb
E:sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

From here I am stuck, I have no idea what to do!
I tried finding several posts on this, to no avail. Stuck here!

(PS - do not suggest reinstallation, as I will not do so. I wanna know how to fix this!)

Thanks in advance!

[couzin2000]

Here's more info:

I tried
startx and received this message:


...
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: Sat Jul 18 13:18:01 2009
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so: undefined symbol: Allocate
ScreenPrivateIndex
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nvidia_drv.so
(EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (loader failed, 7)
(EE) No drivers available.

Fatal server error:
no screens found
giving up.
xinit: Connection refused (errno 111): unable to connect to X server
xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error.
sebastien@sebastien-desktop:~$


I truly hope some of this will help. thanks!

[couzin2000]

More stuff I tried.

sudo apt-cache policy nvidia-glx-180
And I get:


nvidia-glx-180:
Installed: 180.29-0ubuntu1~andersk1~intrepid1
Candidate: 180.44-0ubuntu1
Version table:
180.44-0ubuntu1 0
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/restricted Packages
*** 180.29-0ubuntu1~andersk1~intrepid1 0
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
sebastien@sebastien-dektop:~$

Not sure about this... I'm assuming I need to upgrade the video driver, but all I really want is to delete this one, then go back to standard VESA drivers, then from there install the new restricted drivers that Ubuntu detects automatically. Any ideas?

[couzin2000]

*bump*

[couzin2000]

No one has any info on this??

I'm sorta desperate, my pc is loaded with stuff and I cannot even access the GUI... please help!

[couzin2000]

Anybody??!?!?!?!

[merlinus]

FWIW, my attempts to upgrade to 9.04 led to lots of problems. A fresh install via cd solved all of them, including the correct nvidia driver.

[eternalsword]

what dependencies is it having issues with when you try to install it? You'll need to get those dependencies working before you can fix this.

Edit: also from the looks of things, you're likely using some third-party repositories. What's you're current /etc/apt/sources.list file?

[couzin2000]

Thanks for the reply!

Since it IS an upgrade, I'm assuming that my sources.list file is still littered with a lot of 3rd-party repos. But what affects this is only the Nvidia proprietary driver. I had originally installed 1.80.29 with my 8.10 Ubuntu install. With the upgrade, I didn't think of turning off the drivers and going back to VESA.

As for which dependencies are causing problems, I think it's only the Nvidia driver, but I don't know how to make sure. I did try sudo apt-get -f install to correct dependencies, but since I'm using Recovery mode, I have too much stuff in the screen and can't go scrolling up to read what dependencies are affected.

Yesterday I tried sudo apt-get --reinstall install xserver-xorg, but didn't work. Also tried sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-vesa, but I get the same result saying dependencies are faulted for now.

Now what? I don't wanna do a fresh CD install unless someone swears to me I will not lose what stuff I have on my hard drive -- those are my wedding pictures. I can't lose them.

[wojox]

When you click on System > Administration > Hardware Drivers what does it say?

[Nazaroo]

I think I can help:

Here's what I found, as I was trying to get 2 monitors (TwinView) to work with nVidia cards.

(I failed to mention this side-episode here;
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1219474
)

I had thought that my problem might be that the old (read stable) nVidia driver software was faulty and couldn't do dual screens, so I tried updating the package.

I had nVidia 96 I think, and upgraded to nVidia 180.

I had the same problem. I lost the GUI interface, and had shiite.

I managed to get the machine up in 'safe mode' or something, and got back on a command line.

I UNINSTALLED completely the nVidia 180 package, and tried another (of four possible versions out there)

And I then freshly installed the old '96' version.

I had left this episode out of the other thread.

To do this, I had followed instructions from another thread, which I am looking for now:

Meanwhile, read this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=990978&highlight=installing+removing+nVidia+driver

I'll keep searching and try to remember what I did to get out of that, cause I did it, so I know its possible.

[Nazaroo]

There's a video here, but I can't get it to play on my FIrefox (missing flash?)

Perhaps you can watch it on another machine:
http://linuxcrypt.net/?p=255&cpage=1#comment-1809

Also, read this old thread, it has lots of info and history of the nVidia driver install problem, and there might be info you can use. It was one of the threads I browsed.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=57368&page=41

But I can't yet remember exactly what I did. I know it was done from a terminal in safe mode, but not sure what.

I do remember that I executed an incorrect command (which was quite handy!!!! because the nVidia install tanked and gave an informative error message: It told me I had to specify what version to install, and listed four! Also, it automatically deleted the current version and installed the new one.)

I now remember I did this same trick several times to try different versions, and it worked well, automatically removing dependant packages and replacing bad installs.


I remember I typed the version number wrong (left it out of the [incorrect] file name) in an argument from the command line to get the install program to spit out information.

update:
Here is another description of updating drivers without using commandline or editing config files:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=983686
It uses the "Envying" package to automatically install updated drivers...but I haven't tried it.

[couzin2000]

When you click on System > Administration > Hardware Drivers what does it say?

Nothing, since I can't access the GUI at all. My system boots in Recovery mode (or some call it terminal mode). I have no graphics, text-only. So I can't tell you what it says there.

However, before, I WAS using (as stated above) Nvidia proprietary drivers version 1.80.29, and they worked very well. The fact that I upgraded the Ubuntu kernel and everything else maybe the source of all the conflicting packages and missing dependencies.

What I am looking for is a way to revert to VESA drivers from the text-only interface. Can this be done?

EDIT: Ok... I read all your comments, I'm going to go through the threads you recommended. Hopefully something will help. I did read somewhere that using sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia* would completely remove all packages related to Nvidia drivers, but I'm scared that by doing that the subsequent reinstallation of xserver-xorg will fail because no drivers are present.

I'll go thourgh your recommended threads, see what I can find... I'll keep you posted.

Please keep other suggestions coming!

[eternalsword]

if you run the install command you can read all the output by piping to less


sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg | less

[eternalsword]

I did read somewhere that using sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia* would completely remove all packages related to Nvidia drivers, but I'm scared that by doing that the subsequent reinstallation of xserver-xorg will fail because no drivers are present.

Please keep other suggestions coming!

That's actually worth a try. Worst thing that can happen at this point is having to add them back. xserver-org isn't reinstalling already at this point, and it seems related to an nvidia package issue. Another thing you can try before that is editing your /etc/apt/sources.list file so that all the third-party repositories are switched to jaunty compatible ones.

[couzin2000]

That's actually worth a try. Worst thing that can happen at this point is having to add them back. xserver-org isn't reinstalling already at this point, and it seems related to an nvidia package issue. Another thing you can try before that is editing your /etc/apt/sources.list file so that all the third-party repositories are switched to jaunty compatible ones.

Haha... didn't work either. It says dependencies are unmet. From what I understand, it looks like it's looking for xserver-xorg-core. I do have it, but I don't know what this problem could be.

Maybe editing the sources.list file will work... if I knew what the command was to edit text in command-line only mode was -- can't really use sudo gedit here.

[couzin2000]

I don't rightly know how this happened, but I fixed it.

I went and followed these instructions: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=990978&highlight=installing+removing+nVidia+driver

I had to go to the Nvidia download page on my laptop and write the full http address of the download link, and just used wget.

When it was downloaded I followed the steps, same as the thread listed above. After sudo reboot, it didn't work at all.

So I tried to, perhaps, upgrade whatever dependencies weren't being met there. I ran sudo apt-get -f install. THIS TIME, a bunch of stuff was corrected, changed, modified, and upgraded. After a reboot, I now have a fully working GUI. :D

One thing is weird, however: I downloaded version 185, but as I go into System > Hardware Drivers, I see version 180 is currently being used, and 185 is not even listed.

Oh well -- you can't have everything ;)

Thanks y'all!