Desktop effects not working!

[Silentzor]

Hello,

I am using Kubuntu 10.10, and I have an Nvidia GT 320M with driver version 260.19.12 (updated from 260.19.09 i think) on my laptop. Suddenly, my desktop effects stopped working, and the window borders and window manipulation buttons are getting mixed up with everything else when i mouseover them or click on them (I guess some desktop effect I had is malfunctioning or not functioning at all?). Under System Settings -> Desktop Effects, I can only see grey'd out options, which won't let me enable desktop effects.

Any ideas?

P.S. I am using kernel 2.6.35-22

Thanks,

Silentzor

[3Miro]

Try reinstalling the driver or going back to the older version. If desktop effects cannot be enabled, this means that 3D acceleration is not active, which means there is a problem with the driver.

[kio_http]

Try pressing ALT + Shift + F12

If that fails, go in KDE System Settings > Desktop Effects > Enable Desktop Effects > Advanced Tab > Disable functionality Checks

Or it could simply be that your GPU is getting Hot with the new driver.

[Silentzor]

Hey thanks for the replies!

kio_http: The thing is that the Desktop Effects tab is "grey'd" out, so i cannot select to enable the effects, or click on the advanced tab.

3Miro: I reinstalled the driver several times, I even upgraded from 260.19.09 to 260.19.12 and it still won't work.

[3Miro]

Grayed out means the driver is not recognized. This is the thing that you have to fix. If reinstalling doesn't work, then there may be a trickier issue.

Check to see if the nvidia kernel module exist, form terminal

modprobe -l | grep nvidia

Check the Xorg settings, from Dolphin you can go to /ets/X11/xorg.conf.d and check for any files called nvidia. You can open them with Kate and post the content (or tell us if you don't have any such files).

I am not sure if I will be able to figure it out from this, but I will try (and someone else may help).

[Silentzor]

Hey thanks for the quick reply again!

modprobe -l | grep nvidia returned this:



kernel/drivers/video/backlight/mbp_nvidia_bl.ko
kernel/drivers/video/nvidia/nvidiafb.ko
updates/dkms/nvidia-current.ko


And this is what xorg.conf file contains:


# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 260.19.12 (buildmeister@builder101) Fri Oct 8 11:47:04 PDT 2010


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
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

[3Miro]

The nvidia kernel module is not installed. You should have a nvidia.ko module in modprobe -l.

When you reinstall the nvidia driver, does it register as installed? Does it give any errors, if you tell it to show details when it is installing, do you see any errors? Is there any nvidia file in the /var/log folder (something about hardware, jockey, apt or nvidia)?

[Silentzor]

The drivers show as installed in Hardware Drivers (Additional Drivers in 10.10), I don't know where else to look about that. When re-installing everything is normal, I don't receive any errors.

Also, no nvidia file found /var/log. The only relevant thing i found in this folder is Xorg.0.log, dunno if it will help.

[3Miro]

There has to be a log file somewhere with an error about compiling the nvidia kernel module. This is the thing that you are missing, something goes wrong during the install. There is a way to manually recompile the module, but I couldn't find how in the Ubuntu HowTo/forums (the only stuff that I found was too old). I will try to look some more ... I wish I were more helpful.

[Silentzor]

Thanks so much for your help already mate, I'll be refreshing as much as I can :)

[Silentzor]

Any updates?

[TBABill]

There was a big issue with the blur feature in PCLinuxOS keeping people from being able to enable desktop effects and for some they had crashes. Disabling blur (untick the box) fixed the problem. This was on PCLinuxOS 2010.7 KDE. Easy enough to try to see if it helps.

[doobeedoo]

install nouveau firmware . NVIDIA .
doobeedoo):P Also,turn blur off