nVidia driver problem

[CyClyst]

I think I have a problem with my nVidia driver.

When I first tried installing my monitor did the No VGA input on boot (but I hear the little drum noise) when I reinstalled I did not install updates during install. This got me to boot into ubuntu. Then I tried to install NVidia accelerated graphics driver (version current) [recommended] but after reboot I got the no vga input on my monitor again.

What should I do?

Also is there a way to mess around with installing video drivers such that if I install the wrong one I can uninstall it without having to reinstall linux all over agian? Thank you guys!

[tommcd]

You should be able to boot to recovery mode and run:

apt-get remove --purge nvidia*
reboot
This should reboot you into the default nouveau driver for nvidia.
What nvidia graphics card do you have?
Are you using multiple monitors or a KVM switch or something else besides a single monitor connected by VGA or DVI input?

I always install the nvidia driver from the terminal like this:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current mesa-utils nvidia-settings
sudo reboot
then after rebooting run:

sudo nvidia-xconfig
And you should be good.

[CyClyst]

It is a laptop with a broken screen hooked up to an external monitor. The video card is a nVidia Geforce 8600M GT.

I will try your suggestion when I get home tonight. Previously I had used ubuntus update driver utility to install the recommended driver. Then on reboot I had the blank screen problem again ;(

[CyClyst]

You should be able to boot to recovery mode and run:

apt-get remove --purge nvidia*
reboot
This should reboot you into the default nouveau driver for nvidia.
What nvidia graphics card do you have?
Are you using multiple monitors or a KVM switch or something else besides a single monitor connected by VGA or DVI input?

I always install the nvidia driver from the terminal like this:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current mesa-utils nvidia-settings
sudo reboot
then after rebooting run:

sudo nvidia-xconfig
And you should be good.


Sadly this did not work for me! I tried installing the driver the way you described and I got the same problem. Any other ideas?? I was however able to log into recovery mode and purge the nvidia driver so I did not have to re-install, thank you for that!

[tommcd]

Does Ubuntu run ok from the live CD?
Do you have the nvidia-current driver installed now? If so, the post your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. You should be able to mount your Ubuntu partition from the live CD, then post the file.
Assuming that Ubuntu is on /dev/sda1 just mount that partition from the live CD:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
Then run:
cat /mnt/etc/X11/xorg.conf
and post the file here in between code tags if you can.