11.10 64 Fresh Install Issues

[fexar]

I have the following rig:

X79-UD5 motherboard
32GB DDR3 2133 RAM (4GBx8 modules)
GeForce GTX580
i7 3930K
OCZ 120GB SSD

Trying to install 11.10 x86_64 3.0.0-12 kernel via LiveCD (DVD).
Checked MD5 and DVD for errors: no issues.

I can only get the LiveCD to load with "nomodeset" and proceeds to install. After running "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade", I have to shift-key into grub and edit boot command to "nomodeset" otherwise the system hangs right out of grub (PSOD). When desktop loads, I cannot tty to console 1-6 (blank screen) but I can return to X okay. If I install nvidia-current (290.10), the system crashes and root can no longer mount on any partition; gives error "No filesystem could mount root" even in recovery mode.

I've looked high and low for a working solution but nothing I've tried has gotten me anywhere. If anyone has any suggestions of where to look next, I would appreciate any help.

[fexar]

I have flashed the BIOS to ver F7 form Gigabyte and will do more testing, but some more about the install error.

If I don't set "nomodeset" I get the following:


[drm] nouveau 0000:02:00.0: Detected an NVc0 generation card (0x0c8000a1)
fb: conflicting fb hw usage nouveaufb vs EFI VGA - removing generic driver

and the installer boot halts. I take it since there's no chipset gfx support it's relying on the GeForce but this isn't compatible with the available generic drivers on the boot CD? Has anyone found any solutions to these issues? I'm going to try another install with nomodeset with the new BIOS for now, but I hope someone has some suggestions.

[efflandt]

I believe that it is necessary to use nomodeset so nouveau and nvidia drivers can coexist or cooperate. The proper place to put that is in following line of /etc/default/grub, then run sudo update-grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

Without that I could not even boot a new installation of 64-bit 11.10 with my GTX 550Ti without the screen going to "no signal".

I have been using nvidia-current 290.10-0ubuntu1~oneiric~xup1 for sometime from xswat ppa repository. The unresponsive and freezing problems I had with my GT 430 (Linux and Windows) were apparently due to a failing year old card from a less known manufacturer. Other than having to use "nomodeset" I have had no problems at all with my EVGA GTX 550Ti.

Are you installing nvidia-current from Additional Drivers, with Synaptic, or terminal (does latter automatically include proper nvidia-settings)? My xorg.conf is default for Additional Drivers as simple as could be:


Section "Device"
Identifier "Default Device"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSectionsudo lspci -v shows modules being used:

Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia_current, nouveau, nvidiafb

I boot 11.10 from 80 GB Intel SSD. There is extreme lag when switching between X and console or back, or when waking from suspend (cold boot from SSD is quicker).

If you still have issues see if less dmesg or /var/log/xorg.0.log reveals anything unusual.

[fexar]

After flashing the BIOS to the new version and installing fresh, I was able to update all packages and I added the "nomodeset" to the grub. Thanks efflandt.

Until now I was installing the nVidia drivers using console (outside of X) using


sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

Should I try installing from Additional Drivers? Is there any pre-work I need to do (i.e., "apt-get purge nvidia*", etc.) for either method?

I really appreciate your reply. It's helping me piece together the issues I'm having.

[fexar]

I installed via Additional Drivers and all is well except on boot it boots into TTY1. I simply run "sudo service lightdm start" and get into X, but it'd be nice if it would boot right into X. Will keep looking for solutions.

Thanks for all the help, efflandt!