How To: If Your Nvidia Driver Won't Install (8.10)

[67GTA]

There are a large number of PC's with Nvidia graphics cards and certain TV tuner/radio card combos that are affected by this bug. If you can't get your Restricted Nvidia driver installed in Ubuntu 8.10, and are greeted with the bulletproofx "Low Graphics Mode" at boot, then this might be a solution. To see if you are affected, open a terminal and run:

lsmod | grep cx18

If you get no output from this command, this does not affect you. If you get something similar to this, then this how to is for you:

cx18                   96832  0 
dvb_core               86272  1 cx18
videodev               41344  2 tuner,cx18
compat_ioctl32          9344  1 cx18
i2c_algo_bit           14340  1 cx18
cx2341x                21124  1 cx18
v4l2_common            19840  4 cs5345,tuner,cx18,cx2341x
tveeprom               20228  1 cx18
i2c_core               31892  14 adm1021,mxl5005s,s5h1409,tuner_simple,tda9887,tda8290,cs5345,tuner,cx18,nvidia,i2c_algo_bit,v4l2_common,tveeprom,i2c_nforce2

We are looking for the cx18 module. There is a known conflict between the cx18 module and the nvidia driver. The cx18 module was introduced into the 2.6.27 kernel (Ubuntu 8.10/Mint6) for certain Hauppauge/Conexant TV tuner/radio cards. If your PC has one of these cards, the cx18 module will be loaded at each boot, and stop the Nvidia card from initializing while using the nvidia driver. The nv driver is not affected. There are two options at the moment to work around this.

1.) If you plan on using your tuner/radio card, then this is the solution:

Reallocate the virtual memory so both the cx18 and nvidia modules will coexist. Open a terminal and run

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Then you need to find the "kernel" line for your current kernel and add

vmalloc=256M

at the end and save. An example would be like this:

title        Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-10-generic
uuid        84456e0a-8648-477a-96ef-0116151ecc8c
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-10-generic root=UUID=84456e0a-8648-477a-96ef-0116151ecc8c ro quiet splash rootflags=data=writeback vmalloc=256M
initrd        /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-10-generic
quiet

Now you should be able to boot normally with the nvidia driver installed and still use your Tuner card.

2.) If you do not plan on using your tuner/radio, or if you don't have one and the module is being loaded by mistake, then you can just blacklist the cx18 module so it won't load at boot time. Open a terminal and run

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Then add

blacklist cx18

to the end of the file and save.

[forks]

Thanks for this post 67GTA. It finally fixed my Mythbuntu setup. My Hauppauge HVR-1600 was not playing well with my p5n7a-vm (GeForce 9300) and I was having no luck at all until now.

Cheers

[pzba77]

I couldn't find a solution for this conflict so I opted for dual booting Ubuntu 8.04 (so I could use accelerated graphics) and Ubuntu 8.10 but this worked for me. Thanks.

[binbash]

Thanks for the tip

[dragonfixed]

How did you get your Hauppauge HVR-1600 to run and be found my mythtv in ubuntu 8.04 or 8.10. I have the same card and the computer wont find the card in ubuntu 8.04 with mythtv


Shawn

[67GTA]

How did you get your Hauppauge HVR-1600 to run and be found my mythtv in ubuntu 8.04 or 8.10. I have the same card and the computer wont find the card in ubuntu 8.04 with mythtv


Shawn

The cx18 module for the 1600 was not in the 8.04 kernel version. It first came with the 2.6.27 version in 8.10. For 8.04, you will have to install the module, and put some firmware files in the kernel directory to make it work. MythTV has an easy how to here with copy and paste commands: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Hauppauge_HVR-1600

[67GTA]

Just my 2 cents, mplayer has been the easiest so far to watch TV with. For FM radio, you can use gnomeradio. There is a bug in the last two versions. You have to open gnomeradio, change /dev/radio to /dev/radio0. Then open a terminal and run

aplay -f dat < /dev/video24

to get sound from the tuner.

[spartan777]

67GTA, you are awesome. worked like a charm.

[k4kelly]

I'new to the command line interface is this correct place for the code vmalloc=256M. Wher can i get a copy of the commands and some examples.

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid 6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df ro quiet splash vmalloc=256M
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid 6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

[67GTA]

I'new to the command line interface is this correct place for the code vmalloc=256M. Wher can i get a copy of the commands and some examples.

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid 6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df ro quiet splash vmalloc=256M
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid 6e350bf4-1126-4330-9114-369714c919df
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

Yes, that is correct. You can copy paste the commands from my howto plus see an example of mine in the first post of this thread.