Can't Uninstall nvidia-glx

[Tk007LwZFJW5ej]

I'm following the directions here
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NvidiaManual

to update my nvidia video driver. For the "Disable Conflicting Software" step, I type

sudo apt-get remove nvidia-glx

and get the output

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Virtual packages like 'nvidia-glx' can't be removed
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

How can I fix this?

[Tk007LwZFJW5ej]

Ok, I uninstalled nvidia*, now I can't login to the machine at all! After the boot screen and kernel selection, the screen goes totally black, flashes the xubuntu logo, then goes black and stays that way. I'm accessing the internet through a live CD. Is there a way I can fix my video display? I can't even login through recovery!

[2F4U]

Did you go through the troubleshooting section of that document

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Nv...ing_the_Driver

Just because you can't login doesn't necessarily mean you can't access the system. Did you try to open a virtual console, e.g. Ctrl-Alt-F1 (2..) and login?

[sikander3786]

You probably need to insert the 'nomodeset' parameter. It is described under the heading 'First boot after installation is complete' here:

http://www.tuxgarage.com/2011/01/ubu...n-problem.html

Once you can get to the desktop, we would need you to post the output of these commands:

dpkg -l nvidia*
lshw -c video
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[Tk007LwZFJW5ej]

Did you go through the troubleshooting section of that document

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Nv...ing_the_Driver

Just because you can't login doesn't necessarily mean you can't access the system. Did you try to open a virtual console, e.g. Ctrl-Alt-F1 (2..) and login?

I am able to use a virtual console, but nothing in the troubleshooting guide is applicable to me because I never got beyond the Disable Conflicting Software step. I did try to update and upgrade the system to replace the deleted packages, but I keep getting errors like "Can't resolve blahblah.ubuntu.com."

[Tk007LwZFJW5ej]

You probably need to insert the 'nomodeset' parameter.

That got me beyond the boot screen, but the system gets stuck after the Checking Battery State step (which apparently checks out ok). The system never makes it to login, so I still can't get to the desktop.

[Tk007LwZFJW5ej]

Once you can get to the desktop, we would need you to post the output of these commands:

dpkg -l nvidia*
lshw -c video
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Ok, I mounted my ubuntu partition into /media from the liveCD and chrooted into it. I'm still getting errors when I try to update ( a whole lot of "Something wicked happened resolving 'archive.ubuntu.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname)." Upgrade only gives me the option of removing ironhide, then gives me the error

E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

when I select yes.

dpkg -l nvidia*

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                              Version                           Description
+++-=================================-=================================-==================================================================================
un  nvidia-173                        <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-180-modaliases             <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-185-modaliases             <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-96                         <none>                            (no description available)
rc  nvidia-common                     1:0.2.35                          Find obsolete NVIDIA drivers
rc  nvidia-current                    280.13-0ubuntu6.1                 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library
un  nvidia-current-modaliases         <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-glx-ia32                   <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-libvdpau                   <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-libvdpau-ia32              <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-libvdpau1                  <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-libvdpau1-ia32             <none>                            (no description available)
rc  nvidia-settings                   280.13-0ubuntu2                   Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver
un  nvidia-vdpau-driver               <none>                            (no description available)
un  nvidia-vdpau-driver-ia32          <none>                            (no description available)

lshw -c video

had no output

Output of

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 280.13 (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-03.nvidia.com) Wed Jul 27 17:15:58 PDT 2011

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

[sikander3786]

You are getting the "something wicked happened" error probably because you didn't copy your Live CD's resolv.conf to the chroot environment for resolving the address.

For now, from the chroot, try these commands:

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

And reboot to see if anything changed.

[Tk007LwZFJW5ej]

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old

gives me

sudo: unable to resolve host ubuntu
mv: cannot stat `/etc/X11/xorg.conf': No such file or directory

[sikander3786]

You are still in the chroot? Just make sure. If you were able to 'cat' the file, you should be able to move it as well.