Video only comes up in 640x480

[Icculus]

I have been running Ubuntu and upgrading without any problems for several years / versions. I recently ran an upgrade and things started going wonky with my video displays. For a while, I would get no boot whatsoever. With some old kernels I could boot, but video would come up in 640x480 with a black border around the outside, and sometimes if I had the Nouveau drivers running, I would be able to boot into full resolution. However, I didn't want this due to the inability to run Steam games.

So, I reinstalled Ubuntu. At first I tried to install everything on top of the installation, but that didn't fix the problem. So I decided to wipe the install and start fresh. Everything was running great until I installed the nvidia drivers (the tested version). The same problems came back.

I've gone through every tutorial I could find to no avail. No matter which driver I have installed, (Nouveau, 340, 346, 352, 304...) I get the same problems.

I'd really like to not have to wipe Ubuntu again... especially considering that it didn't solve the issue the first time. I'm really at a loss here though. I don't know what the next steps should be.

Hardware:
~$ lspci | grep -i nvidia
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF116 [GeForce GTX 550 Ti] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF116 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

I have attached the two Xorg.{0,1}.log files. The .0 log file I had to truncate due to size, I don't think I removed any pertinent data, but if there is something missing I can certainly copy the whole thing.

NOTE: I added nomodeset manually on this boot to see if that helped (or had any effect on) the issue.


Any help from the community would be GREATLY appreciated at this point. Thanks!
Screenshot from 2015-10-18 12:39:30.png
Xorg.1.log.txtXorg.0.log.txt

[SeijiSensei]

With the proprietary driver installed, did you run "sudo nvidia-xconfig"? If not, try that.

[Icculus]

With the proprietary driver installed, did you run "sudo nvidia-xconfig"? If not, try that.

I have tried that, yes. I'll give it another shot. I've noticed that after a single reboot, the nvidia-xconfig tool isn't on my computer anymore.

Also I have tried installing from both command line (via apt-get) and through the additional drivers interface. Just an additional piece of info for the troubleshooting.

EDIT: After running the install "sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings" the nvidia-xconfig tool still isn't installed on my machine :-\

[sudodus]

Is

nvidia-settings

installed? Try to run it!

[Icculus]

Is

nvidia-settings

installed? Try to run it!

Yes it is. I don't think there is anything there that'll help me.

nvidia_settings.png

Also, I'll copy in some of the x11.conf files that are on my computer. I don't think they have ever worked.


I'm not sure if it matters, but I have been connected via HDMI. xorg.conf.10172015.txt

I believe this is from the only time I was actually able to run nvidia-xconfig.

[Icculus]

So I was able to run nvidia-xconfig after switching:

sudo update-alternatives --config x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf

I still am unable to get any improvements. The 304 driver caused low-graphics mode that wouldn't boot, the 340 driver caused a boot loop at the login screen (still low res) and the 346 driver caused a black screen with a cursor.

I suspect now that the culprit might be lying in the following log file:

[    20.008] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[    20.016] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module nvidia
[    20.016] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[    20.016] (II) Unloading nvidia
[    20.016] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)

I don't have the nvidia drivers installed, so I don't know why they would be trying to load.

I'll have to come back tomorrow I guess.

[Icculus]

Update:

I grep'd on /etc for nvidia and found that bumblebee was affecting nvidia, specifically in the modprobe blacklist.

I removed bumblebee and am back up to normal resolution with the Nouveau drivers, so I guess I'm sorta back to square 1. Hopefully I'll have more luck this time trying to get those pesky Nvidia drivers up.

[Icculus]

Tonight I tried to install the 304, 340, and 346 drivers. After each install (via command line) I ran sudo nvidia-xconfig to create the xorg config file. I rebooted to no avail. I had to remove --purge the drivers in recovery mode.

After installing each driver I tried booting twice, the first with no command line argument and the second with "nomodeset" that I entered in grub before booting. No luck on either front...

[SeijiSensei]

If you can turn off the Intel adapter in the BIOS, give that a try. I have a hybrid Intel/ATI machine with the Intel adapter turned off to avoid any conflicts.

[Icculus]

If you can turn off the Intel adapter in the BIOS, give that a try. I have a hybrid Intel/ATI machine with the Intel adapter turned off to avoid any conflicts.

I checked and didn't see any options for it. It was running for years without changing the BIOS settings though, so I'm not sure that'll be the problem.