Impossible to install Ubuntu on system with Nvidia 8500gt PCI-E video ?

Jed,

I own a laptop with the Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS installed (on PCI-E bus). But I have noticed in the forums that many 8500gt owners have expressed problems.

I suspect that the X autoconfiguration is not creating a satisfactory xorg.conf. Here's what I recommend:

1. Install the latest daily-live iso from cdimage.ubuntu.com. I have a core2duo and both i386 and amd64 work. If you have a core2duo machine, I recommend the i386 version until you get everything working correctly. What I found with Gutsy, that the install worked better when I hit [F6] at the install splash screen, and removed "quiet" and "splash" from the kernel parameters line. Hardy has since resolved this issue for my hardware.

2. Once you have booted into the fresh system in "low-res" mode, go ahead and perform all system updates by using the Update Manager.

3. Then install the nvidia-glx-new driver. You will probably find the vesa and nv driver will not work as well.

4. Reboot afterwards back into "low-res" mode.

5. Open a terminal and run this:

     $ gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

6. Save the file, log out, and then back in to see if it has made a difference.

This will open up your xorg.conf that was autoconfigured for your system. I'm betting that in the device section it has configured the driver for "vesa" instead of "nvidia". If so, change vesa to nvidia. If this is not the case, then it's something else

Please give this a check, and let me know whether it resolves the issue or not.

Harvey

Jed,

I got ahead myself, before you save xorg.conf, you should have modified the device section, replacing vesa with nvidia.

Regards,

Harvey

Harvey,
First, thanks for your reply, I really appreciate the help.

I do not believe the xorg.conf is misconfigured (not 100%) but the device section appears to contain the correct entry for the
driver i happen to be trying at the time.

I havent tried the daily live cd from today, however yesterdays did the same thing as all others have, which was run up to the
point where the installer tries to launch X and then locks up, TIGHT, no keyboard no mouse and only a garbled display.
The only way to install Ubuntu was to put an old (nvidia GeForce4 128mb) video card in the system, then upgrade Ubuntu to the latest version (PCI-E Buss Fix ???) and then, and only then will the 8500GT run in "low-res" mode.
At this point (rebuilt MANY times) I have tried all of the above mentioned methods of getting the correct driver to run, including Manual install of Nvidia's driver, use of Envy and EnyNG, the restricted drivers manager and installing nvidia-glx and nvidia-glx-new and (yesterday) the nvidia-glx-new-dev. none of which work. I am relatively sure it is not a problem with the install of Ubuntu as I have installed and re-installed several different versions of Ubuntu with the exact same result. I am relatively sure the hardware is fine because windozeXP runs as well as windoze can.

Thanks again,
Jed

Jed,

Although agp did not seem to be causing a problem on my laptop, I do use the following:

A. On the kernel parameters line, I include agp=off
B. In xorg.conf I set option "NvAGP" to "0" <zero>
C. I blacklist intel_agp in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

If you run the following in a terminal, you may find an agp driver loaded:

    $ dmesg | grep agp

Try some of the above to at least rule out agp as the issue. If the problem is still there after trying the above, then agp is not causing the problem. Please report the results back here.

Regards,

Harvey

Jed,

Sorry that shoud be:

    $ lsmod | grep agp

Instead of dmesg.

Harvey

Harvey,
the output is below, btw, I am currently configured to run on the vesa driver.

jed@jed-quadtop:~$ lsmod | grep agp
agpgart 34760 0

Also, It is a desktop and the video type is PCI-E.
And
Thank you very much for your help.

Jed

Jed,

I probably should have asked this earlier, does your desktop support PCI-E? You can verify it is installed by:

   $ lspci | grep 'PCI Express'

If the above returns a few lines of text, then the answer is a definitive yes.

If you absolutely do have PCI Express, then go ahead and try blacklisting agpgart. Since agpgart is the only module shown, it is obviously not necessary to blacklist intel_agp.

I would like to know if you can at least get low-res using the nvidia driver after eliminating agp as a potential source of the problem.

Please report your answers back here.

Thanks,

Harvey

Harvey,
Thanks for your help. It appears that the outstanding developers have fixed the issue. Yesterday's Daily build (04-10-2008) corrected the problem. This system can now run the Live CD/Install with no issues.

Thanks Again !!.

Jed