Ubuntu

nVidia Driver Kills X

Asked by Osiris2258

My HP2207 has a native resolution of 1680x1050, which is higher than the default nv can handle, so I installed the nVidia driver (I usually do anyway for better effects and WINE use). When I reboot my computer and go through the splash screen, the (not quiet) splash finishes, and then nothing. The monitor turns off, there is no picture, hard reboot is the only option. Booting into command line works fine, until I activate X, at which point it's back to blank screen.

This happened in 7.10, and is continuing in 8.04. Tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and Kubuntu-KDE4, so it appears to be X, not ubuntu itself.

It didn't happen with my older, smaller monitor (which had VGA input instead of DVI like the new one, although the input was converted at the output port since my card only has DVI output).

My card is a GeForce 7600 GT.

ANy idea what is going on and how I can fix it?

Isn't an LTS supposed to be pretty bug free? I call loosing the ability to use the OS by doing something almost everybody does first thing to be a big bug!

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Bhavani Shankar (bhavi) said : 		#1

Hello

Have you built the nvidia kernel module for the new kernel? If you've installed the drivers manually (ie: from the nvidia website) then you need to rebuild the kernel module for each and every kernel update (this includes installing the -686 kernel).

You can do this with "sudo ./NVIDIAinstaller_filename --kernel-module-only".

And as an addon: restoring your Xorg.conf isn't going to do anything - you've overwritten the old X drivers with the new, and no amount of Xorg.conf mangling is going to get them back. As a temporary fix, you can change the driver from "nvidia" to "vesa", and that should get you back into X. For a more permanent fix, try the "rebuild the kernel module" advice from above.

Or:

sudo aptitude reinstall nvidia-glx linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`

to get back to the original nvidia drivers.

Regards

Bhavani Shankar.

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Larry Laird (webmaster-lairdslair) said : 		#2

I have exactly the same problem and have had this problem since Gutsy. I am using the Ubuntu provided nvidia drivers. I get no output from DVI. A boot with DVI results in a black screen after usplash. My card is a nvidia 6600. Please understand that this problem arose after an upgrade.

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