Ubuntu

Graphics problem with nVidia drivers

Asked by Nollan777

Hi, I'm using Ubuntu 8.04 and I have a nVidia Geforce 8600M GT.
Whenever I enable the driver for the card and try to reboot, I never get to the login screen (after the reboot). The screen just goes completely white and after a couple of seconds a thick black bar slowly fades in from the bottom of the screen. I can't do anything at all then. I can solve the issue with the white screen by running xfix in recovery mode but then the driver gets disabled again and I just can't enable it again without getting that white-picture-with-black-bar thingy when I restart. This is really starting to annoy me so any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Pramod Dematagoda
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Pramod Dematagoda (pmdematagoda) said : 		#1

Try doing this:-
1) Open a restricted modules file with:-
sudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

2) Make the DISABLED_MODULES line look like this:-
DISABLED_MODULES="nv"
and see if that fixes it.

If not, could you please post as to how you installed the driver?

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Nollan777 (nollan-777) said : 		#2

Hmm, that just caused Ubuntu to boot up in low-graphics mode and the drivers are completely disabled, perhaps I was a bit unclear when I explained my problem, I do want to have the drivers enabled, but when I enable them, the computer just boots up with that white screen.

The drivers have actually never worked at all, because I installed Ubuntu a couple of hours ago, I updated the system and when I first tried to enable the driver it updated automatically, but, when I restarted, boom white screen. Afterwards, I tried installing nvidia-glx-new and nvidia-settings but that didn't make any difference at all.

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Pramod Dematagoda (pmdematagoda) said : 		#3

The white screen may have something to do with Compiz, when you reach the white screen, try this:-
1) Switch to a tty(terminal) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1.
2) Execute:-
killall compiz.real
3) Switch back by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F7.

See if that clears the white screen.

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Nollan777 (nollan-777) said : 		#4

Nope, sorry but that didn't do a thing. I don't even have Compiz installed yet... The only things I have installed at all on Ubuntu is whatever was updated when I first ran the update manager. It's a completely fresh install, yet it doesn't work... I think that's kinda weird.

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Best Pramod Dematagoda (pmdematagoda) said : 		#5

Then perhaps you can try installing the drivers using Envy, but before doing so you better remove the nvidia-glx-new and nvidia-settings packages in case they conflict, also remove that "nv" entry in the file that was specified before starting the Nvidia driver using Envy install.

To install the Nvidia driver using Envy:-

1) Install Envy:-
sudo apt-get install envyng-core

2) Run Envy with:-
sudo envyng -t

That should help you get the Nvidia driver setup after which you reboot and then see if the white screen still occurs.

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Nollan777 (nollan-777) said : 		#6

YES! That solved my problem! Thank you very very much for taking your time with me :D

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Nollan777 (nollan-777) said : 		#7

Thanks Pramod Dematagoda, that solved my question.