Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-video-nv package

"input not supported" how to fix from liveCD

Asked by Jerry Story

I can't boot my computer. I'm running Xubuntu from liveCD. That's the best I can do.

When I try to boot without CD, what happens is "input not supported" floating all over the screen. It doesn't even get to where I can do something.

How can I fix this from liveCD?

This started happening when I made the mistake of doing:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

Installing Xubuntu 11.10 did not help.
Installing Mint 11 (erasing the drive) did not help.
Installing Ubuntu 11.10 (erasing the drive) did not help.

There seems to be some suggestion that the problem is caused by the refresh rate being too high. From liveCD, it is 75 Hz. I can change it to 60 Hz from liveCD and that works from liveCD. But how can I change the refresh rate so it stays changed when I boot from hard drive?

BTW, the problem I was trying to solve (resolution problem) by:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
somehow got solved, tho not that way.
It somehow got solved when I turned on gnome services.

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Ubuntu xserver-xorg-video-nv Edit question
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Jerry Story
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Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Have you tested your RAM?

Revision history for this message
Jerry Story (story-jerry) said : 		#2

It has nothing to do with RAM. The computer works perfectly from live CD and it was working perfectly until I tried to run Age of Empires III with wine. Nothing happened to RAM.

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Well you said it was caused when you installed the proprietary driver but this will have been removed when you clean installed. If you install the proprietary driver then run:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

It may help

Revision history for this message
Jerry Story (story-jerry) said : 		#4

$ sudo nvidia-xconfig
sudo: nvidia-xconfig: command not found
$

Revision history for this message
Jerry Story (story-jerry) said : 		#5

Someone with a similar problem wrote:

"Unplug computer and monitor, then first plug in monitor, then plug in computer. This way give time for computer to configure LCD monitor first."

That didn't work for me.

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#6

If you boot with the boot option:

nouveau.blacklist=1 nvidia.blacklist=1 nomodeset

May help

Revision history for this message
Jerry Story (story-jerry) said : 		#7

A strange thing happened. I decided to call a technician. I made the call and someone was going to return the call in 2 hours. During that time, I did another clean install. I figured I screwed up the system so badly that at least I should simplify the problem for the expert. Then it worked!

This is strange. I did clean installs before, using the same CD and on the same drive, and it didn't work before, and now it is working. Will it continue to work? I don't know. It is the correct resolution too.

This is what happened. I got the usual "INPUT NOT SUPPORTED" message floating all over the screen. Nothing new. I expected to have to install with the live CD as usual. But then came some hard drive activity. I thought, "What's this? Something is happening." The screen went blank for a moment and then ... the boot loader came up. Now it is working. I don't know why it is working now and I don't know why it was not working before.

I took the precaution of setting the monitor correctly. It was set at 1440*900 75Hz. The manual for the monitor says the maximum resolution for this monitor is 1440*900 60Hz. So I changed the 75 Hz to 60 Hz. Actually 59.90Hz because that was the option.

When I do a search on "input not supported" etc., I get info that this is caused by the refresh rate is too high for the monitor. Also most of the problems of this type are on an Acer monitor. My monitor is an Acer. What is with Acer monitors? Is Acer that popular? Or are Acer monitors problematic? Next time I buy a monitor, it won't be an Acer.

Also the graphics card might have something to do with this problem. I don't have a graphics card except whatever was on the computer when I bought it. The first time I got the "INPUT NOT SUPPORTED" problem was when I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04. It gave me the "INPUT NOT SUPPORTED" and after a while it told me that my graphics card is not good enough for Unity (the new Ubuntu desktop) and it switched me to Ubuntu Classic (which uses gnome). So maybe it's a graphics card problem.

Maybe I should get a graphics card. Even before this "INPUT NOT SUPPORTED" problem, the graphics card (or absence of) was somewhat problematic in minor ways. It was not good enough to run Unity and not good enough to run 0AD (a great game).

I'm running Xubuntu, which does not use Unity.

Problem solved, for now. Cross fingers. I would still like to know what caused this problem and why it mysteriously got solved.