Additional Drivers (nVidia) makes X server crash

Hunty6 · 07-16-2012, 05:17 PM

Hi! I am running Linux Mint 13 (MAYA) on an Asus G51J. I recently installed a fresh version of Mint (changed from Kubuntu) and I ran trough this problem.

I couldn't load the X server. I found a way to boot in nomodeset by changing the GRUB settings, but now that I have done that I cannot use the additional drivers for my graphics card. Everytime i try to install it, X server crashes after reboot and no other mode will make it work. I am now stuck with ugly graphics and cannot upgrade them unless I solve this problem.

lspci output :

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 12)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor PCI Express x16 Root Port (rev 12)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset HECI Controller (rev 06)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio (rev 06)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 06)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev 06)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 06)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 5 (rev 06)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev 06)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller (rev 06)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev a6)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 5 Series Chipset LPC Interface Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset 4 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SMBus Controller (rev 06)
00:1f.6 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Thermal Subsystem (rev 06)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT215 [GeForce GTS 360M] (rev a2)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
06:00.0 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd MMC/SD Host Controller (rev 01)
06:00.1 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Memory Stick Host Controller (rev 01)
06:00.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Device e852 (rev 01)
06:00.3 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 PCIe IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 01)
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet (rev c0)
3f:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-core Registers (rev 02)
3f:00.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QuickPath Architecture System Address Decoder (rev 02)
3f:02.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Link 0 (rev 02)
3f:02.1 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor QPI Physical 0 (rev 02)
3f:02.2 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)
3f:02.3 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Core Processor Reserved (rev 02)

I am also kinda new to Linux, and am not really familiar with code lines in the Terminal (I know some, but not all). Please help me

hiero2 · 07-17-2012, 10:46 AM

My first suggestion is to revert to the version that last worked for you - kubuntu or Mint.

My 2nd suggestion is to try Mint forums. Since this will be a Mint-version specific issue (it worked before, right?), I think it is possible that someone there will have had the same problem.

Hunty6 · 07-17-2012, 12:59 PM

Thanks for answering. However, I have been having complications with Kubuntu and changed to Mint (as it is light and works pretty good from what I can see). I do not want to change back to Kubuntu, as it would be too much trouble for me.

Also, I have been posting on Mint's forum about this issue and no one answered, so I am turning to other forums that could possibly help me out!

As of the other users, it seems like it's a problem some other guys have encountered before but there is nothing I could find that suits my need. I have tried a couple fixes on my first attempt to resolve this problem.

It is not really Mint based, it is much more related to Xorg (X server) but yet none of their workarounds are working for me.

hiero2 · 07-18-2012, 04:03 PM

Sorry my answer wasn't more help! You have found out why I ditched Mint, though - lack of a big enough user base to easily solve problems. Although, that was about 2 years ago, and things do change. However, it IS based on Ubuntu - so you might be able to go back to the Ubuntu forums and discover something helpful there. If I recall correctly, Mint tells you which version of Ubuntu they are based on.

The only trick is that by default, they run some different drivers and programs. Not sure which or what.

I will add a couple of comments - hope they are not tmi. Video problems can be strange. What seems to be the logical and apparent problem may not be.
It looks like you have Nvidia. You will want to make sure you have the latest driver from them.

Sorry I can't tell you command line stuff that would reveal instantly your problem, but try this - check the error and message logs for related entries. See if they tell you anything.

You could also try a dual-boot linux install with a different version, to see if it would work. Then you could compare drivers and settings. Or a LiveCD might be helpful in the same way.

Hunty6 · 07-18-2012, 05:29 PM

I appreciate your answers, even tho they are not going to solve the problem, it is still helpful to have more info on the subject

I DO want to make sure I have the lastest driver, but everytime I try to install it it makes my X server crash (my graphical interface), and the only possible way (for me, at least) to get info on the problem would be reinstalling mint from the live CD.

The only error message I get is the X server message, which gives me an Error (1) No screens found. I've had this error before, and there's some fixes on the Xorg website for that, but none of these helped my case. I also went trough the Mint forums and some Ubuntu forums but I haven't found anything about not being able to install a driver correctly...

business_kid · 07-19-2012, 03:03 AM

Can we see a bit of whet's going on? In X, if it loads any way, run

Quote:

glxinfo |grep render

and post the output.

Also,did you get your drivers from Nvidia's site or from Mint? If one, have you tried the other?

lastly, in a console or terminal (Don't need X for this) run
ls -l /usr/lib(64)/libGL*

and check are pivotal points like libGL.so linked to something with a mesa version 1.x.x) or a nvidia driver version

eSelix · 07-19-2012, 03:37 AM

Also in file "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" you have information why X server crashed. Probably there is misconfiguration in config file "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" if you get "No screens found". You should read "man xorg.conf" to correct that kind of error or just delete this file, but I don't known if X server find your nVidia drivers (it works without xorg.conf on my PC with radeon driver on Kubuntu).

hiero2 · 07-19-2012, 08:09 AM

Good - you've got some other replies here that look promising. The only other thing I can think of is that when using the nvidia drivers, I've had to use the nvidia installer, and not the distro installation method to get it right. That tidbit may, or may NOT, be appropriate in this case - but the nvidia drivers are proprietary - and nvidia does take care of them. FWIW.

Good luck.

Hunty6 · 07-19-2012, 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid

Can we see a bit of whet's going on? In X, if it loads any way, run
and post the output.

Also,did you get your drivers from Nvidia's site or from Mint? If one, have you tried the other?

lastly, in a console or terminal (Don't need X for this) run
ls -l /usr/lib(64)/libGL*

and check are pivotal points like libGL.so linked to something with a mesa version 1.x.x) or a nvidia driver version

Make sure that you know I am running X right now, but on low-res.

Here's the outputs:

Code:

maxime@maxime-G60JX ~ $ glxinfo |grep render 
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x300)
    GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_AMD_draw_buffers_blend,

Tried the other command line you gave me, but it looks like the '(' symbols aren't recognized, and as I am not an expert in shell commands I couldn't really replace your command line...

Code:

maxime@maxime-G60JX ~ $ ls -l /usr/lib(64)/libGL*
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('
maxime@maxime-G60JX ~ $ ls -l /usr/lib64/libGL*
ls: cannot access /usr/lib64/libGL*: No such file or directory
maxime@maxime-G60JX ~ $

I have tried both recommended driver and current-updates driver from the Additional drivers menu. I would install one manually from a website and see if it worked, but I don't have one that yet seems to work/solve my problem and I would need assistance for the install...

Hunty6 · 07-19-2012, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eSelix

Also in file "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" you have information why X server crashed. Probably there is misconfiguration in config file "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" if you get "No screens found". You should read "man xorg.conf" to correct that kind of error or just delete this file, but I don't known if X server find your nVidia drivers (it works without xorg.conf on my PC with radeon driver on Kubuntu).

As said in the first post, I had an Error (1) code and went on Xorg's website for troubleshooting and none of their fixes seemed to have worked properly. Thanks for giving me info on that file (that I didn't know existed

) tho, it might be really useful.

Is there any chance I could get a command line from someone that would uninstall the drivers installed and get back to the previous drivers installed on the computer? (So I could at least try to solve the problem in a virtual machine without having to re-install the whole distro over and over again)? Would be greatly appreciated and would help solve the problem!

business_kid · 07-20-2012, 03:34 AM

Quote:

Is there any chance I could get a command line from someone that would uninstall the drivers installed and get back to the previous drivers installed on the computer? (So I could at least try to solve the problem in a virtual machine without having to re-install the whole distro over and over again)? Would be greatly appreciated and would help solve the problem!

If you still have the binary blob executable, they take command switches. Try

Code:

nvidia-version.run --help |less

and get the exact command.