Stupid mistake while updating NVIDIA drivers
Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 5:09 pm
I changed over to LMDE 32 Bit Cinnamon and MATE from the main edition some time ago and just made somewhat of an idiotic mistake. I'm afraid I'm far from being familiar with the terminology in use, so I will likely struggle to name certain things exactly, I will try to be as descriptive as I can and I hope someone will be able to understand what I'm referring to, and possibly guide me in the right direction.
I noticed recently that my laptop's fan was making more noise than it used to, as in it seems the computer is running hotter, and one suggestion I read elsewhere on the forum was about gpu scaling. I recalled setting the power management for the gpu from an NVIDIA control panel in the main edition, so I searched through the software manager (the one with the yellow star, I think it is, from the main menu) for NVIDIA and installed the top result which gave me a menu entry just like the one I'd used previously to change the power consumption settings for the gpu. However, it didn't work, giving an error about missing X config.
After rebooting now, the boot process does not complete, giving an error about a missing X-config. I looked back through my notes, which I wish I'd done earlier, and I remembered a step which I hadn't taken care to proceed with first this time... actually downloading and installing the NVIDIA drivers!
I booted in with the live DVD and downloaded NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.32.run from the NVIDIA website and copied it to the actual home desktop on the hard drive. I rebooted out of the DVD and tried the following:
cd ~/Desktop
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.32.run
sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.32.run
After the installer unpacks and tabbing to 'accept', the installer starts but gives an error message straight away saying that the Debian version must be uninstalled first and that it is exiting after a brief number of seconds, which it does.
I wasn't sure, so just in case the installer had actually worked, I tried:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
(because from my notes of how I did it last time, that was to be followed by:
sudo /etc/init.d/go start
alt ctrl f7)
but, it gives an error along the lines of no such command exists (etc/init.d/gdm)
I am reading of different ways to update the NVIDIA drivers now, e.g.
"Re: How to install nvidia driver on LMDE?
Postby hns on Wed Sep 08, 2010 9:59 am
I installed with synaptic: nvidia-kernel-dkms. This one took the rest for nvidia as dependecies.
Also i installed: nvidia-settings and nvidia-xconfig
After install i ran as root nvidia-xconfig.
Rebooted and working.
From memory and experience this can only be done with Debian stable.
With testing it will give missing dependecies, which are in unstable/experimental or nat available at all
As testing is frozen, it works in testing.
When LMDE is using the new upcoming Debian-testing this wil change.
"
I would try that if I could, but I'm afraid I'm rather feckless in the root display.. without the gui, I have no clue how I'd even get to a synaptic menu to even begin trying to fix the mess I've made.
Edit: Please feel free to mark this thread as resolved.
If any users encounter a similar problem, I found the following page useful: http://livelinux.altervista.org/Guida_L ... river.html
The error message from the NVIDIA installer indicated that only one version at a time could be installed and so the default Debian driver should be removed first. I assumed, wrongly, that the following line would do the trick and then it would install properly using the previous method I posted earlier:
sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
That did not work on my system. However, the alternative method outlined in the link at the top resulted in me being able to post this from shiny, brilliant, wonderful LMDE once again without resorting to Windows 7 (insert puke smiley). The only thing I had to do differently is add sudo in front of the last four entries as I was not logged in as root:
sudo apt-get install module-assistant
sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-common
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install nvidia-xconfig
m-a prepare
m-a a-i nvidia
modprobe nvidia
nvidia-xconfig
I hope this helps someone else, not that I would wish anyone to have the same problem, but you know what I mean I hope!
I noticed recently that my laptop's fan was making more noise than it used to, as in it seems the computer is running hotter, and one suggestion I read elsewhere on the forum was about gpu scaling. I recalled setting the power management for the gpu from an NVIDIA control panel in the main edition, so I searched through the software manager (the one with the yellow star, I think it is, from the main menu) for NVIDIA and installed the top result which gave me a menu entry just like the one I'd used previously to change the power consumption settings for the gpu. However, it didn't work, giving an error about missing X config.
After rebooting now, the boot process does not complete, giving an error about a missing X-config. I looked back through my notes, which I wish I'd done earlier, and I remembered a step which I hadn't taken care to proceed with first this time... actually downloading and installing the NVIDIA drivers!
I booted in with the live DVD and downloaded NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.32.run from the NVIDIA website and copied it to the actual home desktop on the hard drive. I rebooted out of the DVD and tried the following:
cd ~/Desktop
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.32.run
sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.32.run
After the installer unpacks and tabbing to 'accept', the installer starts but gives an error message straight away saying that the Debian version must be uninstalled first and that it is exiting after a brief number of seconds, which it does.
I wasn't sure, so just in case the installer had actually worked, I tried:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
(because from my notes of how I did it last time, that was to be followed by:
sudo /etc/init.d/go start
alt ctrl f7)
but, it gives an error along the lines of no such command exists (etc/init.d/gdm)
I am reading of different ways to update the NVIDIA drivers now, e.g.
"Re: How to install nvidia driver on LMDE?
Postby hns on Wed Sep 08, 2010 9:59 am
I installed with synaptic: nvidia-kernel-dkms. This one took the rest for nvidia as dependecies.
Also i installed: nvidia-settings and nvidia-xconfig
After install i ran as root nvidia-xconfig.
Rebooted and working.
From memory and experience this can only be done with Debian stable.
With testing it will give missing dependecies, which are in unstable/experimental or nat available at all
As testing is frozen, it works in testing.
When LMDE is using the new upcoming Debian-testing this wil change.
"
I would try that if I could, but I'm afraid I'm rather feckless in the root display.. without the gui, I have no clue how I'd even get to a synaptic menu to even begin trying to fix the mess I've made.
Edit: Please feel free to mark this thread as resolved.
If any users encounter a similar problem, I found the following page useful: http://livelinux.altervista.org/Guida_L ... river.html
The error message from the NVIDIA installer indicated that only one version at a time could be installed and so the default Debian driver should be removed first. I assumed, wrongly, that the following line would do the trick and then it would install properly using the previous method I posted earlier:
sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
That did not work on my system. However, the alternative method outlined in the link at the top resulted in me being able to post this from shiny, brilliant, wonderful LMDE once again without resorting to Windows 7 (insert puke smiley). The only thing I had to do differently is add sudo in front of the last four entries as I was not logged in as root:
sudo apt-get install module-assistant
sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-common
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-source
sudo apt-get install nvidia-xconfig
m-a prepare
m-a a-i nvidia
modprobe nvidia
nvidia-xconfig
I hope this helps someone else, not that I would wish anyone to have the same problem, but you know what I mean I hope!