2 glitchs: Rendering Chromium, and MDM doesn't work

[eco2geek]

I'm having two problems with Mint 15, 64-bit Cinnamon edition, updated to current.

First, MDM starts OK, it displays the mouse cursor (it even turns into an I-beam in the correct places), but I can't enter my user name (or even select it). Pressing the Enter key does nothing. Going to a command line, killing mdm by PID, and restarting it doesn't help.

Details: I'm using the proprietary NVIDIA driver (from the repositories), version 304. MDM's at version 1.2.5. I put "vga=791" into GRUB's "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=" line so that I get a proper Mint plymouth logo (yeah, I know using "vga=" is deprecated, but it still works).

I installed and configured lightdm in MDM's place, and it looks great and all (see [url=http://www.webupd8.org/2012/06/how-to-use-lightdm-instead-of-mdm-in.html]here[/url] and [url=http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=211&t=103684]here[/url] for exhaustive instructions), but it installed a bunch of software (parts of Unity) that I don't need. I'd like to go back to MDM.

Second, the majority of the time (probably 80%) I start Chromium, it ends up in a little window in the corner, as in the attached screenshot. Cinnamon thinks it's maximized. Closing it and restarting it (or just starting a new instance) usually gives me a full-screen window.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, Cinnamon rocks.

[eco2geek]

The problem with MDM is due to my old NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS card (using the proprietary driver), which doesn't seem to handle the tradeoff from a framebuffer to X very well.

If I take out the "vga=791" line, I get "Linux Mint 15" displayed in an ugly VGA console font, but MDM in HTML mode works fine. If I put in the "vga=791" part, I get a nice-looking Mint logo, but MDM in HTML mode doesn't work. (I haven't experimented with using MDM in GTK mode.)

The preferred solution would be to upgrade to a more modern video card...

As far as Chromium goes, it would appear that the last upgrade to v28.0.1500.52 solved the rendering glitch, at least so far.

[eco2geek]

Here's a "lightbulb" moment. Ever since Ubuntu Maverick, I've been using the following to fix nvidia-related problems with plymouth, and it finally occurred to me that Mint is an Ubuntu-based distro:

- Install the "v86d" and "hwinfo" packages
- Use the "hwinfo --framebuffer" command from a virtual console (in other words, outside of X) to identify the framebuffer modes supported by my hardware, in order to pick the one I wish to use at boot -- in my case, I like "1024x768-24"
- Change the "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=" line in /etc/default/grub to read:

Code: Select all

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1024x768-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"

- Run "update-grub" as root (or "sudo update-grub")
...and reboot. Plymouth works and so does MDM in html mode.