HOWTO: Two Monitors, NVIDIA with misbehaving nouveau driver
Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 6:58 am
Situation at the beginning:
I run a NVidia GeForce8600 GT
-- and need TWO SCREENS, side by side.
Upon installation of a new Mint-11, it installs the nouveau driver to work with the NVidia card.
General technical solutions for 2 screens:
In order to do 2 screens, there are basically two ways to to this:
- The built-in option (is it called Xinerama?), for which nouveau is prepared, too
- Using the NVidia proprietary driver and configure "Twinview"
General Problem:
"nouveau" seems to be a VERY BUGGY DRIVER - other people have experienced that too ... so I needed a different solution and this is what I did to get it right.
Most has been done elsewhere in some form or shape...
--- but I have put it together and added the new twists with the new NVIDIA driver versions as I experienced it.
I my case the nouveau flaws (and it *WAS* nouveau that was the cuplrit, in hindsight) were:
- garbled screen during boot, temporarily. Login screen appeared fine. Two screens had been configured in the Gnome system settings and worked OK.
- Certain Programs caused a *CRASH* of X (return to login screen) or *FREEZE of the whole system. These were mainly wine-run applications; therefore I tried other versions of wine, to no avail.
--- SOOO:
I applied the following solution:
Download the proprietary NVidia driver. ATTN: Not every version will work. My kernel is 2.6.38-8-generic; a working version is NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-270.41.19.run
-- > EDIT: This is for 64-bit systems of course. Choose other driver for 32-bit <--
(I should mention that I had a version that was a mere 2 months old, called NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-260.19.44.run => caused a boot freeze,on THIS KERNEL, reproducible, but NOT on older ones !)
Find out your kernel by typing on a command line
So.... above you find a combo of kernel and driver that works at the end...
QUESTION for you IF YOU HAVE READ UNTIL HERE:
Do you have a proper root password? I always have; it may be necessary to create one for those that have NOT been "real root" before on Ubuntu
(I.E. people that have rather done all via "sudo" )
Reason: we will drop to a root shell during boot, for setup. Can you login on Ubuntu without an existing root password here? I never tried to be honest....
... to create root password, go to a command line; type
(enter your user password - this isn't the root password yet)
then, type and then enter a new root password twice.
you may type exit now, to leave the root shell.
HOW TO DO THE DRIVER INSTALL:
One must follow these steps, otherwise the new driver will not compile, load, or work.
First find out whether this problem applies to you:
If nouveau appears, then you are in business here...
- You need the kernel-headers installed:
... for the kernel version above. EDIT: You may replace aptitude with apt-get or apt (the latter for Mint Only, not even for Ubuntu-proper).
This applies throughout this post of course.
- you need the build tools installed:
- you need to REMOVE THE NOUVEAU driver:
- re-do module dependencies:
at this time, the module is still loaded. Type lsmod| grep nouveau and you will still find it, if it was there before.
- you need to update your init-ramdisk (loads early at boot time):
EDIT: The command above applies exactly as written if you a running the newest kernel that is available on your system.
That includes any newly installed Mint-11 - and essentially all people not knowing at all what this kernel stuff means ,
as running some kernel other than the newest installed one would require active choices and knowing what one is doing.
If you DO run an older kernel, you need other options for the command; please consult man pages
(this remark just for completeness...)
On my system, during my experiments, I since had the module also "blacklisted" in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf;
however I would have to research whether that is still necessary since it should be deinstalled by now anyway
(after the next boot, it should no longer be loaded).
- reboot into "recovery mode" (you need to choose that from the grub prompt of course)
When you are asked how to proceed: choose a "root shell" with or without net access.
(ATTN if you haven't been here before: it is "hidden" below in the dropdown menu). Login as root
- see whether the f***n (that means ..."fine" ) "nouveau" module is still there:
Hopefully not.
- you need to change to "runlevel three"
Now you need to login once more. You may login as root or as user. If you do it as user, remember that you need "sudo" again in front of all system changing commands below.
- execute the downloaded NVidia binary:Change dir to where it sits (maybe by typing cd /home/yourself/Downloads ). Make it executable by typing
Then, run it:
"./" is normally necessary as root, that fact is considered a (safety-) feature, not a bug.
If all goes well, a new nvidia kernel module will be compiled & installed. The script runs "depmod" automagically, too. Say "Yes" on the question to run nvidia-xconfig.
- you should update your init-ramdisk again now.
- reboot, from the command line (boot normal using the default option from the grub menu); simply type (including sudo if necessary)
That should give you a smooth graphical boot. Login.
THE DUAL MONITORS -- FINALLY
Run
(run as root-proper would not work without e.g. "sux", but I spare the details since it has no advantage for us here).
On the left, find "X Server Display Configuration".
Activate the second monitor and place it left or right as necessary.
Do not forget to save your config: "Save to X configuration file".
=> ENJOY A STABLE, "BUGFREE" (maybe... ) 2-screens (Twinview) setup !
(rock solid, no crashes, freezes, or garbled display for me whatsoever...)
I run a NVidia GeForce8600 GT
-- and need TWO SCREENS, side by side.
Upon installation of a new Mint-11, it installs the nouveau driver to work with the NVidia card.
General technical solutions for 2 screens:
In order to do 2 screens, there are basically two ways to to this:
- The built-in option (is it called Xinerama?), for which nouveau is prepared, too
- Using the NVidia proprietary driver and configure "Twinview"
General Problem:
"nouveau" seems to be a VERY BUGGY DRIVER - other people have experienced that too ... so I needed a different solution and this is what I did to get it right.
Most has been done elsewhere in some form or shape...
--- but I have put it together and added the new twists with the new NVIDIA driver versions as I experienced it.
I my case the nouveau flaws (and it *WAS* nouveau that was the cuplrit, in hindsight) were:
- garbled screen during boot, temporarily. Login screen appeared fine. Two screens had been configured in the Gnome system settings and worked OK.
- Certain Programs caused a *CRASH* of X (return to login screen) or *FREEZE of the whole system. These were mainly wine-run applications; therefore I tried other versions of wine, to no avail.
--- SOOO:
I applied the following solution:
Download the proprietary NVidia driver. ATTN: Not every version will work. My kernel is 2.6.38-8-generic; a working version is NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-270.41.19.run
-- > EDIT: This is for 64-bit systems of course. Choose other driver for 32-bit <--
(I should mention that I had a version that was a mere 2 months old, called NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-260.19.44.run => caused a boot freeze,on THIS KERNEL, reproducible, but NOT on older ones !)
Find out your kernel by typing on a command line
Code: Select all
uname -r
QUESTION for you IF YOU HAVE READ UNTIL HERE:
Do you have a proper root password? I always have; it may be necessary to create one for those that have NOT been "real root" before on Ubuntu
(I.E. people that have rather done all via "sudo" )
Reason: we will drop to a root shell during boot, for setup. Can you login on Ubuntu without an existing root password here? I never tried to be honest....
... to create root password, go to a command line; type
Code: Select all
sudo su
then, type
Code: Select all
passwd
you may type exit now, to leave the root shell.
HOW TO DO THE DRIVER INSTALL:
One must follow these steps, otherwise the new driver will not compile, load, or work.
First find out whether this problem applies to you:
Code: Select all
lsmod | grep nouveau
If nouveau appears, then you are in business here...
- You need the kernel-headers installed:
Code: Select all
sudo aptitude install linux-headers-2.6.38-8-generic
This applies throughout this post of course.
- you need the build tools installed:
Code: Select all
sudo aptitude install build-essential
Code: Select all
sudo aptitude remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
Code: Select all
sudo depmod -a
- you need to update your init-ramdisk (loads early at boot time):
Code: Select all
sudo update-initramfs -u
That includes any newly installed Mint-11 - and essentially all people not knowing at all what this kernel stuff means ,
as running some kernel other than the newest installed one would require active choices and knowing what one is doing.
If you DO run an older kernel, you need other options for the command; please consult man pages
(this remark just for completeness...)
On my system, during my experiments, I since had the module also "blacklisted" in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf;
however I would have to research whether that is still necessary since it should be deinstalled by now anyway
(after the next boot, it should no longer be loaded).
- reboot into "recovery mode" (you need to choose that from the grub prompt of course)
When you are asked how to proceed: choose a "root shell" with or without net access.
(ATTN if you haven't been here before: it is "hidden" below in the dropdown menu). Login as root
- see whether the f***n (that means ..."fine" ) "nouveau" module is still there:
Code: Select all
lsmod | grep nouveau
Hopefully not.
- you need to change to "runlevel three"
Code: Select all
telinit 3
- execute the downloaded NVidia binary:Change dir to where it sits (maybe by typing cd /home/yourself/Downloads ). Make it executable by typing
Code: Select all
chmod 755 NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-270.41.19.run
Code: Select all
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-270.41.19.run
If all goes well, a new nvidia kernel module will be compiled & installed. The script runs "depmod" automagically, too. Say "Yes" on the question to run nvidia-xconfig.
- you should update your init-ramdisk again now.
Code: Select all
update-initramfs -u
Code: Select all
reboot
THE DUAL MONITORS -- FINALLY
Run
Code: Select all
sudo nvidia-settings
On the left, find "X Server Display Configuration".
Activate the second monitor and place it left or right as necessary.
Do not forget to save your config: "Save to X configuration file".
=> ENJOY A STABLE, "BUGFREE" (maybe... ) 2-screens (Twinview) setup !
(rock solid, no crashes, freezes, or garbled display for me whatsoever...)