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Can't get Mint to use Nvidia driver with new video card.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 12:57 am
by branewalker
I replaced my old nvidia 9500GT with a GeForce GTX 650. I also upgraded my monitor (Old DELL 20" P1230 CRT -> new Dell S2340M LCD, *that* was a long time coming...)

I'm running Linux Mint Maya (what is that... 13? It's the LTS )

My old configuration failed to load (expected). So, it was off to

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nvidia-settings
land.

"You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver" Huh.

So, I googled that, and the only answer I get is to do this song-and-dance:

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sudo nvidia-xconfig
(new xorg.conf glad I don't have to write that myself!)

Next, I need to restart X server. Uh...this does not go smoothly. Apparently I should use:

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sudo service mdm stop
so I get dumped back to the command line and run

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sudo service mdm start
This works in theory, not in practice. I tried different variations. In one, I got a loop to a grey dialog on a blue screen telling me...X? was running on display:0 and that it could try again, or try to start X on another display. Not trying again was not an option. Logging out of the subsequent NEW X dumped me back to the old X, inside the GUI, with the terminal open...and then execute the command again that took me to the grey dialog on the blue screen.

So, there's not a simple, "now restart X, so you're using the real xorg.conf and not whatever failsafe Mint is rolling back to...or whatever is going on."

If I could get past that part, I might be able to get nvidia-settings to recognize that I'm using the driver, I want to use the driver, and please let me configure my displays to use the driver.

Additionally, hoping to shortcut this process, I have uninstalled and reinstalled nvidia-current, as well as the whole xserver. Still...just the same stuff going on. 640x480 desktops are unusable. I'm posting from the Win7 side. Very frustrating experience. I hate almost everything about dealing with video cards in Linux.

Re: Can't get Mint to use Nvidia driver with new video card.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 2:12 am
by caf4926
Strange
I pulled my 8500GT and replaced with GT220 without a hitch. More than I can say about what happened when I booted windows. It totally Spacked out!