Cannot start X with nVidia

[DavideV]

Hello,

After I install nVidia drivers the X session fails to start.

It simply says "Cannot start session: ubuntu".

I would like to know how to fix this.

Thank you.

OS: Linux MINT 13 with MATE
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 525M

[karlchen]

Hello, DavideV.

In the course of time, I have installed nvida-current software on almost all of my systems, because they all have got NVidia Graphics Cards. And I have never experienced the problem that after installing nvidia-current and nvidia-settings, rebooting and logging in

• on Mint 13 I received a complaint that the Ubuntu session could not be launched. No Ubuntu session present anyway, because on Mint there is
  + either Cinnamon, Cinnamon 2D, Gnome 3, Gnome 3 fallback ... (applies to the Cinnamon edition)
  + or XFCE, Gnome 3, Gnome 3 fallback ... (applies to the XFCE edition)
• on Ubuntu 12.04 I received a complaint that the Ubuntu session could not be launched.
  This would have been a problem, because on my Ubuntu system, the Ubuntu session is actually the Unity desktop.

So, now knowing we are really talking about a genuine Mint 13 Cinnamon, have you tried this:
When the logon screen appears, click on the middle icon, the one which will give you a list of available session types. Select "Cinnamon" there and you should be fine.
In case this does not work, please, post back.

As you mentioned the file xorg.conf in the Ubuntu forum:
Could you please post the content of the file? And where did you put it?
Actually, my Mint 14 Cinnamon, using nvidia-current (v304.64, to be precise), does not have an xorg.conf file anywhere.

Kind regards,
Karl
--
P.S.:
It may just be a coincidence. Yet, I am a bit confused about the similarities between your post and this post in the Ubuntu forums: XSession not working after nVidia drivers: Same error message. Same graphics card. Only over there it is Ubuntu 12.04. Here it is Mint 13.
Am I just being paranoid, or is it really the same problem reported in two forums?
--
[Added]
OK. I am pretty confident that is the same problem, reported in the Ubuntu forum twice:
+ XSession not working after nVidia drivers
+ XSession not working after nVidia drivers
[/Added]

[DavideV]

Hello Karl and thank you for the quick reply.

What happens is that once I've set up my laptop with Mint, my external monitor wouldn't work on a proper resolution, therefore I had to use the following commands to get it to work:

Code: Select all

gtf 1920 1080 60
xrandr --newmode "1920x1080_60.00"  172.80  1920 2040 2248 2576  1080 1081 1084 1118  -HSync +Vsync
xrandr --addmode "1920x1080_60.00"


The problem is that these commands weren't persistent and I had to run them every time I booted. In order to fix that I tried modifying my xorg.conf file, but I didn't have one initially, and once I created one it wasn't loaded.

After installing my nVidia drivers, it did not boot with a user interface. I logged into my account and typed "startx", and I get the message "Could not start session: ubuntu".

I am going to try installing "nvidia-current" this time as you suggested. I do not have Cinnamon, I only have MATE installed.

As requested, here is the xorg.conf file (which was automatically generated in /etc/X11/ by nvidia-xconfig):

Code: Select all

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 304.48  (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-05.nvidia.com)  Sun Sep  9 21:29:02 PDT 2012

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection


As for the forum posts, yes, sorry about that, I've mentioned I have Ubuntu because the first time I claimed I had Mint they moved the post to "Other OS" category which isn't as frequented as the "Hardware" section.
Since I already had an account on those forums and the distro's are similar, my first thought was to post the problem there.