Very confusing graphics problem

[red-e-made]

So, I switched hard drives between two machines. My regular hard drive in the new machine now gives me a graphics error.

Every time I start it, I receive this message that "Ubuntu is now in low graphics mode" and it asks me to tick off some options. Then it restarts.

Upon restarting, I scan for available hardware drivers but it finds none.

When I open the Nvidia settings, I'm told that I don't appear to be using the Nvidia X driver. I am then told "Please edit your X configuration file (just run `nvidia-xconfig` as root), and restart the X server."

This is what my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file looks like:

Code: Select all

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister@builder75)  Thu Apr 22 11:44:23 PDT 2010


Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    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

Any suggestions would be welcome.

[viking777]

Upon restarting, I scan for available hardware drivers but it finds none.

So possibly it is telling the truth and there aren't any. Is it a very new machine (or more importantly a very new graphics card?)

I am then told........ (just run `nvidia-xconfig` as root)

Did you do that? You don't say.

If the card/machine is very new then possibly it is not supported by the drivers available in Mint, in which case you will have to go to the Nvidia site:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

And search for their latest compatible driver then install it manually.

Nvidia drivers are extremely good with Linux and there are instructions as to how to install them on their site. The main thing to remember is that you cannot have any part of an X server running whilst they are installed, it must be done from a terminal login (I believe it is called single user mode these days though don't quote me )

[Old Ruler]

I would agree with everything there, especially "Nvidia drivers are extremely good with Linux". It's why my last three cards have all been nvidia.

Installation of nvidia made drivers doesn't require a visit to 'Single User Mode' thankfully. Horrible place that it is. Just need a root prompt, either by Ctrl-Alt-F1 and then kill the X server with 'sudo stop gdm' (or 'sudo stop kdm' for kde), or by Rescue Mode from boot and the 'netroot' option, which provides a lovely full *nix userland to play in. Equivalent to run level 4 I believe.

[viking777]

Installation of nvidia made drivers doesn't require a visit to 'Single User Mode' thankfully. Horrible place that it is. Just need a root prompt, either by Ctrl-Alt-F1 and then kill the X server with 'sudo stop gdm' (or 'sudo stop kdm' for kde), or by Rescue Mode from boot and the 'netroot' option, which provides a lovely full *nix userland to play in

Yeah that is a good way of doing it.

If it is of any interest I usually use

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sudo telinit 1

Which drops into recovery mode then choose the root shell from there.

Although I don't usually have to do it these days, the automatic install works OK for me.

[Leit]

simple, fast resolution for your problem (sorry for ignoring former posts)
kernelupgrade to *.24 with

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sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

than you can reinstall the nvidia drivers from the gui and it should work after a system reboot.
Ain't know why, but the in Mint 9-Main used kernel seems to have problems with the KMS-module

if you've got a lot of self compiled software you also should install the package "dkms" (before dist upgrading) which recompiles this stuff after the kernelupdate.

greetings, Leit

[red-e-made]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I just want to clarify something here: the machine is not "new" in the sense of "new from the factory" but rather "new to my hands". It was running Mint 7 without any trouble. The only thing I changed was the hard drive: from my machine, running Mint 9, to this one, which used to run Mint 7. If that changes the advice you have given or would give, do let me know.

[Old Ruler]

I did some experimenting today and successfully installed nvidia 256.44 on what I think is the most recent kernel which came with the distro. I jotted down some notes as I went along and I'll write them up shortly. I couldn't install it for my 2.6.34 kernel because of a gcc version mismatch, but, in the process of testing the 256.44 install, I broke X on that kernel and I need it for 'discard'.

So I used a different way, involving a fair bit of apt-get and dpkg config, but eventually got to a state where I succesfully 'activated' nvidia-current. And all's well again.

Both ways were from the intermediate position of a root prompt with no X running which can be arrived at by following my first How To. I'll also post the nvidia details there soon: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=54344

LM9 KDE amd_64 on asus M2N32WSPro, Dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX