NVidia Drivers installed but not runnning.

[swapniel99]

Hi,

I am somewhat new to linux and am using Linux Mint 14 and am fond of the cinnamon UI.
Configuration:
Asus X53SC-SX492D.
Corei5 2ndgen cpu
Nvidia Geforce GT520MX 1GB graphics card.
4GB ram.
It is dual-booted with Windows 7.

I am trying to make the graphics card drivers work since past 2 days.
I installed the drivers from following sources:
1) apt-get install nvidia-current
After these drivers get installed it was conflicting with Nouveau. So I blacklisted it.
When I reboot, Cinnamon no longer loads, though the desktop is the same. Resolution is 640x480 and m unable to change it.
Installed Jockey and it says "Drivers are activated but not being used".
If I uninstall nvidia-current, Cinnamon loads but resolutions stays 640x480, and I am unable to change it.
No use even after reinstalling nvidia-current.
I followed this post while the above process:http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/ubuntu-quetzal-nvidia.html
I blacklisted the nouveau because i was not able to do "modprobe nvidia-current".
I searched but was not able to find a solution. So I visited nvidia website and installed from following source.


2)http://www.nvidia.in/object/linux-display-amd64-310.32-driver-in.html
I stopped the Xorg server somehow and was able to install the drivers from .run file but still the problem is the same.
Xorg.conf file shows nvidia in devices section.
lsmod | grep nvidia also gives output "nvidia <somenumber> 0"
inxi command also recognises nvidia, but it says none are used; neither intel nor nvidia.

btw glib is installd. when I open nvidia-settings, it says you dont seem to be using nvidia.
So I run nvidia-xconfig... no use.
I also ran Xorg -configure(after stopping mdm service)... no use

Plz help me.
Give me the commands if u want some output to see. I dont want to uninstall mint because i like it. I need a working linux laptop in 1 week.

Plz help. Thnx in advance.

[viking777]

I don't have an Nvidia card any more, but when I did, and the normal tools didn't work, I used to use this:

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=86154&p=497881&hilit=sgfxi#p497881

If you decided to try it everything you need to know is on that post. I know the post is a bit out of date, but I am sure it will still work.

Good Luck.

[AlbertP]

@ viking777: He's not using LMDE, so no sgfxi necessary here.

@ swapniel99: You probably have hybrid graphics so you'll need Bumblebee: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee
That will make nvidia-current working.
But please uninstall the manually installed NVIDIA driver first:

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sudo nvidia-installer --uninstall

[Flemur]

I had the same (?) problem (same symptoms), and fixed it with one or both of these lines in /etc/X11/xorg.conf,

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Section "Monitor"
...
    HorizSync       28.0 - 72.0
    VertRefresh     28.0 - 72.0
...


Then reboot.

IIRC, the VertRefresh was either missing or had smaller values.
I don't recall how or why I came up with this fix.(!)

[viking777]

@ viking777: He's not using LMDE, so no sgfxi necessary here.

@ swapniel99: You probably have hybrid graphics so you'll need Bumblebee: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee
That will make nvidia-current working.
But please uninstall the manually installed NVIDIA driver first:

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sudo nvidia-installer --uninstall

I think you have gone a bit astray here AlbertP.

LMDE and sgfxi have no relationship. Sgfxi just happens to be a very easy way to install Nvidia drivers - on any debian based distro - when the usual methods don't work.

Secondly the OP only has one graphics card (or at least if he does have another one he isn't telling us about it). So what does he need Bumblebee for?

[AlbertP]

This is a laptop, and nearly all NVIDIA laptops sold with Windows 7 or 8 have Optimus. His CPU, 2nd gen Intel Core i5, has integrated graphics and Windows 7/8 laptops in which that integrated graphics is not enabled are very rare. Laptop CPUs without integrated graphics are not manufactured anymore by Intel and AMD, so all laptop manufacturers can take advantage of the power savings of integrated graphics without additional cost. I'm quite sure this laptop must have an Intel + NVIDIA hybrid configuration too.

@ swapniel99: could you post the output of inxi -Gx in terminal?

[swapniel99]

@AlbertP BumbleBee did the trick

Finally after 2 days I am running Mint on full resolution.
I dont know whether Nvidia drivers are being used or not, But I surely observed a drop in CPU utilisation and cpu-temp. So I think CPU load has reduced after installing bumblebee. And it is most probably that of graphics.

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niel@elderwand ~ $ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Card-2: NVIDIA GF119 [GeForce GT 520MX] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 9.0 Direct Rendering: Yes


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niel@elderwand ~ $ lspci -vmk | grep -A 8 -B 2 VGA

Device:   00:02.0
Class:   VGA compatible controller
Vendor:   Intel Corporation
Device:   2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
SVendor:   ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
SDevice:   Device 1682
Rev:   09
Driver:   i915
Module:   i915

--

Device:   01:00.0
Class:   VGA compatible controller
Vendor:   NVIDIA Corporation
Device:   GF119 [GeForce GT 520MX]
Rev:   ff
ProgIf:   ff

Device:   03:00.0
Class:   Network controller
Vendor:   Atheros Communications Inc.

Can you tell from this whether Nvidia is used or not?
Again Thnx.

[AlbertP]

This is indeed a laptop with NVIDIA Optimus according to the inxi -Gx output. On these laptops the Intel graphics is normally used, but you can run applications that use 3D acceleration on your NVIDIA card by adding "optirun" at the start of the command used to run the program (this can for example be done by editing the menu item that starts your program). If you run optirun inxi -Gx for example, you will get your NVIDIA card as GLX Renderer instead of Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile.

[swapniel99]

Please tell me whether this is correct:
optirun command is to force Nvidia renderer.

But If we dont use optirun, then it automatically detects which renderer is best.

[viking777]

@AlbertP Looks like you were right - I apologise. I actually googled the machines specs, looked at 4 results and not one of them mentions anything about dual graphics cards.

[anandrkris]

@ swapniel99 - Yes, optirun starts the Nvidia renderer.

Type the below in terminal.
To check properties

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optirun nvidia-settings -c :8

To check your FPS performance

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optirun glxspheres

or

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optirun glxgears

[swapniel99]

Hi,

After Auto updates, I am facing a problem with Bumblebee..

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niel@elderwand ~ $ optirun
[ 1697.453104] [ERROR]The Bumblebee daemon has not been started yet or the socket path /var/run/bumblebee.socket was incorrect.
[ 1697.453217] [ERROR]Could not connect to bumblebee daemon - is it running?


When I reinstalled Bumblebee.. it wrked fine.. But after restart, again the same problem occurs..

Any solution for this?

thanks

[AlbertP]

This seems to be a problem with Bumblebee 3.1 which has just been released. Please watch the updater to see if any Bumblebee update might come through to fix this.

[roblm]

This is information from the "NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver README and Installation Guide"

Chapter 18. Using the NVIDIA Driver with Optimus Laptops

Some laptops with NVIDIA GPUs make use of Optimus technology to allow switching between an integrated GPU and a discrete NVIDIA GPU. The NVIDIA Linux driver can be used on these systems, though functionality may be limited.
Installing the NVIDIA Driver on an Optimus Laptop

The driver may be installed normally on Optimus systems, but the NVIDIA X driver and the NVIDIA OpenGL driver may not be able to display to the laptop's internal display panel unless a means to connect the panel to the NVIDIA GPU (for example, a hardware multiplexer, or "mux", often controllable by a BIOS setting) is available. On systems without a mux, the NVIDIA GPU can still be useful for offscreen rendering, running CUDA applications, and other uses that don't require driving a display.

On muxless Optimus laptops, or on laptops where a mux is present, but not set to drive the internal display from the NVIDIA GPU, the internal display is driven by the integrated GPU. On these systems, it's important that the X server not be configured to use the NVIDIA X driver after the driver is installed. Instead, the correct driver for the integrated GPU should be used. Often, this can be determined automatically by the X server, and no explicit configuration is required, especially on newer X server versions. If your X server autoselects the NVIDIA X driver after installation, you may need to explicitly select the driver for your integrated GPU.

An additional caveat is that existing OpenGL libraries may be overwritten by the install process. If you want to prevent this from happening, e.g., if you intend to use OpenGL on the integrated GPU, you may prevent the installer from installing the OpenGL and GLX libraries by passing the option --no-opengl-files to the .run file, or directly to nvidia-installer, e.g.: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.40.run --no-opengl-files

It appears that if your system had a hardware multiplexer, so that the integrated graphics could be disabled, then your problems would be solved. Unfortunately, from the articles I've read, most laptops don't. You could check your BIOS for any setting referring to a multiplexer. However, you then lose the battery saving feature of hybrid graphics. Using Bumblebee unfortunately also doesn't work for everyone. From the information you gave, you are using the intel driver. Another way to determine this is to look at the "Xorg.0.log" file located in /var/log. There will be a group of lines giving information about the actual driver being used. Each line will have the name of the driver followed by a (0), such as NVIDIA(0).
After you initially installed Linux Mint 14, were you having a problem with the nouveau driver. If not then perhaps a reinstallation using the nouveau driver would be best.