X issue on boot

[jdaily]

I just recently bought an ASUS laptop to keep myself up on things while traveling for work. I just installed mint 9, and on installation, the CD warned me that it didn't have the drivers installed and would have to run in low-graphics mode. I installed and the first boot up did the same thing, though I had to specify nosplash to get to load. I then installed NVidia's proprietary drivers through the mint desktop alert, thinking that this would be the most logical fix.

Now when I boot, whether I specify splash or no splash, it boots with no display. I can tell the machine is still functioning, as it will attempt to read disks and responds to ctrlaltdel, but I cannot for the life of me get it to reconfigure X, install the proper drivers, etc.

I am running:

Geforce 310M
Intel i5-430M
4 gig RAM
Dual-boot with windows 7

suggestions?

[interbird1964]

You could try the kernel-parameter: nvidia.modeset=1 or nvidia.modeset=0
Also besides the closed-source nvidia driver there is the open-source nouveau driver that you could try.
For this driver the kernel-parameter is: nouveau.modeset=1 (or 0)

[jdaily]

Where would those commands be entered? Should I go to command line using GRUB or add it to the command to boot (where I have removed the -splash tag)?

[dawgdoc]

This post is discussing using the nomodeset option as a kernel parameter and says:

When you boot the CD, press 'e' to edit the first boot option. Use the arrow keys and move down to the 'kernel' line. That is the one that has the 'quiet splash' options. (the line may wrap, press end to get to the end of the line).

When I first located this post I say related ones that mentioned placing the nvidia.modeset=1 or nvidia.modeset=0 options in a similar manner.

Hope this helps.

[jdaily]

Alright, I was able to get X to run again by using "nomodeset" (nvidia.modeset did not work). I purged the proprietary drivers auto-installed by mint and manually selected the right drivers from nvidia, rebooted to terminal, installed them, and rebooted again.

Now, each time it loads X crashes and gives the error "(EE) No device detected." It then proceeds to run GNOME in low-graphics mode.

I tried editing xorg.conf to manually choose the NVIDIA PCI slot with BusID "PCI:2:0:0", but this is a no-go. Could it be that the driver is trying to display to one of the monitor/DVI ports?

[dawgdoc]

Getting a bit stickier.
For the sake of completeness could you post the results of

Code: Select all

inxi -G

and

Code: Select all

lspci

and curiosity leads me ask how things look if you boot from a LiveCD, is the resolution good, does inxi -G give the same results?

[jdaily]

I could print these things, but I have discovered my true issue. It did turn out that the nvidia drivers were not communicating with my displays. lspci listed an integrated graphics card as well, so I went into the BIOS to make sure it was disabled. What I found, however, was no option to turn it off. I noticed that some Sony VAIO users had issues communicating with the laptop LCD, so I tried the suggested fix (for posterity, the fix is to grab your device's EDID manually under windows, output the file in raw format to linux, and manually tell your driver to read with "CustomEDID"). This did not work, so I did a search for my laptop to see if there was a minor adjustment.

My laptop is an ASUS K52JC-X1, one of the new models with the brand-spanking new Nvidia Optimus technology. optimus switches between integrated and dedicated graphics intelligently... and almost completely via software. Nvidia's drivers do not support Optimus on linux, and according to a post on their site they have no plans to do so.

In theory, I should be able to go ahead and run mint with integrated graphics (I'll post whether this works later), but until xorg and the open drivers work out Optimus functionality, I'm fairly certain I'll have to use windows for 3d acceleration. Praise the dual-boot, I guess.

[dawgdoc]

I'm glad you found a "sort of" solution. It's too bad that you can not select the discreet graphics card as the default instead of the integrated.

[jdaily]

I'll keep working on it, and post any "solutions" I find. Should this info be put up as a warning/known issue? People shopping for laptops with the intention of running mint should probably know about this issue. I can put together some links to info if necessary.

[Gramps50]

So I take it if you want to run Linux then the ASUS laptops with the NVida Optimus are a waste of money that you can't use the NVida chipset only the builtin Intel chipset. Unless you buy an I7 which doesn't have the builtin video chipset.