Nvidia drivers installed : black screen at reboot

[damnated]

I installed

Code: Select all

nvidia-kernel-dkms
nvidia-settings
nvidia-xconfig

. Rebooted, and now I get a tty login. I tried reconfiguring Xorg with

Code: Select all

Xorg -configure

but I get

Code: Select all

Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices. Configuration failed.

Please advise.

[wayne128]

Many people are happy using smxi/sgfxi to install nVidia driver.
Give it a try, it may take a while to read their instruction.

http://smxi.org/

[Gerd50]

That was a wrong command 'Xorg -configure'. Boot the recovery mode and in the terminal do

Code: Select all

sudo nvidia-xconfig

exit -> reboot and i hope you'll have a nice desktop again.

[damnated]

That was a wrong command 'Xorg -configure'. Boot the recovery mode and in the terminal do

Code: Select all

sudo nvidia-xconfig

exit -> reboot and i hope you'll have a nice desktop again.

Tried it; same result.

[Gerd50]

Sorry, my fault. Somehow i thought it happened after an update. Are the packages 'build-essential' and 'nvidia-settings'
installed? If not same procedure, boot the recovery mode, in the terminal do:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install build-essential nvidia-settings

and then

Code: Select all

sudo nvidia-xconfig

again.

[damnated]

Sorry, my fault. Somehow i thought it happened after an update. Are the packages 'build-essential' and 'nvidia-settings'
installed?

Both packages are installed. I double checked, but they are there

[twa]

Hi damnated,

Many people are happy using smxi/sgfxi to install nVidia driver.
Give it a try, it may take a while to read their instruction.

http://smxi.org/

fully agree with wayne 128 suggestion.

[Gerd50]

I don't know why the Debian way is not working. The only question that comes up to my mind is, is it a quite old nvidia card or
chip?

[damnated]

I don't know why the Debian way is not working. The only question that comes up to my mind is, is it a quite old nvidia card or
chip?

It's a 8600gt. Certainly not new, but I wouldn't call it old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_ ... 600_Series

[Gerd50]

With a 8600GT there shouldn't be problems. Do you have a log file /var/log/nvidia-installer.log that you can post?

[damnated]

Here it is:

Code: Select all

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Wed Jul 20 16:01:02 2011
installer version: 275.09.07

PATH: /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

option status:
  license pre-accepted               : false
  update                             : false
  force update                       : false
  expert                             : false
  uninstall                          : true
  driver info                        : false
  precompiled interfaces             : true
  no ncurses color                   : false
  query latest version               : false
  no questions                       : false
  silent                             : false
  no recursion                       : false
  no backup                          : false
  kernel module only                 : false
  sanity                             : false
  add this kernel                    : false
  no runlevel check                  : true
  no network                         : false
  no ABI note                        : false
  no RPMs                            : false
  no kernel module                   : false
  force SELinux                      : default
  no X server check                  : true
  no cc version check                : false
  run distro scripts                 : true
  no nouveau check                   : false
  run nvidia-xconfig                 : false
  sigwinch work around               : true
  force tls                          : (not specified)
  X install prefix                   : (not specified)
  X library install path             : (not specified)
  X module install path              : (not specified)
  OpenGL install prefix              : (not specified)
  OpenGL install libdir              : (not specified)
  utility install prefix             : (not specified)
  utility install libdir             : (not specified)
  installer prefix                   : (not specified)
  doc install prefix                 : (not specified)
  kernel name                        : (not specified)
  kernel include path                : (not specified)
  kernel source path                 : (not specified)
  kernel output path                 : (not specified)
  kernel install path                : (not specified)
  precompiled kernel interfaces path : (not specified)
  precompiled kernel interfaces url  : (not specified)
  proc mount point                   : /proc
  ui                                 : none
  tmpdir                             : /tmp
  ftp mirror                         : ftp://download.nvidia.com
  RPM file list                      : (not specified)
  selinux chcon type                 : (not specified)

Using built-in stream user interface
-> Parsing log file:
-> done.
-> Validating previous installation:
-> Unable to access previously installed symlink '/usr/lib/libGL.so' (No such
   file or directory).
ERROR: File '/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so' is not a symbolic
       link.
-> done.
WARNING: Your driver installation has been altered since it was initially
         installed; this may happen, for example, if you have since installed
         the NVIDIA driver through a mechanism other than nvidia-installer
         (such as your distribution's native package management system).
         nvidia-installer will attempt to uninstall as best it can.  Please see
         the file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details.
-> Uninstalling NVIDIA Accelerated Graphics Driver for Linux-x86 (1.0-2750907
   (275.09.07)):
-> done.
-> Uninstallation of existing driver: NVIDIA Accelerated Graphics Driver for
   Linux-x86 (275.09.07) is complete.

[bikrus]

Have you tried CustomEDID?

If not - try next.
Install nvidia drivers as usually.
Run sudo nvidia-xconfig to make default /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Insert lines to the "Screen" section (... is the existing text there):

Code: Select all

Section "Screen"
    ...
    Option         "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0"
    Option         "CustomEDID" "DFP-0: /proc/acpi/video/NGFX/LCD/EDID"
    SubSection     "Display"
        ...
    EndSubSection
EndSection

The path to EDID file could be different, but it alway starts with "/proc/acpi/video" and contains "LCD" in my case. Try to find EDID file in /proc/acpi/video. If you have more then one EDID in /proc/acpi/video - try to "cat" ($cat /proc/acpi/video/LCD/.../EDID) them - the one which produce binary output for few lines will be your choice. Set the path to found file to > Option "CustomEDID" "DFP-0: here
Save.
Reboot.

[Gerd50]

For me the log looks like, there was a previous installation of the driver that wasn't uninstalled completely?

This line is important:

ERROR: File '/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so' is not a symbolic link.

Befor you install new, uninstall each and everything that has to do with nvidia completely. Recovery mode

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-settings nvidia-xconfig nvidia-kernel-common

Reboot recovery and do

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-settings nvidia-xconfig nvidia-kernel-common

Code: Select all

sudo nvidia-xconfig

For cases like this it's always good having a backup of the LMDE partition. Please take a look at qt4-fsarchiver:

http://qt4-fsarchiver.sourceforge.net/

With that it's possible to save a partition within 10 minutes and restore it within 3 minutes. It's much better having
a gui instead of being in the situation, there is no other way than using the recovery mode for a fix like this.

[damnated]

For me the log looks like, there was a previous installation of the driver that wasn't uninstalled completely?

I honestly don't remember installing proprietary nvidia drivers, and LMDE installed open source drivers, right?

anyway; purge removed everything, but couldn't install back nvidia-glx, I get

Code: Select all

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
nvidia-glx : Depends: libgl1-nvidia-glx (=275.09.07-1)
E: Broken packages


Tried installing libgl1-nvidia-glx but encountered another unmet dependencies error.

Everything else installed just fine, but after reboot I get tty once again.

[zerozero]

hi damnated,
can you post your sources.list please

best regards
edit: as i'm going be out for about 9 hrs, the issue is, if you are following latest or incoming, nvidia is still broken there, you have to point to testing where the sane 07-5 driver is and you should be fine

[damnated]

I'm following testing.

Code: Select all

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free

[Gerd50]

Before installing the driver, did you refresh synaptic with

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update

for example?

[damnated]

Before installing the driver, did you refresh synaptic with

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update

for example?

God damn. I purge removed everything again, refreshed synaptic and not only did everything install this time, but I didn't even had to reboot.

Thank you for the help everyone.

[zerozero]

good you got it working

[Gerd50]

Das war eine schwere Geburt, as we say in german. Good luck with your LMDE