<SOLVED> MintDebian 201109 & NVIDIA drvrs

[w6kkt]

I have had to re-install 201109 Gnome 64bit three times after attemptng to install NVIDIA driver for my GTX-260. After installing driver and rebooting all I get is a blank screen with a pulsating hypen in the upper left hand corner. I'm unable to use the terminal, so I do a re-install. I have been using Linux Mint since it first was introduced, and have never had this problem before. The 201109 default "neo" driver for my card is too slow when usisng Googleearth. This is a wonderful distro and am using it for my default, inspite of the driver issue.

I gave up on LMD and now have installed LM14 "Mate". Works great!

Thanks to all
Respectfully

Jesse

[proxima_centauri]

* Moved to LMDE forum

[rhodry]

I have had to re-install 201109 Gnome 64bit three times after attemptng to install NVIDIA driver for my GTX-260. After installing driver and rebooting all I get is a blank screen with a pulsating hypen in the upper left hand corner.

You need to tell us what process you followed/instructions you used in your first attempts to install the drivers. Your symptoms are a classic case of no X server loaded, but we cannot help you with what you missed or what went wrong if we have to guess what you have already tried?!

Please provide more details.

cheers,
rhodry.

[w6kkt]

Rhodry; I'm writing this from a 201109 live disk. My 201109 64 that has the video problems is still on my parittion 5. What I did was to use synaptic to install "xserver-xorg-videoi-nvidia 275.09.07-5" which is a binary. Now when I boot and select; Mint Debian 201109 64 it boots into a blank screen with a random pulsating hyphon (not a cursor). I have tried everything to bring up a terminal, without result. I have tried using Mint 11 -64 on another partition and mounting sda5 to look for a X11/xorg.cfg file to try and put the nouveau device back in, but can not find the xorg.conf. I would like to reinstall the old driver but am unable to boot into this distro. My video card is a GTX-260-16. My regular OS on sda2 (mint11_64) uses a NVIDIA proprietary driver and works fine. I'm 77, I get much fun out of distro hopping with Linux.

Respectfully

[rhodry]

To install the Nvidia drivers on LMDE you should follow this procedure:

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/331

Personally, I think you should just re-install and follow the correct procedure.

Where did you get the advice to use that file for an Nvidia install on LMDE?

good luck,
rhodry.

[w6kkt]

I did it on my own, I'm sorry to say.

[w6kkt]

I have just done another install. And will try and follow the procedure.

I appreciate you help.

Jesse

[Elmacus]

I usually remove the NOUVEAU driver before restart on my machine with Nvidia GTX260, since it conflicts with the NVIDIA driver.
You can also remove it from console or livecd, do not try reinstall again before you try that.
LMDE install NOUVEAU as standard.
Search in Synaptic, its name could be "xserver-xorg-video-nouveau" and one lib.
This should work:

Code: Select all

apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau libdrm-nouveau1a

Make sure nvidia driver is there:

Code: Select all

apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nvidia

Use my advise on your own risk, it might be wrong on YOUR system.

[w6kkt]

Eimacus:
Using Synaptic, I removed all Nouveau driver & Library.
I installed:Xserver-xorg-video-nvida.

Same result as with other methods; No graphics, blanks screen with pulsating hyphon, and not able to bring up a terminal.

I reinstalled LMDE gnome-64, using default Nouveau graphic driver. Without doubt this is the most trouble I have ever had with a Mint, Debian or Ubuntu OS. For latest update one needs to modify the apt/sources.list, which should not be needed for a "user friendly " linux os. Me thinks, Mint 11 Gnome-64 is way more friendly than 201109. That said, I will use 201109 as my default linux os.
Thanks to all for fast replies and suggestions.
Respectfully,

[Tolan]

I had a quite simplar problem with LMDE / Gnome 64 bit. Removing the Nouveau driver resulted ina booting system (could hear it) but a blank screen.
My solution was to make sure the /etc/X11/xorg.conf was right: NOT the mentioned NV driver was right, but it has to say "nvidia".
With that the X-Server was able to boot properly.

[w6kkt]

Tolan, thanks for the information. I will give it a try

Respectfully

[Tolan]

Addition to another problem and its solution:

I had no consoles. Means, I could not CTRL-ALT-F1 to F6, just a static picture with some of the boot lines the PC spewed out. Solution:

Edit /etc/default/grub and remove the comment (the # sign) from the GRUB_TERMINAL=console line. Leads to a monochrome grub menu at boot but working console - a bit ugliness for a console is a good deal.

Worked on 3.0.0-1-amd64 w/ NVidia 430 and 280.13 driver, the nice grub menu borks up the cesafb, as it seems.