Linux Mint Forums

I have Linux Mint 13 64bit (MATE) on a Dell Optiplex 755 with an NVIDIA NVS 300 (512MB).

After finally getting the display running (and honestly, after all this time, I don't recall what I did to finally get a working xorg.conf, but I did finally get one), after I do any number of things, the desktop will crash and I get dropped back out to the desktop login. Usually when I open Chromium, and always when I try to open the settings on my VirtualBox.

Odd thing: after many days of giving up, I booted and installed all the pending updates, and it starts working fine. In fact, I went into the VB settings and turned on the 3D acceleration in my VB guest install, and all is good, until I have to reboot. And suddenly, it's all back to the way it was--crashing the desktop all the time.
In fact, I try to open my Windows XP VB and I get the error:

"The VM was configured to use 3D acceleration. However, the 3D support of the host is not working properly...."

and now I can't open VB because of that.

I looked at the Additional Drivers, and I have tried both:
NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version current) [Recommended] and (post-release updates) [version current-updates]
and neither one seem to make any difference.

So, how can I figure out what in the word happened that one glorious hour when my video card/drivers/desktop all seemed to work OK? What can I do to investigate what's causing it to keep crashing now?
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

Hi Mech,
I just want to clarify something.

Is your Dell running Linux or are you running another OS and running Linux in VirtualBox. If you are running Linux under a VM then you can try to enter he Dell bios and ensure you have optimal settings for running VM's. I the Dell bios there are specific settings that help VM's that by default are not enabled. If you are running Linux directly on the machine then I am not sure. I run on a Dell also and have run Linux on many Dell laptops/computers and was able to get video working fine. Typically I use the Nvidia proprietary driver as I have had better results with this driver.


I hope this helps.

I run Linux as the host OS.
VB isn't the root of the problem here because the desktop crashes for entirely non-VB-related instances. Like opening Chromium. I mention VB heavily because of the whole 3D acceleration, it works, then it doesn't, and the ways it's pointing, I think, to a video adapter /driver issue.
Thanks.

Bump.